Hello and Happy New Year to all paper modelers worldwide !!
As here we say : "what you'll do at the first day of the year, you'll do for all the year.." on 1st January morning I have put my hands on the paper model of the German armed merchant ship SMS GOETZEN, in 1:100 scale, based on a kit of the brand GPM.
The history of this ship is quite interest... built in Germany on 1913, was dismounted in thousands of pieces (about 5000 boxes), and brought by ship, train and feet (on the shoulders of hundred and hundred men) up to the Tanganyika Lake in Africa.
Here the ship was reassembled on 1914, launched on 1915 and armed with a couple of guns and two revolving guns, making of her the most powerful "warship" on that lake.
After some adventures (and a sunk and a refloat) and many changes of owners, this old ship is still afloat and in full service, making his job of transport of goods and people along all the Tanganyika lake, with the actual name of MV LIEMBA.. and probably she is one of the oldest ships (having today more than 110 years old from his building) still in service, worldwide, from that period..
Here is a Wikipedia link where is the history of the ship :
MV Liemba - Wikipedia
The kit published by GPM is a very good one, well designed and printed, with the right dimensions for all the pieces.. Just a note about the assembling instruction that should be a bit more clear in the printing, especially for the ship general arrangement.
The kit proposes the ship in two version : the SMS GOETZEN (the armed one) and the GRAF GOETZEN (without weapons installed) ..
I have choose the armed one, also because the scale of the model (1 : 100) permits me to work very well, especially on many particulars of this ship.
The model has a total length of more than 70 centimeters and actually is one of the largest model I have built..
There are still many things to build on this model, before to have completed it... so, the GOETZEN will be one of my models for the new year 2024...
Again a big wish of an Happy New Year full of joy and paper models to everyone..
Ciao from Italy
JP
