The group build to end all group builds - THE GREAT WAR

EBergerud

Doog: if the world of the four stacker appears odd, track down one of the WWII submarine memoirs that recounts duty on an S-Class submarine (nicknamed Pig Boats without affection.) Six of ten were lost in the Pacific before being withdrawn from service in late 42. Pig Boats did, however, use old torpedoes that worked - a problem that the USN was slow to deal with in the Gato class subs and all of their destroyers. This allowed S-44 to sink the IJN heavy cruiser Kako - Japan's only loss at the Savo Island debacle.

Oh man...you should really check out the Destroyermen series (first book is "Into the Storm" I believe, by Taylor Anderson). It's definitely escapist fun, but it nails a lot of the details that similar books usually flub. And pig boats do play a very prominent role at a certain point in the saga (as does a wrecked PBY).

Eric,

It's too bad about your aversion to simulated plastic (resin) kits.   Every ship and scale you mentioned in your  last post is available, if not, the specific class is.  I have to agree about your comment on the Enterprise though.   That is a conundrum as to why no American company has  bothered to make a plastic injection kit of this  important and very popular CV, with only the Tamiya one put forth.

regards,
Jack

Hellos kids... I'm Back.  From vacation that is.  Some times down at the Jersey shore to recharge the batteries.  And to increase the stock values of a couple of distilleries too.

jgeratic1

Eric,

It's too bad about your aversion to simulated plastic (resin) kits.   Every ship and scale you mentioned in your  last post is available, if not, the specific class is.  I have to agree about your comment on the Enterprise though.   That is a conundrum as to why no American company has  bothered to make a plastic injection kit of this  important and very popular CV, with only the Tamiya one put forth.

regards,
Jack

My thinking on my lowly little $ 27.00 Emden is to a) see if the PE set might be usable for the big cruiser, and b) get my feet wet (ouch!) in Imperial Navy subjects.

I just finished Massie today. 10 days vacation and I read a couple of hours every night. Wingnut, I purchased futures in microbreweries.

Yes, for the British, Jutland was like five Arizonas in one day. I'm also questioning my decision to model Emden in wartime gray, since she met her demise in Fall 1914 out of Tsingtao and I don't know if there was time to paint her. But I've seen others do it, this is a WW1 GB, so there you have it.

Scharnhorst I would love to paint in white and buff. On the other hand, I doubt she was that way at the Falklands or Coronel. Any opinions?

ouch!! 350 bucks... yea I've kept my resin purchases limited to 1/700 scale and non-captial ships at that.    If you have the room 1/350 is great,  but prices sky rocket too.  I've seen the Enterprise Cv-6 (1:350) Resin kit priced at $517.51  ($750 retail)... but still $350 is nothing to sneeze at either.

If I had to make a definite choice as to the colour scheme the East Asia Squadron carried during the fateful battles of 1914, I would shoot for the grey.  In  the Emden's case,  the captain was well aware that war was imminent when he left Tsingtao on 31 July 1914.   The assassination in Sarajevo of the Austrian Archduke occured 28 June 1914, so that gives about a month's time to receive the news, make port (if not there already) and repaint the ship in wartime measure?  Also came across a few entries describing how the Emden had tricked ships into thinking it was the  HMS Yarmouth by installing a dummy fourth smokestack on the ship’s superstructure.  Would this  be possible if it still had peacetime colours of buff - guess that depends if British ships were also painted similar in some way. 

 Really couldn't make a definite decision based on photos.   On some pre-war photos the buff colour stood out from the white, while in others the whole ship seemed almost uniform light grey.  Yea looking at photos of the Emden really makes one run in circles.    The posted photo below of the sinking Emden, certainly looks like a white hull and darker upper surfaces - opposite of what Colour Scheme No. 9 was intended to be.  Perhaps it is smoke/fire that darkened the uppers,  maybe partial overexposed film - anyone's guess.

Only write up I could find on paint schemes was by Tom Tanner

regards,
Jack

This is a good discussion. I totally agree that if Emden was mascarading as a British light cruiser, she would have been painted either grey (SMS) or black.

