S.M.S L�tzow

[ch hoeltge]

Here it is, my first model for the 100 years anniversary of the Battle of Jutland.



The L�tzow was the second ship of the Derfflinger class battlecruisers.
They where the first armed with 30,5 cm guns.
She was launched on the 29.11.2013. But with the outbreak of the war, the commision was only in August 1915.
During the trials she gots a heavy turbine damage, which repairs lasted until February 1916.





From March on it sailed with the fleet and took part on the bombardment of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.
In May it made some practise shooting in the Baltic Sea to prepare for the battles to come.

On the 31. May 1916 it sailed as flagg ship of the I. AG under Vizeadmiral Hipper with the High Sea Fleet against the British Grand Fleet.





During the following battle it sanks with her sistership Derfflinger the HMS Invincible.
But she got also hit hard and this caused her bow torpedo room to be flooded.
Hipper leaves the ship with torpdeboat G-39 for his new flagg ship the SMS Moltke.
L�tzow was then escorted by 4 torpedoboats home. But when turret B cames under water and the ruders and screws came out of water, it was decided to leave her.
All remaining crew leaves the ship and the L�tzow was torpedoed bei G-38 and finally sunk.
128 officiers and crew died in the battle.





The kit is from Flyhawk and has all neccessary parts for a nice model.
It closely depicts the ship during February - April 1916, as I built it. But in this time there where no 8.8 Flak guns mounted, so I leaved them away
For the ship during the Battle of Jutland there are some changes neccessary.





The model is painted with Lifecolors for the hull and Vallejos for the small parts.
I also used 30,5 cm turned barrels from Flyhawk and 15 cm from NNT.
The wood deck is from Woodhunter. It is really beautyfull but to be true, when you use it, you have to sat all molded on parts higher.
So in the end painting the deck is easier.





The water is made with water effects from Vallejo. I made three thin layers first and then a fourth with forming the waves.



I hope you like it and next will be the Derfflinger.
Perhaps I can also finish it untill the anniversary.

Greetings Christian

[ArizonaBB39]

Beautiful work Christian! Thanks for sharing.

[Gabor]

But perhaps you could have added a bit more rust. This ship is a bit clean.

[ch hoeltge]

Thanks Abram and Gabor

Regarding rust, as seen in my post the ship was most time in the port and for repairs in the drydock.
And I don't think that a ship rusted that much in that short time.

Greetings Christian

[jwilke55]

Very nice Christian. Could you tell me a little bit about your weathering and finish? That's the part I'm still trying to work on. After you apply your paint are you using oil weathering products or pigments? Do you do any color modulation during the painting process. Do you use a satin or matte varnish?

Your finish looks clean but it's also not too flat. I still think I have a little trouble leaving my finish too flat.

Here is the Fuso I previously did. I did some weathering on the hull but I still think the rest might be too flat. I'm nervous about going too far with any additional weathering though.

[ch hoeltge]

Thanks!

Regarding the finish, as said I used LiceColors for the hull and for the finish I used their satin matt.
It is the best I found out and normaly I don't get white sparks as with other matt clear colors.

For weathering I used oil colors and white spirit (the stuff for a cigarette lighter). In the past I tried the stuff from AK and others but wasn't satisfied with it.
So I made a classic wash with a darkgrey or black oil color on the hull. It depends how dark you want it.
On my Kongo I used black oil color, for the L�tzow I used a dark grey one. After washing I normaly spray the model with clear paint.
In the end I normaly make a drybrush also with oil color. On the L�tzow I used white on the light grey hull and grey on the black and dark grey parts like the turret tops.
On my Kongo I also used grey oil color for the drybrush.

For the boats, I painted them with Vallejo 875 and made a wash with 872 and with black mixed with 872.

Here is the link to my Kongo in this forum:
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=161356

Greetings Christian

[MartinJQuinn]

Very nice work! Lutzow was a handsome ship.

[ch hoeltge]

Thanks Martin, yes they where nice ships

Greetings Christian

[Eric Bergerud]

Christian,

Very nice build all around. A lovely ship.

I could use some advice. I'm finally going to build the Flyhawk Derfflinger after months of idle threats. I'm very undecided about what level of PE I want on the kit. The "Gold Medal" has 900 parts (many of which I'd never use at that scale) but it does have metal masts, brass barrels and some improvements to the superstructure. A lesser upgrade comes with less PE but includes metal gun barrels.

