Greek Navy...1921.... Smyrni....1/700

[JIM BAUMANN]

Although I have an armoured cruiser on the go...
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=64591
( procrastinating--waiting for turned spars)


and a major IJN Battleship in the offing....


I am nevertheless rather smitten at the moment with small KuK destroyers and Torpedo boats...
But one can get bored with all black ships....

The Yarrow type of destroyers are particular attractive--especially in later guises with the raised funnels...

The KuK Huszar class consisted of 14 ships:


- HUSZAR (I) - 04.07.1905 - Yarrow London;
- ULAN - 21.09.1906 - S.T.T. Triest; 1920 ceded to Greece ==> "Smyrni";
- STREITER - 31.12.1906,
- WILDFANG - 15.06.1907,
- SCHARFSCH�TZE - 15.09.1907,
- USKOKE - 31.12.1907,
- TURUL - 31.12.1908,
- PANDUR - 31.01.1909,
- CSIKOS - 16.10.1909,
- REKA - 13.08.1909,
- VELEBIT - 31.12.1909,
- DINARA - 31.12.1909,
- HUSZAR (II) - 08.02.1911,
- WARASDINER - 28.08.1914.

so... when I saw the Huszar class KuK SMS Ulan in a different guise...


How could I possibly resist...?

The hull captures very well the slight whaleback shape of these vessels.

I was armed with a number of good photos of vessels of the Huszar class, as well the 1/100 scale plans and detail booklet from Peter Kovacs Nostalgia Navy of Hungary... some of the small lumps and bumps on the hull casting made sense!

There is precious little info or photographic material of the ship at this stage of her career...

Enquires with Greek modellers and even a post on a Greek forum elicited very little information.

so I am reliant to a great extent on the instructions for colour and markings....

Inevitably there will be a flood of information just a soon a the model is nearing completion...



The hull was cast as an exact waterline--but as I wanted to show the vessel at speed I needed to show a bit of her 'underbelly' midships as well.. so I added a strip of styrene around the outer perimeter of the hull, this needed to be sanded carefully to be fair to the hull casting and the slight tumblehome.

The photoetched deck houses are simply lovely--and a very welcome way of getting some sharpness into these small vessels. The bridge deck was supplied as a casting with canvas dodgers and rails cast on--ambitious casting--but not as sharp as I wanted and also very hard to paint!!

I made my own using PE rails --which will later be infilled with white glue in the tied and tested way to simulate the canvas dodgers.

The boot-top was added using decal strip--patiently positioned , repositioned dan re-re re-re positioned with a wet paintbrush....

The ship is now afloat....

The torpedo tube rotating axis braces were made of spare PE funnel gratings from a WEM Askold set

The large cowl vents are beautifully done in resin --and there is still so much photoetched detail yet to add...

( image courtesy of JB Models)

so .... more soon!

JB

[JimRussell]

Jim,

TINY tiny ....

Your next challenge is a philosophical one, how many WWI destroyers fit on the head of a pin?

Blown away as usual.

jim

[MartinJQuinn]

TINY tiny ....

I picked one of these up late last year. You have no idea HOW tiny they are.

[Tom L.]

What a sweet looking kit, and to be honest, that PE set looks downright intimidating!

This color scheme looks to be showing the detail very nicely, as opposed to the darker schemes so often found on the early detsroyers.

I'll be folowing this build with great interest.

[Filipe Ramires]

Amazing the amount of photo-etch they provide for such a small hull!!! I was speechless when I bought their Hunt and definitely hats off for the smaller DD's.!!! Looking forward to see her complete.

[moomoon]

Bridge deck with railings and deck house look excellent! Very nice subject too...

[JIM BAUMANN]

My work commitments in 1/1 scale have kept me for doing anything terribly worthwhile at the toy-boat bench...

nevertheless by doing an hour here and there ...occasionally progress is made.

One of the appealing aspects of this kit is the extensive PE ( and it is mighty challenging!!-if sometimes perhaps a bit too hard for my clumsy fingers!)

In that vein I was REALLY impressed with the fwd gun platform in PE !!

I added some GMM Gold-plus railing that had been formed into a circle to the EDGES of the PE part so as to keep the platform nice and thin!

I used small dabs of gloss varnish as a 'grabber' and backed it up with CA once it had een tacked on

( and after application of rail to platform I infilled the small gaps with thinned white glue ! )

The platform was installed and the previously affixed and painted bridge railings had the 'canvas' dodgers added using white glue

adding the gun and other details in the vicinity the whole ship was beginning to come alive...
The fwd catwalk rails on the foredeck were rather trying...

The vessel is starting to come together and look like it may be a pleasing model.

It is however...

a VERY small ship, which when completed and bristling with detail will proudly take her place along with her KuK sisters in my wallcase

JB

[Jack Ray]

Hi Jim,

Extraordinary. Do you have any Swiss watchmakers in your family?

Best,

Jack

[moomoon]

I can't imagine what you could achieve after a "french manucure"...
There quite a contrast between this hard battled thumb and the ship

[Olaf Held]

Now that is small ... I have that funny feeling that your method of highlighting all edges could turn overscale when your modells get smaller and smaller ...

Bored by black irons?

What about a razzle-dazzle Oly as a running mate to your Maury?

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

[JIM BAUMANN]

SIGN OF LIFE !!!

Having been ludicrously busy with real life, (over!!! ) work etc...

I nevertheless have managed to spend a few snatched hours at the bench....

making a very tall spindly mast and adding teeny weeny details en masse...

and quickly snapped a few low quality shots this evening ...

as 'proof of life...! '

The model is steaming at a clip through a calm Aegean Sea...

Still needs oars, crew and rigging--but almost there now...!!

JIM B

[MartinJQuinn]

Fantastic looking little build, Jim!

[Cliffy B]

Very nice little ship sir May I ask how you did you seascape? It looks simple yet highly effective. Is it your usual method or a different way?

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thansk you Martin and Cliffy B!

Water is tried and tested... watercolour paper as here


viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37223


Cheers

JIM B

[Dan K]

Beautiful job, Jim.

[Anthony P]

Hi Jim,

Fantastic work, as usual!

I have been meaning to write for a while now, to add a snippet of information on the ship: as you mention, very little info is available. What i found out, from a book titled "Hellenic Warships 1829-2001" by C.Paizis-Paradellis, is that Smyrni was ceded to Greece in replacement of the torpedo boat Doxa, which was sunk while manned by a French crew and under the French flag in 1917. She was used for the training, during winter voyages, of naval cadets. She was decommissioned sometime between 1930 and 1932.

Anthony

[Atma]

Excellent buil Jim

[Bondoman]

I dunno... the crew are wearing the 1923 pattern smocks...
Fantastic little build! I am amazed by the work done in that scale too.
Hoopa!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Phew!


Despite some challenging times in my business life--I have finally completed Smyrni!

( and the temporary distraction of yet another classic car.... )



I will submit a full set of pics to the gallery tomorrow

meanwhile here is a taster or two!

Jim Baumann

[MartinJQuinn]

Sweet!