Titanic Part 8

Some time has past since I posted my last part (7). Progress has gone forward as well as backward.  So lets begin with once the deck was attached.
The next thing I decided was to use the plastic railing that comes in the kit.  My reason at first, was this piece or pieces would be one of the more outstanding items when viewing the ship from the stern.  The photo etch (PE) parts for this railing is one piece versus the plastic which contain several smaller pieces making up the rail.  Now. I am not the worse modeler working with PE parts nor am I the best; in most cases I do acceptable work. Trying to bend the one piece PE rail would be a challenge as there are several right and left folds necessary for this section.  I figured I would probably screw it up and ruin the desired effect.  So I opted for the kit railing. After I attached this railing, I decided I did not like it.  Unfortunately the glue had set up and trying to remove this would only mar the final appearance.  I'll leave it I said, and do the rest of the railings with the PE parts.

A good view of the stern railing referred to in the text

So I started attaching the PE railings.  Right off the bat, it seem like I was about to get into trouble.  The PE is so thin, it's almost impossible to remove the railing from the fret without distorting the railing.  Once bent where it was needed and attached, the railings became almost invisible.  This is not to take into account that the funnel rigging had been completed, making it very difficult to fit the railings in place.  After attaching three or four railings it became evident that the PE railings were not going to work.  It was back to the kit railings.  I thinned the railing with sandpaper as much as I dared for fear of  destroying these in the thinning progress.  As can be seen, they do not look all that bad.

The cover over the dome

So now that the railing was done, the skylights over the famous glass domes was to be attached.  Again a problem occurs.

The PF skylight, although perfect in folding does not fit properly over the dome.  The dome sits to high not allowing the skylight to sit on the deck as it should. To make it sit lower would call for a major reconstruct of this area or dis-forming the skylight. What to do?  Easy, leave the dome off, unless one is looking for the dome by close up examination, you won't notice its not there. the hole in the cover are small enough to hid where the dome would sit.

The bow without the railing attached yet.

Next the bow and stern. I begin by drilling out the port holes on the bow and thinning out the railing.  When I test fitted this piece it just did not look good.  Like a large white glob.  So I carefully cut the railing off in hopes of using the PE ones. I believe in this case, it just might work out okay.  Time will tell and look for the next Titanic Part 9.  By then that should be done.