Trumpeter 1/350 German Pocket Battleship Admiral Graf Spee

[wbill76]

Thanks Joel, but you never know about these things!

Not a huge update for today as the build is in one of those 'hurry up and wait' stages. I broke down the superstructure, turrets, and torpedo tubes into separate modules and attached them to wide strips of blue painter's tape for easier handling and then airbrushed a coat of Future to provide a protective barrier for the pin-wash treatment to come. I opted to leave the 6-inch turrets in place on the deck and just turned them out at an angle, essentially turning the hull into a giant holding stand in the process instead of trying to deal with them individually. This had the added bonus of making it easy to also apply the Future to the hull itself in the areas that needed it around the bow and stern for example. That will get a chance to cure for 24 hours as a standard precaution as we've had a good bit of rain lately and humidity levels are higher as a result.



After the bout with the Future, I turned my attention to the floatplane catapult. The Eduard set includes a brass replacement for the solid kit part that requires amputating the compression cylinders from the kit part and adding them to the replacement. I didn't want to do that right away, instead, I tested out getting the brass item bent into shape and fully assembled first and checked how it would fit in the same spot as the kit part. Satisfied that it would play nice and be a significant improvement, the amputation proceeded and the cylinders found a new home courtesy of a sharp #11, some light sanding, and a touch of CA.



Next up will be tackling that pin-wash treatment!

[Leon]

Nice work on the PE and surgery Bill! Getting close to the end now.

[dierk]

More good stuff Bill!
But no, I'm not going there - only way I'd do a 1/350 floaty if somebody bought it for me.

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon, getting closer every day!

Dierk, I hear you there, ship projects aren't exactly cheap when you add in the inevitable extra stuff needed to make them complete. It still boggles my mind that kits don't include railings as a standard thing. It's like an armor kit missing tracks!

[TRM]

I'm shaking the cobwebs out of the head this morning after the long drive back from Omaha yesterday...so I am playing a little catch up this morning! Fine progression Bill! Superstructures look fantastic! Looking forward to the washes going down soon!

[wbill76]

Blame the cobwebs on Rob's driving T! Hope you enjoyed the show and thanks for dropping in!

[TRM]

LOL...drive went well and was actually fun! If you're going to travel, there is nothing better than doing it with a friend! It may be a bit premature...but 2018 IPMS is in Phoenix..........any thoughts on you going?

[wbill76]

Phoenix is within the realm of possibility. It's a relatively short drive from here in El Paso, probably one of the few times I'll ever be able to actually say that!

[joelsmith]

C'mon Bill, your tank kits could come without track. You and ModelKasten have a real "bromance"! ;<)

[TRM]

Jul 31, 2017 14:48:16 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Phoenix is within the realm of possibility. It's a relatively short drive from here in El Paso, probably one of the few times I'll ever be able to actually say that!

Awesome...I hope you have the time to make the ride! It would be great to see you an have some laughs! I know I will be there along with Rob! I am pretty sure we will fly to this one...LOL But you never know!

[wbill76]

Joel, well that's true, gotta love those MKs!

Todd, I would imagine flying would be your only way to go...that would be a truly epic road trip otherwise!

[wbill76]

I've been working on the pin-wash phase off and on for a few days mostly because it requires wearing a breather mask due to the thinner fumes involved and the sheer amount of time involved in dealing with all of the raised detail around the ship. I mixed up my own wash using a roughly 90/10 thinner and MM enamel Burnt Umber combination. An 18/0 pointed brush did the trick for applying the wash where needed, especially since in this scale a lot of the detail is very tiny and spaces are tight! I tightened up the wash using the same brush and clean thinner where needed.



The secondary battery turrets got different treatments depending on their location. The forward turrets have one side obscured by the superstructure while the aft turrets have more of the whole turret visible, so I dosed them accordingly. While I was at it, the lower hull boarding ladder rungs and the anchor ports also were picked out.



Each of the superstructure modules was worked over along with the main turrets and torpedo tube units. The funnel unit was worked on separately mostly due to the fact that it's got a ton of detail but not a lot of ways to handle it



It's such a simple process despite the time involved in working over all the little details but well worth it given the detail level molded into the kit parts and all the add-ons from the Eduard set as well. I'll let this sit for a day so I can give it a once-over with fresh eyes to see if there are any adjustments needed before sealing it up with a dull coat. Then it will be time to start on the rigging!

[mustang1989]

Jul 30, 2017 12:02:05 GMT -5 joelsmith said:

We will probably see this ship in the January issue of FSM! ;<)

That's a check and a rodge on that.

