Let me start all of this by saying out right, boats are not really my thing. That said I've always fancied doing a diorama with a boat. So if I'm going to do a boat diorama then its going to have to be historically accurate to a tee and I'll be going all in.
My weapon of choice is the Revell Titanic at 1:1200 scale .. yes that is correct, all in at 1200 scale tiny!
My aim was to recreate a vision I always had in my head. During the collision with the Iceberg and now using scans from below the sea bed to see real damage and not "guess" we know several boiler rooms and more areas were pierced enough to flood water, facts most of us know.
As much as water would have been flooding in, light from within the ship would be flooding out into the water, a scene impossible to see but we know factually would of happened. So this diorama is to recreate the moment after impact striking the side of the hull and to use the diorama to highlight the light flooding in the water on top.
Lastly to go that extra mile.. The iceberg feature I wish to be entirely empty / hollow. This means getting very creative with resin, however the light reflection & refraction I'm hoping will be worth the effort.
To have functional windows but not let resin in during later casting means a fair bit of work. To begin I need to drill out ALL the windows on the 1:1200 scale model.
Each window is 0.6mm diameter.
I used still images from real scans of the titanic to overlay on a scan version of my model I took and then imported to overlay. This gave me scale accurate damage on the 1:1200 !
So I started by drilling out puncture areas with a 0.5mm drill bit and then scored the hull as a strike impact against a sharp object.. the iceberg.
Next is time to add the RGB LED strip in the hull. To do this I had to cut out areas of each rib section so the strip could go the full length. This would then shine out through the damage areas and because I painted the inside with Tamiya Chrome also reflect upwards.
A quick test of the USB RGB LED strip before moving on, be pretty bad if it didn't work at the end lol.
The remaining of the build is as per instruction. Everything into the bespoke paint booth.
This is now were I begin to ignore the instructions. Paint everything the same wood colour on the decks.. no thanks lol
On the titanic most wall sides and general vertical faces were mostly all white. Pulleys and other areas have real colour, benches are brown etc. Well 1:1200 scale or not this must be done.
The build is finally completed with the stacks up top and finishing touches on finer details.
The last part of the kit build is the water transfers which are tiny, this includes a gold band in multiple sections that goes all the way around the ship - that was fiddly as.
But nothing in any kit I've done has ever been as fiddly as the flags on the poles that require wrapping around and making contact with itself and correctly aligned..
So finally on to the diorama. I'm using casting resin for this which is generally poured into a full mold otherwise it won't cure flat and fully transparent. However with an open top and being water.. this works to my advantage. I'm using a mix of royal blue just enough to tint the water. The remainder of the unused resin is staying in the pour jug as this has a purpose still.
The resin has cured and pulled from the cast. I'm very pleased with the result including the fractal patterns on the sides from pulling acrylic of.
The left over resin in the jug once cured was placed in a bag and smashed with a tapping hammer to get a good range of sizes.
This smashed resin is now perfect to emulate ice debris and floating chunks. Because its the same resin means there is little issue bonding it back on. To seal it I just mixed a small batch of resin and brushed it over all the water surface carefully.
This is the tricky bit. Gutting out the depron foam that made up the iceberg shape so far. I used the tip of a scalpel tiny bits at a time to ensure I didn't damage any resin and leave a perfect shell of an iceberg top!
To seal the side and bottom of the Iceberg I need more resin in the same format. I always use baking paper for resin and epoxy slabs as it'll not stick.
Once cured resin in about 3mm can be cut with scissors if you don't leave it too long. So I simply traced the shapes I required and cut them out.
As with previous steps to bond the pieces I used a new small resin batch with a brush.
The last diorama step is to make the top surface ice white with shadow casting where I think I can get away with it and then finally Tamiya X20 + X20A lacquer / thinner sealing coat over everything.
To ensure I never have to dust this.. ever. I purchased a proper acrylic display case and drilled a 10mm hole for the LED loom to pass through. Just enough to fit and slip the top on / off.
Now I'm finally.. DONE!
A close up from the side of the case looking down the side of the titanic. She was turning away from the iceberg during the accident so I image she was tilting over by the time the damage was already done. I really like how well the ice in general everywhere turned out. I was very worried it might look a bit fake.
The model kit comes with a display stand that has two name plaque water transfer decals. I affixed one of them to the side cut of the iceberg. I thought it looked best there than ruining the scene up top.
The rear view with all them tiny bloody benches. A fair few times of painting the bench, poo - over lap.. paint the deck.. poo.. over lap.. paint the bench lol
THIS is the moment I was personally waiting for. LEDs on in just white - full realistic "mode"
I'm really pleased how much the windows add to the effect, the deck light spill was also just perfect. In order to really control where light came up I painted deck bottoms black before white in areas I wanted zero light to come through.
The money shot..
Turning away, hull raised and puncture wounds below the surface spilling light out into the cold dark sea. It's pretty and terrifying to think about. I hope I've done it justice.
The empty iceberg helping reflect and refract light across the resin pour is just excellent. I've never done anything like it before but it is so worth the effort.
I can only imagine how bleak this would look had I followed instruction and painted it in a single tone :(
This is one of my best shots personally. The light control to highlight hoists, stairs and other areas I like best worked amazingly.
Lets not forget however, these are RGB LEDs not just white!
How about the Titanic in RGB fade from Blue..
In total this project has taken me on and off 7/8 weeks of work and required more of my skill sets than I thought by a large margin.
But I can hold my head up high when I say: "I created a historically accurate boat base diorama to the best of my current abilities"
Till next time :)
Revell 1:1200 Titanic Diorama with ultra realistic damage RGB LEDs
