Build the Titanic!!

Premier Sponsors

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue, we will assume that you agree to our privacy policy which includes details of cookie usage. Hide this notice

Posted by Stev187 on Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Update, 3/22:

Here's a photo of the "amlost done" Titanic. We need to add one more gold/yellow stripe along the side.

Thank gooness for Krylon paint pens. They work great!

Update, 3/21:

Here's the current state of Titanic. As with the Edmund Fitzgerald, I made some changes in scale and measurement for "toy" purposes--making it easier to build and play with. The decks are larger than scale and so are the funnels. Still, I think it looks cool this way. The point is that it still looks like the Titanic.

The old Elvis Costello song "Shipbuilding" is going through my head...

I used my son Owen's pleading for a model of the Edmund Fitzgerald as an excuse to force myself to learn about my bandsaw. Well, I've created a monster. Now he wants to build a model of the Titanic.

I didn't want to buy a plastic model. There are number of reasons for this. The main reason is that he wants to play with it. He plays with the wooden Fitz all the time and a plastic model would have been destroyed. That's the main reason the production values are rather, well... folksy on this thing. It's designed as a plaything, not as a model. (The fact that I'm not very good at detail work and have zero modeling experience is the real reason).

Without knowing what I was doing, I built the Edmund Fitzgerald almost exactly at 1:350 scale. Actually, I just wanted it to be 25" long! Turns out, that's nearly dead on for 1/350. So, we'll build the Titanic to that scale, too. That will make the Titanic 30" long.

Also without knowing what I was doing, I built the Fitz as a "Waterline Model," which simply means that you don't build the part of the ship that's below water. Again, Owen's intended purpose for the model is the reason for this: it would be impossible (or impractical) to play with if it couldn't stand up and cruise around on the carpet.

The Titanic will begin life as a scrap piece of 2x6 left over from my utility bench project. The Edmund Fitzgerald began life as a 2x4 left over from the same project. We built the Fitz in one day; I am going to string the Titanic project over a much longer time.

I will probably make working on it some kind of reward for good behavior, too. Why not build in some kind of incentive?

I love being a Dad!

P.S. I have deliberatly NOT introduced Owen to the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmud Fitzgerald" for a couple of reasons. First, it was a very overplayed song from my youth--it came out when I was 8 years old and was almost as much of an earworm as that other nautical pop tune "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)." Second, knowing Owen, the song would be played over and over in a manner that put the repetition of 70s FM radio to shame.

9 comments on “Build the Titanic!!”

PruchaLegend Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @2:14:27 AM

Love the model. The pictures are great! :-)

Banjo Island Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @6:14:26 AM

Sweet! I need to get one of them "kid" things so I can do cool stuff like this!

Jer

frailin Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @9:09:31 AM

Great. This gives me something new to look forward to with my GRANDkids.

It's still hard for me to imagine just how old I am!!

frailin Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @9:10:14 AM

Oh, NICE BOATS, Steve!!

Badger Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @9:18:08 AM

That is excellent Steve, a handmade toy in todays world is something he will remember as long as he lives.

DandyRandy Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @9:32:05 AM

You could always teach him the song on the banjo. That might stir up a musical interest if he doesn't have it yet.

clawfootcurt Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @12:42:24 PM

Hey, aside from the current blog, which is cool, you gotta update the banjos you own on your profile. I suppose if I got myself a beautiful new banjo, I might forget about updating my profile cause I was too busy playing it too. (Did I type that out loud?)

Joanchek Says:
Thursday, March 20, 2008 @1:03:57 PM

Oh, Steve built the ship Titanic to sail the carpet beige/ 'Cause little boys like toys like that no matter what their age/ With a swift imagination and a little old band saw/ the Titanic and Cap'n Owen will sail the seas once more!