Peter Brandt passes away

[birder]

Thanks Ben for the biography (and welcome) do you perhaps have any photos to illustrate the bio?

[Benjamin Fentens]

Yes, there are quite a lot of pictures. But only a few with Piet as he hated it to be on a picture. But I'll put everything we have in the next posts. I want to publish a new part of his story every other day. Right now I'm working on the complete list of the models he designed. I'm pretty sure that I'll forget some because even he did not know what he had designed in his life. But when it comes to his important models we surely have Pictures

[Tapcho]

Waiting eagerly for the next parts. Please continue Ben, fine reading and fascinating details of paper model design and it's history.

Tappi

[airdave]

wow, this is awful...at such a young age.

[Vermin_King]

Did he attend any of the shows? I seem to remember seeing him in another photo somewhere.

[Benjamin Fentens]

Piet was in Bremerhaven at the international papermodelers convention every year since 1997. He was on some of the hobby shows, too - but not very often. Maybe a few times in Dortmund, once in Friedrichshafen and maybe once in Leipzig.

And yes - tell me about it. He should have had at least another 15 years. He's missed around her very, very much.

[Benjamin Fentens]

The first papermodels that Piet built were ships from the German publisher Lehrmittelinstitut G.m.b.H. Wilhelmshaven (today Möwe Verlag). Already back then he was not satisfied with the level of details and he started to improve the models with the possibilities he had at that time. His incredible talent helped him to get a job as draftsman at Maybach Motorenbau (today MTU). During his military service in Wilhelmshaven he got to know Gerhard Neubert, the designer at the Lehrmittelinstitut back then, and a friendship developed between them. Piet admired Neuberts models, but he never got any insights on how Neubert designed his models.


In 1974 Piet got into business for himself as a technical illustrator in Hamburg. In 1976 he founded the Hamburger Modellbau-Verlag with the brand Alstermodell, which was in business only until 1977. It seems that the project failed due to the commercial part of the business for which Piet got himself a partner. Joachim Schulze convinced Piet later to work as a designer for the Jade-Verlag (successor of the Lehrmittelinstitut) and during the time between 1980 and 1988 he developed 15 models for this publisher. Piet and the publisher in Wilhelmshaven parted company when Siegfried Wolter took over. After a while without any papermodelling Piet met Liane Strüver and me back in 1996 and the most productive time of Piet’s career began.


Peter was an artist and it took special talent to work with him. As son of the artist Willi Scheuer, who wasn’t that different to Piet and loved to built papermodels as well, I found Piet’s style not unusual and quickly managed to work with him. Piet always wanted to work on all projects at the same time and then of course on all parts of the project simultaneously. Something at the framework had to be corrected, and quickly a bit of the inner parts of the bridge, beginning the lifeboat and when in that area why not continuing the davits. But before finishing that quickly working a bit on the skin of the hull which was already half done. I’m still amazed how he managed to keep all this in his mind. It simply worked – somehow. For the big project Bremen IV I took all the time necessary to work with him full-day. I simply wanted to know it. That meant organizing the parts, doing control builds, and looking after Piet’s daily sustenance and of course that Piet finished one part of the project before starting the next. And as a matter of fact this huge model took Piet only three months to design. An incredible achievement. Piet was amazingly productive when nothing distracted him. I learned a lot during times like these from Piet, because I could not only look over the master’s shoulder but also was Piet very generous in passing on his knowledge. Those designers who knew him can probably confirm this. This should change much later after he made some bad experiences. But among his fellow HMV designers he was tutor, mentor and teacher until his very end.


The list of his publications is long. I counted 90 and am pretty sure that I forgot something. Some models are listed more than once because they’re variants or completely revised. Some of the models he did together with other designers. But on top of all these models he took part in many other projects – as consultant or he drew some parts, made the hull or even the complete instructions. Just for fun I counted the parts of his publications and came to the incredible number of 95,000!


