Vent world - A primer on the vents

The menagerie of vents and their placement is easier to sort through if you understand a few of the basics.

From a Ken Marscall Painting.

There are two main types of deck mounted ventilators: the cowl vents such as parts G25 and G33, and the units like part G23 featuring the cylindrical upright fan housing. All vents have a side mounted motor, a housing, an opening in the center opposite the motor, and an opening off the side of the housing. Vents then mix and match cowls, curls, upright fans, or ducts off one or both openings. Curls use the opening opposite the motor.

To place vents around the first 3 funnels, understand how the uptakes work. The corners were the vent shafts and each had a vent either on the roof or the deck alongside that serviced it. The black squares show where the vent ducts entered for roof units. The boiler room shafts had the big box vents. The access shafts had the grating and the steam pipe shaft housed the pipe going up the front and back of the funnel.

Cowl vents draw air out of the ship, usually from lavatories and public rooms. Curl vents and fans with no cowls deliver air (usually heated) into the ship.

For the #2 and #3 funnels, if it doesn't have a roof vent, then a deck vent will butt against the uptake to service the vent shaft.

For some of the composite vents, I'll refer to a G25/33 type or a G23 type as the base for rearranging the vent into the right configuration. Looking at the motor, G25s have the cowl on the left, G33s on the right. Examine these parts and become familiar with their layout. All cowls always face aft so use the cowl indicated, but cut off the tab to fill the corner slot on the vent and cement the cowl on facing aft.

Note: All of the cowl vents scattered about the ship do not sit on the planking, they sit on steel deck. There is a square tub around the base of all cowl vents. Paint the corners of all vents the same gray used for the funnel bases to form a square the size of the vent machinery. The planking was later added around the tub. If you scribe the planking, scribe the tub for the vent first, then do the planking around it.

Note: If you are replacing an older model, use can save yourself a lot of scratch building by cannibalizing the old vents. The kit doesn't have enough vents as it is, and the old ones are useful for fashioning more correct vents.

Note: For many of the deck vents, the drawings in the instruction manual show the vent reversed, but they call out the right parts.

New note: Bob Read has a vent survey with very good drawings of all these vents available off the Original Titanic Modeling Home Page, referenced in the links.

Step 15 - Bridge roof

Read steps 15-17 before painting the roof.

A) Above the bridge, the roof was planked, not white. In "Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy", there's a poor picture on page 60 showing the roof. Better copies of the photo confirm the planking and white edge. This is another reason to scribe the planks on more of the surfaces. Leave a 1mm wide white border all the way around the bridge roof.

B) Add the deadlight (window in the deck) just forward and port of the front H23B vent. It's the black square above the word "housing" in the painting in the vent discussion. Drill a hole for pre-placed rigging 1mm in front of the H23B vent. Use light weight lines and have two lines 5" long mounted here.

C) Item 23. Just fore and aft of the funnels are grates. They have wood slat duck boards over the steel so paint it wood colored. Adapt 4mm wide model railroad catwalks and apply, painting the underlying surface black. The aft starboard grate on #1 funnel features a tank with pipe fittings. Use plastic stock or the Evergreen SA tube assortment and fabricate the tank about 3mm in diameter and 5mm long.

From a Ken Marscall Painting.

The drawings all face the motor side.

For for G-23 based vents, cut a D-shaped housing from stock 1.5-2mm thick, using a G23 for the basic size as per the drawing above. (cut 8, you'll need the others later).

D) 24. For the #1 funnel vent shafts, all are wrong or poorly done:

Forward Starboard: The starboard vent is a G23 type housing with motor facing aft, minus the upright, and a curl mounted forward as per the kit. Slice the curl off G26, file the V-shaped bottom as per the painting, and cement to the front of a G23 body as per the drawing above. The housing duct extends to the vent shaft. Add a motor by slicing one off an old G23 or fabricating a likeness.

Forward port: The port vent is a reverse G23, ducted to the shaft, with a G33 type vent connected. Reverse a second fabricated G23 housing, add a motor facing aft and mount. Replace G20 with a G33 but with the motor facing forward. Cut a notch in the base of the back duct so it fits the raised uptake roof section. Save G20 for use as a G25 later on.

