1/100 HMS Renown (1942)

[Joachim]

Hello dear friends!

The breakwater is almost done, see below. I�m quite astonished how stabil that little thing is, even made from styrene.

Meanwhile (pics to be shown soon, when looking a bit more representative) I have drilled some holes and done some damage to the bridge in order to create passages for position lighting cables - I won�t reach them later on. As lights, I have bought some LEDs at a nice little shop in Munich, selling LEDs, anchor chains, metal and brass sheets - sowhatever you like as a scratchbuilding modeller: http://www.steba-modellbau.de.
Hope to get a bit further with the bridge complex next week.

Happy modelling!

Joachim

[Joachim]

Here we go, that�s Renown�s outfit for Xmas 2015!

The breakwater needs a second layer of grey, thebow fairleads a bit more of tuning and my second attempt of capstans a bit of more work, but I think my holidays caused a significant progress. Hope I can continue like this!

Have nice and peaceful Chrismas and a good new year 2016!

Best regards from M�nster!

Joachim

[Aop Aur]

Nice work!!
I am keeping my eyes on this one. Nevertheless, I would love to see it painted the 1942 camouflage...

Regards,
Aop.

[Joachim]

Hello dear friends,

only little progress again, today it�s the capstans, var. 2 plus the capstan brake gear boxes (inspired by Anatomy of the Ship, HMS Hood)
More to come soon!

Best regards from snowy M�nster!

Joachim

[ModelMonkey]

Immer ausgezeichnet!

[K494]

Very nice.

Scott

[Joachim]

Dear friends,

due to some sideshows, Renown has been neglected for quite a while.
Now, on 2nd of July, there is a meeting of warships, all in scale 1/100, near to Schalke stadium in Gelsenkirchen. You�ll find some pics of the last meeting I had attended in 2013. Due to that very meeting, I started some busy building to show at least a little progress, very little, I have to admit, but anyway, "dabei sein ist alles!"

In advance to the meeting, my wife and I will be meeting an other ship in 1/1 in Sweden, MS Juna for travelling on the G�takanal.

So see you later with pics oft (I guess) approx. 100 ships in 1/100

Best regards from M�nster!

Joachim

[Joachim]

Dear friends,

I am sorry for the long period of silence in my blog here. A lot has happened in the mean time, most important is our move to Hassia due to my wife�s new job: Whoever might need a new microscope, think about a Leica one please
I have got a new job, too, beeing a service consultant, no longer for Citro�n only, but since November 17 also for Peugeot and Volvo in Gie�en.

So, Renown had to move with us, and since everything is at the right place almost, works started to continue. I am clueless how to continue with the entire bridge area, so I started a sideshow with the catapult. Also here a case of cluelessness (does that word exist??): There are only Photos from very far away, so useless for my purpose. As I could find out, catapults well documented on HMS Warspite p.ex. looked completly different.
On Repulse and Renown, the plane�s wagon was pulled by one central rope, on alle the other RN ships equipped with a catapult, left and right to the rails, there used to be two steel ropes. So I build this the way I think it could have looked like.

My catapult is also looking a bit rough as I have to admit. This is due to the fact that its longitudinal baseplates are intended to cover the gaps of the removeable superstructure. For this purpose, the rails might be rather stabil instead of fragile in order to survive the one or other hit. I count on your understanding and mild judgement!

Best regards, now from Wetzlar

Joachim

[Joachim]

Dear friends,

a little progress can be announced. On September 2nd, there will be a meeting of 1/100 scale ships near N�rnberg - I�d like to participate with Renown - so she should change her appearance compared with the meeting in Gelsenkirchen (Schalke ) in 2017. So I decided to face my fear and startet working with the bridge and foremast area. Hopefully, the works will be worth a paintjob, too...

Best regards from Wetzlar!

Joachim

[Joachim]

Hello dear friends,

little progress, but finally got Renown on the water again last weekend. There is a group of friends of the Imperial German Navy, organizing fleet meetings in 1/100 scale once a year close to Nurnberg. Now from Hassia, this is not soooo far away anymore, and I packed my little ship and went there.

Thank godness, the weather turned at least a little better and stopped the hard rain, so that all ships could do some turns on the pond. Once again I found my Renown not very fast in comparison to other models, but her speed is in my eyes very much in scale and satisfying.

