ICM 1/350 WWI Battleship SMS Konig - Build Log

I Christen thee.... "SMS König"

Thank you Julian! 

Clamp the foreward deck down and glue it and you'll be fine. This is always a very satisfying stage of a ship build: you have an idea of the size and shape but the painting and superstucture are still to come.  Great work !

Julian cheers on a succesful launch !

The hull, propellor shafts/supports, lower main deck and barbettes have been glued together.  All fourteen 5.9" guns turret assemblies are in place and the upper main deck has been dry fitted.  I'm having a little bit of a fit problem from the straight portion of the front section to the tip of the bow.  It will be fine once glued and properly clamped. 

Thanks Julian, I hope to have some paint laid down on the hull and decks this weekend. 

Hi Scott, nice to see the progress you are making ! Looking good so far.

Julian

Hey guys, thanks for the tips! 

I'm going paint the SMS König with the light grey scheme, weathered a bit of course, brown linoleum color where appropriate on some of the upper decking, wooden planking on the main deck.  .

Slow and steady progress on my ICM 1/350 SMS König.  I removed the solid waffle patter centers of the plastic kit life rafts and attached the photo etch webbing to the backsides from Tom's Model Works photo etch set for the SMS König in 1/350.  I feel it greatly enhances the look of the plastic part.  As you can see they are very small when compared to the quarter.

There were 20 secondary guns to assemble (14 x 5.9 inch and 6 x 88mm) complete with turret.  There were mold seams to clearn up on each and every part including the gun barrels and excess flash on the back side ejector pin marks of the turrets.  A lot of patience and gentle sanding was required here so as not to distort the round shape of all the parts.  The 88mm Anti-Aircraft guns with shields are nice and pretty small.  The 8 two-piece searchlights were very tricky to clean up... prominent mold seams as usual and super teeny.  My new 2.5x Optivisor has been a great help so far.  

Tomorrow I'm planning on getting the hull and decking attached and possibly primered.    
 

Go here for colors:  http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm

what colors have you decided on? there seems to be some discussion wheteher the hull was slightly darker than the supstructure.

here is the website for the computer game JUTLAND i have it but haven't played much with it. i remember playing avalon hill JUTLAND and making a blucher so i could play dogger bank.

Looking good Scott! Will bookmark your WIP for sure for when I do my own Konig with Toms PE down the road one of these years

And you get another thumbs up for Castles of Steel.....

Oh, again, welcome to the Light side ;)  Im  a ship modeller who branched out to armor recently. lol

Finally, check out the PC game Jutland;

http://www.wargamer.com/article/2501/jutland

and this one is the most comprehensive naval warfare simulation website you will find (Board and computer):

http://www.navalwarfare.net/

I finished "Dreadnought" yesterday (excellent book!) and am starting "Castles of Steel"  tomorrow

I also picked up a wargame from Avalance Press called "Jutland: Wart in the North Sea and Baltic, 1914-1918".  Now I just need to find someone in Reno who wants to play! 

if you liked DREADNOUGHT, you have to get CASTLES OF STEEL also by massie. i have started one but screwed up sanding the bridge windows which now are not "square." will have to fix that before i continue.

i have a number of jutland books and some other links to konings if you are interested.

Hi espins1; When I was a young lad the thing for me was the GERMAN NAVY and ERWIN ROMMEL.So,you get an idea what and where I started.My present GERMAN ship is the S.M.S.KRONPRINZ in 1/200 scale .I have transfered ALL the patterns fron the MODELIK papermodel and went from there.The hull is 90% finished.The kit builds on deck are the BISMARK,TIRPITZ and the cruisers PRINZ EUGEN and GRAF SPEE. Then I think I will build their adversaries.(I already have a hood and H.M.KING GEORGE V.) So my work outside of a client,s 1/96 american cruiser is just as stated.I wish I could get my pics up ,but no luck.I keep trying though.Let,s see more of your work though,looks fascinating.   tankerbuilder

When I was young I used to get up an hour or two before school and read all I could get my hands on regarding WWII, the Luftwaffe and the Battle of the Atlantic.  I loved the stories of the Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau etc.  I still read a lot and usually spend my lunch hour with my face in a book.  I'm having a lot of fun diving into ship research as I haven't delved nearly as deeply into ships as I have with the Luftwaffe and German tanks.  I recently finished a great book on the Destruction of the Bismarck and am reading two others (Dreadnought and The Two Ocean War).  Fun stuff amigo! 

