Dragon German Z-38 Destroyer

[wbill76]

Thanks Joe! Glad to have you stop by. Don't know if I quite agree with your statement on the Arizona but have been there before in feeling hesitant about tackling something...you'll know when the time is right as the little voices will refuse to remain quiet any longer until you start on it.

[DeafStuG]

wbill76 - Great work & Very Nice, I enjoyed that.
I got Trumpy 1/350 Z-43 & Dragon 1/350 Z-31 with after market in my stash !

[wbill76]

Thanks Jeremy! I came very close to getting a Trumpeter kit instead of the Dragon due to the price but decided to go with the Dragon kit in the end. It hasn't disappointed, the detail quality on the molding and parts is very impressive.

[406 Silverado]

Sorry Bill, been following but haven't had much time to post comments on every ones builds.
This is a real nice build so far and it makes one want to go out and buy this, or one of the Z ships. Will keep an eye out at the next two shows.

Looking forward to the Sunday update.

[wbill76]

No worries Rob, you've been one busy guy the last few weeks! There are many different Z-ship kits out there to choose from, so I say go for it if you can find a good deal!

[Keith Christie]

Stunning work Bill,

This is coming along very nicely.

Best Regards

Keith.

[wbill76]

Thanks Keith! I had tweezer-pulted one of the main pieces for the 2nd Flakvierling that mounts to the front of the bridge deck and fortunately DragonCare delivered a replacement today via the postal service, so no time lost on keeping this one moving forward! Always love dealing with DragonCare, they sent the replacement free of charge because, in their words, it was "small and we have extras"!

[bigjohn]

Sept 10, 2013 19:21:25 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Sept 10, 2013 18:20:44 GMT -5 bbd468 said:

Nice updates Brother Bill! Are you using an Optivisor to do the wee PE parts? Their so TINY!

Yes. No way I could work on this, especially with the paint and clean-up work, without the Optivisor. My wife keeps giggling and mentioning scenes from 'Honey I Shrunk The Kids'!

Yeah, I feel your pain Bill, my wife makes fun of my optivisor all the time

The floaty thing is looking good!!! makeing splended work of this tiny lil thing!

[wbill76]

Thanks BJ! Tin can has proved to be just the right level of compromise in terms of size-to-detail. While a battlewagon or a carrier would have been fun, they would've required an exponentially higher amount of work (and cost!) to tackle, so I'm glad I settled on this one for my lone venture out on the deep.

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

If I didn't have so many 'other kits' I would like to get the USS Arizona or the USS Indianapolis.

So what brands are the best and what to stay away from?  It would have to be a full hull kit and fairly large enough to have fun with. 

I kinda like this picture:



The camo is very interesting to me.


Okay... looking forward to more progress Bill!   






Jeff

[pt109]

wow Bill very impressive to say the least......keep her coming

Nice paint work BTW,

Paul

[wbill76]

Jeff, wish I could be of more help in the advice department but for full hull kits go with 1/350 as your scale as that seems to be the predominant mode there while 1/700 tend more to the waterline variety. Like anything in the model world, you can't really make any blanket statements when it comes to brands, they all have their dogs and angels, all depends on the kit and subject in question! Dazzle schemes present lots of visual opportunities for sure but the masking to pull it off would be quite the chore!

Paul, thanks for stopping in and for the comments! More to come this weekend.

[wbill76]

Work continued from last week by finishing up the remaining details on the bridge deck and superstructure. I painted the funnel cap Flat White and added some exhaust soot accumulation via some black artist pastel dusted around the top. The 2nd Flakvierling was assembled and installed along with its railings and Eduard-supplied ladders.



That cleared the way to return to the main deck and its remaining details. First up were the Eduard railings which are conveniently sloped to mirror the angle of the deck. The railings are in three pieces per side with the long railing as one piece up until the anchor well, a second piece that's curved around the well, and a third piece that connects up to the jack staff at the tip of the bow. Rinse and repeat for the other side. Dragon provides PE chains for the anchors but they are too long and had to be shortened by 4 links to be the correct length. Eduard bollard caps rounded out things in the detail phase.



