Squirmydad's Space: 1889 Hamburg

[Millenniumfalsehood]

Okay, I couldn't keep myself from trying another of these nice, raw models from Squirmydad: the German Hamburg-class air cruiser.

This model is very simple, being a mere up-scale of SD's 1:600 scale gaming miniature. Out of Box (out of card?), the model is a bare-bones representation of the ship, but I decided to create a 'replica' of the cruiser to have something for my Cicada-class gunboat to have on the shelf as company. And so, here is my proof that, once again, simple models have explosive potential for a stunning replica.

First, let me compare it to the Cicada. As you can see, it's about the same overall length, but it's got a heck of a lot more mass, as well as four ports for medium guns and one massive cannon on the nose. The Cicada has a mere two Gatling guns and a single 5 inch gun as armament.

Here is a profile (or nearly so) shot of the ship. I have yet to fabricate the guns on the sides, but you can see the ports for them. It's also possible to see the 'wooden' deck planks. I created that look by taking the kit's striped deck and cutting that into strips. Then I figured where there would be an underlying structure and cut the planks unevenly to match. Finally, I dotted them all to represent nail heads.

Here is the front of the ship. The cannon was originally supposed to mount directly to the front, with no elevation mechanism. Just a black stripe to suggest a hole through which it fired. This would not do for me. I cut out the black stripe, then using a spare printed sheet of dull gray metal texture, I created an inverted box the same size as the stripe, filled it with a squat cylinder, then glued the cannon to it after cutting some arcs out of the barrel to allow a flush fit with the rotation mechanism. The windows in the bridge were cut out instead of keeping the 'glass' intact, and I added an additional two windows that are not present in the kit, as well as added a raised rim around the vent on top. Finally, I hand-drew a Maltese Cross on the nose. I probably should have printed out a decal, but there you are. I think it looks fine anyway. :wink:

Aft end of the ship. I had to scratch build that prop using spare 'wood' from the deck and a black-Sharpied piece of dry spaghetti with a couple of gray strips to act as guides. I also cut out a new tail-plane out of spare gray, since the old one was too ugly to use on my build due to the extremely heavy black lines. You can also see the inspection door on the boiler room, which I added to the model. It would allow the crew to safely cross from the cabin midships to access the prop without having to clamber around the exterior of the boiler with nothing to grab hold of. You can barely make out the triple rivets I glued to the rudder attachment points, to make them look less like a flap and more like a mechanical connection.

Here's a part I'm proud of: the boiler's smokestack. I used a technique called edge gluing to secure it, but I remembered seeing old 19th century smokestacks which had a steel band with rivets up and down it holding the stack together. So I had to incorporate that into my model I cut a strip of gray, then another, thinner one to cut the rivets out of. After I chopped up a bunch of rivets, I glued them one at a time onto the strip, then I glued that to the stack. Simple, but extremely time-consuming.

This would be the cargo hatch. Since there's not enough room on-deck to have ammunition boxes, and since the other greebles have other functions besides cargo storage, I figured there ought to be a hatch in the middle of the deck to allow access to the interior cargo bay. So I built one out of spare wood panel, some gray for hinges, and a couple pieces of wood for handles. Here you can clearly see the door to the bridge, which I embellished by adding molding around the edges and a handle to open it.

I'm probably going to add the additional guns and a German flag on top, plus I already have a reinforced hole in the underside that's made to fit a coat hangar wire for display. But I figured it was finished enough to allow critique by y'all.

[Famous Dave]

Quite nifty builds. I always thought the concepts and ships were neat, and let's face it, STEAMPUNK ROCKS!! You've made a great build of some pretty awesome designs. I do like visiting SquirmyDad's site. Looking forward to the detailing pics. Keep it up, and thanks for sharing.

David

[Wyvern]

Really cool model; excellent craftsmanship!

Wyvern

[didier69]

It's really good realization ! Good work !

[rockpaperscissor]

Wonderful builds - neat, clean, and precise. I've never seen either of these models before. Are they free downloads or available for purchase? Do you happen to have a link handy?

[Millenniumfalsehood]

I got it from this site:

Welcome

Click on the 15mm link and look for the Hamburg.