Ships of the German Flag GB 2020

To bring things up to date after my last entry:

The side railings need to be attached.  Normally this would not be to hard but with the way some are numbered, the main problem is that I have no instruction page for this part of the build.  I'll have to fake it.  After thast the only things left are the propellers, side ladders, its scout aircraft, and flag.

Nice paint work on the stern.  

The blastbags are looking a little rough and uneven and should be smoother and more uniform.  The one on D turret looks good, the one on C turret is looking petty rough.  For a first attempt they look good standing five feet away which for me is acceptable if I was doing it.

Enjoying your build.

Marcus

modelcrazy

Looks like she's been sitting at anchor for a while

 

hmmm, maybe too long. it does seem a bit much for the short time they were in the Fjord during June July timeframe. I'm going for just blending the camo together. Off for a little more water and a paper towel to lick me thinks 

(if you've seen Flory's tutorial you'll get that lol ) 

Looks like she's been sitting at anchor for a while

You guys almost make me want to build a sub, but too many things already in my stash!

Making steady progress here. Was traveling for a week so time to get back to it. While I'm doing layer after layer of gesso I'm working on all the finishing touches. Thebig job today is the Flory wash. Here's a few shots to wet your appetite!

what do you guys think of the blast bags? My 1st time doing this. All comments welcome :-)

and here's the stern deck all done

Steve that oilcaning work is just awsome! The model looks fantastic and the oilcan work lifts it to another level entirely.

Rob F

Bish,

Thank you.

Marcus

Marcus, thats some impressive and pain stakeing work there, very nice.

Thanks Rob, i have a whole host of u-boat books, including a couple of those. Don't think i have Beavers, going to have to look for that one. I do have a few of his others.

Steve, from what i have read, that seems to be the standard way of doing it. I don't think its somthing that can be rushed. I just need to get myself some No 10 blades.

Bill,

I will have to give your method a test, sounds interesting.

I have several kits that came with the wood decking and I plan on using them but I won't be buying any aftermarket ones.

Marcus

I like that technique, MM. I use a simplified version where I use a short and heavy straightedge and "rule the segments of color with a toothpick dipped in paint. I have to say that about 1/3 in, you had me feeling pretty skeptical, but it weathered out nicely.

I've used wood pre cut decks on a few models like pre-dreadnaughts when there's a lot of deck, but most of my ships have painted decks so it's not important to me.

Bill

Dodgy, Mongoose, Ikar01 and Steve,

Thank you for kind remarks, much appreciated.

Steve, I learned this technique from watching a videos of a Graf Spee build by a modeler named Guido Hopp.  His site is still up on You-Tube if you like to see how its done. 

My first time using a after market wood deck for my Dreadnought build I didn't really like how thick it was and how it reduced the height of hatches and deck detail.  You couldn't even see the covers for the coal scuttles unless you were looking straight down at the deck.  It is a lot of work and time but I feel its worth it, even did a deck at 700th scale.  That was a lot of fun and .3mm tape!

Marcus

Marcus, I agree, that is some insane work. I was wondering where you were going with that as it was very striking, this adding the greys and such to tone it down really made it look like subdued or distressed worn wood. Where did you learn/see/find that technique or was that something you thought of?

Bish, I used a #10 blade on each section between the bulkheads and srtingers. I may have gone too far but it was my first try. I felt the results turned out OK. Hopefully you can find an eaiser and faster way.

Marcus those decks look stunning.

Rob F

Hi Bish. I have the old Squadron/Signal book U boats in Action and it has a couple of nice tower pics in it. I also have Lothar Gunther Bucheim's U Boats at War and U Boats in the Atlantic by Beaver. Do you have these references? If not do you want me to copy some of the pics and send them to you?

Rob F

Marcus that deck is insane.great outcome!

That deck is insane, I could never do something like that.

The SMS Kronprinz decks are painted and washed, only thing left is to put the final coat of Future on for protection.

Here is what the decks looked like with all colors layed down with the strips of tape removed.