Shame on me, I was so focused on manoeuvering my ship that i completly forgot my camera in the car. But by this occasion I would like to thank Peter Behm�ller, one of the two friends organizing the meeting, for taking pictures and allowing me to show them to you.
Vielen Dank Peter!!

If you�d like so see more pictures, have a look at the group�s homepage, http://www.sms-scharnhorst.de and scroll down to "Heideck 2018". The album will be active from sunday September 9th.

Happy modelling and best regards from Wetzlar!

Joachim

[Joachim]

Dear friends,

eysh, my last post was so long ago!
We bought a tiny elderly house built in 1951, the bad time after the war - and so many works on a projekt in 1/1 scale had to be done - and still some have to be!
Thanks to Corona Virus, we ran out of white varnish and so my brain remembered another project, meanwhile parked in the basement: poor waiting HMS Renown. I started works with the aft superstructure and main mast, because I am still clueless how to continue with the bridge...
Hopefully, this was the go ahead for more to come!

See attached two pictures, one from last year�s 1/100 scale meeting in Heideck, Bavaria, and the other one of Renowns actual state...

Happy modelling - and stay well!

Best regards from Wetzlar!

Joachim

[Fliger747]

Glad to see it revive! My latest project first floated in about 1965! All of a sudden a lot of modeling action.

Stay healthy! Tom

[englishgunner]

I was hoping you would come back with more updates - I really like the Renown, especially in the larger scales - more please when you can,
cheers, Will

[Joachim]

Hello everyone,

today I got the impression that my company�s shutdown might also have a positive aspect: I can continue restoring our old house and, parallely, work on Renown

I kept on with the main mast, now a tripod and no more monopod, tomorrow I plan to glue it. Next steps might be the ladders and platforms. Meanwhile I also started with the old rangefinder wich was inititially situated ontop the old armoured conning tower on the bridge. This heavy tube was removed during the big refit in the 1930s and not replaced. Therefore, it was decided to move the rangefinder on the aft superstructure.
It needs to be fited with hatches for the optics and a ladder for maintenance - coming soon!

Best regards from strange silent Wetzlar!

Joachim

[Joachim]

Eysh, last post in April????
Sorry, buying and restoring an old house built in 1951 with poor post-war material has been quite a challange the last months. But now there is a little light at the end of the tunnel. I used this little gap to look for gunbarrels and found 4.5 in at scalewarship.com. I was so disaffected by up to now no results that i really thought about using little Dremel and try to handcraft something from brasstubes and then copy the output in resin. I guess the actual solution is by far better!

I hope in the dark month I can increase the shipyard�s output a little bit for some real progress!

I wish you all a blessed advent season - and stay well!

Best regards from Hassia

Joachim

[Joachim]

Dear friends,

again a little progress: the bridge deck got its brass bulwark - I had been suspending this work due to my worries about soldering. But it worked quite well for a beginner
i tried my luck with the open control stand, too, and, the latest I started the assemby of the two cranes by John Haynes.

Hopefully I can keep up my speed!

Happy modelling and best regards from Hassia!

Joachim

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good to see you still continuing the works;
The bridge looks crisp...

and the cranes look sharp!

MfG

Jim Baumann

[DrPR]

Joachim,

From the pictures your soldering looks fine. A trick I learned long ago is that if I get a bit too much solder on a joint I use a wire wheel in my Dremel to brush away the excess. But you have to be careful. The steel wire bristles will remove all of the soft solder and expose the joint between the brass pieces if you are too aggressive. You can always reheat momentarily to flow the remaining solder back into the joint.

It doesn't damage the brass, but does shine it up nicely. Be sure to remove all of the solder flux before you paint the parts!

Phil

[Joachim]

Hi Phil,

thank you for your advice! I�ll try this afternoon

Do you have a recommendation how to remove the flux? I would do it with isopropanol or could i use a liquid detergent lye, too?
It�s a bit of shame to see the bare brass being covered simply grey - but Renown is not supposed to be a shipyard model from the 1900s

best regards from sunny Hassia

Jo

[Joachim]

Little update from today: Now it�s 2 cranes