Light Cruiser "Hr.Ms. de Ruyter" 1936-1942 waterline, camouflage

[Simplyred]

Well, Legion, I am very lucky to have your build-pictures, otherwise I would have been stuck with the 2 decks on the stern already, there was a small strip that I could not find in the instructions where exactly to put. So (again) I studied your pictures closely and found out. I think that without your pictures I would have been lost with this build. At this point in time nothing has been too difficult in terms of cutting and gluing, but it has been difficult with regards to what-to-put-where. As a beginner, I can see I simply do not have enough with a written instruction. Must have drawings as well to see what part goes where. Again: lucky to have your pictures.... otherwise....

I would have expected the frames to be of more solid cardboard. This is only a bit thicker paper like 0,5mm I expect (?) would have expected 2mm or so. But bear with me, I am a beginner, did not know WHAT to expect. I love working at it though.

[legion]

I never reinforced the frames, except for the bow and stern. If you need more pictures of a particular area, just say so, I can easily take some more pictures. Also, do a reverse bevel cut on the armorbelt edges and double up the part that makes it thick. The angle of the armorbelt is near 45 degrees, mine came out too flat and that top edge is so small:




And yes, it kind of matches my wallpaper...

[Simplyred]

Hahahaha yes, the "De Ruyter" has carefully chosen its building partner as it seems, it almost completely blends in with its new environment hahahaha great!

[Simplyred]

The decks are glued in position, and so is the rear wall. Stern is glued on. Forming the stern planking to fit the ship was not that easy after all, the glue gets a grip pretty quick and you have to dry-fit everything carefully before you apply the glue. In the end, I was satisfied how it turned out although things can always be done better. When looking at other builds here on this forum I always have to remember myself that I am not that proficient, and that this is my first build. You can't just mimmick 10 years of cardboard building experience that I simply don't have. However, allowing myself some slack, nevertheless I find much pleasure in the build itself and building the kit is a relaxing experience, you can completely set your mind to something else as the usual daily cr@p you need to deal with.

As far as the kit goes, I have several "rookie remarks" that thus could be completely irrelevant but here it goes nevertheless. Hopefully, someone with some building experience can say something about that as well:

I think the manufacturer could have made a better job in his instructions. I have experienced things like "join A + B" where the manufacturer seemed to find it obvious where A should go on B, but I didn't... no more instructions available. The written instructions are in more languages, but I would rather have settled for BETTER written instructions in just one language. Furthermore, the building instructions include only a few sketches on difficult areas. I think the instructions should have had many more of those sketches.
Furthermore, there are no instructions on what to color when, to avoid white lines all over later. I can't seem to find any color numbers as well. But like I said, all of this or some of this may be my personal lack of experience and/or understanding. To me, as a beginner, the instructions seem like a "hasty job" and I do not think they live up to the quality of the design which (until now) seems fairly good actually.

Another thing I keep thinking is, that the designer also seems to have cut expenses on the materials for the frames. I can however see that after gluing on the decks and the planking, more rigidity is coming into the model. So it won't collapse on itself I guess, but nevertheless the build would have been more stiff if thicker cardboard would have been used. Besides the sets for details and railings, a laser cut set for frames would also have been great.

With regards to the historical information on the "de Ruyter" I also think that the publisher has made too little effort. I think the publisher should have made more work on historical information and maybe a few more pictures of "de Ruyter". There is lots of information available, and it beats me why the manufacturer restricted himself to only about 1/3 of an A4-page. One is building a model with an historical background, it simply deserved more.

There seems to be a book available on the "de Ruyter":
Hr.Ms. Kruiser ''de Ruyter'' 1933-1942 from the hands of author H.J. E.A. Legemaate, but the book is (as almost an antiquity) rather expensive at €75.

So, as I am building along, finding my own weaknesses and trying to resolve all kinds of building problems and issues, these are my remarks until now. Some pictures to go with this.

[legion]

I should have told you about the deck joints, you need to reinforce them and/or trim them slightly to get them flush. Also, don't trust the photo's on the cover, they lack a lot of things, like railings and deck details.

