My in-process Grosser Kurfurst photos

[Yevgeniy]

As I have already making my Grosser Kurfurst for some considerable time - over 3 years - I feel I can post some photos of my process.

The model is still not complete - but not because I possess some superior skills and so attentive to details . It is vice versa - I was a complete novice 3 years ago and this is my very first ship and is actually my 'learning ground' (I am very slow too). When I started I did not have any tools and even did not want to paint the ship - thought red waterline will be enough and grey plastic will suffice for the rest . But in the process I bought everything from toothpicks to airbrush and try every technique I find interesting.

I feel I will finish it at the end of this summer with all the rigging, anti-torpedo nets, bells and whistles So here is my modest achievements.

Yevgeniy
P.S. At this moment I will not express my gratitude for all wonderful tips I received on this site and invaluable help of other modellers- this will be done when I send pics to the Gallery. But I already say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who assisted me in the process because I would not get to this point without your advice.
P.P.S. Next pics will be sometime in May as I do not have a camera and have to ask my bro to get to my place and help me with pics.

[Islander]

Hi Yevgeniy,
I've enjoyed your posts and I certainly like your Grosser Kurfuerst. Hopefully I will be getting my hands on one of these in the near future, so I am looking forward to seeing yours finished - but please, I can't wait three more years
Your deck looks very, very good.

I will take a stab at your Quizz - is it JB?

Cheers,
John

[Yevgeniy]

John,

Thank you for appreciating words, the deck is one of 'successful' areas while there some not 'lucky'. But I am learning on my mistakes...

Hope to see your one soon

I plan to finish mine by the end of this summer latest. Torpedo nets with all their rigging and parts will take me about 1 month I guess. Also I will have to make the rigging for the first time - another month. Railing along all the decks - another month. Plus some unforeseen events...

The reason it takes so long is because everything is done for the first time - I spent 3 (!) hours on my first WEM inclined ladder and at the end destroyed it completely. Next one took me only 20 minutes. I spent about 2 weeks simulating wood on the decks and about 2 more weeks painting all the skylights. But now all of it gets quicker.

You are absolutely right and very attentive and really made a stab at my Quizz at the very start - the photo is that of JB! Jim has kindly provided me with additional photos of his built and I can use them better than any drawings

Kind regards,

Yevgeniy

[Elvis965]

Your deck looks very, very good.

I'll second that! Nicely done!

I've been meaning to get my hands on one of these ICM kits for awhile, since they are the only 1/350 WW1 dreadnoughts in plastic.



Bob

[Yevgeniy]

Thank you, Bob!

Your intention to take this ship is exactly the same as mine - I wanted to have a WWI battleship out of injection plastic kit and also to find out what do those misterious 'dreadnoughts' mean. Now I know And...I could not pass by the box art.

Cheers,

Yevgeniy

[Yevgeniy]

Hi all!

A little photo update on my Grosser Kurfurst progress thanks to my brother's visit with digital camera.

It is summer time - a vacation time with clients and general slowdown in business - so more time for modeling As usual I am ve-ery slow with my modeling ... but doing it not according for schedule but for pleasure only... much better than all other obligations.

I am showing you Grosser Kurfurst motor boats and barkasses mounted on Tamiya rotating round table (masked with tape to avoid its cleaning afterwards). Very handy for priming/painting I would say - althought when glueing PE I had to fix the table manually since it rotates all the time

I scratchbuild interior floor of large barkasses and cutters cutting them from WEM PE frame - those boats are too large to skip those parts. I shied away from engrawing planking on them - but this is for next model. Actually my Grosser Kurfurst is a everyday learning ground for me - sometime I learn new skill but it is already too late to implement it - otherwise it will be my life-time project which I do not want .

Masts tops are made from syringe needles which were filed to make them square at joint points and glued with CA. Now I keep fingers crossed so that they (masts) do not fall apart when I start rigging.

Next update probably when I finish the model (end of summer )

Regards,

Yevgeniy

[Timmy C]

Cute boats

Good tip on using PE frames as scratch building material; will probably use it later in the future!

[Yevgeniy]

Thank you Timmy! Boats are one of most 'tasty' parts of any ship for me - just a little idiosyncrasy of mine

Glad I can already be of help with my experience. For cutting things out of PE set frame I use sharp heavy scissors and then trim the edges by a diamond file as scissors bend edges a little. The scissors were claimed by a salesguy as made for working with metal although I suspect they are a simple adjusted tailor heavy scissors.

Yevgeniy

[Yevgeniy]

Well, more than one month and a half have passed from the moment I started the motorboats/life-boats on my Grosser Kurfurst and yesterday I finished. Working 1-1,5 hour per day took me around 40 hours to make these boats. When I had 2-3 modelling sessions before the end I started hating my boats but when finished I feel satisfaction.