[mustang1989]

Off the charts Bill. Off tha charts I say!!!

[wbill76]

Thanks Joe! Thankfully the list of things left to do on this one is getting shorter and shorter...the pin wash was the biggest outstanding one for sure!

[Leon]

Pin wash looks really good Bill!

[Tojo72]

Coming together real nice with all the sub assemblies

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon!

[mustang1989]

I'll be the guy in the front row waiting for the results.

[wbill76]

Thanks Anthony, only way to fly when building ships like this!

Joe, watch out for Leon, he loves popcorn.

[dierk]

Time well spent Bill! Looks ace!

[wbill76]

Thanks Dierk! Now time for the high wire act!

[wbill76]

Today was an extremely productive day with a lot of things coming together in the process. First order of business involved applying the kit-supplied decals for the shield placards on the bow and adding the Pontos-supplied dry-transfer draft gauge markings to the hull. I used Solvaset on the decals after trimming their edges close to avoid unnecessary film around the border.



The hull and all of the modules were dosed with Model Master Lusterless Flat in the spray can to knock down the Future's gloss and restore the flat finish to the build.




That cleared the way for the next big challenge, getting the superstructure rigged. I checked a lot of different reference photos in order to ferret out the overall arrangement I wanted to replicate and what order to do it in. I used EZ Line Fine elastic thread and a combination of CA and accelerator to add the lines. The main superstructure module went first and I noticed while checking the reference pics that something about the mast was off. I had added the little cross-brace using the Eduard PE instructions as a guide and it turns out there should be more of the mast sticking up above the brass. I couldn't easily remove the brace and reposition it, so I cheated a bit and used a short length of white styrene rod to extend the mast higher above the brace instead. I also kept all of the modules on their masking tape strips as that made it a lot easier to handle them and avoid contact with the railings and other delicate areas.




The funnel mast got its rigging as did the secondary superstructure. These will get additional rigging later on that connects them up with the main mast on the forward superstructure but I'll do that after I've installed the boats and float-plane to avoid any potential snag issues.




This meant that the modules themselves were largely done, so it was time to install them into position on the main deck. I used regular glue around their bases and the contact ridges since the addition of the wood deck slightly reduces how well they grab onto those areas. The turrets are still dry-fit and movable to allow flexibility when it comes time to add the main hull's railings.



Next up will be boats, cranes, and catapult, oh my!

[Leon]

Nice work on the rigging Bill! looks like she's almost ready to hit the high seas.

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon! Getting closer by the day.

[dierk]

Great job Bill! Also doing a great job of convincing me that floaties aren't for me

[wbill76]

So much for the reverse psychology approach then Dierk?

[wbill76]

Got to check off one more item from the to-do list this weekend in the form of the ship's boats for the Graf Spee. The boats that the kit provides are nicely done with the exception of the two motor launches that have solid-molded cabins with no windows. Those were cut down and the Eduard PE cabins installed in their place. The Eduard set includes a new cabin floor to compensate for the gaping hole that is left when the solid cabin is removed but it doesn't fit 100% perfectly either, so some white styrene rod softened with liquid glue was used to close up gaps there where needed. I had one small mishap when assembling one of the launches, I pressed down on the little engine hatch cover with a wooden toothpick by mistake and it punched right through it, so a small patch of white sheet styrene was necessary to restore it back to working order. All of the other boats clean up nicely, you just have to keep the two boats that attach to stand-alone davits separate from the rest to avoid any problems there.



Getting the boats painted involved some bach-and-forth work and I opted to do it all by hand instead of trying to use the airbrush. I did the natural wood areas first, applying a base coat 'wood' shade of 50-50 Panzerdunkelgelb/Light Gray with a detail brush. Once dry, I added a thinned wash of enamel Flat Brown to add some more wood-like tone variations and then followed that up with some Raw Umber soft artist pastels applied with a blender brush. Once the wood portions were all done, I hand painted the hulls and trim with Light Ghost Gray so they would match up with the rest of the ship.



I added the boat support rack that spans the two superstructure modules first and while the glue was drying there, installed the motor launches and boats into the racks on the main superstructure module along with the port side support crane that rests up against the one launch. The rest of the boats were added between the structures and voila! It's a lot busier space now than it was before.



Next up will be getting the main cranes done and installed along with the float plane. Checklist is getting smaller!

[dierk]

Splendid!
And yes, my resistance to reverse anything is quite high

[Leon]

Getting close now Bill!