We sometimes get so engrossed with our hobbies that we forget to stay in touch with "The Man Upstairs". It can easily be said that He is the greatest builder of all. He made you entirely from scratch. I personally proclaim his son, Jesus Christ, as my Lord and Savior. So the next time you're waiting for some glue or paint to dry, tell God and Jesus that you're still here and thinking of them. And thank them for everything good that's happened to you and your loved ones. Never forget, we're only here on Earth for a relatively short period and we could be taken away without warning at any time.

If that happened to you, would you be ready?

NEWS FOR TITANIC MODELERS!

PHOTOETCHED BRASS 1/350 SCALE TITANIC RAILINGS SETS - WHICH BRAND IS MORE ACCURATE?

From time to time, an occasional claim is made that "Brand X" or "Brand Y" has more accurate brass railing for Minicraft's 1/350 scale kit. At the same time, these sources often supply no facts to back up their claims. So what's the truth?

Let's start with railing height. The real Titanic had rails measuring 42 inches in height. Gold Medal Models' rails measure 0.12 inches tall, or 0.12 times 350 (for scale) = 42 inches, a precise match that's easy for anyone to verify.

The real Titanic's railings around the aft boat deck and the aft ends of both promenade decks featured closely-spaced pairs of stanchions at the corners where the rails make 90 degree bends. These show up clearly in numerous photos of the prototype as well as in several key scenes in the film "Titanic". The GMM rails include this distinctive feature as do the GMM-designed photoetched brass rails included with the deluxe Minicraft kit. No other brand of photoetched brass railing has this important characteristic.

The real Titanic had cutouts in the lower edge of the forecastle and poop deck railings for access to chocks and fairleads on the decks. GMM has captured these features and they actually line up properly with the Minicraft moldings. One other brand has included this in their forecastle rails, but they don't provide it in any other railing sections.

The real Titanic had railings with integral "kickplates" (narrow strips of steel plate running along the bottom edge of the rails where they meet the decks) on 2-bar, 3-bar, and 5-bar railings in several areas of the ship. The GMM set has included this feature on all three styles of rails where required. Another brand only includes the kickplate on one style of railing. They overlooked the other two.

The real Titanic had a wooden caprail (uppermost horizontal railing) on railings for the aft boat deck and at the aft end of both promenade decks. GMM's rails have simulated this wooden caprail in the form of a slightly thicker top rail, and in only the sections that require them. No other maker of photoetched railing has included this feature.

GMM has actually provided the correct number and spacing of vertical stanchions in railing sections for the forecastle, poop deck, boat deck, both promenade decks, well decks (one exception - see below), and docking bridge. This means that the rails, when formed to shape, will have stanchions placed in each corner and in the correct locations elsewhere. Another brand has this feature only for the forecastle. They've substituted generic rails for all other areas on the ship. (Exception: the Minicraft kit's forecastle is slightly too narrow in scale. GMM's aft forecastle railing section has been slightly modified from true prototype configuration so as to fit the kit while allowing this rail section to "look right" when compared with adjacent railing sections.)

Because of the above discussed features, the GMM rails actually fit the Minicraft moldings precisely, without cutting or any other extra work involved, other than for a few of the smaller upper decks and platforms. No other brand can make this claim.

Some other differences between the GMM set and the competition: The GMM Titanic stairways include exclusive etched-in 3-D horizontal treads as well as correct handrail and side frame configurations. No tedious bending of stair treads is required by the modeler to achieve a realistic 3-D effect. One of our competitors provides twist-to-shape stair treads (over 200 in all!) that must be precisely formed to shape with tweezers by the modeler while maintaining uniformity, a nearly impossible task for most modelers. Furthermore, the manufacturer has accidentally placed the twist axis on the wrong edge of each tread, which forces the tread to hang far behind the side frames instead of between them as required by the prototype. It also interferes with placing the stairway against a bulkhead, holding it slightly away from it. The only way a modeler can avoid this is to twist each tread almost 150 degrees, again virtually impossible. The GMM stairway design prevents these problems and provides a very neat and uniform result with only two simple bends per stairway.

GMM's Titanic benches are as accurate as possible in this scale while being as easy as possible to assemble neatly, given their small size. The seat back and armrests form one part while the seat bottom and end legs form the second. A separate center leg is the remaining piece. When folded and assembled, the intricate design of the wrought iron ends of the real Titanic's benches is perfectly replicated. In fact, the design was precisely duplicated from underwater photos taken of the real ship's wrought iron ends found in oceanographer Robert Ballard's books. The GMM design allows the modeler to apply a tiny dot of glue to the center rear of the assembly, joining the upper and lower halves with virtually no risk of clogging the delicate "wrought iron" parts with glue. A second dot of glue holds the center leg under the seat. A competitor's bench set, while acceptably accurate, and despite its basically one-piece design, still requires a little glue to hold it together and the glue has to be added to the "wrought iron" ends with a high probability of clogging. Without the glue, the ends will tend to break free or become distorted during handling. The GMM design results in a relatively rugged assembly able to withstand normal handling during painting and when installing them on the model.

One further observation: A Gold Medal Models 1/350 scale photoetched Titanic/Lusitania detail set (No. 350-3) was purchased in 1996 by the model shop staff of Digital Domain (film director James Cameron's special effects house) for use as a guide when they were designing the large scale miniatures used in the 1997 film "Titanic". In addition, the GMM 1/350 scale Titanic products are to this day still being ordered repeatedly by a large professional model shop in Coral Springs, Florida that produces high quality finished models of all types (including of course the Titanic) for clients around the world. We've never asked why they order so many of these sets, but we assume they're getting good results and they know the quality is uniformly high.

Finally, over 12,000 of Gold Medal Models' upgraded 1/350 scale Titanic-related detail sets have been sold since the film Titanic was released and the sets continue to sell steadily. More fine models of the Titanic have been built using GMM's detail sets than all other brands combined. And the latest upgraded GMM detail set is currently the most recent of all similar products currently available, having benefited from the latest discoveries concerning the real liner.

So who makes these claims that Brand X or Brand Y is more accurate? It really doesn't matter. Remember, just because a manufacturer had access to and approval from a Titanic-related historical society doesn't guarantee the final product was properly executed. But if you happen to have any doubts when such an absolute claim is made about another brand's railing accuracy, ask them this simple question: "Can you prove it?" We're betting they can't. And, as always, the final choice is yours.