Now when they are finished I can return to the hull and finally start mounting all ready assemblies there. Hopefully I am 2-2.5 month before completition of this model.

I shall thank Jim Baumann for photos of his boats in high resolution which Jim has kindly provided to me which were my base reference and Peter Lienau (aka Ingura) for his continued support with reference material and sharing own research on Kaiserliche Marine. And thank you all guys helping me to decide on oars placing in Main Forum

Any constructive critisism is more than welcome - I will try to do better on my next models (I know one big mistake with motorboats rear railing - they were just different - but I already done them after discovering the right version and just can not force myself to re-build - see correct version here download/file.php?id=11334&mode=view (kindly provided by Ingura) ).

Yevgeniy

[Islander]

Hey Yevgeniy,
Nice boats!
John

[Cadman]

Those are like little models by themselves. Great work.

[Timmy C]

You're lucky - you get to paint them in more than just white and brown!

Cute little boats, aye!

[Yevgeniy]

Thank you, guys for your kind words, I will continue then

John, thank you for following - I hope I will finish sooner than in 3 years Hopefully next couple of months.

Cadman, Sir, that is the feeling I tried to get when looking at those boats - I am glad you have it!

Timmy, thank you. But I have got all grey funnels on my ship without any stripes

Yevgeniy

[Neptune]

Your boats look terrific! Personally I never really like to build any lifeboats, but yours are very diverse and interesting to see. Lately ships like Grosser Kurfurst have caught my interest a lot. So much even that I'd even think about building one (something very impossible in my mind not so long ago). Fantastic work, I've used PE frames to cut various platforms etc. Good to see I'm not the only nutcase doing that!

[Yevgeniy]

Thanks Neptune! German dreadnoughts are all very interesting ships so I fully support you. If you decide diving in this area you can look at a wonderful 1:100 model (I know you are a scratchbuilder, eh?) of Markgraf done by German modeller here http://www.igkm.de/igkm-eng/Photos3/Sei ... kgraf.html

I can tell you also that lately I got interested in such modern ships as Petr Velikiy or Udaloi and I would say same as you- it was impossible for me to think like this not so long ago. I have the same bug with some new car models for example - when I see a new say Ford Mondeo model I start thinking 'oh the old one looked so much better, this new one is horror'. But when time passes and I continue seeing it from now and then I become accustomed to it and in a time I start feeling 'oh that old model looks so obsolete, the new one is natural'. Same with ships - they are all beautiful due to their very nature

PE frame is the very good scratchbuilding material I absolutely agree with you I wish PE manufacturers did it a little wider

Yevgeniy

[William J]

Hi Yevgeniy

Great work, keep it up

Bill Keough

[Yevgeniy]

Thank you, Bill!

You add to my inspiration to finish this project which needs another 1-2 months.

I am continuing and now made a step back - having previously painted porholes (spent two modelling sessions on that) I now changed my mind, drilled them through, painted edges bronze and glued on eyebrows from 0,1mm wire. Yesterday I finished them (2 weeks work) and will move on. Sorry no pics yet - on rare occasions I ask my bro with camera to come to me and do it.

My studies for second education start 20Sept09 so I have a dealine to finish Grosser Kurfurst as job+study leaves very little powder for modeling.

Yevgeniy

[Yevgeniy]

Some updates with photos - I want to show you the portholes for which I spent some 3+ weeks: 2-3 modelling sessions painting them black then in a year during this build deciding that it is wrong and remaking them.

I drilled them through, painted the edges bronze, made eyebrows from 0,1 mm wire (from telephone cable). I have not succeeded yet with glazing (only 6 portholes were glazed so far) - my private photographer (my brother) came unexpectedly so I did not have time to glaze it - will finish today.

Rear superstructure is glued in place. The forward one is not glued yet - just installed for today's photosession.

I am getting nuts as I run out of my time-table to finish this ship by the end of September when my study begins. Today I read Vladimir Yakubov method of making realistic chains out of PE chain (cutting for individual sections and connecting in the right way) and I can not abstain from replacing the chain I already have. Omg will I ever finish this project?

The last 2 photos are: Aurora in St.Petersburg for you to see brass portholes and Konig real photos - eyebrows on Russian and SMS ships were obviously different.

Yevgeniy

[Timmy C]

Painting the edges in brass certainly helps to bring them out from the monotonous tone of the hull! Looking good!

[Yevgeniy]

Thanks Timmy, that thinking was my idea. I am glad that according to my research WWI ships still had those bronze portholes - I could not do it on Udaloi for example

Yevgeniy