Mark, The Master Modeller

Stage 55 gives us the front frame and steering column, but we fit the rear window to the central body section. Fit the rear window assembly to the cross frame firewall with 3 screws. `fit this rear frame assembly into the central body section. Make sure the interior light cable comes out the top left corner of the body as shown. The holes in the frame fit over posts in the central bodywork. One each side. Secure with 2 screws once it's properly located. Now the interior light cable needs to come down the side of the window and back into the body. You'll need to unscrew the end of the window frame to get the cable through the hole. It will look like this from inside the body. This completes the stage.

Stage 54 gives us the battery, but we work on the rear window. First of all, take the sticker sheet supplied in stage 53 and cover the screw heads showing in the head lining. A pair of tweezers makes this easier. Press the stickers down firmly. All four screws nicely covered. The rear window is fixed with pre-cut strips of double sided tape. There are two sheets which are identical so I assume one is a spare. Stick the strips to the window frame. The curved strips go left and right, and the rest are straight for the top and bottom. Peel the protective film off the window. Remove the backing paper from the double sided take and press the window in position. The matt black window edge should face outwards. This completes the stage.

Stage 53 gives us the rear window, firewall cross frame and the remaining detail for the passenger door. In this stage we only complete the door. The remaining parts are fitted later. Fit the arm rest to the door panel and secure with screws. Fit the door lock to the panel. This is glued in place with a small drop of super glue. I applied this from the back after fitting the lock. Capillary action draws the glue into the join. Push teh chrome door handle in place. Now the door panel can be pushing onto the door. Remove the protective cover from the self adhesive strip at the pot of th door panel and press this firmly in place. Press the lower cladding panel in place. This completes the stage.

Stage 52 gives us the passenger door panel. Fit the light switch housing to the door. Push the microswitch in place. I found that there was a bit if flash on the end of the silver plastic bar (fitted last stage) which was causing the microswitch to be permanently closed. I trimmed the end of the silver bar with a sharp knife and now get a nice click when the silver button is pressed. You only want to remove the minimum amount or the switch may not operate when the door is closed. Feed the cable under the sliver door switch and through the hinge. Fit the chrome plastic panel with a 4 screws. The black panel will be fitted later. This completes the stage.

Stage 51 gives us the passenger door glass. The instructions say to place the chrome trim on the door, but I found it easier to place the trim on the glass first. Place the trim/glass combination on the door and fix with a couple of screws. Place the light switch in position and fix with a screw. This completes the stage.

Stage 38 gives us a test board and cable so we can test the motor and ensure that the engines rotate. Thread the motor cable through the hole in the engine room floor. Insert the two engine shafts through the thrust blocks and into teh engine flywheels. Make sure that the shaft is fully inserted into the D shaped hole in the flywheel. Now slide the gearbox forward and engage the two shafts in the sockets in the gearbox. You'll need to rotate the flywheels until the D of the shaft lines up with the D of the gearbox socket. Then secure it with 4 screws. Connect the motor cable to the test board, and also connect the USB cable to the board and a suitable USB power supply, such as a phone charger. Do NOT pull the cables to unplug the motor cable plug from he test board as you may well pull the cables out of the socket. Use a pair of tweezers or small pliers to grip the plastic plug. Now you can test the motor. I did take a video but it was too big for the forum software, so give me a day or so and I'll retake it and complete this stage. Watch this space!

Stage 37 gives us the electric motor to drive the engines and props. Fit the motor to the gearbox. In order to do this you'll need to rotate the gearbox by inserting a shaft and twisting until the motor shaft will drop into the D shaped hole in the gearbox. Make sure that the motor is fully inserted. The brass reduction gearbox must be completely inside the gearbox cover. Thread the cable through the motor housing. Screw the cover in place. Now thread the cable through the base. Screw teh base in position. Insert the turbine shaft. This completes the stage.

