I’m a glutton for punishment, DKM Light Cruiser Königsberg by Flyhawk

[Exkiwiforces]

I’m a glutton for punishment, I’ve decided to start this lovely kit from Flyhawk DKM Königsberg a Light Cruiser. This is another outstanding product from Flyhawk and being a deluxe kit it comes a extensive PE set with a instructions all most bordering on War & Peace.

 

Some of the PE I will give a wide berth as plastic stuff is to the high standard that you get with Flyhawk, with some PE I dive in and have a crack at. Hopefully this will keep me occupied until the black paint turns up. Just got to find a half decent plan of this class, so I can have a look at rigging set up.

 

 

 

 

 

The hull and decking were slightly warp thence the rubber bands which were kindly supplied by Flyhawk. It did provide a slightly messy assembly with wee bit of glue damage to the hull, which doesn’t worried me, as I do like a bit of wear & tear on my ships. Consider these light cruisers even with their nice lines weren’t actually a good sea boat on the open seas including the North Sea even through there were designed as a Raider/ Scouting Cruiser.

 

Thence the later designed M Class Cruisers were design to replace them, but they never got built and were later broken up on the slipways like the only keel of the H Class Battleship. Apart from the invasion of Denmark & Norway which two were sink by RN (Submarine and Skua Dive Bombers), there was one or two later Ops out of Norway or Denmark to support the lager fleet units of the DKM which may’ve got caned from memory? Spent most of the War in the Baltic Sea supporting Army Group Nth, convoys to Finland and as a training ship/ target ships for training up the U Boat crews. Another feature of these Light Cruisers was their ability to lay mine’s as well which did see one operation towards the end of the War between Denmark & Norway, but only one sortie was completed due to the on going fuel shortage facing the Germans in 45. 

Edited January 13, 2021 by Exkiwiforces

[Our Ned]

'Twas only Köln which "Spent most of the War in the Baltic Sea ..."; the other two were both lost during the invasion of Norway in April 1940.

[Bugle07]

Always thought the class was designed to run away? Strange old look to her.

 

Will be good to see how she comes together, good luck with the rigging!

 

Geoff

[Exkiwiforces]

Did a we bit of painting to realise the Flyhawk has made a slight boo boo with its paint scheme for the decks on Königsberg. 

They have KM03 Dunkelgrau which is a Bonze/ Black Green when in fact it’s Dark Blue Grey and it should KM06 Dunkelgrau 2. 

Which only happened after I had put the 1st coat of KM03 on, but I fixed this with KM06 and I thinned it out to give the main  & quarter deck a  worn look to it.

 

 

 

 

[Exkiwiforces]

13 hours ago, Bugle07 said:

Always thought the class was designed to run away? Strange old look to her.

 

Will be good to see how she comes together, good luck with the rigging!

 

Geoff

Old Jerry, was restricted to the then Treaty of Versailles when the 2nd Batch of Light Cruisers was launched and thence the some the novelty features this class has. But I do like M Class Cruiser which was designed to replace these ones,  plus it does look like the German Naval Architects actually did do a Lessons Learnt between this Class of Ships and the M Class (Must try & find an M Class in 1/700 now for a comparison).  

[Exkiwiforces]

A little bit of painting this afternoon, but real treat was having a crack at assembly the first of of 3 turrets with brass barrels. I almost came Barry Cocker twice losing the barrel mounts to the carpet monster, which would’ve been a major show stopper if I lost those two wee mounts for the barrels. I’m surprised that Flyhawk have them separate so you can have either plastic or brass barrels? 

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Exkiwi, that first photo of your post yesterday shows just how fine lines this class of cruiser had. And I like those turrets and guns. I'd like seven sets if I could get them, in 1/600 scale. No doubt I'll have to scratch my own. Regards, Jeff.

[Jockster]

Lovely little kit, and as you say, the plastic parts are so nicely produced that the PE on some parts just isn't necessary at all. Enjoy! Looking forward to following this one!

 

[Exkiwiforces]

Not much happen this afternoon, as I was more interested in the on the wireless of Ian Chappell’s yarns of his cricketing, Baseball days and his time playing cricket in the Lancashire league, West Indies, UK & the  Subcontinent. Plus a bit on Coaching young cricketers as the wife’s nephew is playing District Rep cricket for his age group in Sydney atm. He’s very fast right arm swing bowler with a hint of being an all- rounder, which would make him  a rare species in today’s modern game.