Aft Starboard: G9A on the starboard side is identical to the G26 vent described above but the curl is taller. The curl is on the front side and the motor faces aft. Use the curl from G9A and mount the housing about 1mm farther forward so the duct enters at the black square from the drawing in the general discussion of vents.

Aft port: The G9B is not perfectly symmetrical. The Housing mounts the funnel casing vent shaft symmetrically, but the motor faces forward and the curl attaches to the aft side. See the drawing above. It's all about mixing and matching common components.

E) Item 25. An additional vent is needed. Use or fabricate a G23 vent and remove the back duct. Add a curl to the aft side facing forward. Leave the motor facing forward. The curl vent G24B on the starboard corner by the #2 funnel is about the right shape so scrap this off an older model and cut it to about 3.5 mm wide and shorten it so the top rests on G23, similar to the G26 above. If you don't have spare parts, then this approach tells you what to fabricate. To fabricate the round up-right fan motor, use one of the G30 parts. They seem to have no function otherwise and are just about right.

Note: There are 4 G24's, three short and one long. The long one goes to #4 funnel. The A&B on the parts tree is unclear.

From a Ken Marscall Painting.

The additional vent has a smaller curled housing than the G9B in front. The skylights are probably metal and painted white rather than brown. The cowl vent should be backed up against the large vent as per figure 2. The output duct goes down the right edge of the big screened vent so cut it off and mount it flush. The old placement markings on the deck need erasing.

F) 26. Cut the skylight for the officer's shower. Build a skylight using sheet plastic, Evergreen K-2 strips, and clear acetate or use the Gold Medal Skylight set with acetate behind. Note, it's not perfectly centered on the roof.

G) 27. Cut the skylight for the Marconi room and build a similar skylight. This one is centered. Note that both skylights are just on either side of the expansion joint. Add the expansion joint down the sides of the officer's quarters.

H) 29. The #2 funnel needs work. The aft line of the 1st class entrance forms the forward line of the funnel uptake (see photo below). The kit carries the uptake over the 1st class entrance. To correct it, cut back the raised area in the roof (mainly the vent recess) until it's even with the entrance wall. This moves the fore vent back about 3mm and adds the proper spacing between the vent and staircase dome cover. You also need to fill the exposed vent recess and deal with the decking and cut a new recess farther aft (or slice down the H23B vent. This will make for a tight fit with the plastic kit funnel ladders if you use them. Grating similar to #1 funnel needs to be added to both ends of the funnel.

Note that the big vent fore of the 2nd funnel is in the stack uptake. It doesn't stick out into the 1st class entrance. This is real annoying in the kit! Between the big vent and the stack you see the two shaft holes with the near side still covered with a grate. Note also the position of fans for items 30 and 31. Roy Mengot wreck model.

Forward Starboard cowl vent: G25 on the gymnasium roof with the motor facing starboard. This is a 30" fan type.

Fixed Forward port: G33 on the roof of the 1st class entrance with the motor facing forward. It is a 20" fan type and has a smaller cowl than the starboard vent.

New Another vent needs to be added to the boat deck right below the G33 above (see figure 3 below). This is another G33 with the motor facing aft and it has a curved housing going into the vent shaft of the uptake instead of a cowl. In addition, there is a duct that T's off the duct entering the stack uptake that goes up the wall and curves forward over the 1st class entrace to the aft port corner of the weater cover for the dome over the Grand Staircase. This duct appeared on both Olympic and Titanic barely shows in "Titanic and her Sisters" p.236. It shows better on good original photographs.

In addition, there is a duct that T's off the duct entering the stack uptake that goes up the wall and curves forward over the 1st class entrace to the aft port corner of the weater cover for the dome over the Grand Staircase. This duct appeared on both Olympic and Titanic barely shows in "Titanic and her Sisters" p.236. It shows better on good original photographs. Use an evergreen plastic strip (.75 X 1mm) turned narrow side up. A second duct runs flat down the aft wall of the staircase cover along the roof into the #2 funnel fan housing. (Bruce Beveridge drawing)

Aft Starboard: The curl vent G24B is too simple and should be identical to the G9A vent near the #1 funnel. Whatever you did for G9A, do it again. The kit mounts it a bit forward, the housing should be flush with the fore end of the big box vent H23A. See step 18. There is another vent servicing the starboard vent shaft.

