Moltke

The winning ship model was Jim Baumann's Vladimir Monomakh featured here Vladimir Monomakh It was superb seeing it in the flesh so to speak as was seeing the other models on the Fine Waterline (SIG) modeller's stand. Those guys are very talented. I had a brief chap with Mr Baumann. Gave me some helpful tips. David Griffith's models were superb also. He had a lovely diaroma in competition using three scales of models to produce a great sense of perspective. In fact all the various ship model SIG stands had a very impressive collection of models. Also impressive was seeing the Ponto's detail set for the Warspite. I didn't buy it though as I got a decent discount on the WEM set. I also picked up the Academy Warspite for 33 pounds which I thought was a good price. Now, I must finish my workshop so I can actually build some models!!

Amazing stuff but it will cost you. They mention 120 USD for their set in that thread.

As my curiosity was peaked, extensive research (one minute on google) has found that bizarrely there is a site dedicated to ship's cats http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/war02.html However, Dreadnought's is unfortunately not mentioned. I'll be putting an order in as well.

What colour was the cat and do you have it in colorcoats?

Darn, another site to browse through when I should be working Impressive model of Dreadnought on there though!

Very nice build. Is the Walrus kit really that bad? I'd think having one on the model would be a nice feature.

I checked out the book on Amazon and it looks very interesting so I ordered a copy. Thanks for the tip. At Jutland though she was hit by 2 x 11" and 13 x 12" major calibre shells. If the book mentions 31 hits it is either a typo or must include some from secondary batteries. Still one hell of a battering.

Thanks again for the tips. Always nice to get the attention of the experts One last question. What matte finish product do you use? Testor's dullcoat ?

Excellent. My first attempt at a 1/700 model I think.

Thanks for the tips. Can I ask you to elaborate on the comment that Humbrol "old range" is the best for detail? What is the difference with their current range? I'm very interested in this issue of trying to minimise structure in the paint which is out of scale with the model. I'm just about to start painting a ship using WEM colorcoat enamels and an airbrush for the first time, partly because I want to experiment with enamels (for my first ship I used Tamiya acrylics) and partly because they supply exact colours for the subject. Have you had much experience with them?

The Vittorio Veneto-class is one of the best looking battleships imho. They strike me as being a bit like Alfa Romeo's. Great Italian styling (not that styling was an issue in their design of course!) and superb engineering in certain areas but not really state-of-the-art in others (it's torpedo defense system for example).

Exquisite...that's the word I've been wondering how you can paint at this scale without blurring all the lovely detail.

1:500 ? That's confusing. On their website they have downloadable pdfs at 1:350 and 1:700 scale. 12 Euros for HMS Renown. I haven't spotted plans in any other scale.

Very interesting build. One of my favourite ships! How do you rate the information/plans that Profile Morskie do compared with those in Raven and Roberts? I have the latter. I assume you probably do as well. I guess the fact that the plans are available specifically in 1:350 (and 1:700) makes them especially useful.

Definitely my next project. Interesting that the Steel Navy review was so much better than I expected given some of the comments on various other forums.

Very nice indeed, especially the crisp PE work.

I have this model and it will be my next project. I bought the WEM PE set for it. I'm thinking of doing it in it's pre-Jutland fit which means fitting the torpedo netting support structure. The PE set has well over 100 parts for the netting structure and davits which is a bit insane to attempt as this will only be my second ship. Oh, well, nothing ventured.... Can I ask you what paints you are using?

Your KGV looks a lot neater than mine. One thing I've learnt about attempting to handpaint a model this big is that I need to buy an airbrush and compressor before I do the next one! I guess you've seen these 1945 pics Hi-Res Pic of KGV Close-up of secondary turret It would be nice to be able to approach some of that level of detail

I'd not seen that one before Phil. Thanks. Incredible the amount of smoke being pumped out. One of the problems with the design of Dreadnought was putting the foremast just behind the front funnel.

Indeed. The idea first appeared in print in 1903 in an article written by the Italian naval architect, Vittorio Cuniberti. It was the speed of construction of Dreadnought that was most exceptional and demonstrated British industrial power at that time. Early 20th Century naval history is something of a hobby of mine. My grandfather was German and served throughout WW1 on the BC SMS Moltke (hence my adopted login name). One of the reasons I've just taken up modelling is that eventually I want to build a model of his ship. All the best Steve

Well, I just used the "field blue" in the end anyway for the upper surfaces. It doesn't look too garish even if it is dubious. It's my first build so I'm mainly concerned about learning the techniques.

Hope I'm not hijacking your thread but it seemed an appropriate place to ask if anyone can point to me to original pictures of the KGV's boats as I want to add some detail. I've searched around and mostly found images of KGV model builds and pretty much everyone has painted the boats differently

Hi Folks, I've also got this model and all the Tamiya paints (as recommended in the instructions) for this kit. It will be the first model I've made in about 30 years. Above you mention that the field blue is not actually appropriate for the upper surfaces but that "dark blue gray" is. Field Blue actually does look quite blue gray to me, but what do you mean by "dark blue gray" exactly? Is that a standard mix of a particular blue and gray? All the best Steve