RMS Titanic Centenary Anniversary
Tragically one of the most famous ships of all time, the RMS Titanic was heralded as “unsinkable” prior to her fateful maiden voyage in April, 1912. A floating palace of luxury and nautical innovation, Titanic and her sisters Olympic and Britannic were the pride of the White Star Line. On April 15, 1912, Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank – taking 1502 souls with her.
Marking the 100th anniversary of Titanic’s historic voyage, Academy has released a newly-tooled 1/700 rendition of the infamous liner, molded in 6 colors under their new feature set known as “MCP” (Multi-Colored Parts). The MCP are captured in 5 sprues (white, black, brown, tan, orange-yellow), main superstructure (white), and 2-piece waterline hull (hull red and black). A small decal sheet and instructions round out the box contents. Detail is crisp and is nicely executed, and Academy includes tons of “fiddly bit” parts like cleats, benches, cranes and arms, ventilator funnels, and the like.
At first, I was concerned my junior modeling accomplice, Camden (almost 7), would not be able to keep up with all the minutiae, but fears eventually went unfounded once we got past Step 1. Once he was squared away on the discipline of carefully matching numbers on the directions with those on the sprue trees, he was off to the races. It should be noted, that he has built dozens of models since age 3 (yes, I know some of you may report me to Children’s Services), so this ki, recommended for “Ages 14 and Over,” was within his experience level. Although I did need to cut some closely-molded small parts from the sprue with my hobby knife, Camden was able to remove the vast majority with a good set of sprue cutters.
The engineering of the kit and the application of the MCP is beautifully done, and the instructions are spot-on and were clear to Camden (and me). As he had time, interest, and Dad’s supervision, he would roll through step after step undaunted. Decals proved a bit touchy, as they were very thin and stuck very aggressively once they found the model’s surface, but we worked through them without teaching the lad any uncouth language.
We didn’t push the pace of the project, but let him run it out over the course of a few weeks. When the sprue trees were finally bare, the MCP and excellent instructions rewarded the young modeler with a true masterpiece – and without a lick of paint.
While we chose to not paint Camden’s Titanic to see how the MCP played out, the engineering of the kit lends itself well to painting for those who do wish to paint, and color callouts are included throughout the instructions.
Although the $35 MSRP is amenable to many adult modelers, it initially seemed a bit high for something kids would build, but upon further reflection it seems to be extremely good value compared to some of licensed Lego and other construction-block offerings competing for parent’s cash.
Camden heartily recommends this model to juniors and grown-ups with some modeling experience under their belts, and I strongly agree. What a great way to spend some father-son time and impart some nautical history to a “young skull full of mush!”
Many thanks to MRC for providing the review sample and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to build it for the review.
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