Here is the same deck with a top coat of Buff mixed with black and white paint and then a dusting of white paint.

And here is what they look like with a coat wash was added and excess removed.

Now with the decks finished I can get on with painting the hull and adding detail to the deck hatches, etc.. Until next post.

Marcus

I am planning on some oil canning, was thinking i would do that once the hulls are together.

I have been looking at u-boat.net. The U-552 is an intersting boat for a few reasons. It's the boat that sank the USS Reuban james. It also survived until the end of the war, being scutteled on 2nd May 45. Given the u-boat losses, thats some achievment.

 I found a couple of good pics in one of my books, U-Boat in camera. Its of the U-86, a Type VIIB. A properganda team had rigged a camera above the rear deck to get footage of a u-boat diving. But one image looks straight into the rear of the tower. The periscopes obscure some of it, bt you get enough of an idea. So between that and the kagero book, i am quite pleased with how its come out.

Bish, that's some awesome work mate.

I added some oil canning to mine and added a few more weeks 

Yes the Revell kit is based on U-995. Finding good pics of U boat towers is tough. Have you checked out Uboat.net? I'm sure you found it but there's usually some excellent reference and history to the particular boat you want to build.

Been a few weeks but finally got an update. In my last one i said that i was almost ready to primer the tower. I then made the mistake of checking my referances again and realised it needed some fixing.

Unfortunatly photo's of the inside of towers are tricky to find. It seems that Revell mat have based theirs on U-995 which is on display at ladoe. But this is a late style tower. At the top front of the tower was a shelf which went full width and stuck out to far. This was chopped in half and sanded back. The Eduard PE set has a compass face which goes on this shelf, but that should be on a frame which i will have to build. At the bottom of the tower was another shelf which went right round the sides. Oddly this is where Revell place the voice pipe and compass repeater, almost at floor level. I trimmed this leaveing just a step on either side and built up the front and then put the voice pipe onto the higher shelf. I still have a bit of work to do, including the fitting for the crew to attach their saftey harness to.

I then spent over 2 weeks working on the starboard side of the hull.

I sanded through to far at the rear, so i need to repair that area.

The centre is done.

At the front i still need to fit the new parts around the torpedo doors.

So, after 7 weeks, i'm going to put this to one side to build a couple of aircraft and an armour kit before the year is out. Will be back to this soon.

Agree with Marcus.

Another Idea would be pouring resin. You would have to remove the foam since the resin would melt it.

Dodgy,

Nerves are fine and alcohol intake is excellent.

Making good progress with installing the strips, though I seem to get carried away on the amount of strips I been laying down between coats.

Mongoose,

You could put down a layer of sightly crumpble foil and white paint to simulate wave action and work from there with gels to blend in and final details.

Marcus

Themongoose that is awsome. A great build, a stunning paint job, and it looks like its going to be an amazing diorama.

Thanks Goldhammer. Much appreciated.

How are the nerves Marcus??? All that masking pushing the alcohol intake up??

If you are going to use acylic gel for the water you can gently brush it up to the hull and cliff.

After, paint to suit

I'm learning that while i started ok, I've since moved to building this back a$$wards  should have kept going with the foam for the sea instead of moving to the build once the waterline hull was complete. Plus then I learned the water should have come before the cliffs lol. Spent a night figuring out how to get the water close enough so that i could blend it into the cliff face. Will definitely need some work prepaint ot meld it all together. 

Looked at this as I was placing the ship and realized that in still water there was almost no way to cover up mistakes in foam to ship because there's no wake. DUH lol

made up the concrete piers from cardboard and woodland scenics plaster lathe. Then made up the little control house I'll call it from styrene pieces. Just laid in place in this photo

working on some miscellaneous elements of the scene. 

im planning some action in the form of a wake in An arc from the yacht. Thinking of putting a small house on the cliff face as well. Lots and lots of little things to bring this scene together.

Any ideas on blending the water to the cliff or on creating a realistic scene appreciated. This is more than I've tried to do in the past And this is alot of fun to create! 

Steve, Bish,

Thank you.

Marcus