Stage 36 gives us the rear section of engine room floor, the steam turbine and condensers. Take the steam turbine and two condensers and screw them together. The condensers are engraved L & R to aid identification. Take the shorter steam pips and fit them to the longer steam pipes. There is a D shaped peg and hole to ensure correct alignment. Furthermore, the pegs and holes are different sizes to make sure you don't get the left and right sides crossed over. Push the pipes into the condensers. They only go in one way round, but you don't need to glue them as they are quite a firm fit. Make sure they go fully home or you'll have trouble fitting the pipes to the engines. Fit the step turbine base to the engine room floor. It's held in with 3 screws. Make sure you get it the right way round as it will fit either way round. Fit the rear section of engine room floor. This is held with three screws fitted from underneath. Now we start to fit the engines to the engine room floor. The instructions start with getting you to check to see if you have a gap between the plinth and the stands. If you do, you need to remove the base of the engine, remove bearing cap 3P and/or 29H, turn it round and reassemble the engine. I you recall, I mentioned in stage 3 that the bearing cap was shown the wrong way round in the instructions, and I corrected it at the time. The instructions also say to check the the flywheels are on the right way round. The easiest way to check this is to test fit a prop shaft into the flywheel. If it fits, you're good. If it won't go in you will have to prise off the flywheel are refit it the other way round. Once you're happy that the engines are all correct, you can fit them to the engine room floor. They are held with 4 screws, and I suggest a drop of lubricant in the screw holes in the engine base as they are metal and the screws can be reluctant to fully tighten. Make sure that this pipe in inserted into the hole in the engine stand. The instructions mention this at the end of the stage, but it's easier to get the pipe int eh hole when putting the engines in place. Fit both engines in place, then insert a shaft to check that they turn freely. You may need to loosen the screws holding the thrust blocks if the shaft is stiff. I found that one was OK, but the other needed the thrust block adjusting. This completes the stage.

Stage 35 gives us the gearbox which allows the electric motor to drive the two steam engines and the propellors. When the ship is going forward all three props are driven, but when the ship is going astern only the two outer props are driven. The centre prop is driven by the steam turbine and you can't reverse a steam turbine. The gearbox incorporates a gear in a slot to realise this feature. Take the 4 shafts and insert them into the holes in the gearbox. You may wish to apply a little lubricant to the shafts now, then fit the 4 type A cog wheels. Add the three type 3 cog wheels. I added a little lubricant to the holes in the gearbox casing before fitting these. You only need a thin smear. Add the type D cog in the centre. Again, I added a little lubricant first. The instructions now tell us to add lubricant to the shafts and teeth of the cog wheels. We've already done the shafts, so we just need to apply some to the teeth of the cogs. I didn't have enough for all the teeth so I used some other grease that I had in the hobby room. Virtually any grease will do. Anything from Vaseline to grease for RC cars, to general purpose grease sold for use on cars. Then add the two type B cogs. On goes in the slot on the left which allows the steam turbine shaft to only rotate in the forward direction and to stop when the engines are reversed. The other cog allows the port shaft to rotate in the opposite direction to the starboard shaft. I love this attention to detail. Fit the gearbox cover and secure with 7 screws. Tighten these up evenly so the gearbox covers doesn't twist. This completes the assembly, but let's test the gearbox. Insert a shaft into the hole for the motor. Turn it clockwise and all three prop shaft sockets rotate. Turn it anti-clockwise and only the outer two sockets rotate. P4120190.MOV This completes the stage.