I think the picture of the wreck suggests a white hull, but it also looks painted, which was typical.

Hey kids... what's the buzz in here.  Quiet.  As soon as I wrap up the little bulldozer I am doing for my club GB iwll be starting on the WNW Roland.

Here are some progress shots for my "Harry Tate"

I would like to also include a build of Roden's 1/32 Sopwith Triplane as Major Raymond Collishaw's Black Marie. The decals that come with the kit is for the twin vickers Black Maria that was Collishaw's second ride by the same name.. He flew this bird from July 23 and 27, 1917 and had two victories with it.

Mike T.

wing_nut

Hey kids... what's the buzz in here.  Quiet.  As soon as I wrap up the little bulldozer I am doing for my club GB iwll be starting on the WNW Roland.

I'm still here, just lurking and working on some steelskins. 

I "HAD" intended to start on my Hannover build right after joining the build, but what is it they say about best laid plans?  It turned out a fellow watchmaker friend of mine decided to move to Florida and was going to get rid of an old watchmaker bench that he had in his garage.  As I didn't have one at home I jumped at it.

Yes it was old and had seen quite a bit of use.  HARD use.    The frame and drawers were still in usable condition though.  As I had been planning on making a tabletop unit to use as a bench it changed to become the new bench top.  So I decided to upgrade the bench, refinish it, and thus have a new workbench to start on the Hannover build.

The old bench top "UGH" setting inside and on top of the new top.  Nasty and cratered like the moon.

The new bench top with pylon and added armrests.  MUCH MORE BETTER!  

The finished (for now) workbench!  A watchmaker's bench sets up high (about chest height) to make it easier to deal with small parts and not mess over your back or neck.  ( like all those little PE parts )

Also a couple of weeks ago I made a trip to Tulsa and went with my dad and brother to the JM Davis gun museum in Claremore OK.  One of the biggest collections of guns in the world there are over 13,000 guns there as well as a few other interesting items.  I snapped a few photos of some items that might be of interest to you guys for the Great War build.

As you can see, there is a lot of interesting stuff.  There was a whole long isle of WW1 equipment alone.

Enjoy!

OK, 

NOW I am getting started on the Hannover Cl.IIIa  

Heaven's, that's a great work bench. A friend of mine is into watches and has a similiar bench, and one of those scopes too.  Good job refurbishing that thing. Can't wait to see more pics of the Hannover.

Mike, real nice start on the Harry Tate

Looks like hat was a good trip to the museum and a beautiful restoration on the bench.

Hey, dunno if you guys saw it or not, but I thought it was a cool little bit that fit here.  I just got back from vacation, while there I watched 'The King's Speach'  At one point the speach therapist guy helped the king of England (just before WWII) to do his exercises to help his stuttering by letting him work on the Bi-plane model his son was working on when he would do what he was told. 

I have a little more update on the Hannover build.

As you may remember I managed to really bugger up the upper wing in my "De-warping" experiments.

Yup pretty well shot!  

So I decided that since I have some decent tools I can make a wing.  Part of the process should use the very same tool that messed the wing up (more experiments with success but more on that later)

Needed to lay out and figure out the sizes needed etc.  This particular plane has quite a curve to the airfoil and so I will make the form and then heat and laminate several layers of evergreen to get the basic shape.

So far, so good, now to make the form.

In spite of the minor goof up, it went quite fast and smooth.  Very little sanding was needed to smooth the surface and it stayed straight length wise and the curve is very consistent.  I didn't need a form the length of the wing. I only needed a form long enough to do the 3 separate sections.  I will start with the easiest center section first to get the procedure figured out, then I will do the 2 side sections.

More next time.  

STV... yup just saw the a couple of weeks ago.  Did the have plastic kits then?

HE... getting red X's for the pics.  

Not sure why you can't see the photos.  I double checked the photobucket account and the album is set for public. It does work for me as well, and I know that it is pulling the pics from the bucket account.  You might check your settings in your browser.  Other than that not sure why it isn't getting the photo's other than occasionally 'bucket doesn't seem to work correctly, as in the site is down.  Ran into that once myself.

