Hi all,
The Kaiser class battleships of the German Imperial Navy were the immediate predecessors of the König class. The latter has become reasonably well known since we have got a couple of nice kits from ICM on 1/350 scale. On 1/700 scale the situation is somewhat better thanks to the resin kits from Combrig in particular.
But as 1/350 is my favourite scale I was eager to see if something can be done using the ICM kit as a basis and converting it into a Kaiser class ship. SMS Friedrich der Große, the High Seas Fleet flagship will be my be the objective of this project. On the site of The Dreadnought Project a set of detailed original drawings can be found, and when you know that the frame spacing of these ships was exactly 1200 mm it's a matter of simple math to resize these drawings to 1/350 scale.
First step is to take out a section of 8 mm from the hull, at it's widest point, exactly in the middle between stem and stern. And since the hull is also somewhat too wide for a Kaiser (29 m the width should be), I also scored out a wedge at the keel, 4 mm at the widest point and tapering towards the bow and the stern.
Attachment:
Afbeelding 188a.jpg [ 92.39 KiB | Viewed 6476 times ]
The next step will be to join the parts, adding reinforcing plates to the bottom and the hull sides internally. I will take 1 mm off the rim of the hull, and then new decks will be added, made from 1 mm plastic card, with a layer on top of Evergreen 2020 'Car Siding' plate to simulate the planked deck.
As you want to get an impression, surf to the subject of the Baden/Bayern class battleships, my SMS Baden project has progressed already much further. The Friedrich will be much easier: first the ship is smaller instead of larger than the König, second the main armament turrets can be used from the kit and third the superstructure is much simpler than that of Baden.
To be continued, of course!