The Gold set also has a wooden deck. You sounded uncertain about the wood deck. Would using a wood deck add much work to what is going to be a major project under any circumstances? The $40 price difference between the PE sets doesn't matter much considering the time that will be involved. But if the wood deck isn't a good idea there would be a lot of waste. Maybe "less is more."

Eric

[ModelMonkey]

Brilliant!

[ch hoeltge]

Thanks Steve and Eric!

Eric, I also started the Derfflinger and will use only the additional pe set from Flyhawk.
The build is now on hold as I wait for the pe set.



Regarding the wood decks, there are two problems I had. A half of them solves the Gold Medal Edition set.

First, as said you should sat all hatches higher, as with the wood deck they are plane with it. And that wasn't in reality.
You also need to sat the capstam higher, but they are included as brass parts.
And under the anchor cains there was wood on German ships. But on my wood set there was a cutout.
And I think it is the same as in the Gold Medal set.

Another problem where some fit issues on the second deck. It was to wide and so I had to cut it away after I applied it.
So some rework was needed, but this is perhaps no problem on the wood from the Gold Medal set.

So for me it was the first and perhaps the last time I used a wood deck on a 1:700 kit.
As I'm satiesfied with my result on my Kongo will use the same technic on the Derfflinger.

I hope this will help you a little bit.

Greetings Christian

[Haijun watcher]

Herr Hoeltge,

It would be nice if you could pose your SMS Blucher model next to your SMS Lutzow and take pictures. For comparison purposes.

And because both are such great models!!!

[Eric Bergerud]

Chris,

Thanks very much for the advice. I thought that the Gold Medal PE set had masts - I think it only has brass tubing which I have in gross - I'll have to scratch those regardless. So considering my limited skills (and limited patience) I think the Gold Medal PE would have been overkill without the deck. And if the deck would add a complication, it's good to avoid. The standard PE set will keep me busy enough - so one step at a time. As it stands this will be the most complex ship build I've attempted and I really do want it to work.

Eric

[ch hoeltge]

I recived today the PE set. It has indeed the small caliber barrels, that is nice suprise for me.



Also the Linoleum decks are separate. So that should help painting.

And I try to make tomorrow a pic of the Bl�cher and the L�tzow.

Greetings Christian

[ch hoeltge]

Here are the pics of my finished ships.

Greetings Christian

[Haijun watcher]

Awesome pictures! Especially the one of the Lutzow and Blucher side by side! Danke!

[ch hoeltge]

No problem .

Greetings Christian

[Gabor]

As I previously wrote your L�tzow is a really good kit. If you have a chance please bring it to here in April:

http://www.mosonshow.hu/?page_id=1510

[Eric Bergerud]

Christian and all,

My PE has come so I'm going to start Derfflinger tomorrow. Here are some thoughts on colors and if anyone thinks I'm off base, I'd be very glad to listen.

1. I know it's bad idea to get overly picky about naval colors, especially from long ago. But below is a color sample of KM colors of WWI (and in much of WWII) given to Tom Tanner who did a good article on the subject.

