Academy 1/700 RMS Titanic LED Set

RMS Titanic was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, approximately 1,500 died (estimates vary), making the incident one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. Titanic, operated by White Star Line, carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from the British Isles, Scandinavia, and elsewhere in Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States and Canada. The disaster drew public attention, spurred major changes in maritime safety regulations, and inspired a lasting legacy in popular culture. It was the second time White Star Line had lost a ship on her maiden voyage, the first being RMS Tayleur in 1854.

Among ship kits, the Titanic is a popular subject, as much due to its sinking as anything else. There are not many people who are not aware at some level of the ship and its part in history. It is not surprising that Academy has released a fairly nice kit of this ship that is suitable for pretty much all level of modeler other than perhaps those who have never used glue.

Let me cut to the chase on this one. The draw of this boxing is that it comes with LEDs so the ship can be lighted. It does this by hiding the batteries and power switch in the base of this full hulled kit. The power wires are then run up the ship mounting posts into the hull. In there, one builds up a band of eight LEDs on a plate the shape of the hull that will eventually be below the 'waterline'. One than attaches all the LEDs in parallel using conductive tape. This in turn is attached to the power wires. This allows the low voltage LEDs to be powered by a pair of standard AA batteries.

Once all that is done, then the superstructure pieces that you have built up can be attached and the rest of the ship properly constructed. The kit is molded in multiple colors of hull red, white, black and a couple of ochre shades. You are also provided all the wiring and other parts to have a nicely lit ship model. In theory, one wouldn't really need to paint anything but perhaps the funnels, but I'm sure most will undertake at least some additional coloring.

As often happens with raffle kits, this one was missing something and that was the instructions. Why people donate incomplete kits to club raffles is beyond me and I could go on a bit of a rant regarding this subject, but won't. Perhaps it was a simple oversight, but then again, perhaps it wasn't. At least there was no report of anyone getting a sealed kit with little more that sprues in it as at least one person got in a Chicago show many years back. Any way, thanks to Scalemates, I was able to get a copy of the instructions so all is good. 

Overall, this looks as if it will make a neat model. It doesn't appear to be very complex so it would make for a nice subject for a fairly new modeler, especially as most of the plastic is already the proper color.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic

October 2025