Recently, I’ve taken up card modeling, having been a life-long resin and scratch-building ship modeler. I wouldn’t say it’s a permanent change but it is nice to explorer other mediums and break up the monotony of small bits of resin and brass. I’ve mostly concentrated on 1/700 WWI and some WWII warships, but I prefer the ships of the Great War since there is far less “baggage” than some of the ships from WWII.
Here is what I’m normally up to, my 1/700 resin and brass warships, some are full scratch builds, others are resin hulls with scratch built super structures. I’m not much of a fan of plastic kits. I find them fiddly and awkward with few exceptions.
My first card model with any result was SMS Viribus Unitis. Not only is VU my favorite of the WWI dreadnoughts, but JSCs offering seemed like a less complex model than some and a good place to learn. I made a few mistakes, and generally learned how I wanted to do things. One thing I learned is that I really don’t like the little tabs one folds down for holding other parts at 90 degrees. From now on, they go. I found it much easier to do my own thing to create a cleaner, sharper edge and joint.
Next I wanted to try a small HMV kit to see how well things fit, and what to expect with Emden. I chose their coastal defense gunboat models of SMS Natter and SMS Wespe, only building Natter. I made some changes to the structure of the hull and the superstructure, mostly internally. The rest is HMV with the exception of the railings, which are laser cut. I did add some railings on the superstructure abeam the funnel with dodgers from another kit.
So on to Emden. I was inspired by DRGs build that he has going in his thread. His meticulous work, and the fact is just read a pair of books on Emden and Dresden made the decision for me, Emden it is.
DRG has given me some preliminary advice that really helped out in the initial keel-laying so to speak. He mentions that things aren’t always perfect and that came to a head very quickly when I noticed that at least one of the alignment guides on the transverse frame was off, throwing off the whole thing. Now, having realized a long time ago that I’m a high-functioning idiot, I was absolutely certain that this was something I had either goofed up or wasn’t seeing properly. However, after some mocking-up and some measuring, it became clear that the issue wasn’t me. I did solve the problem with some more dry fitting and figuring out what I should ignore so that critical parts later on would fit properly and in the end everything on the frame is true and correctly positioned.
Keel Laying
Herr Inspektor dropping by to check my work.
The hull framing
More to come...