Building the Dragon Z-39 in 1/350 scale

[GazzaS]

I haven't posted recently because I have been fighting with railing, tiny last-to-add pieces, and modelkasten wire.

It is so fine, I can barely see it with 3X visor on. Moreover, I can't even feel it between my fingertips. It's as close to scale as I could buy. I hate to not use it. I was placing the fourth signaller's line (or whatever the heck you call it) when I realised it wasn't even sticking with CA.

I'm pretty close to a Godzilla moment, so I have put the dang thing away.

I don't want to use sprue. I will break it. I still have 80+ crew to place on the deck.

Anybody ever work with this modelkasten stuff? Got any useful tips?

This project has turned into a bit of a grudge match. I realise that the fineness of the pieces is beyond my skills. But I want to finish without going backwards and pull stuff apart.

Rant/sulk ended.

No pictures to post, sorry.

[GazzaS]

Entering the home stretch, I think. Suffered a major disaster last night. Whilst placing the crew, I bumped the mainmast. I had already completed the rigging, and the tension of the heat shrunken, stretched sprue cables caused the bridge to separate itself from the bridge wings. So, I have to redo some rigging.

Anyway, on to some pics. They're not very good, and a lot of flaws are showing up, unfortunately.

A bow shot. Because I was converting the Z-39 into the older Z-32 I had to make some changes. I had to remove the forward portion of the combination degaussing cable and spray strake and move the degaussing cable so that it followed the lines of the foc'sle. I used some silk thread I had laying around then coated it with thinned PVA. It's all but invisible The earlier strake is still visible, unfortunately. I hope to hide that with water and spray. You can see some crew manning the 2cm single behind the forward turret.


The bridge, manned by a lot of guys looking through Binoculars. Barely visible are a couple of fellas in the crow's nest, one watching port, the other starboard.


This is the AA and secondary director around the after funnel. The Northstar US boxing tournament set provided me with a couple of guys in poses that I could use for guys looking through the optics. The guns are manned, but the crews are watching the action. Facing Canadian cruisers, the reach of their 2cm and 3.7cm fall a bit short. Z-39 originally had a lot of 3.7cm automatics here. But due to the conversion, I was able to use the excess single 2cm guns that came with the kit. I built the after searchlight platform from resin and leftover kit parts. An additional searchlight was another bonus. Z-39 had a radar here.


The after main battery. One gun isn't able to train on the action due to the after deck house. The other two are waiting to fire. I think next time, I'll try to get some guys into the gun shields before I mount them to the deck. High res photo's show everything.


A combined shot of the after half of the ship from the other side. Just more exposure for the crew, really. Poor guys had nowhere to hide amidst shell splinters and icy waters.


A full length shot from above. My water base is sitting on a block of old pine I found in the shed. There is still a lot of work to do on the water, and a bit (actually tons) of prettying up to do on the railing. Railing really frustrates me at this point. But I really wanted to get this done so I can move on to another project.


I haven't really weathered the hull. I'm still at odds to do so. There'll be a lot of water splashing around, and she was just hours out of port.

[GazzaS]

C'est fini!

Before the photos I want to express special thanks to those gentlemen who took time to put their skills and talents into detailed and helpful tutorials for the rest of us.

Chris Flodberg for painting, scale color, and seascape.
Jim Baumann for rigging. I tried to resist going to stretched sprue, but in the end I found it better than the alternatives.

My apologies for failing to go the extra mile to make sure that mine looks half as good as yours.

Another thanks to that guy who posted the idea of using cigarette paper and a copier for the flag. I reckon the single thickness I've used shows through both sides well and doesn't look like a slab of plywood.


Way back at the start of the thread, I said that the illustration from this book was part of my inspiration for this build. I thought about putting some lean into the ship, but decided against it.


I really wish I'd chosen a broader base. Doing the water was kinda fun, and I still had tons of cotton balls left.


My fall-off from the bow-wave still needs some work. I woulda put more into it, but halfway through it, I almost completely dis-masted the ship while reaching for a tissue. (hayfever)


Another bow shot. Sorry, couldn't resist.




I wish I'd seen somebody make real-looking funnel smoke. Woulda added just a hint of real-ness.






Finally, Z-32(1944) {once Z-39(1945)} sails off to her destiny on the Ile de Batz in a valiant, failed attempt at attacking the D-day invasion fleet.

[MartinJQuinn]

That last picture looks like a real photo. Nice!

Moved this to the completed forum.

[Angeliccypher]

I am not a fan of German stuff and have little knowledge around them. So I usually do not comment. But this was nicely done!

[GazzaS]

Thank you for your kind compliments.