SMA Big Spring Contest – RMS Titanic 1/700 Official entry photo

Entry into the SMA Big Spring Contest

Entry into the SMA Big Spring Contest

Ok, I think I’ve honestly gone completely bonkers! As you may know, I’ve been building kits for gifts. I made an X-Wing for Lynda, a USS Reliant for Mark errumm Randy :), the USS Greenwolf (TNG Enterprise kit) for Danny Greenwolf, and an R2D2 for my wife. I’ve made a few for myself, too. Last year I entered a diorama for the SMA Big Spring Contest and had lots of great comments and a lot of fun. This year, there is no diorama category, and in keeping with extending myself beyond my comfort zone I decided to break open an RMS Titanic model I had bought for Brenna. Once inside I realized this thing is TINY! I mean the iPhone 5 next to it is probably bigger than the iceberg! I looked at the parts and figured lighting it will be a breeze, but the railings and rigging are WAY WAY WAY out of scale. Well, I’ve never been known to be someone who goes half-way, so I ordered the photo etch parts… There are two sets for this ship, the railings, and another for even more details and rigging. When I saw that there was 1/700 people, I just HAD to see what that looks like! I love this hobby, it is filled with good hearted and honest people. Sure we’ve all been rooked by some eBay posting, but when it comes to the modeling community, we have some forthright trust-worthy awesome people. I’ve learned so much from the teachings supplied by Bad Grendels, TrekWorks, Steve Neil, Dr. Cranky… the list goes on and on! I really need to bring attention to tomsmodelworks.com. I ordered the photo etch parts, and almost immediately received notification of shipment. I chose snail-mail because I was a little afraid of the tiny photo etch… and I have three months to build this tiny kit. Two days after the brass shipped, I received a politely worded email notifying me that the credit card I had used was declined. Toms gave me the option to pay via Paypal, and I promptly remedied the situation and asked them to let me know which card I had used since there wasn’t a clue on the invoice. They responded immediately with some digits and an expiration date, which allowed me to clear up the situation promptly. The same day the brass was in my mailbox. Fantastic service! If you ever need photo etch, please consider tossing them some business, if you’re like me, you won’t regret it!

Saying 1/700 railings are small is like saying the universe can hold a few VW bugs! I’m going to order an opti-visor so I can have a chance of seeing this stuff! If I can pull this one off, I’ll be able to handle ANY photo etch in the future!

Now, I hope I get some evenings to work on it!