Stage 34 gives us the pumps and thrust block. Glue detail 34C to the large pump base. Now fit the two larger parts to the pump base. These are screwed from underneath. These are the four pieces that make up the two main pipes for the pump. As before, I'm going to change the order of assembly from the instructions as I think it makes it easier to assemble the parts accurately. Fit the detail 34S to the pump. It's fitted with a D shaped pin, but make sure that the hole is pointing to the outside of the pump. Take the connection 34R and glue it to the other side of the pump. Pay attention to which way round it goes. Refer to the photo as a picture paints a thousand words. Now fit this to the engine room floor. It's screwed from below. Now you can fit the two pipes, 34M & 34U, making sure that they fit in the holes in the engine room floor as well as the locations in the pump. Fit the valve 34L in place with superglue. Glue the two halves of the thrust block together. The instructions say to assemble the pipes then glue them to the thrust block, but I prefer to assemble them directly onto the thrust block to get the alignment accurate. And the other side. Glue the small elbow in place. Tweezers are your friend here. Now screw the thrust block assembly to the engine room floor. Fit the lub oil pump outboard of the thrust block. Fit detail 34K in front of the lub oil pump. Fit pipe 34E outboard of the lub oil pump. Fit the Tee piece outboard of the lub oil pump. Fit the pressure gauge to the pump to complete the pump/thrust block assembly. Moving back to the engine, glue the cat walk in place. I found it easiest to apply glue to the pins on the bottom of the ladders and fit these to the engine plinth. Then push the cat walk agains the side of the engine and apply glue tot the underside of the tabs. Capillary action will draw the glue into the joint. While we're here, check that the shaft that the reversing links pivot on (part 5M) is glued into the engine stands. If not, it is likely to push out when the engine is being turned by the motor. (Ask me how I know! Forum foresight is a wonderful thing!) Fit the reversing engine. This is simply glued in place. Finally, fit the valve control rods. They are glued into the low pressure cylinder and the pipe that comes round the front of the engine fits in the hole in the manifold. This completes the stage, and completes the engines and thrust blocks.

Stage 33 gives us the piping for the stbd engine, which means another fiddly stage!! Fit the auxiliary engine and the detail to the engine plinth. Now fit the 8 catwalks. These are the really awkward parts. As in the previous pack, I fitted them with small drops of superglue to tack them in place. Once they were dry I reinforced them with another drop of superglue on each end of the catwalks. Take the motor parts A & B, the motor pipes, and glue them together at 90 degrees. There is a D shaped pin, so it's easy to get it right, and smaller pipe doesn't fit onto anything (as far as I can tell) so it's not too critical. Now fit this pipe assembly to the motor. The motor is superglued to the engine stand. Glue the low pressure steam pipes to the cylinders. The vertical section of pipe goes to the left. Glue pipe 33H to the cylinders, just above the stands. Pipe 33J sits between the two low pressure steam pipes. Now glue the auxiliary motor hand wheel to its stand and glue this to the engine plinth. Take pipe 33I and glue this to the stands. Make sure this is fully seated or the next pipe won't fit properly. Take the vertical pipe and glue this in place. Fit the bottom end first, followed by the top. Take the steam turbine pipe and push it in place on the low pressure (largest) cylinders. Fit pipe 33R, which I forgot to photograph! Sorry! Push the vapour separator onto the low pressure cylinder. Make sure it's fully seated. The instructions say to fit pipe E to the separator before fitting the separator to the engine, but I prefer to fit that pipe afterward to make sure it's properly aligned. Now fit pipe E making sure that the end lines up with the holes in the low pressure cylinder. This completes the stage.

That's a nice, well engineered solution!

Stage 32 gives us a lot more details for the port engine. We start with the auxiliary engine. This was also called a barring engine, used to turn the engine slowly. The name originated from smaller steam engines where the engine had to be turned by levering the flywheel with a long bar in order to get it in the right position for starting. These are the three parts we need. Glue the pipe onto the main part of the engine, then glue the detail B (possibly the steam valve for the barring engine) in place. Glue this to the engine stand. Glue the catwalk in place. I found it easiest to put the pins at the bottom of the ladders in first, then hold the walkway agains the engine frames while the glue set. Alternatively, put it in position without glue, then apply glue to the undersides of the pins and connection points to the frames and let capillary action draw the glue in. Take the vapour separator and push it into the holes in the low pressure cylinder. It goes in quite tight. Here is a view of the separator from the top. The instructions now advise us to fit the valve pipe to the valve rods, then fit this to the engine. However, there is a chance of getting the angle wrong, so I suggest the fit the valve rods first. Now fit the valve pipe to the valve rods and vapour separator. This is a more fool proof sequence of assembly. Fit the reversing engine to the engine plinth. This part is straight forward. Just glue it in the hole! We assemble the larger pump next. These are the 4 parts we need. Glue detail 32C in place, then fight e two larger parts which are held by 2 screws. Glue the detail (32S) in place. Glue the pipe and valve in place. I suggest putting this in place on the deck while you glue it to ensure that the pipe lines up with its hole. The instructions would have us glue the pipe (32M) to the connection (32R) and then glue this to the pump. However, I propose a different sequence. Glue the pipe connection (32R) in place on the top of the pump. Note that the hole adjacent to the connection must be kept clear. Here's a view from the top. Put the pump in place on the engine room floor and screw it in place. Then glue pipe (32M) in place. Glue the pressure gauge and the control valve in place. Fit the lubrication pump on the other side not he thrust block and secure it with a screw from underneath. Glue the pipe (32I) to the pump. Fit the valve pipe to the engine floor. This completes the stage, and the pack, and the port engine. Here's a gratuitous shot of the engine in place on the deck, just because I can't resist trying it in place!