Aft port: See step 18. There are two vents servicing the port vent shaft.

I) 30 in figure 3. The vent in the middle of the boat deck is wrong. The vent output shaft goes directly into the reading and writing room so use a G25 vent and position it flush against the wall as per the drawing. Remove the mount marking in the deck.

J) The skylight over the Grands Staircase is a 9 X 5 lattice with the center hole solid. The sides don't go to a perfect point. Use the Gold Medal skylight piece but you need to fabricate the 2mm tall front and back walls, with a flat edge for the center row, from sheet plastic and make them look contiguous with the sides. Use clear acetate and paint the frames white. Unlike Olympic, Titanic doesn't seem to have any portholes in the sides of the skylight. On the sides were apparently some bins or boards that possibly folded up that extend from the deck to 1/3 the height of the dome cover on a poster size photo I have. These appear dark, probably dark wood brown or funnel base gray. The width is debatable. Use 1 X 2mm or 2 x 2mm Evergreen strips cut 20mm long and mount to the center sides of the skylight.

K) While you're at it, the dome under the skylight is oval, not round. The base is 23 X 19mm, quickly tapering in 1mm and stands as tall as the dome in the kit. Form this from modeling clay, wood, or vacuform it in plastic. The glass is white so it doesn't matter. Draw frames in fine felt tip or even soft pencil. It will be somewhat visible under the weather cover.

Step 16 - Fore funnels

A) Test fit and align all funnels before cementing. Do all of them at once (steps 16, 20, and 23). Apply all the little pipes except the bent ones in step 36 before painting. Make sure to have some extra peach color available for the ladders and touch-up. If the funnels appear to be different heights, they are. The kit got it right on that one.

B) Whether using the kit or Gold medal ladders, you have the problem of the deep indentations where the ladder tabs go. The ladders don't come in until step 38 but you may consider applying them here. Paint the underside of the ladders, apply them, then do the tedious filling and smoothing of the indentations before paining the funnels. The plastic ladders may be a problem if you adjusted the front funnel base for #2 funnel. The ladder steps only go as high as the top strut. The top struts support a platform with handrails. Use some of the Lusitania handrails in the Gold Medal parts for grate flooring and wrap the platform around all the pipes to the size of ladder struts. See "Discovery of the Titanic". p.163. Look at adding a single rail hand rail around the platform. Mask and paint the funnel tops.

C) Whistles are mounted 8mm below the top of the forward main pipe on all four funnels. The whistle is the little knob at the top of the smaller forward pipe. To construct a proper set of whistles, cut the knob off. Use a 2mm wide strip of Evergreen K-1 as a base. Stand a 2mm tall strip of .060" tupe from the SA tube assortment in the center, a 1.5mm tube of the .040" on the right end, and a 1mm tube of the .025" on the left end. (These are the three smallest size tubes in the assortment.) Make 4 of these and mount them where the single knob whistle was on the kit. The base is black and the tubes are brass.

D) There are problems with the pipes on the sides of the funnels:

#1 Funnel - The C1 and C15 are correct. The C-10 on the portside is tight against the forward whistle pipes inside the ladder struts. The loop points to port.

#2 Funnel - Omit the C-10 on the starboard side. It's not there.

#3 Funnel - The aft starboard pipes in step 36 are too tall and the main loops should only go 21mm up the back of the funnel. After bending C5 as per the instructions manual, cut 8mm out of the central pipes going up the stack. Cut 5mm off the bottom of the outboard loop such that it reaches the funnel base when applied. Cut 9mm out of the pipes going inboard along the aft funnel pipe, and turn the head around so the little loop at the top faces port.
On the port pipes, bend the pipes and cut 8mm out of the central mass. Cut 3mm off the bottom of the loop going to the left so it reaches the funnel base when applied.

#4 Funnel - The top loop in the C-13 pipe should face to port as shown in the manual. On Olympic, it faced starboard.

E) Ken Marschall supplied the color mix for "White Star Buff" for painting the funnels that is listed inthe instructions. In a recent interview, He recommends the color he uses in his new "Art of Titanic" book. His funnels often look mustard yellow in various publications. He advises the actual color should be more brownish and darker. The mix formula in the kit comes out too "Peachy". "Illustrated History" p.70 (same as cover painting) is far too yellow.

