Regia Marina - 1/700 Ancona - (ex SMS Graudenz )

[JIM BAUMANN]

@ zs 180 Gyorgy!

a challenging task of building a decent looking early HP kit, -

very very true!

ingenious solutions as ever

I am trying ...


progress is slow but steady

the bridge level castings were crude and chunky and incorrect in plan view as well as side elevation



The rear of the pilot-house was very " soft " in outline--as well as being under-size

so the remedy was to use brass strip for thin walls as well as sharpness of outline

Having cut out and created the torpedo tube apertures

I made the tube track of very thin copper-wire flattened between two Stanley blades in a vice

and then made the tubes utilising some old plastic IJN T-tubes--

I may yet re-make these in metal as I would like them to be sharper !

The aft vent boxes were cast solid ( and crooked) and devoid of any detail...

I simulated the outlines of the apertures using some ladder stock from GMM

and made the hatches using a slightly smaller ladder stock from WEM

Many other tiny bits are being done-

-and I am hoping to be able to pull it all together so that will make a tight and sharp looking model in the end...

we shall see!

[Goodwood]

Very deft scratch work there, Jim! Keep on truckin'!

[JIM BAUMANN]

progress is slow--but steady-- mainly because almost everything from the kit is either wrong or coarse

so all replacements have to be constructed from scratch or adapted ...

the boat support skids were made of 1/350 handrail adapted and cut--with the sharp corners being clipped -so that when painted it gives an impression of the out-board corner having a small round on it.

at the stern there is a tall central fairlead with the sides of the aft deck being cut away downwards

--tricky to read off the drawings

but can be seen in photos

I clipped these out using a blade

once the ship is mounted I shall install a stern anchor and create a false hawsepipe lead and plate the area below the fairlead


I also cut and shut my lovingly constructed brass breakwater so as to accommodate the port side bow cutout

next in line now is to paint the hull and mount the ship so as to make it easier and more stable to handle but also mainly to conserev the delicate and vulnerable clipper bow !!!

more news soon

Jim B

[GazzaS]

Love watching your progress at improving the detail of the kit. I especially like how you've made nice angular structure where casting has failed. Thank you for the lessons!

[Quincy]

Love watching your progress at improving the detail of the kit. I especially like how you've made nice angular structure where casting has failed. Thank you for the lessons!

Fully concur!




Bob Pink.

[JIM BAUMANN]

small steps...

The guns in the kit are nothing short of un-usable... being solid--when they should be hollow steelplate
PE would be ideal in this instance...

perhaps in an attempt at mitigation on their part... ...

--in German service the turrets often had a canvas sheet on them covering up the back...


but still...!...

infuriatingly they are reasonably correct in outline-albeit a bit low-

- leaving on the casting carrier film and cutting around them pretty much corrected this





so the only feasible way of making these reasonably acceptable was to hollow out with a small motor-drill .

and the only way I could fathom to this by clamping them securely was to hold the turrets tight using a squishy but firm medium so as not to collapse the the then thin and fragile resin walls...

was by holding tightly in my thumb and forefinger of left hand-- !!! -- a couple of punctures from the drill bit in the skin of these digits seemed a fair price to pay for 8 x hollow turrets....(?!)

BEFORE

with a hollowed out turret as comparison

Once the bleeding stops I will update further!

[dafi]

Wonderful project, worth the pain

Love it, Daniel

[blacman]

Wonderful project, worth the pain

Yes.
Following with interest...

[maxim]

Hi Jim,
do you have drawings of the 15 cm guns?

[JIM BAUMANN]

Only this drawing--though compared to the images it is the wrong Mk of gun house

( the roof profile is wrong

Ancona / Graudenz did not have the cut away side shields like this--but I think the remainder is the same ...?

As a result I think this is an image -part of a series of seemingly tempting renderings ...--are alas of dubious value in a variety of ways

[maxim]

The drawing appears to show a World War Two mounting, the photo could be one of Emden's 10,5 cm guns.