After painting the railings, the other deck details for this area were added in the form of the capstan wheels, the 20mm AA gun, the front turret shield, and the hose reels. The hose reels just magically appear on the instructions so you have to figure out which ones are the right ones and assemble them accordingly. The front turret and bridge deck were dry-fit to make sure everything lined up and it proved necessary to trim the little 'feet' on the three bridge deck supports on either side to avoid interference with the added railings.



Then it was time to move aft, adding the necessary railings to the stern half of the ship. Eduard provides these in two sections per side plus one small section for the stern.



These were painted up and then the fun of adding the necessary details to the main deck began. The instructions are somewhat vague on the exact placement of various items like the hose reels but their positioning has to be precise to avoid problems with the different deck elements. Test fits with the different sections and careful use of land marks like the locating holes for other parts helped get everything in the right position. The boat support davits in particular have to be placed at just the right angle and position and while the rectangular mount holes in the deck help, there's still a little 'play' in them that can cause an issue if you're not careful since the tops of the davits fit precisely with the curve of the 'tub' for one of the AA guns above.



Still more work to do in the detail department in regards to the boats and mines but getting closer to having this one ready to enter the weathering stage.

[bbd468]

Great update Bill! She's lookin a real treat buddy. I will admit that i scanned thru several smaller scale ship kits at the IMPS show yesterday.   I was also lookin for a good 1/48 scale Harrier Jet AV 8B. It was all scrapped when i found a Tiger kit thats on my MHI wish list!

BTW, it was Dragon kit no.6383. Been after that for 2 years!

[406 Silverado]

Talk about a clean build. Very nice building, and painting, there Bill. Always nice to end the weekend with one of your build updates.

[deafpanzer]

Bet it was nerve wrenching experience painting the rail without hitting the hull! Looking SUPERB!!! And great football games today... nope, I am not telling you who won.

[bullardino]

You, Neems and the boss are trying to lure all of us towards ship modeling? What a job, Bill

[TRM]

Excellent Sunday Sit Rep!! She has some real nice lines to her Bill!! Down to the wire for weathering...NICE!

[wbill76]

Gary, nice score on the Tiger! I can understand the temptation it would represent.

Rob, thanks as always boss! Dragon's engineering on this kit is pretty tight...they only quibble I would have is that they know people will add railings (they even mold in a slight lip around the main deck to take them and even produced their own railing set for the Z-39!)but then don't factor in the necessary tolerances on parts that will interact with the railings if they are there. Nothing huge, but still something you have to account for if you go that route.

Andy, thanks, I know how hard that must be for you! Painting the railings required 10/0 fine point brush and the Optivisor...and remembering that I'm handling a 14" hull to avoid poking myself in the face with it when leaning in!

Luigi, all part of the master plan. Muahahahahahaha...cough, hack, eghghghgh. Sorry about that.

T, getting closer to the weathering for sure, have to think about the best way to do it. The modular approach is the front runner at the moment given how tight all the deck spaces are with everything secured. Looking forward to the challenge!

[thug626]

Hello Bill,
Those railings are the bees knees.

Dave

[wbill76]

Thanks Dave! Have to agree with you, they really up the detail level and I'm very glad I took the plunge and went with the add-on set vs. just doing a straight OOB effort.

[fightnjoe]

bill that looks so crisp. it looks fantastic.




joe

[wbill76]

Thanks Joe!

[406 Silverado]

Bill I really have to try one of the Dragon kits and add the pe rails, looks so much better.

[wbill76]

Can't argue you with you there boss! Thanks for stopping by.

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Whoa!  Talk about railing envy! 


That is some nice work there Bill. 





Jeff

[wbill76]

Thanks Jeff! Wait until you see the railings on the motor launch...

[pantherf..-Email Not Valid]

Okay, okay!  Better warn me if there is more!









Jeff 

[wbill76]

LOL! Will do sir.

[wbill76]

Thank you kindly Sir Nemo! Just have to avoid having any fleas jump ship in the process!