To be continued


And here’s the list of his models (can also be found on the HMV website)

Publisher Sku Year Scale Title
Alster 1976 1:250 Rescue cruiser John T. Essberger and Georg Breusing
Alster 1976 1:250 Ferryboat Nils Holgersson or Peter Pan TT Linie
Alster 1976 1:250 Ferryboat Prinz Hamlet, Prinzenlinie
Alster 1976 Bus, promotion model for Neoplan
Alster 1977 Container vessel Conti Britannia
Jade 1241 1980 1:250 Destroyer Lütjens (Mölders, Rommel), Bundesmarine
Jade 1055 1981 1:250 Container Ship Conti Belgica
Jade 1056 1981 1:250 Containers
Jade 1242 1981 1:250 S-Boat Typ 148, Bundesmarine
Jade 1243 1981 1:250 S-Boat Typ 143, Bundesmarine
Jade 1062 1982 1:250 Emergency Tow Vessel Oceanic / Arctic
Jade 1064 1982 1:250 Museum Steamicebreaker Stettin
Jade 1065 1982 1:250 Light Vessel Elbe 3
Jade 1245 1982 1:250 Frigate Bremen, Bundesmarine
Jade 1066 1983 1:250 Buoy Tender Bussard
Jade 1244 1983 1:250 Landing Craft MZL, Bundesmarine
Jade 1040 1984 1:250 Cruise Ship MS Europa
Jade 1069 1988 1:250 Research Vessel Polarstern
Möwe 1073 1989 1:250 Greenpeace Ship Rainbow Warrior
Möwe 1074 1990 1:250 Rhein Cruise Vessel MS Drachenfels
HMV 3030 1997 1:250 Ship of the Line SMS Baden
HMV 3034 1997 1:250 Light Cruiser SMS Emden/Dresden
HMV 3260 1997 1:250 Battleship USS Maine
HMV 3300 1997 1:250 Liner Augusta Victoria
HMV 3525 1997 1:250 Eurotower Frankfurt
HMV 1997 1:160 N Club International annual model
HMV 1997 1:250 New lighthouse Arkona, supplement to Scheuer & Strüver catalog
HMV 3302 1998 1:250 Liner Bremen IV
HMV 3304 1998 1:250 Liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Große
HMV 3362 1998 1:250 Steamer Schwan II
HMV 1998 1:250 Speicherstadtmodul supplement to Scheuer & Strüver catalog
HMV 3420 1998 1:250 Multipurpose Vessel Mellum
DSM 1999 1:250 Ferryboat Nordfriesland
HMV 3038 1999 1:250 Light Cruiser SMS Undine
HMV 3308 1999 1:250 Sounding Vessel Schaarhörn
HMV 3310 1999 1:250 Harbor Ferry Jan Molsen
HMV 3364 1999 1:250 Tanker Norderney
HMV 3460 1999 1:250 Columbuskaje Bremerhaven
HMV 3462 1999 1:250 Floating Dock
HMV 1999 1:87 Steam locomotive Typ T12, supplement to Scheuer & Strüver catalog
DSM 2000 1:100 S-Boat Kranich
HMV 3120 2000 1:250 Battleship Bismarck
HMV 3312 2000 1:250 Motor Tugboat Hermes
HMV 3680 2000 1:45 Alioth, electrical railcar Rittner Bahn
HMV 3424 2001 1:250 Tugboats Merkur/Vulkan
HMV 3961 2001 1:1250 CargoLifter Transport Airship und hall
HMV 3962 2001 1:200 CargoLifter Transport Airship
HMV 2001 1:24 Unimog U 1000
Passat 2002 1:250 Minimodell Alsterdampfer
HMV 2002 Promotion model Ferryboat MS Crown, DFDS
HMV 3320 2002 1:250 4 Hamburg Harbor Ferries
Passat 2003 1:250 Minimodell Landing Craft (designed together with Peter Hurler)
HMV 3306 2003 1:250 Liner Cap Arcona
Passat 2004 1:250 Minimodell Penichette
HMV 3042 2004 1:250 Battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger
Passat 2005 1:250 Minimodell Hafenbarkassen
HMV 3222 2005 1:250 S-boat Jaguar Class
HMV 3964 2005 1:250 Battleship Bismarck with camouflage
HMV 3472 2005 1:250 Jubilee model ''10 years of HMV '' Harbor Diorama
HMV 3368 2006 1:250 Double Hull Tanker TMS Seatrout
HMV 3220 2007 1:250 Navy Supply Vessel Berlin/Frankfurt am Main
HMV 3322 2007 1:250 TS Hanseatic
HMV 3370 2007 1:250 Replenishment Tanker Altmark
HMV 3474 2007 1:250 Research Platform FINO 3
HMV 3050 2008 1:250 Light Cruiser SMS Emden tropical version
HMV 3372 2008 1:250 Freight and Passenger Ship Nordstjernen
HMV 3426 2008 1:250 Pilot Boat Ditmar Koel
HMV 3476 2008 1:250 Harbor Diorama Hamburg
HMV 3374 2009 1:250 Cargo Freighter MS Bleichen
HMV 3366 2010 1:250 Container Ship Conti Belgica
HMV 3431 2010 1:250 Fishing Trawler Wuppertal
HMV 3432 2010 1:250 Emergency Tow Vessel Nordic
HMV 3522 2010 1:400 Berlin Palace
HMV 3051 2011 1:250 Light Cruiser SMS Emden
HMV 3318 2011 1:250 Light Vessel Elbe 3
HMV 3319 2011 1:250 Buoy Tender Bussard
HMV 3327 2011 1:250 Steamicebreaker Stettin
HMV 3461 2011 1:250 Dock Railway 1
HMV 3464 2011 1:250 Port Facility - Quayside Warehouse
HMV 3620 2011 1:250 Viking Longship Oseberg
HMV 3681 2011 1:250 Steinway Grand Piano
HMV 2011 1:250 HMV Club Model 2011, At the shipyard (together with other HMV desingers)
HMV 3122 2012 1:250 S-Boat S7 - S13
HMV 3329 2012 1:250 Reefer Vessel Sloman Alstertor (Revision of Dr. Budelmann’s design)
HMV 3465 2012 1:250 Port Facility - Office Building
HMV 3467 2012 1:250 Port Facility - Dockside Cranes 1
HMV 3475 2012 1:250 Port Facility - Corner Module
HMV 3477 2012 1:250 Port Facility - Loading Dock
HMV 2012 1:250 HMV Club Model 2012, Borgesch in Africa (together with other HMV desingers)
HMV 3224 2013 1:250 Fast Attack Craft S61 Albatros

