S.M.S L�tzow

[Eric Bergerud]

Chris,

I'm not sure if this question has an answer, but at what point would a German warship in that era have gone into a status of extra alert and begin removing boats and so forth? In the PTO USN warships went into something close to full battle stations when they came within air range of a Japanese base. The fear was of air attack led to flak batteries manned until nightfall. Fear of powerful Japanese submarines torpedoes meant most hatches were sealed in a war zone (some were left open until full alert because a buttoned-up ship greatly impeded movement of crewmen to battle stations.). These measures caused serious fatigue. In the German case we know the funnels were painted soon after leaving port - think this is when warships would readied for battle. Or could they have waited until there was some kind of contact with the enemy? Or would they have removed items just before leaving port? Considering the heat inside one of those big ships at full battle stations, I'd think that sealing all of the hatches would have been done late in the day - an "out of the blue" airstrike in 1916 would have been a real long-shot, but submarines and mines were serious dangers. (Germans never lost a BB or BC to either, but I think there were some tense moments when periodically hit.) So I'm not sure about hatches. I would have I'd like to model Derfflinger as it would have looked soon before Jutland. May end up guessing.

I've just started the kit. It appears very nicely done. The only thing that's going to be something of a headache is coordinating the extra PE etc (and there's a lot) with the build sequence. I primed the PE with Rustoleum 2X primer and it worked very well. (It's very thin and it gives a complete coverage without any residue although some might have to be filed off to get a better CA surface.) I guess we'll have to install PE on major parts before priming the plastic - parts on deck excluded. There's not PE on the hull so that can be painted completely. That's means serious attention to detail, not always my strong suit.

Eric

[ch hoeltge]

Here is my Derfflinger Eric.

These pics show the parts I added prior painting except the funnels.





And here it is with some added details.



Only the platform for the searchlights are a little difficult to work with.

Greetings Christian

[Eric Bergerud]

Chris,

The circle decals look like they might be very hard to set on top of the vents (or whatever) on top of the turrets. Did you try to set them on and cut small holes with a hobby knife? Mask them and paint?

Eric

[ch hoeltge]

Yes Eric, they are a little difficult to apply.
I used the decals o my L�tzow. I put them on the turret and used decal softer on them.
The difficult part is the range finder on front of the turret.
There I made some cuts into the decal and the it worked.
Where needed I painted some parts white afterwards.

Greetings Christian

[Eric Bergerud]

Chris,
Hope this will be the last nag.

You have appeared to have attached the torpedo net. The instructions are good enough, but it would be nice if they were a little bigger. Anyway, did you attach the net to the hull and then put the brackets on top of them - or did you put on the brackets (braces - I don't know) and slide the rolled up net underneath them? Instructions seem to imply the second course, but I was thinking that attaching the net first might work better. Those pieces are really small.

Eric

[ch hoeltge]

No problem Eric, a forum is their to get questions answered.

Yes I glued the torpedonet first on the hull and then the bars.
The bars lays slightly on the torpedonet. You see it clear on my pics.

Greetings Christian