 

Due to a rain delay at the 4th Test in Brisvegas, well actually it was one the Sth East Queensland’s famous afternoon Sub Tropical storms rolled in from the West.

 

Did a little bit of tidying up on the build, before I attached the main deck to the hull. 

 

[Exkiwiforces]

On 15/01/2021 at 21:00, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Exkiwi, that first photo of your post yesterday shows just how fine lines this class of cruiser had. And I like those turrets and guns. I'd like seven sets if I could get them, in 1/600 scale. No doubt I'll have to scratch my own. Regards, Jeff.

You probably could get from Shapeways? They are very cute turrets with the brass barrels and I’m looking forward to doing the twin 88’s mounts with brass barrels.

[mick]

great start

[Exkiwiforces]

 

First of apologies for the a updates to this build as the  modem blew up last Sunday during one of our famous Nth’ern NT electrical storms as the cricket aka 4th Test and Agnew bloopers was more important than the Modem.

 

Anyway, the main & secondary guns have been primed , which I managed to start painting them today and I also knocked the paint can over during the process, but managed to save some paint as well.

I didn’t put the brass barrels on the twin 88’s as I was starting to chance my arm with the 3 gun turrets, a bit too much.

 

 

 

The hull has come along pretty good, with a some minor touch ups this afternoon and I started on the super structure as well. With the amount of rain we are receiving at the moment, I’m going to get a far bit done this week and on the good news front the paint has finally arrived at the postie late this afternoon after I had picked up the new modem.

 

 

 

But unfortunately it’s invasion day to tomorrow here in Oz, so everyone is on the sauce, cooking bangers, lamb chops on the bbq or protesting etc. I personally will a quite period of reflection of my Dad’s Irish side of Australia Royalty royalty aka convicts and the Redcoats of both the Irish & Nth’ern England at being vanished to the colonies.

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Exkiwiforces
Double picture now a with the correct one and fixed up the text.

[Exkiwiforces]

Slow work on the superstructure today as the upper bridge had been wee tag problematic as the PE was a tag to long and the supports for the upper bridge were very fragile which is nothing unusual with Flyhawk model. But extra care is required when separating them from the 

spure

 

 

[Exkiwiforces]

A slow day on a crappie Nth’ern NT Wet Season day that was equally frustrating, but in the end a rewardingly day.

 

Assembling the PE was hell today, superglue didn’t want to play and when did it stuck to the wrong things, PE falling apart at the wrong time and breaking the odd part along the way or disappearing for a moment.

 

Amongst all the chaos of modelling in 1/700, I managed to actually achieve today’s goals at where I wanted to be late this afternoon with all items in the photo primed. Oh Minus the funnels and whatever is on that fame going to tomorrow’s job if all the painting goes well.

 

Tomorrow which is going to another wet monsoonal day and in fact to at least next Friday atm. Well be painting and possibly some more PE work as well.  

 

Oh before I forget, got my paints from the Postie this morning yippee.

 

[Exkiwiforces]

Yesterday’s painting went decidedly well, with some touch ups this afternoon which allowed for some assembly. Both forward & aft superstructure are on, with the 4 Torpedo tubes.

 

 

In the process of doing the stairs for both lower & upper parts of the forward superstructure. Which should have in place tomorrow afternoon and possibly the main mast as well. The other for to morning afternoon is to start in finishing the funnels and some other deck parts.

 

[Exkiwiforces]

Been working on the funnels and the main mast the afternoon. I didn’t use all the PE for the funnels as the actual plastic mould looks pretty good. Assembling the mast was interesting to say the last and I realised it have been a  boo-boos after had primed the mast, but it’s nothing to major. Just the yardarms and some circle thingy.

 

 

 

[Exkiwiforces]

Today was an effort to get things going this afternoon. Had to take a break after the 30mins to clear my mind, but anyway I got a few things. 