[Benjamin Fentens]

And I'll see what pictures I have. Let's start with this
1. Peter Brandt and Markus Wiekowski - both HMV designers in the late 90's at the opening of a Scheuer & Strüver store
2. Destroyer Lütjens (Mölders, Rommel), Bundesmarine, Jade Verlag
3. Container Ship Conti Belgica, Jade Verlag
4. Emergency Tow Vessel Oceanic / Arctic, Jade Verlag
5. Museum Steamicebreaker Stettin, Jade Verlag
6. Light Vessel Elbe 3, Jade Verlag
7. Frigate Bremen, Bundesmarine, Jade Verlag
8. Buoy Tender Bussard, Jade Verlag
9. Landing Craft MZL, Bundesmarine, Jade Verlag
10. Cruise Ship MS Europa, Jade Verlag

[Benjamin Fentens]

1. Research Vessel Polarstern, Jade Verlag
2. Greenpeace Ship Rainbow Warrior, Möwe Verlag
3. Rhein Cruise Vessel MS Drachenfels, Möwe Verlag
4. Ship of the Line SMS Baden, HMV
5. Battleship USS Maine, HMV
6. Liner Augusta Victoria, HMV
7. Eurotower Frankfurt, HMV
8. Liner Bremen IV, HMV
9. Liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Große, HMV
10. Steamer Schwan II, HMV

[mauther]

My respects to the family.