That's cool Scott. I grew up studying naval history in early grade-school, before the Eastern Front and the European War took over my life. However, I like all miltary history and am reading a book on the German Navy in WW II. Pretty fascinating learning about Raeder and his ambitious plans. Had he and Doenitz had their way, the outcome might have been different.

I've been studying the Tom's Modelworks set which arrived the other day along with the kit instructions.  Work should recommence tonight! 

p.s. Tigerman, I just recently branched out into ships. 

Hi, thanks again. I answered your other comment in another thread. Being a novice, I'd probably start on something inexpensive and work my way up. I'm an armor builder and tend to stray off of other projects, so I'm not to big on spending a lot on something that I might lose interest in at this time. I gave a partially started Japanese cruiser to a friend years ago and that has been it for naval since. However, I've noticed many new 1/350 stuff coming out and sure is tempting. Pricey, but tempting.

Why wait for Trumpeter to bring one out?  Iron Shipwright already has the kit out.  You can get a 1941 West Virginia, Tennessee or California from either ISW or Yankee Modelworks.  These resin kits come complete with photo etch and are already reasonably priced.  Resin isn't hard to work with, in fact, I find it easier to work with than plastic.  You can also get Nevada, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania from ISW as well as a 1920s version of Arizona with cage masts.   WS

I wasn't aware you built ships Scott. I dabbled a bit in the day with 1/700 Japanese ships. I'm waiting patiently for a Pearl BB in 1/350 by Trumpeter, preferably the Maryland. The thought of doing cage masts in PE scares me though.

I am building the Konig also.

You may want to look at the article by Mike Ashey in the May 2001 FSM edition. Mr Ashey built the Konig and used the Gold Medal Models PE set. I will be using the White Ensign Models ship and torpedo net PE sets.

 If you are going to use the decals that go on the top of the B and D turrets you may want to paint the turrets and apply the decals before you attach the blocks at the back of the turrets. The decals are very thin and difficult to apply with the blocks in place. I tried and gave up as I had placed the blocks before the decals. The D turrent decal placement will be very difficule with the antenna structure in place.

Scott Harris

Thanks!  I've been working on the sink markes in those little pieces with the bar between them on the turrets.  A dab of thick CA glue and a bit of sanding does the trick. 

Oh great news! The Tom's Modelworks PE set for my 1/350 SMS König arrived in the mail today!  Guess what I'm going to be doing all weekend? 

Looking very good. Very interesting subject. I've never seen a WWI battleship done up in 1/350.

Update:  The turret assemblies are complete, including the base for each.  The turrets rotate and the guns can elevate and lower.  There are a few sink marks on some of the upper components, which I will fill and sand tonight.

Here are two of the references I'm using for this build, wish I had more!  I've compiled some info from several websites and builds as well for reference.

Conway's Battleships: The Definitive Visual Reference to the World's All-Big-Gun Ships by Ian Sturton

German Battleships 1897-1945 by R.A. Burt 

This kit is pretty sharp right out of the box however at a minimum I'm going to add PE Railings. 

There are PE sets from Gold Medal Models, Tom's Modelworks and White Ensign Models.  In the US you can get them directly from Pacific Front Hobbies and Freetime Hobbies.   Freetime has photos of each set on their site.

You can also get brass barrels for the main battery as well.    WS

Nice job so far. Is there a PE set for this kit?

Bill Morrison

Excellent start, and I'm looking forward to your build log.  Will you be building out of the box?  What reference materials will you be using?

I can't wait for the next update!

Cheers, Rick