 

The upper bridge was glued this afternoon and it went to plan. As I was very concerned that the fragile plastic support legs to the rear of the upper bridge would snap off or break. The mast was only meant to be a test fit as I need to put in a ladder underneath the searchlight platform, but it wouldn’t come out so it’s now in place without any glue. 

 

Everything else that was fitted to the model like the twin 88’s, the forward funnel & forward Ventilators all went in as clockwork.

 

 

Probably start on some of the fine detail parts and the other funnel including the mast yardarms. 

This build is trucking along quite well atm and the only issue at the atm is I have no yellow paint for the main gun turret roofs.

 

P.S btw the thingy in the middle on the deck is not glued on atm, as it’s awaiting for the other funnel and ventilators etc.

[Exkiwiforces]

Not a lot done this afternoon, just a lot of boring painting and some preparation work for tomorrow which is also boring. Also I made another contribution to Jamie’s retirement fund aka Sovereign Colour Coats and to find out this morning I ordered the wrong paint even though I wrote it down. So I’ll blame my meds on this lol, rest a sure it won’t affect this build atm but it may with future DKM builds.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Exkiwiforces

[Exkiwiforces]

Mast day this afternoon,

 

Been slowly building the masts for the Königsberg build. I still have the aft mast to finish and the top part of the fighting top on the forward mast.

 

 

 

 

Most of the mast have been primed, so once the others are finish then I will start assembling then to the build.

[Exkiwiforces]

Today was checking up yesterday’s handy work.

 

The mast that is attached to the rear most funnel the lower yardarms are not straight, so I’m hoping when I do the rigging it should twist straight into place? 

 

The fighting top mast are looking pretty good as well, but aft mast (in the middle) which is attached to the aft superstructure is being very problematic to a point of being a pain in the backside. Plastic mast with a piece of brass rod attached to the the plastic. Hmm obviously the boffins at Flyhawk got this to work during product testing? Might give it one more try tomorrow afternoon.

 

Oh btw, that brass PE piece to the left is a part of the ships catapult 

 

Apart from that everything else is ticking along very well and I’ll probably start on the light Flak guns or the ships small boats with a bit of touch up painting 

[Exkiwiforces]

Well the wee aft mast is not working, so I would love to know what the heck the boffins at Flyhawk were using to assemble this mast?

 

 

I’ve started on the 4 twin 37mm guns. I’m using  twin 37mm guns from Niko as I thought it might be easier to do than the Flyhawk ones that come 3 pieces. Tomorrow I’ll start on the single 20mm canons 

 

A close up of the twin 37mm gun

 

[Exkiwiforces]

Today I finished off painting the twin 37mm guns.

 

 

Also started on the single 20mm guns and again they a from Niko. Tomorrow’s effort will trying to attach the shoulder supports, they very similar to those found on the 20mm Oerlikon gun.

 

 

 

[Exkiwiforces]

This afternoon I attached the 4 twin 37mm guns to the Ship.

 

 

Finally finished the 4 single 20mm guns and sorted out the ships small boats. I decided not to do the PE on the small boats as I didn’t feel comfortable that I would do a good enough job for these wee boaties.

 

 

[Bugle07]

Those Niko guns have come out really well, nice work!

 

Are you using superglue for the aft mast? I've never had luck getting plastic and brass to join properly on a mast, always had to go one way or t'other, to the point that I'm going to experiment with soldering soon.

 

Geoff 

[Exkiwiforces]

On 06/02/2021 at 20:29, Bugle07 said:

Those Niko guns have come out really well, nice work!

 

Are you using superglue for the aft mast? I've never had luck getting plastic and brass to join properly on a mast, always had to go one way or t'other, to the point that I'm going to experiment with soldering soon.

 

Geoff 

Yes I’m very impressed with those Niko guns, but the Flyhawk ones look very nice as well and knowing Flyhawk plastic being so soft I’m poo-poo scared of breaking the twin 37mm gun barrels. But I will probably assemble one in due course, but the PE sets for the 37mm & 20mm guns are out of this world and you almost need a PhD in origami to assemble them as you with the ships catapult which I have to tackle sometime this week.

 

I’m going for an all brass mast now, as I’ve given up. The Flyhawk Boffins must be using some sort of glue that is obviously banned in the West. As it does seem strange that they have plastic on brass?

 

Cheers,

 

Al