Wilhelmshaven questions

[Gman93643]

I recently picked up some old ship kits from Wilhelmshaven, like the Alte Liebe and Lutzow and I was wondering if anyone new of any diagrams, build reports, or directions that can be found and used for building these kits. Thanks!

[Papercut]

Wilhelmshaven kits are not for everyone. They appear easy, but they are demanding kits to build. Sometimes you get a sheet or two of written instructions. Now if you look at the page the kit is printed on, you will notice little diagrams! These are about it for instructions. PMI use to send a set of instructions that the owner provided outside of the kit mfg. That is about it for instructions, you can search forums for builds of the kits you have to help to assemble. Kartonbau.de, a German Card Model Forum will be of great help. If you can download the translate option f/Google Tool Bar, this will translate the language into English which will be of great help in understanding what the individual did during construction. Many of the Wilhelmshaven I have are there as build threads, not only that, but if you ask, I bet some of our friends from across the big pond in FRG will be more than glad to help you understand the assembly of the kit. I hope this has been of some help.:DRick PS:Wilhelmshaven kits are some of my favorite kits.

[Gman93643]

Thanks papercut! You have sent me in the right direction! I picked up 3 of these kits relatively cheap and they look like they will be a challenge and fun to build!

[member_3]

One important item - scan through the German instruction for "doppel" or "verdoppeln" which is an instruction to double the thickness of the part. Other than that they normally build in pretty strict numerical order. Like Papercut, I really have a soft spot for Wilhelmshaven models - they were what I started paper modeling some thirty years ago.

[Gman93643]

I was attracted to the ship kits by the mere size of them. The ones I received came printed on 11 by 17 and they were huge! I got the Koln Konigsberg-Karlsruhe, the Lutxow at 1:250 scale and the Alte Liebe also at 1:250! Very beautiful kits!

[Jim Nunn]

Old Troll’s suggestion is very important.

Sounds like you have some of the older (1960’s through 1970’s) large format kits. These were the best available paper models at the time and the building methods used in the kits are template for ship models to this day. As I remember these were all water line models and tended to be accurate to the prototype. Adding railings and other detail touches and these kits would still build up to very nice models and well worth the effort.

I have a one of the instructions that PMI sent out with these kits it is more a brief set of instructions on how to build paper models and they do not go into any great detail like we see today. If you would like a copy drop a note via private message with your email address and I’ll send you a scan.

Jim Nunn

[Gman93643]

I just went through the entire ship section at Kartonbau.de, and I didnt find a single build report dedicated to any of the ships that I have. It was worht a try though!

[B-Manic]

These are pretty rare kits i.e. very hard to find and normally quite pricey, perhaps building from a scanned copy should be considered.

[Papercut]

Originally Posted by B-Manic

These are pretty rare kits i.e. very hard to find and normally quite pricey, perhaps building from a scanned copy should be considered.

I agree and I am sorry there was no threads related to your models on the German site.:DRick

[member_3]

Wilhelmshaven kits are available here but, as you can see, there are still very few of their models that come with English instructions. An interesting service they have added is making models available in larger sizes (for a larger price tag) - many ships can be had in the original 1:250, or 1:160 or (yes, really!) 1:87!!!