If you still have problems send me a PM and I will send the pics via e-mail.

I see the pics fine.

I see then now.

Marc - thanks for the comment on my Harry Tate. One of the things that this kit had missing was the camera window on the bottom of the fuselage. I added the cut into the fuselage and will use some clear plastic to cover it later. The fuselage is closed up now, photo's will come late, as I just got home from vacation yesterday. The Sopwith Tripe is going along well, not that much problems so far with it.

Mike T.

Very quiet in here. Just because I am a lousy moderator and haven't been spending much time in my own GB doesn't mean you guys shouldn't be tinkering away.

But... I just finished my G40 bulldozer over in armer and will be starting on the WNW Roland soon. 

I have been building the upper wing this last week. Have the center section mostly done.  The 2 outer sections are laminated and set with one sanded to airfoil shape.  The other side is still just the laminated evergreen. Will have photos and explanations when I get the wing finished.

Great, looking froward to the update.

I came back from a week long vacation, but have gotten some work done. I should have photo's by the end of the week. The Harry Tate's (RE 8) fuselage is closed and painted, the horizontal stabilizer is afixed as well as the lower wings. As soon as I blend in the tabs (white metal) from the wings into the fuselage, I'll take some pictures.

The roden Tripe has had a bit of progress as well. Its a nice kit to work on. The simple seat bothers me, a good wicker seat would be nice, but I'll probably just keep it. . I'll present pix's of both.

Mike T.

Hello Marc and everyone...

All quiet on the Fokker Dr1 front for the past couple weeks or so.  Like many parts of North America there is a heat wave here.  No ac means curtains drawn and lights out, so not ideal modelling conditions, specially for 1/72 scale. 

The cockpit is done, but getting it to fit created extra work - got a bit careless with the dremel tool.  Even at low speed broke through the surface in a few areas and have a few "melted" spots to patch up.  Right now am waiting for some 0.7mm brass tube that will be used for carb intake pipes located on both sides of the fuselage.

regards,

Jack

OK lets keep the activity rolloing...

Jack nice work on that interior. And in 1/72 no less.  I took your recommendation and got the guy with the shovel from Model Victoria in Italy.  A beautiful casting.

I am having a go at making wood props.  Below if the 1st attempt with 3 plys of mahogany and basswood.  To the left is a 5 ply blank for #2 and the next pic is that one sanded to the outline and with the side view curve sanded in.  next will be the airfoil.

I have not decided whether to use this next detail on the last D.Va or a future build.  The little cups for the anemometer were too small and broken off anyway so I made new larger ones out of lead foil.

There's some great modeling going on here. I'm getting interested in the subject and have been doing a lot of reading abt the naval campaigns.

The Emden: this kit is everything it's reputed to be. I've only added the WEM PE set. I do plan to scratch build the 4.1 inch guns and shields, the only part of the kit that's a little sub par.

Hello everyone,

Please excuse my absence, it has been a really rough time here lately but things are starting to slowly get better.  Have not been able to get to the bench or even on line in awhile.  Have just put my workbench back togther and still have to reassemble my spray booth.

Anyway,  what GREAT work everyone has been doing!

TD, BONDOMAN - Iron Duke and the Emden are very nicely done.  Looking forward for the rest of the fleet to arrive.

WAIKONG - Very sharp looking DR1.  I believe that may be the best prop I've ever seen!

DOOGS, WINGNUT - What can I say....both of your builds are outstanding!  Really fine work all around!

Here is the finished update for the MK IV Male.  Originally had plans on putting it on a scene crossing a muddy trench but due to a sudden limitation of space that will have to happen at some other time.  So here she is.

BMan that really looks great.  Not much of a ship guy bot I really am looking forward to the finale on that bad boy.

PW... real sorry to hear things are rough.  Hope it's not health related.  But glad to hear it's getting better.  That is one hell of a build. Really beautiful.