All the main and secondary batteries, and the 105mm AA cannon barrels were replaced with the metal ones. Some corrections were made to the rear opening of the secondary armament turrets, rounding upper corners and narrowing doors. I glued them all in open position as there is decent detail inside
Started working on the transport boats, kind of frustrated that the kit does not include all the boat types that the Graf Spee carried on board during the Battle of the River Plate (missing is the Admiral Boat type, stored near the Arado 196 catapult).
Correcting the stern anchor position took a while (mostly deciding on how to do it!), in the end I cut the whole chunk, rotated 90 Degrees, glued/filled/sanded.
Painted and weathered secondary armament, AAs and torpedo tubes.
The stern should have a metal frame, like a half moon, that protects the bronze eagle from getting damaged by the ropes, very noticeable in reference picture and abscent in the kit. I scratchbuilt the frame and modified the flagstaff base to resemble the condition during battle (no flagstaff). WIP
Started working on the front superstructure, fitting of the lateral observation platforms is awful, and still manage to find imperfections to fix. The base color was airbrushed, the camouflage was painted using brush.
I opened the funnel ducts and glued plastic straws on the inside to give the correct impression of a duct. Added some PE bits, which improves much its appearance. First time bending PE railings.
When I started with the rear superstructure, I noticed several discrepancies to reference pictures and drawings.
1. The deck around the Arado 196 catapult is missing in the kit
2. There are two "ears" missing from the base of the superstructure (wonder what these were for)
3. The rear castle is completely enclosed in the kit, it should have an open observation platform facing back
4. The transport boats support racks don't resemble the real ones.
I did my best to fix these issues, scratchbuilt the "ears" and the open platform of the rear castle, used a "graft" from the deck that will be hidden under the superstructure to issue the missing deck around the catapult.
Rear castle good reference pictures are pretty scarce (well, one only that I know showing it closely). As I had already assembled the structure, I had to cut off the wrong parts, shape correctly the oval rangefinder base, and scratchbuild the observation platform. I took advantage of the roof, which became the floor (it can be trimmed to the correct shape), and built the walls using plastic sheet.
I started working on the catapult, it only needs a service platform which was attached below the catapult rail, completely missing in the kit, but easily built with plastic sheet. Shape was irregular (not rectangular like drawings show). still WIP
Some work already done to the secondary rangefinders and cranes, pending painting.
And this is as far as I am. I hope to improve my skills to end up with a decent Graf Spee, and pair it to the announced HMS Exeter from Trumpeter in a near future.
Marco
Marco