[josbakkers]

Originally Posted by Simplyred

With regards to the historical information on the "de Ruyter" I also think that the publisher has made too little effort. I think the publisher should have made more work on historical information and maybe a few more pictures of "de Ruyter". There is lots of information available, and it beats me why the manufacturer restricted himself to only about 1/3 of an A4-page. One is building a model with an historical background, it simply deserved more.

Dear Simplyred,keep up the good work so far it looks extremely well.
If You want more Historical information on this matter and don't wan't to buy the Book visit the NIMH site(Nederlands Instituut Militaire Historie)Beeldbank (Photosite) and or the Dutch Fleet Forum were a lot of old Navy pensioner(like myself)tell histories and show Photo's.
Cheers for now,Jos

[Simplyred]

Hi Guys !

Long time no write
Building this ship is really a hobby I pursue in the winter, so my last post was quite some time ago. However, no worries, I am still at it!

Building the "De Ruyter" until now has proven to be quite a challenge. I have learned a lot from making mistakes and thinking them over.
Also, I most definitely would NEVER EVER have come this far if it weren't for Legion's wonderful photos which really guided my through the build until now. Legion: thank you very much AGAIN for all of your effort to provide these photo's! I know it must have been a huge effort for you to create and publish them, but as you can see it isn't in vain: many will have benefited from it, or will in the future!

So, besides telling everyone that I am still building, I will post a few images showing you guys how the status is.

Now, please remember, this is my first card model build ever, and I am a true beginner! So I see this project as a step-in, learning project in order to prepare myself for starting the build on the HMV 1:250 Bismarck later.

Because of that, I would welcome any remark that can teach me something, or might help me.

I must say, some of the pieces built so far were really tiny, and as such daunting to build. But I find it a truly relaxing activity although I can not build very long each time.

I will struggle on, and enjoy myself, and hopefully along the way learn something as well !

[legion]

Do take note, the page with the planes is glossy and softer/thinner than the insert pages. Best way to do those is by scanning them in the highest quality and printing a copy on proper paper/card.

I'm glad my pictures helped you with construction. Main reason why I do take those pictures, it helps others!

A think that you should do now though is add the metal bars and supports to the chimney guard/shield and the bridge wings. Rigging the ship is still the toughest part ahead though, it has a strange radio antenna configuration which is tricky to do. And this isn't shown in the instructions, I found out about it when looking at old photo's of the ship.

I really need to finish it though...

[Simplyred]

I value your input !

For a beginner, this is not only a matter of trying to follow incomplete instructions, but also trying to begin understanding and utilizing new techniques of working with cardboard.

Are you saying that the glossy plane page is making construction more difficult? I was wondering about that, why they would have used different material for the planes, it somehow didn't seem logical? Would it have been a matter of "saving money" by using the backside of the booklet? I have no idea. But it seems strange?
I can do as you advise, I have a scanner, good cardboard and a color laser printer. It may very well be the way to go. When it does not work out, I will always have the original.

I have been following instructions and sequence of the build by the letter. This is, I think. There has not yet been an instruction to create the relings on the bridge wings. I WAS wondering about that.... hmm. I do have the laser cut set, they provide relings. I will look into this and see where the instructions tell me to start with those, or maybe I missed them to begin with somewhere. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

I am sure many difficult tasks are waiting. But hey, isn't that part of the fun? Sometimes I wished I had more skills to master them better, but I am sure I will pick up some whilst doing it, learning on the job so to speak!

I do wish however the building instructions were better. They are very limited especially in telling you HOW things should be done. The instructions do seem to limit themselves mainly to WHEN it needs to be done. That's where your photos provide valuable help!

[legion]

Railings aren't stated in the instructions, but best is to put them on before adding deck details, like the small boats and cranes. This helps with their placement as well, cause you now know where there is a railing and where not!

As for the HOW, most paper models are advanced forms of polygons (the cube being the most used, followed by the cylinder). Some of the parts don't have a side for the bottom (or for where it sits on the side), so a part with only 5 sides is still just a cube.

The glossy plane page was probably done because it would make the planes shiny (kind of like with photopaper). And it would have added two more mostly blank pages if it were an insert. Though they could have added more diagrams and/or a smaller ship like they did in other kits.