Titanic, no other ship’s name can conjure up so many images in one’s mind. The ship was the epitome of luxury, affluence and status. The tragedy of the loss of over 1500 souls; the love of Ida and Isador Straus, who would not be separated and chose to go down with the ship together rather than one should live apart from the other; or of the ships remains broken and battered on the ocean floor.

The world’s most famous ship is also one of the most modeled ocean going vessels of all time. This book covers one man’s journey building a scratch built 1/48 scale 18 foot long model of RMS Titanic. The book opens with a brief history of the loss of the ship and a discussion of builder’s models of the Titanic and her sister’s Olympic and Britannic before launching into the meat of the subject.

The next 132 pages are a “how to” discussion of all the materials, methods, trials and tribulations of scratch building on such as massive scale. Much like construction of a real ship, this project begins with the hull support structure and continues on with plating, main structures, fittings and details. The process covered in this book can be used by anyone looking to scratch build a ship or other large piece of equipment in most any scale. The author also gives a lot of details on making all of the little detail parts, wires, signage and flags. This book really is a step by step builder’s manual. The finished model now resides in the Titanic Experience formerly in Orlando, Florida and now in Branson, Missouri. The book finishes up with a short discussion of available model kits of the Titanic and the accuracy issues of each, as well as a brief discussion of the correct colors to paint the ship.

I found this book to be a very interesting look into the model building process. I feel that anyone with an interest in Titanic or model building in general can find useful information within its pages. Even if one only wants to improve an existing kit of Titanic this book would prove invaluable.

This book will be of interest to the modeler, ship enthusiast/historian alike. I can recommend it to all that like the subject or have, as I do a passion for the Titanic and her story. The book is available now and may be ordered directly from Seaforth Publishing at the website above. At the time of this writing the book was on sale for 20 British pounds or $32.26 at the current exchange rate. I wish to offer my thanks to Seaforth Publishing and IPMS/USA for this review copy.