The major colors for a waterline ship are RAL 7000 (called squirrel gray by Tanner, matt gray by revell aqua color and medium sea gray by lifecolor) which covers the hull and 7001 applied on the vertical superstructure (called silver gray by Tanner, silk gray by Revell, and dark compass gray by lifecolor). Two things stike me about the sample - 7000 and 7001 both have a bit of blue in them and they don't vary that much in darkness. This relative uniformity of the colors appears in color prints found in the New Vanguard book on WWI German Battleships. I've got both Revell and Lifecolor (my paint conversion software shows Aquacolor at 100% accuracy for both RAL designations - LC is high 90s.) Aquacolor 7000 and 7001 appear pretty close the sample. LC 7000 is extremely close to Revell, but LC 7001 is considerably lighter and appears very close to a neutral gray. (I have Vallejo Model Colors renditions of both and they are both very close to Aquacolor.) I think you used Lifecolors on Lutzow. Doing so would have on powerful advantage - the difference between the hull and superstructure is very obvious. Using Aqacolor or MC would show only a subtle difference. The instructions for Derfllinger make calls to Tamiya and the hull/superstructure difference is very pronounced, but I'm not sure either of their colors matches closely the RAL equivalents. Not really sure what to do: might just adjust the lightness on one of the blue hue paints, or use the LC - the paint's new and cries to be airbrushed.
2. Guns: If the color guide in Lutzow's directions looked like Derfflinger's, it appears that the top of the turrets should be a dark-blue gray with white circles on them. According to Tanner and Dr Rudolf Nagel who wrote an article about German Warship WWI Combat Identifiers, the white circles came in late 1917 after there were troubles with aircraft ID in a major Baltic action during October. Tanner said the turret tops were painted black for aircraft ID, but doesn't say when. I am going to ignore the circles. If painted the color should be matte black not a gray. (If you look at the Derfflinger instructions the guns look blue-gray but XF-1 is clearly called for the turret tops. This gets more complicated. I have seen no line drawing that shows German ships without dark turret tops. However if you go to YouTube and watch a 4min flick on "Battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger" you get an interesting view: no narration, just photos. Several show Derfflinger in the aftermath of Jutland - one is a close up of a badly damaged main turret - there's no sign of any dark color at all on the turret top: ditto with another photo taken to show a turret with other damage. If the black paint was for aircraft ID, would it have been on by 1916? I know that by that time aircraft were beginning to play a major role in naval operations - at least they were in Britain. (As I recall a RFC seaplane spotted Hipper very early in the day, the message was put aside and never reached the higher ups. Does appear that basic communication skills were badly neglected that day in the RN.) But aircraft ID for the KM would have concerned German aircraft - they were not yet in any fear of bombing attack (if they were, I sure doubt big white circles would have been painting on the turrets, creating an ideal aiming point for a bomber), they wanted to have German aircraft to be able to distinguish bad guy from good guy and thus serve as an accurate recon tool. I'm not sure this would have been true for Zeppelins, and I'm not sure the Germans had yet deployed a significant number of seaplanes. After looking at the YouTube photos it's very tempting to dispense with the dark turret tops also.

3. Red Funnel: I noted you didn't paint a red funnel even though there appears to be good evidence that they were used. I'm very tempted to follow suit. Nagel claims the paint was a pastel red - nothing like the bright one called for in the instructions - that makes sense to me as pigments were already growing short. He also said it took some time to paint a funnel (only painted at sea and repainted to fool allied spies) and I wonder at what time on the return after Jutland that large number of crews were repainting funnels gray. It was done supposedly to avoid friendly fire especially from lighter vessels - that would have been a good reason to fight with partially pink battleships.

This is going to be a major project - wish me luck.
Eric

[ch hoeltge]

Hi Eric,

to 1.
Yes I used Lifecolors, UA602 for the hull and UA601 for the rest. But it turned out to dark for me.
On pics, the ships looks nearly white. For my Derfflinger I used UA603 and UA604. That is also more like the color sample.
This is not the best pic.


And just a reminder, the RAL colors where fixed later. So a real comparison is not easy.

2. Yes the turret tops ad other vertical areas where black. I just used Tamiya Nato black for scale effect.
You can paint it black if you want. This can I verify for the Von der Tann in 1909. Perhaps your pics in the youtube film are not perfect.
Regarding the white rings, the newest research says there where experiments in 1915 with them.
At the Jutland Battle all battleships had them except the Deutschland class and another which I forget, perhaps the Nassau class.
This is confirmed by pics of the Derfflinger and Seydlitz after the battle.
When they where painted on the Derfflinger is not know, but I would go for 1916.
My Derfflinger will be mid 1915 when they where probably not yet painted.
And yes the German used planes and Zeppelins. So a recognition makes sense. And I think during the Sinking of the Bl�cher a German plane attacked the British ships who where rescuing the sailors.

3. Red Funnel, they where painted when the ship went to battle, but only when out of sight of the coast.
It was made to keep it secret. In 1917 during a greater attack the Germans used yellow funnels. But the Russians where smart enough to also paint their funnels also yellow.
So then it wasn't used again.

When a ship went to battle it was made ready for combat. That means some changes on the ship.
There where only one small boat left on the ship. The flag poles where laid down, as the reeling on the deck.
If possible the ladders where removed. Also the arm of the boats crane was removed and stored on the deck.
All hatches and doors where closed of course.
So it is only correct to paint the model with a red funnel when you make the changes on the model.
As you see my L�tzow is not combat ready and my Derfflinger also won't be combat ready.

Greetings Christian