Step 17 - Finish bridge

A) Item 24 in figure 2. As mentioned in step 15, the cowl vent aft of the 1st funnel needs to have the motor facing aft and is backed up against the large vent behind the funnel.

B) 56. There is a bell similar to the one over the crows nest hanging over the center window of the bridge. Fabricate a replica of the crows nest bell and mount.

C) 57. There are 6 posts down each side of the #1 stack base (the gray painted part). They are not evenly spaced. These 4-foot posts held a safety line that ran just on the sides, not across the front. See the detail in figure 2. These are small and need to be pulled sprue. The wire line across the tops will be very fine.

D) 58. There is a small table-like pedestal on the each side of the bridge. It stands 4mm tall and one can be seen in "Titanic: Triumph and tragedy" p.60 or "Titanic an Illustrated History" p.85. I've been told it's used to take the noon sextant readings for the ship's position.

Wait on building the collapsible lifeboats. Do them with the rest of the lifeboats.

Figure 3 - Central superstructure

Step 18 - Lounge roof

A) The sides of the lounge roof have the kick boards for the railings mentioned in step 2. Don't paint this until you deal with the fixes and the vents.

B) Item 33 on figure 3. The raised roof of the 1st class lounge doesn't follow the bay windows. It goes straight across both bay windows. Add a filler to straighten the roof and scribe in the planking straight across. This simplifies placing the handrails on the roof later. This creates a little alcove between the bay windows, but position the vents as indicated. The down shaft from the vent is under the alcove so cut it off even with the deck. The vent motors face inward with the cowls aft.

C) There was a canvas cover around the compass tower with strut supports. This was folded down at sea but the four wood struts in the corners of the compass platform can be added from stretched sprue to a height equal to the height of the sides of the compass platform. Use the Gold Medal tower. Note the ladder appears black in photos. (Photo of Titanic leaving Southampton)

D) The two curl vents G24B are too simplistic. The port side is a G23 unit minus the upright and the starboard side is a reverse G23. Both have a back mounted curl (see the drawing in step 15 C). Both should be moved to service the corner vent shafts in the #2 funnel uptake (see the general discussion on vents).

E) The cowl vent closest to the #2 funnel in the port corner needs to be turned and butted against the vent shaft in the uptake. Use a G-25 with the motor facing aft. The other cowl vent just aft of this is a G33 with the motor facing to port (the drawings in the manual are wrong, the part is correct). The G33 in the raised center of the roof is correct.

F) The vents in the kit for the forward vent shafts in the #3 funnel uptake are OK for Olympic, but wrong for Titanic. Compare Marriott's "Titanic", p.38 with the identical angle on Titanic in Dr. Ballard's "Discovery" p.163. See figure 3:

Portside forward: The leading vent should be a modified G23 type with the motor pointing fore and an enlarged housing going into the forward corner of #3 uptake. There is no cowl. The top of the curved housing should be 6mm tall. Add a duct to the rear going down. Make 2 of these. Place the G23 aft of it as indicated in the manual, but add a curl like the new G23 port and aft of the #1 funnel. The face of the curl is visible in Marriott p.5.

Starboard forward: use a G25 with the duct butted against the uptake and the motor facing starboard. Just aft of this (opposite the G23 on the port side) add a second of the three modified G23s. It will have the motor facing aft. The modified G-23b goes on the aft starboard side in step 22.

G) There's a sign on the compass tower at the lower starboard side where the stair comes up, probably red, and probably saying something like "Notice: passengers coming up here will be shot!" See p.42 of "T: Illustrated" or "Discovery of Titanic", p.209.

Step 19 - Apply lounge roof

A) The vent on the starboard side of the boat deck is a G25 but needs to moved. Slice the back duct off and place it flush against the wall of the raised lounge and up against the deck bench. The cowl needs to match the compass tower in the photo above. Erase all deck mounting marks.

Step 20 - #3 funnel deckhouse

A) This has some lousy fits and requires a lot of filling and sanding before painting. The small rectangular projection of the back of H-13/14 is a stair housing. Slice it off. Add an H-23 type grill in the wall that extends to the roof, but not above it. Slice in a grill from an old kit or just paint a light gray rectangle with white ribs to indicate it. The stair house you sliced off needs to be there, but is slopes up from the portside to the top of the starboard door. Add a new stairhousing centered and across the face of the added fan grill. It should obscure part of the starboard side of the grill. Better pictures appear in McClusky on p.123.

