The window bubble on one end was only designed to withstand the pressure at 1,400 meters IIRC - the manufacturers offered to build one to withstand the pressure at Titanic depth ( 3k plus meters? ) at an increased cost which the submersible operator refused. If this is accurate then that tells the tale doesn’t it . Sad
You make it sound like “Honey I Shrunk the Kids!” 
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Being rich enough to spend $ 250.000 for a one way ticket doesn’t make you more clever.
On a side note, the waiver each passenger had to sign mentioned death three times on its first page…
H.P.
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I have read this several times.
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I don’t understand the problem with the production of a model kit. Can someone articulate it in a way that doesn’t boil down to “Well, I don’t like it, so nobody else should either” ?
KL
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Hi Kurt -
I don’t know if it can be explained in another way .
My take on it is some feel that certain tragedies require a certain decorum perhaps - hands off subject for a while . Some view our hobby as recreation only and therefore they may possibly feel it inappropriate to represent the tragedy in miniature - at least for a while.
I think most of us recognize that there are degrees of tragedy. I don’t want to minimize anyone’s death yet to my thinking some millionaires dying while on a known risky exploration pales in comparison to the loss of life in a commercial airline crash or worse yet the senseless random shooting of innocent people. Many would find it distasteful if these subjects were represented in an artist’s show of paintings or photographs and as well if one of these events were modeled in a diorama. I think that the closer time wise to the event , the more sensitive people may be . Time is the great healer thankfully.
I don’t see a problem with a model of the submersible being produced before or after the accident. It is an object and now part of history.
I would feel differently if it were offered as it may have been during the implosion with frightened and dying people represented.
As humans we may think differently at times and our sensitivity varies as well .
I think this is an interesting thread - lots of things to contemplate.
Best to all - Richard
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further to what Richard has posted, I don’t care either way, you play silly games, win silly prizes. Releasing a kit of a vehicle recently involved in a tragedy may be seen to be capitalizing off that tragedy and therefore in poor taste. But that is up to the individual, not me. I did laugh out loud at several of the memes posted above because some of them are clever, someone put a lot of thought into them. Not me, I don’t have that much time on my hands. So yeah, take from it what you need, no one is trying to make a political statement here.
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That’s the nut of it, I think. The model kit of an intact craft doesn’t represent any tragedy, any more than a kit of a 767 in United livery must inevitably represent September 11th displayed in the most deplorable manner.
KL
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I’d say we’d all agree about that, the point is more about timing & how long after a tragedy is it OK to capitalise on it. Purely subjective, those who don’t mind will buy it, those who do won’t, and it doesn’t make any difference what the rest of us think.
Reminds me of the Steiff teddy bear on sale within a few weeks of the Titanic disaster in 1912 – unlike all previous brown-ish bears, it was black in mourning/commemoration. It bombed, deemed in poor taste. The few still around today are worth a fortune – one sold in 2000 for US$156,000.
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I suspect the “Titanic” itself must be the most-kitted liner of them all, and very popular. I don’t know of any mass produced kits of the Wilhelm Gustloff, the General von Steuben, and the Goya. Same goes for the Cap Arcona and the Thielbek, although there are plenty of kits of Hawker Typhoons… Meng actually do produce a kit of the SS Taiping, also the subject of an epic movie with a death toll approaching that of the “Titanic”. Despite the increasing emphasis on safety, the four largest peacetime maritime losses of life have occurred since WW2 (Titanic takes fifth place and Taiping seventh) with two of them in this century.
Regards,
M
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I would love to do the 1/200 Titanic kit - some incredible 3D printed aftermarket stuff becoming available for it . Alas , I haven’t the room to display it. Time must have done it’s work -at least for me - because I only think of it as what a beautiful ship it was. Love the long , lean look with the nearly plumb stem and graceful counter stern .
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