Titanic deck planking width

[Peterairfix]

Does anyone know what width the deck planks were on the titanic.
And also what would they be in 1/144 scale any help would be most appreciated.

 

[Bryian]

Have a look at the mid west hobby shop videos of the 1/200 Titanic build on You tube. You might be able to gauge the scale from that .

 

[Magellan]

They were 6" or 150mm wide which would come out at just over 1mm at 1:144.
I'm building the Billings Titanic at 1:144 as a static display rather than the normal RC so am trying to be careful with the detail. I felt that it would be impractical to deal with planking at this width so went with something that capures the essence of the feature. If you look at some of the photographs of the builders' models that were being produced by yards, in the first half of the 20th century, for customers, they would often slightly cariciturise features to accent them (such as brass rims on porthole side lights that would be have been flush in reality - see 'Glasgow Museums - The Ship Models', published by seaforth, for example).
In this spirit, i primed and sanded the decks with ultra-fine abrasive paper and sprayed them with Tamiya deck tan. I purchased a Pentel 0.2mm pencil and ruled the caulking lines on at a spacing of just under 2mm (approx 1.8mm to be precise - and there's a template of converging lines that i downloaded to get the spacing consistent which i've just searched for but can't for the life of me find anymore- you may have better luck) which is the closest that i could reasonably get them. I then sprayed the decks with a matt varnish to avoid the graphit lines smudging. The effect is pleasing and i'm happy with the outcome. I don't think that i could have reasonably achieved better. Modelling these beautiful ships, as is our need, helps us to be accepting of unavoidable imperfection.
I'd post a photo but i'm using an old Nokia phone which is unsupported by google so can't get any photos off it once they're taken.
Hope that this is useful.
Magellan.

 

[Peterairfix]

They were 6" or 150mm wide which would come out at just over 1mm at 1:144.
I'm building the Billings Titanic at 1:144 as a static display rather than the normal RC so am trying to be careful with the detail. I felt that it would be impractical to deal with planking at this width so went with something that capures the essence of the feature. If you look at some of the photographs of the builders' models that were being produced by yards, in the first half of the 20th century, for customers, they would often slightly cariciturise features to accent them (such as brass rims on porthole side lights that would be have been flush in reality - see 'Glasgow Museums - The Ship Models', published by seaforth, for example).
In this spirit, i primed and sanded the decks with ultra-fine abrasive paper and sprayed them with Tamiya deck tan. I purchased a Pentel 0.2mm pencil and ruled the caulking lines on at a spacing of just under 2mm (approx 1.8mm to be precise - and there's a template of converging lines that i downloaded to get the spacing consistent which i've just searched for but can't for the life of me find anymore- you may have better luck) which is the closest that i could reasonably get them. I then sprayed the decks with a matt varnish to avoid the graphit lines smudging. The effect is pleasing and i'm happy with the outcome. I don't think that i could have reasonably achieved better. Modelling these beautiful ships, as is our need, helps us to be accepting of unavoidable imperfection.
I'd post a photo but i'm using an old Nokia phone which is unsupported by google so can't get any photos off it once they're taken.
Hope that this is useful.
Magellan.

Thanks for your help I had after a good Google found out the width I was hoping to find some ready printed decking but to no avail so I will do what you have done

 

[HPeterB]

They were 6" or 150mm wide which would come out at just over 1mm at 1:144.
I'm building the Billings Titanic at 1:144 as a static display rather than the normal RC so am trying to be careful with the detail. I felt that it would be impractical to deal with planking at this width so went with something that capures the essence of the feature. If you look at some of the photographs of the builders' models that were being produced by yards, in the first half of the 20th century, for customers, they would often slightly cariciturise features to accent them (such as brass rims on porthole side lights that would be have been flush in reality - see 'Glasgow Museums - The Ship Models', published by seaforth, for example).
In this spirit, i primed and sanded the decks with ultra-fine abrasive paper and sprayed them with Tamiya deck tan. I purchased a Pentel 0.2mm pencil and ruled the caulking lines on at a spacing of just under 2mm (approx 1.8mm to be precise - and there's a template of converging lines that i downloaded to get the spacing consistent which i've just searched for but can't for the life of me find anymore- you may have better luck) which is the closest that i could reasonably get them. I then sprayed the decks with a matt varnish to avoid the graphit lines smudging. The effect is pleasing and i'm happy with the outcome. I don't think that i could have reasonably achieved better. Modelling these beautiful ships, as is our need, helps us to be accepting of unavoidable imperfection.
I'd post a photo but i'm using an old Nokia phone which is unsupported by google so can't get any photos off it once they're taken.
Hope that this is useful.
Magellan.

Magellan, great explanation.

 

[Magellan]

Hi Peter,
Glad it helped - i'll see if i can put some photos of what i have done on the forum.
Also, I'm not sure what you're basing your Titanic project on, but if it's the Billings kit, there are a few other modifications that i've made that you might be interested in. The stem piece of an Olympic class liner was 3.5" or 88mm wide at point of entry which at 1:144 scale is 0.6mm. The Billings stem piece is 1.5mm which is 3 times too thick (and looks it!). I re-made the stem piece from 0.5mm platicard. I assume that Billings have done this for structural considerations to suit the radio controlled possibilities of the model. If you are going RC you could make a scale stem piece from aluminium sheet which would have the structural properties that you would require.
The hull plating with the side lights (portholes) punched through is also way over scale, and, i think, looks clunky and detracts from the elegance of the ship. The hull plates would have been aprox 1.50 - 1.75" thick (approx 40mm) so in scale would be a max 0.3mm. Billings supply 0.8mm.
I'm going to leave the hull plates off and create a smooth, flush hull (like those shipyard models in Glasgow Museums book) but you could also consider plating the inner strakes with 0.5mm platicard, leaving the ones supplied by the kit just 0.3mm proud.
I have replaced the anchor chain with Caldercraft stud-link 10links/ inch:
https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/c65411.html#SID=148
and the following website is useful for colour schemes:

https://waskogm.artstation.com/albums/7542390

I might change the anchor capstans for 3D printed (although they are quite an expensive upgrade:

Titanic Windlass - Scale 1:144 by endaredesign on Shapeways

Check out Titanic Windlass - Scale 1:144 by endaredesign on Shapeways and discover more 3D printed products in Other.

www.shapeways.com

Good luck with your construction. I'll see if i can get some photos on soon.
John

 

[Peterairfix]

Good luck with your construction. I'll see if i can get some photos on soon

Thanks for your help it is the billings kit that I have
I did hear about the stem piece somewhere else so I will be changing it other than that I will build straight out of the box as it's the most expensive kit I have ever brought.