B) Add the doors as indicated in figure 3. Remember to paint the vertical black stripe behind the door knobs. Add the grates just fore and aft of the funnel like #1 and #2.

Step 21 - Tank room

A) On the starboard wall, the aft window should be erased. The aft door and light positions should be swapped. Add a door for the engineer's smoke room between the windows. Both doors have the door knob on the left. B) On the roof, add a curl vent for the engineers smoke room. This is similar to the curl vent on the forecastle (figure 5, item 10) only shorter.

From a Ken Marscall Painting.

C) Add two deck lights to the front side of the pump house in the same positions as the two on the aft side. To add deck lights, cut a sliver of .05 rod from the Evergreen SA rod assortment and cement to the wall before painting. Remember to erase the ladders and replace with photo etched ones.

D) The Window covers on the skylight for the tank room are secured open to a rail around the top center of the skylight. Use the single-rail hand rail or the Gold Medal railings and skylight covers. The railings are as high as the window covers are long. See "Titanic, an Illustrated History" p.39, bottom center photo. They can also be propped up to just above horizontal with poles (see the photo in step 37.)

It's not clear that there was any glass under the covers. If so, there would be a lattice. Otherwise, with the covers secured vertical, you could look down and see the front of the reciprocating engines. I figure the glass is in the cover flaps leaving openings below. In that case, add the tank room interior walls forming a rectangle 17 X 20mm under the skylight with 7mm tall walls. Paint the floor black or cut it out. The shaft itself goes down 35mm below the boat deck before it widens out beyond view, but the front wall continues down. Get a H&W set of plans and "Shipbuilder: Olympic and Titanic" to add the front engine cylinders, aux condenser, and other major items at the bottom.

E) The aft grand staircase weather cover is wrong. It should be a 5 X 7 window lattice as shown, not the 2 X 6 provided in the kit. Use the Gold Medal skylight. Fabricate a new back wall and add a slight arch or add some filler above the kit wall to produce the arch. Fill the holes in the J-27 sides. They were not there. Omit the deck benches from the side of the skylight cover. They were not there either. Better prints of the photos in E&H 106 and 107 show bare sides.

Step 22 - Mount center sub-assemblies

A) At right is a construction photo on Olympic facing starboard in the area between the #3 funnel house and the tank room. The center fan is a G23 type with a small curl added to the back butted up to the stair house added for Titanic in the kit. The G33 on the port side should be a G25, rotated and butted up against the corner or the uptake vent shaft. The G23 was omitted in the kit and needs to be added.

If fabricating the G23 shown in the picture above, remember you still have one more useless G30 for the upright fan housing.

B) On the starboard aft vent uptake, add a vent opposite the one shown above left. Ken Marschall has a curl vent in the big Titanic cutaway, correct for Olympic, but my poster size blow-up of Titanic leaving Southampton shows a corner of a round vent similar to the G23b specified in step 18 F). The motor should face aft.

C) Paint the expansion joint brass or bronze instead of gold.

Step 23 - #4 funnel

A) The vent G24B is really the G24A and doesn't mount low on the deck. It mounts to the back of the large fan housing mounded to the roof and overlooks it. Add a V shape to the bottom.

B) The G23 vents on both sides of the deck house need to be fixed. Consult "Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy", pp106-107. Both need the motor pointing outboard. Fix the port vent by turning it around. It still has to mount alongside the 3 screened windows so cut off the mounting pin. The starboard fan needs to be mirror of itself and also sports a cowl, unlike the portside or the Olympic. You should have an extra H19 cowl you can use. Slicing off and switching the motor and output is the easy thing to do. Refabricating the vent for a proper mirror image is more work. Mount the cowl where the long housing joins the round upright part.

C) If using the photo-etched set, there are benches, ladders, and stairs to deal with. The forward deck benches been to snug against the wall and little stairs. Likewise the aft starboard bench on the boat deck. The port aft bench was not mounted. Deck chairs were stacked there and along the aft rail of the smoke room roof.

D) The sides of the smoke room roof (I6) have the kick boards for the railings mentioned in step 2.

E) The rigging lines from the base of the funnel are heavy rigging. See step 5 A).

