Gdansk Waterfront

[Tomdaviesclay]

Several months ago, I completed the Gdansk waterfront model. In addition to the buildings, the model calls for the construction of two ships. With much difficulty, I built the first ship but have not had the skill or the patience to finish the second one. I really admire those of you who build ships. Architectural models are so much easier. I was waiting to finish the second ship before posting this model on the forum. You will just have to see this model with one ship for the time being - maybe forever :-).

The waterfront model called for five different kits produced by JSC models in Poland. The first kit is the center section which consists of 13 attractive buildings. This kit contains the ground plan, the wall, streetlights, and the water sheets. The second kit contains the two buildings on the left side – the House of the Natural Science Society and Mary's Gate. The third kit contains the large building on the right which is known as the Crane Gate. The fourth and fifth kits are the two ships. The entire model measures 36 inches long.
And even though all of the instructions are in Polish, the publisher included a loose page with the directions in English. Each building has an excellent drawing showing the location of the parts along with the part number. The details are quite good.

Our upcoming Cathedralquest will be a cruise on the Baltic Sea. We will visit 10 major cities in eight different countries. Gdansk is one of them. Models are very scarce for these cities. JSC has produced models for 16 different buildings in Gdansk. I have purchased all of these kits. The only other kits that I could find for this area is the Savior on Spilled Blood church in St. Petersburg (which I posted last month) and the Monttoren (coin Tower) in Amsterdam.

I always like to make models before we see the real building, but I doubt that I will finish all of the Gdansk models before our upcoming adventure.

If you have not visited my reformatted and updated webpage – CATHEDRAL QUEST: our quest to experience cathedrals in Europe, please have a look. I am presently working on our 2012 adventure to southern France. I am adding the days as I complete them. I am now up to day 6 with 16 more pages to go. On the model page, I have photos of all 72 models by country with links to the real building that we visited.

[Mike Stamper]

Nice model Thomas, the ship looks fine - you know what they say - practice makes perfect. Stick to the simpler ships then try the more difficult ones ;-)

There are a couple of kits in the Science Center (NEMO) in Amsterdam. If you go to Kinderdijk, the shop has loads of windmill kits!

Cheers

Mike

[didibuch]

Hi Thomas,

that's a goodlooking diorama. May I ask, which will be the second ship: the freighter 'Soldek'? It lies as a museum-ship opposite the crane gate / Brama Żuraw.
Btw: GPM has a kit of the Basilika Mariacka /basilica of mary in Gdansk, one of the biggest chuches made of bricks.

Regards
Dieter

[Don Boose]

Fine work on this diorama, Thomas!

Don

[jagolden01]

Very hice work on this, Thomas. I love dioramas, especially waterfront ones. Maybe in the future you'll feel you can complete the other ship. The work on the ship you did complete looks great.

JoeG

[Tomdaviesclay]

Thank all of you for your kind words.

Dieter - The ship that is shown on my post is the Monika by JSC. The ship that I am having trouble with is the coastal passenger ship Gdansk by JSC. The Monika was fairly easy to build. The assembly instructions for the Gdansk have been translated into English, but I don't understand the terms used for the various part for like bollards, capstan, forecastle, thwarts, etc. There is a side view drawing and a top view drawing but not all of the parts are shown or numbered nor do they identify where the named parts go. Since I am not into ship building, I don't understand the terms. Many years ago I built 10 large plastic model ships of which six are famous sailing ships.(I still have them on display. I have two more that I have never made. I am not going to give up on the Gdansk yet but just set it aside for a while because I want to build a few more models of places that we will visit on our cruise and time is getting short.

I do have the GPM model of Bazylika Mariacka which I would love to build before we visit it.

My present challenge is Malbork Castle, which we have arrangements to tour when we are in Gdansk. This model has been quite a challenge because the time it takes to find the various parts. The written instructions are in Polish; however, there are 88 3x5 inch photos of various angles of the completed Castle with numbers attached to various parts. There are 10 pages of parts, all the same color, but the consecutive parts are not on the same page. So tower 31 has five parts – part A is on page 2, part B is on page 4, part C is on page 8 etc. I spent most of my time looking for these tiny parts or at the photos trying to find the number of the parts that I am working on. It is more like assembling a jigsaw puzzle than a model.I do hope to have it finish soon and will post it on this site. It is really a beautiful model. Mike, I know you built it several years ago and have visited it.

[modelperry]

I have most of the kits to do this one too, except for the Gdansk ship. In place of it I am using the Motlawa motorized barge and ferry kit. Both of these are relatively easy to build and the instructions are in English.

[rgmarine]

Great to see your latest accomplishment. Look forward to seeing you at IPMC this fall.

[Tomdaviesclay]

modelperry. Thanks for the tip. I was feeling the need to complete all of the Gdansk models before our visit and the ship was not that important. Unfortunately, we just canceled our Baltic sea cruise, which was scheduled to begin on August 15, do to a new health problems for my wife- arterial fibrillation. Our cardiologist thought it best to postpone it for a while. We will try again next year. In the meantime, I am going to tackle that little ship again.

rgmarine - good to hear from you. Look forward to seeing you in November. I always enjoy our time together.

[elliott]

Sorry to hear of your wife's health problem. Trust it will resolve by next year so you can take your Baltic cruise then.