1:700 Greek Line Diorama

MarkieSparkie · Post by **MarkieSparkie** » Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:16 pm

I'm back after over a year, minimal progress made on other projects and several new ones including this one!

I'm into small scale recently and decided to focus much of my attention on to a project I've always wanted to do. A diorama of the TSS Queen Anna Maria (former Empress of Britain) and the TSS Olympia.

The Empress of Britain was built for the Canadian Pacific Railway company in 1956. She was sold to the Greek Line in 1966.

The Olympia was the only ship ever built solely for the Greek Line. She was built in 1953 and sailed up until 2009!

I decided to do this in the scale of 1:700 which amounted to both models (nearly identical in length) being just shy of 11". The plans I have of the empress of Britain have been scaled down as well as profile photographs of Olympia. The models will be built from styrene sheet. The setup on the base would be similar to the postcard image below (olympia at top). Also below is a picture of the stern alterations sketched over the Empress of Britain plans as well as a couple showing some 1:700 scale plans i had to painstakingly draw of the Olympia using scaled photographs, partial deck plans and a video from youtube of her maiden voyage which turned out to be quite useful in determining the layout of the aft decks aboard her before she too was altered towards the stern.

Anthony P · Post by **Anthony P** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 3:43 am

I will be following your build with interest, as my late father served as Captain of both ships in the early-to mid Sixties!

Richard J OMalley · Post by **Richard J OMalley** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:00 am

Something different .Good luck .

Pieter · Post by **Pieter** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:29 am

Looks lika an interesting build.
Mowe verlag has an excellent paper kit of Olympia in 1/250 which you can us as a starting point for your 1/700 build.

MarkieSparkie · Post by **MarkieSparkie** » Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:28 am

Pieter wrote:Looks lika an interesting build.
Mowe verlag has an excellent paper kit of Olympia in 1/250 which you can us as a starting point for your 1/700 build.

I have heard of that kit and seen a few low res pictures of it. I don't want to buy it as a reference mainly because it's just another expense and it has a few inaccuracies in the top decks from what I can tell and I'm afraid they'd just throw me off.

The completed model will be an accurate enough representation, the plans are nearly done and I can get down to building as soon as i get my order of styrene.

MarkieSparkie · Post by **MarkieSparkie** » Wed May 01, 2013 3:35 pm

Anthony P wrote:I will be following your build with interest, as my late father served as Captain of both ships in the early-to mid Sixties!

That is very cool, what an exciting career he must have had

I hope to begin building asap, but all I can do for now is sketch more diagrams and cut out any remaining templates until my supplies arrive.

Glad to see some interest out there.

MarkieSparkie · Post by **MarkieSparkie** » Tue May 14, 2013 9:30 pm

Supplies arrived a few days ago and I managed to get a good start on the hulls of both vessels. Below is a pic of the progress showing the Olympia framework about half done with the Queen not far behind.

lambrakos · Post by **lambrakos** » Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:37 pm

You have my attention!!! The TSS Olympia holds a special place in my heart! I have been trying for a few years to find material to help me draw the full hull lines but no luck. I got some deck plans from the University of Glasgow, but only from bellow the waterline, nothing above. I have gathered photos, brochures, books but not enough to help with the layout of the weather decks. I do have the paper model mentioned above (not built). So needless to say, I will be following your build with much interest and anticipation

prostreet70gto · Post by **prostreet70gto** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:42 pm

I happen to have the actual scale model ship from the captains deck of the Olympia, which dates back to the early 50s. My grandfather was the company Chauffeur to the Goulandris Family who owned the Greek line shipping company. He was given the model as a gift when he retired and I was left it when he died. It is still in mint condition in its display case as it would have been on the ship. It is approx. 18 inches long (2 feet including its case). A pure one off piece of maritime history

Simon

lambrakos · Post by **lambrakos** » Sat Feb 21, 2015 6:51 pm

[quote="prostreet70gto"]I happen to have the actual scale model...........

Yes she was a beautiful lady. If you decide to to put her up for sale in the "Trading post" of this forum drop me a PM and let me know.

Shipbuilder · Post by **Shipbuilder** » Sun Feb 22, 2015 5:46 am

I see this is an old post, so my contribution may be too late to be of any use! As some of you will know, I have specialised in merchant ship models for many years, and have an extensive collection of plans.
I do have a General Arrangement plan for the Olympia showing profile, sports deck, sundeck, promenade deck, upper deck, maindeck, "A" deck and "B" deck.
Bob

lambrakos · Post by **lambrakos** » Sat Oct 22, 2016 3:07 pm

Was this project completed sparkie? I'm almost ready to start on the olympia.

prostreet70gto · Post by **prostreet70gto** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 7:55 pm

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184068752306

Now on ebay.uk for anyone who might be interested in owning her

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