SMS Gneisenau; GPM 1/200

[chris190]

Hi John, it was the United Services Museum, at that time situated on the ground floor of the Banqueting House in Whitehall (where one of our less popular monarchs had his head removed; some of us in England feel that perhaps this archaic practice might need revival for certain members of our present royal family given the events of the past few days ); a long time ago - 1960? I think? - but I did look up their collection recently and I couldn't find it. Don't think it would have been any sort of war reparations, Resurgam, as our navy sank the ships at the battle of the Falklands in 1914, so how it got there is unclear. A beautiful model of Scharnhorst in the ochre and white livery of the East Asiatic squadron pre-war.

A bit more progress, demonstrating the need to deviate at times from the sequencing in the instruction sheets; if I hadn't taken parts in the S and 58 series and completed most of the upper forward superstructure now, the side sheets of part 37 which can be seen projecting above the main deck would be remaining very vulnerable to clumsy damage from my goodself for quite some time. This block is going on this afternoon all being well. Also note the need for extra stiffening in narrow 1mm card strips below the perimeter of the aft well deck; remains to be seen how well this will work but it definitely wouldn't without it.

Best wishes

Chris

[chris190]

Further progress and probably marking the substantial completion of most of the hull; next step to add the numerous step irons to the hull as supplied in the detail set - haven't counted them but I know there are far, far more than I'm really interested in!

Still of the view that this is a very well thought out kit indeed; it's a complex hull in its geometry and the fit has been very good - congratulations to GPM! The detail set is in a material new to me, seems to be card adhered to very thin brass and bends so much more easily than the pure brass frets I encountered some time ago when I last made a warship.

After my last posting and at that time foolishly maintaining that one had to deviate at times from the advised construction sequence, the following few days were very bad indeed, necessitating ripping apart of, and the production of a cad drawn replica part for. the sheeting of the forward superstructure; a certain humility has subsequently been evident in my subsequent approach

Best wishes to all

Chris

[Michael Mash]

Hello Chris:
Those are very good photos of your work. It all appears to be going well, despite the deviation from the advised construction sequence. Even though there appears to be between 300 and 400 of the “steel irons”, they certainly add abundant detail.
Mike

[chris190]

Thanks Mike, a long way to go yet but more ups than downs for the present

360 of those step irons I've just counted, 30 per row and 12 rows - hope there's a good allowance in that number for wastage/pinging out of the tweezers into the jaws of the carpet monster/bad positioning and re-doing etc., otherwise the task really will seem quite unending!!

[BluntBrother]

Originally Posted by mdesaxe

I like to use Mohawk Ultra Flo Clear Lacquer M102-0451 Flat. I find it gives excellent flat coverage - but it also resists PVA glue quite strongly.


Maurice

Newbie question SVP? Do you apply this after the hull structure is complete or to the parts before assembly and gluing. The resistance to PVA would negate the gluing of parts together possiblement?

[mdesaxe]

I usually use it after assembly or on sub-assemblies. I have found that it is possible to use what is often called 'kabuki' masking tape on printed paper or card without causing any damage when removing it, so I can mask areas where they will attach.


Maurice

[Dancooper]

Hello Chris, I just found this thread and I was wondering how the kit is coming along because I just ordered it yesterday myself.
It should be my next project .... if the kit is buildable that is.

[Olo]

Very great work Sir. Your model looks beautiful. Can you shar what product did you use to fill the gaps in your hull before applied skins?

[chris190]

Hi Dan and Olo, thanks for your interest, you have prompted me to doing another post which I had put off until there was more to show; with this ship, the character really comes with the funnels, masts and crane as there isn't too much in the way of other superstructure.

However, I'm now onto funnel number 2 and it's beginning to take shape. The hull didn't need any filling; with the grey card/cereal box material card substructure called up in the kit and shown in my earlier posts, the actual coloured skin elements fitted over this very well without gaps except some very thin horizontal strips at the junction between upper and underwater components. It's very resistant to damage too and feels very solid, as if constructed of wood; with all the handling needed over what I see as being a very long construction period this is a real asset.

The kit itself is top quality in respect of accuracy, colouring and design, as is the laser cut set which is absolutely essential for this subject; there so many rails, ladders, step irons, fretted brackets, spoked wheels etc. to form up which I can't imagine producing any other way; the traditional fuse wire or stiffened thread techniques of my earlier years just won't do!

Errors do exist - one ladder is missing, two part numbers are outside the elements to which they refer on the deck parts and the rear three funnel parts need trimming back to fit the true circumference of the internal formers but there really aren't any glaring errors that I've found.

I have found the laser cut parts very trying to apply as they are from some kind of card which kind of melts on spindly uprights etc. when white glue is applied, so railings can end up with squashed standards unless you are really light on fixing application pressure and glue amount.

It is, though, a very satisfying subject but I wouldn't agree with the kit difficulty grading at 2 which I would take to be medium; I would say 3 (difficult) but then I'm not as young as I once was - my fingers keep colliding with the extensive railings and bending them out of shape and the funnel step irons and grab rails are equally fragile.

Best wishes to all, will post further in due course; any suggestions for effective methods of rigging would be very welcome, I'm quite dreading this exercise as I can envisage much collateral damage when locating fixing points between all this fragile clutter! My last ship - GPM Graf Spee, about 15 - 20 years ago - has grey thread rigging attached with pva but holding it under tension whilst waiting for the glue to harden was bad news as I recall and I have a bit of a horror of using superglue with drips potentially damaging finished work etc. \Help!

Chris

[Greg S.]

My complements on your progress so far. What an impressive model!