Here is a drawing of the gun Graudenz had:



The shield was without this cutaway part, more similar to this one:


(but exactly this gun was only on Dresden II; there was a third type of 15 cm guns on German WW1 light cruisers, the C/1916, which was on L�beck, Kolberg and C�ln)

/edit:
The photos of the 15 cm guns are probably C/1914, the same ones as Graudenz had, but with a different shield.

[maxim]

Here one of Frankfurt's guns:

[JIM BAUMANN]

Interesting cut-away at the lower end of the turret--

but truly a clear and most helpful image of the innards !!

I shall try and make a fair representation thereof!

note that those cutaways seem to be absent on Graduenz / Ancona

luckily my model is in 1/700 and not 1/100 eh!


JB

[MartinJQuinn]

Jim, your dedication to get the details "just right" is amazing. Those hollowed out gun shields look awesome.

[marijn van gils]

Wow, those gunhouses are tiny! Quite a feat in itself that none of them was accidentally destroyed while hollowing them out. You must have taken it 'slow and easy'.
Hope you have some blood left for the rest of the model!

Cheers,

Marijn

[LE BOSCO]

HI Jim

if I understood correctly,to make beautiful models like yours ,we must make a blood pact !!!much like with the devil
always a formidable precision work
cheers
nicolas

[JIM BAUMANN]

fuhrer small steps -- but giving tangible progress!
Painted the hull- then realised that it needed more portholes ( not shown on the plan !)

but are easily seen seen in the overhead photo--which gave me a fair chance of getting them in about the right place-
Also added the waste discharge apertures with their staining streaks

the real thing...

( were these areas painted black to disguise the staining --as on
the French battleship Bretagne ..?()

see my model from way back here--they actually made a feature of the area !! )



after a bit of very gentle streaking ,

the Boot-topping was applied using black decal strip

and at last... the ship was mounted in her sea...

Phew!!-- mile stone reached

this makes her a lot less delicate to handle and means I can now concentrate on outfitting the decks...


At the end of the foredeck step the decking was made of CA soaked Paper--thin and malleable!

The chainways and catapult base was made of strips of brass

and a very bothersome aspect was dealt with--the gun reinforcing plates- which were horrible on the casting...

but were all chiselled off when I made the decks steel (!! )

These made of vinyl squares with the corners clipped

after paint it all looked rather less garish...

now onwards with the catapult rails...





Jim Baumann

[marijn van gils]

She's moving along very nicely. In color, she is already starting to look much closer to a finished model!

That catapult on the bow is a most interesting feature. I guess You will add the floatplane?

Cheers,

Marijn

[JIM BAUMANN]

Thank you for your encouraging words!

@ Marjinn Not yet sure about the float-plane--it was not often carried and makes the ship loom clumsy

...meanwhile the catapult rails were presumably upright--and had sloping gussets to support


see below the only usable photo I have found of the catapult track

I decided I would not live long enough (! ! ) to replicate it accurately or indeed repeatable and consistently fine..

and in any case it only a bit of a guess-( anyone have a better photo..?

-but the track sides needed some texture

I used some WEM KGV 1/700 degaussing-cable PE-- suitably cut down with the brackets removed

the effect is quite pleasing (to my eye) and will looks quite delicate
I shall next install some fine styrene square strip in the inboard sides to fill the void

additional small progress as below--and at last fitted the cut and shut bridge structure-- she is starting to look like a ship !

more soon..

Jim B

[marijn van gils]

100% correct or not, that catapult looks great like that!

About the floatplane: I'm always a fan of weird and unique looking stuff, so the combination of such an elegant ship with a floatplane on its nose does appeal to me. But of course not everybody has the same taste (and luckily!) !

By the way, the assumption that the hull below the waste discharge apertures was locally painted black is not unreasonable, as the last photo you posted clearly shows other areas painted dark in a similar way.

Cheers,

Marijn