Love the effect. It looks very realistic, and I think you nailed the colour!

Stage 31 takes us back to the port engine and give sis the steam pipes. The first stage is to fit the 8 gangways. These are awkward blighters as they are buried in the engine and need gluing! Apply a drop of superglue to the 4 pins on the gangway then hold it in place with tweezers until the glue has cured. I started with the easiest one! Make sure that it is straight and vertical. Repeat with the remaining 7 gangways. I added a drop more glue to each of the outer pins to reinforce the joint after they had all been fitted. Just to give them a bit more strength, ensuring that they didn't fall out later! Call me Mr. Paranoid! Glue the reversing gear and the 'detail' 31J (This looks like an oil tank to me, but that's just an educated guess) to the base of the engine. The instructions say to glue the hand wheel to the support and then glue it in place. However, I thought it easer to glue the support in place first.... And then glue the hand wheel t the support. Take pipe B and glue it to the top of the engine columns. Now take pipe D and glue it to the bottom of the cylinder and the engine plinth. Insert the pin in the engine plinth first, then insert the top pin in the cylinder. Take the steam turbine pipe and press it into the holes in the two outer cylinders. For those who are interested in the engineering, the Titanic had two reciprocating engines, that we are in the process of building, and a single steam turbine. The steam from the boiler was used to drive the reciprocating engines. However, the exhaust steam from these engines still had a fair amount of energy in it. So the exhaust steam was used to drive steam turbine to extract as much energy from the steam as possible. This improved the efficiency of the vessel quite significantly. The exhaust steam from the turbine then went through a condenser where it was called by seawater to turn it back into water. Then it was pumped back into the boiler. Fit pipe E below the turbine pipe. Push the low pressure pipes into the other side of the cylinders. Fit pipe C to the outer cylinders. This sits between the two low pressure pipes. This completes the stage.

Stage 30 gives the the base of the stbd engine. Fit the catwalk to the bottom the frame. The ladders go nearest the flywheel. Use 4 EM screws and note that they go in the outer most holes. Fit the base to the bottom of the catwalk. This is secured with 4 FM screws where they go through into the metal frame, and 6 AP screws where they bolt to the catwalk. Fit the four exhaust valves, gluing them in necessary. Glue the end plate tot he engine base with superglue. It fits not eh opposite end to the flywheel. This completes the stage.

Stage 29 gives us the crankshaft for the stbd engine. Clip the connecting rods to the crankshaft. Pay attention to the photo to see which cranks the rods clip on to. Place the pistons in position on the starboard set cylinder halves. Please the port cylinder halves on top, making sure that all the pistons are properly trapped and are free to move up and down. Press home the cylinder heads and distribution valves. These hold the cylinder halves together. Take the shaft 29A and place it on your cutting mat. Note the protruding tabs point upwards. Clip the valve rod assemblies to the shaft. Clip the valve rod assembly to the crankshaft. Note the the valve rods clip from underneath! Swing the shaft up and press it into the locating holes in the frame. A little superglue will help hold this secure. Place the stop places at the ends of the frame under the crankshaft. The stop plate with the shorter lugs fits on the end with the D shaped pin on the shaft. Fit the two stop plate covers in place and secure with screws. Push the flywheel onto the crank shaft. Both sides own the fly wheel have a D shaped hole, but the smaller hole is a better fit on the crankshaft. I'm assuming that this is correct, but best not glue anything until we have the prop shaft to connect to it! Call me Mr. Cautious! This completes the stage. The instructions say the the engine is almost complete, but there's still a lot of detail to add to it!