F) The 3 windows alongside the G23 vent were screened, not glass.

G) On the aft wall, the ladder needs to be moved closer to the starboard corner to leave room for a deck bench between the ladder and the door.

H) There are 3 portholes in the aft wall of the raised roof of the 1st class smoke. They face the 2nd class entrance. One is centered and the other two are 8mm on either side. You can make them out on the near flat wall as it appears on the wreck in "Discovery of the Titanic" p.169.

Step 24 - 2nd class entrance

A) On the fore end, replace the single center window with two windows evenly spaced along the walls. Tom Andrews' notebook specifies 7 windows, not 6, and this is the logical place. They are probably symmetrical with the fore windows for the lower 2nd class entrance seen in "Triumph and Tragedy" p.120 middle-left.

B) The doors in the sides of the entrance house have port holes in them at eye level. Drill these out to the size of the portholes in the elevator machine house above. While you're at, the side projecting weather wall off the doors is poor. Replace them with .010 sheet plastic. If you do that, scrape off the doors altogether and replace them slightly farther aft and more centrally located under the weather cover.

C) Add a door to the fore side of the little elevator machine housing on top opposite the one on the aft side. These doors do not have the black strip behind the door knob.

D) The wires from the roof are a pair of heavy wires. Fill the hole provided and drill two new holes 2mm apart right at the edge of the handrail line. This will look better.

Step 25 - Aft sub-assembly mounting

A) Hope you remembered to prepare the deck for all those deck benches and recorded where they go.

B) In Ken Marschall's foldout painting in "Titanic: An Illustrated history" he shows a bin on the forward starboard corner of the 2nd class entrance that pushes the deck bench aft. It looks to be 2X2X4mm. It shows in an original uncropped photo from the Cork Examiner and in Titanic voices p117. On the portside, the deck bench alone appears as per the kit. See "Titanic Voices" p.117.

Step 26 to 35 - Railings

A) Do all railings that are under the funnels and their guy wires. Leave all other railings until the superstructure is mounted in step 46 and tips of adding the rainings appear there. That's a tricky step and you want as few things to break off as possible.

B) A Gibb's extractor ventilator appears in the corner of the railing port and fore of the stern mast on A-deck on Olympic (right). Titanic sported a one-of-a-kind cowl vent in its place. Use the Evergreen tube assortment and bend a section of .060 tube 90 degrees. Cut off the top to make the mouth of the cowl and cut the shaft so it stands 9mm tall. See "Titanic: An Illustrated History" pp25 and 48 (fold out).

C) The G11 tube doesn't cross from the #4 funnel house to the 2nd class entrance. It makes a 90 degree turn and hits the roof of the 1st class smoke 2mm short of the aft edge. Build another G7 vent like that pictured above but with a tube exiting the top and back to the #4 funnel. Make the shaft 4.5mm tall and the head is 3mm tall, including the bottom bevel. Use the Evergreen tube assortment and telescope the .060 tube in the .125 tube (get a micrometer).

D) After applying the railings to the top of the pump house, add a kick board to the inside of the railings above the aft staircase dome cover. It's 1mm tall (an evergreen K-3 strip), as wide as the cover, and paint it dark wood brown. See "titanic: Triumph and Tragedy" pp106-107.

Step 36 and 37 - water mains

A) Hold a round edge over the pipes and bend them slowly and carefully to a 90 degree angle with a smooth curve of 4mm diameter or so at the bend, not a sharp bend. Follow the directions. The bend is made at an angle to produce a twist.

B) The G27 vent shows a higher housing to an outlet that angles back down. This is a basic G33 arrangement with the higher top similar to what should appear at the fore end of the #3 funnel uptake on both sides. The output shaft needs be extended to make contact with the roof. The rear facing curl is unique and should have a V angle cut into the bottom. Note the water pipes passing under the vent.

Step 38 - Funnel ladders

See step 16B.

Steps 39 to 41 - Funnels

Whether using thread or fish line, pull each line through, hold it taught down the inside of the funnel, and apply super glue or CA. The 'twist method they show in the instructions looks dangerous. Don't cap the funnels until you're sure all guy wires are firmly in place. There are additional lines going to the tops of the funnels. These are very light weight and no pictures show them clearly enough to describe a full set.