Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Here's a back-burner project of mine I've been tinkering with recently. I was given the Trumpeter kit for Christmas by my mother-in-law the year before last and recently made a start on it. Graf Spee was well known to have been disguised and re-camouflaged at sea during its commerce raiding cruise in late 1939, which as most will know culminated in the Battle of the River Plate off the east coast of South America. Admiral Graf Spee is slightly unusual in that it is very well documented in photographs (against the Nazi regime's will) in December 1939 when it fled HMS Ajax, Achilles and Exeter and showed up in Montevideo harbour. My model is thus a representation of its final colour scheme. Typical Trumpeter surface detail, after having drilled out all the portholes (I don't like relief portholes) Using Kagero's book and plans as an easy reference (I check with photographs whenever there is a discrepancy between these and the kit, and there are quite a few so far), one can see typical German porthole shutters. Unfortunately, I went mad, and decided to use photo etched brass porthole shutters and doors everywhere. These are from White Ensign Models set PE3579. My experience of Trumpeter 1/350 kits is that they seem to keep costs down by trying to keep superstructure parts fairly 2 dimensional. This tends to mean a rectangular box comes as 4 sides and a top, and usually they need filling, although so far Graf Spee needs less filler than my copy of HMS Hood has needed. Perhaps obviously, all paints are Colourcoats Kriegsmarine colours. A small modification - the Kagero book and plans are backed up by photographs which show symmetrical wings added to the superstructure with doors on in December 1939. These are represented by neither Trumpeter nor Academy. They may have been modifications at some point - I don't know - but they're not on the kit and they were there in real life in the time period concerned. I fashioned these from balsa and plasticard. That's as far as I have got, as of last night. 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Love the detailed work,keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob 1 Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Looks good work so far. I quite agree that port holes and windows look better drilled out and opened up. Will enjoy watching the progress of this classic vessel . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex-FAAWAFU Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Looking nice. The real word for a "porthole shutter" is "deadlight", if you're remotely interested. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Thank you. I didn't know that, but such things do indeed interest me Thank you. I didn't know that, but such things do indeed interest me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LE BOSCO Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 This warship had a very particular architecture but You are on the way for make something very beautiful cheers Nicolas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigdave22014 Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 Battle of the River Plate has to be one of my favourite films of that era. I'll be following this with interest (and half an eye on the contents of my wallet - Can I afford one?) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 14, 2016 Author Share Posted April 14, 2016 The post man came today. Well, he comes every day but usually it's just bills and pamphlets explaining why I should vote for some politician or another. Today though, he brought gun barrels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 I love it when the postman brings goodies!! I'm also loving reading about and seeing this exemplary piece of work and it's making me want to have a bash at a ship too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Housesparrow Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 Any plans for how to paint this model? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 14, 2016 Author Share Posted April 14, 2016 The Kagero book details the scheme well and I'd recommend it. It corroborates well with the photographs I've collected. The actual colours used were compiled by John Snyder and are named here: https://www.sovereignhobbies.co.uk/pages/german-navy The colour names are correct so if you wish to paint with something else, the names are transferrable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 14, 2016 Author Share Posted April 14, 2016 I love it when the postman brings goodies!! I'm also loving reading about and seeing this exemplary piece of work and it's making me want to have a bash at a ship too! Build yourself an aircraft carrier. It's the best of both worlds*! *Don't. That is literally the worst idea for starting with ships. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 This looks to be a cracking build. Mine was just OOB with guardrails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 It's cracking me up mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beefy66 Posted April 20, 2016 Share Posted April 20, 2016 Great start James do you think you will have it finished for Perth at the weekend I meant 2017 of course Beefy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 Stranger things have happened! Actually no, no they haven't. Now you mention it, Perth 2017 would be a nice target to set myself. I might even try to finish Hood by then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 I put my girls to bed at 1930hrs and my wife decided to buy a few groceries and visit her best friend whom she hadn't seen for a bit. So, what to do? Following the above comments, and having - shock horror - just completed something with wings I decided to spend a little time on Graf Spee. I'm cross eyed now and have a sore neck - this is as long as I can spend on PE in one go apparently. Anyway, the last part of superstructure before basic painting can commence has been completed. Boring. Why did I start this? Given that I was fed up having done the port side, I thought some good motivation would be to prove to the good people of Britmodeller that I had done the starboard side too. Unfortunately that required actually doing the starboard side. I think I can start applying the camouflage now though. I'm intending to spray the paint in the reverse order to which it was originally applied, or in otherwords, I'll spray the darkest colours the crew slapped on whilst at sea first because they're smallest, then mask and spray the large areas of the main colours. Well, after I've drilled out the few rogues on there at least. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 The first lick of paint is on the superstructure. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bodmin Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Impressive work. Loving your attention to the photo etch, great calm and patience shown. Impeccable precision! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray S Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 Great work so far. Looking forward to seeing you progress! Cheers, Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 Thanks gentlemen. The PE so far is about as painless as it gets - the White Ensign Models portholes and doors just glue straight on. A pair of fine tweezers and thin CA is all that's required. For as common as they are, it's usually handrails I struggle to do to a standard I'm happy with! Anyway, tonight I decided to try the new compressor. I would have been more efficient overall detailing the turrets and masking those as well as the tower before cracking open the paint, but I wanted a visual improvement and to be honest, I was getting sick of masking! This is the Hellgrau 50 applied. These items are now ready for PE detailing. I've tried the "stick everything on first then paint it" route before, which works ok on models which are all one colour. Chris Flodberg whom I slightly idolise as a ship modeller always paints the basic plastic first then sticks on the fiddly bits. I've never tried it that way before, so I'm doing it now. I can find a way to make a mess however I do it! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 This is turning into a very impressive build! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigdave22014 Posted April 27, 2016 Share Posted April 27, 2016 Never heard of adding the PE after painting so looking forward to seeing how this comes out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 That's you and me both 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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