Stage 28 gives us more parts for the stbd engine. Clip the piston rods to the connecting rods. Lay out the cylinder halves in the correct order, R5 to R8. Screw the cylinder halves to the frame. This completes the stage.

Stage 27 starts the stbd engine. Clip the connecting shafts to the valve rods. The connecting shafts are completely symmetrical, so it doesn't matter which way round they go. The valve rods must go the right way round of course. Clip the connectors to the connecting shafts. Lay out the cylinder halves in order, L8 through to L5. The markings are engraved on the inside of the cylinders. This makes it easier to fit them in the right order. Now screw them to the frame. This completes the stage.

Superglue works just fine. You will need to swell some of the pipes, particularly the silver coloured ones, with a cocktail stick to get them over the pins. Be warned, that supergluing these is permanent! The plastic pins will break before you can pull the tube off again! Incidentally, I use Vaseline to lubricate screw holes as that makes it much easier to drive the screws home. However, there are lots of other products that work equally well, from soap to light machine oil, to cutting oil as Keramh mentioned.

Stage 50 gives us the right hand door, but we start by fitting the sun visors. Take on the sun visor brackets labelled 2 or 3. Carefully remove from the sprue and remove all the flash. Now press it into the head lining. Be careful, the carpet monster will have his greedy eyes on this!! Press the pin on the sun visor into the bracket. It's quite stiff, and needs to be a friction fit to stop the visor dropping down on its own. Then secure the visor with a second bracket marked 1 or 4. Repeat the process with the driver's sun visor. Fit the head lining into the bodywork and secure with 4 screws. The screws are a bit conspicuous at the moment, but will be covered with some coloured stickers later and should virtually disappear. Fit the lock to the door. This is a tight fit and requires a firm push. Slide the handle in from the the rear. The front of the handle clips into the hole in the door. Place the hinge in position. Secure it with the hinge bracket and two screws. Edit: Make sure this spring plate is screwed down very firmly or the door may not hold closed onto finished model. The spring plate should hold down firmly against the door with the hing pin the closed position. This completes the stage, and the pack.

Hi Kevin, The Statenyatch looks like a challenging kit! Love to see how you get on with it. Just what you need to keep you occupied!

Stage 49 gives us the rear view mirror and sun visors. Fit the vent control knob to the head lining by the air vents. This is small and fiddly, and it's worth scraping off any excess paint and any mould lines from the pin before inserting it. Try to keep it away from the carpet monster! Turn the head lining over and fit the interior light in place. It looks like this from the inside. Fit the LED. A carefully placed strip of masking tape will keep it in place as it's a loose fit! Stick the mirror to the rear view mirror. Fit this to the head lining with a screw. Fit the vanity mirror to the appropriate sun visor. This completes the stage.

Stage 48 gives us the central bodywork. Fit the right window trim in place. This is how the tabs fit inside the body. Repeat for the left window frame. Feed the cables from the steering column through the hole in the dashboard. Put the steering column in position. This is how it looks from below. Secure it with a screw the goes in from the back of the dashboard. Also fit the dashboard LED in the holes in the back of the instrument cluster. This completes the stage.

Stage 47 gives the the head lining and the left and right windows frames. Pushteh switch cluster into the back of the head lining. It's probably a bit loose, but don't worry as it will be held in place once the headlining is fitted to the body. It looks like this from the inside. Take the steering column and push it through the column cover you assembled in the last stage. Fix teh steering wheel to the column with a screw. The column has a D shaped pin to ensure that the wheel is aligned correctly. Push the Raging Bull logo in place. As an aside, the Raging Bull logo sums up the personality Lamborghini cars perfectly. They are a beast to drive. There are several companies offering a track experience in a Lamborghini. Highly recommended for the petrol heads amongst us! This completes the stage.