greyhawk

I wholeheartedly encourage taking on projects one thinks of as way over one's head. It's what I've been doing for years now and it's worked out pretty well so far. Back to your regularly scheduled Scharnhorst update, with issue 8 I have now extended the build to the full length of the hull. Now do be careful, if this thing eventually goes on sale internationally (at least in Europe) and you decide to build one yourself, do yourself the favor of waiting for issue 9 and fit the side beams at the same time. As you can see in the picture above "officially" the entire stern segment is only kept in line through two little tabs on the middle frame. No side beams are present. This a the perfect recipe to make a banana. Wait for issue 9, then fit everything together at the same time. You'll be much happier. I've just left them off in the picture for demonstration purposes.

7: So someone at Hachette was nice enough to acknowledge my request for a sped up delivery to cancel out the start difficulties I had so here's an unscheduled update straight out of the men flu quarantine zone to get us a bit closer to the actual release schedule. We see here the addition of another middle frame segment as well two crosswise frames and lateral supports. We've reached the 5 percent completion point with this issue.

Issue 6: With 3 more frames and another two side beams, the Scharnhorst has now reached roughly 3/5th of her total length. This is the point where a lot of novice builders start complaining about the side beams not fitting, them having to sand out lots of material or having to go at it with a hammer. The problem here is that those builders assume the side beams to be symmetrical along their length. They're not. Stick em in the wrong way around and one slot will be ever so slightly out of phase. Force them in and now you've got tension forces running all throughout your internal structure. "Fun".

Scharnhorst 5 The middle frame is extended, another crosswise frame is added along with two lateral supports. Everything still fits nicely, there's no wiggling or jamming. A second crosswise frame is delivered but not yet installed. This'll go into storage for a while along with a 2mm part for the gun turrets delivered in issue 1. The last one will be needed in issue 9, already the first cries of "Wait, we were supposed to keep that part?"are echoing through forums and Facebook groups. Yes, yes you keep all of the things. One thing that is integral to partworks is you keep getting things you can't actually put on the ship yet. This time they used the available space on the plate of wood parts to deliver a frame we won't need yet. For the gun there are minute differences between turrets (one part is going to be needed twice on one turret but not on the others), so they produced one sprue for issue 1 from which you take all the parts but this one and are sending the second identical sprue for the second gun in issue 9. Whoever threw away their issue 1 sprue is now one part short for gun 2. Mind you, they tell you to keep the sprue, but people never read. This type of delivery before actual use can reach extremes. Most notorious is U96, where you received the swordfish logo decal in issue 1 and only used it in issue 150 three years later.

It's an exclusive done by a group of former Amati people centered around Sergio Marletti, who have gone and made their own design studio. They apparently were the designers of the Bismarck partwork when they were still at Amati. Amati are absolutely NOT amused that Hachette is advertising this kit as "designed by the team that designed the Bismarck". They've even released a video where they wash their hands of any connection to the kit in a LOT of words.

Looking good as always Martyn. I concur with EJ. The instructions and what you really get are going to be out of sync in the lower half anyway. From what I can gather our Soleils are actally quite a bit more pregnant than the prototype in the instructions. I ran into similar trouble with the lower stern balcony which is actually too narrow for the width the Soleil ends up being.

Yes, a new issue is in the news stands every Wednesday. Partwork models in the US can't reasonably be run like in the rest of the world. In Japan, Russia and Italy there are entire shops that sell nothing but partworks. In the UK and Germany, news and tobacco shops double as outlets for partworks. From what I gather there is no logistical setup available in the US that could be reasonably employed to use this approach. Which is why Hachette Collections is outright refusing to even publish in the US and DeAgostini only sell a subscription based scheme with monthly delivery of a few weeks worth of content.

This is a 140 issue partwork. The big old ww2 partworks (Tiger, StuKa, Bismarck, Hood, Prinz Eugen) usually are 140 issues. U96 is a notable exemption at 150 issues (this one's sitting in my basement waiting to be built).

You're quite right Mike, the British classified the Scharnhorst as a Battle cruiser. The Germans classified her as a battle ship. Quite likely a bit of aggrandizing what with her being the first of a new breed of ships for Germany. I'm keeping with the classification the partwork gives her as a battle ship. It is a German release after all ;-) After the usual bout of logistical problems at the start of a Hachette partwork, I'm back at building. Issue 4 lets me add 2 frames and side beams to the front structure of the ship. I actually was aboard HMS Belfast some 25 years ago. It was quite an interesting experience, especially since they had some interactive battle simulation running on the bridge.

Glad to have you, guys. It's a shame Hachette doesn't do partworks in the US. I guess it has to do with how subscription models run in the US where one has to actively extend a subscription after one year as opposed to the rest of the world where subscriptions run until you actively cancel them. Issue 3 Side beams and lateral supports are added to the hull structure. The rear turret is fitted with barrels. Those are are cast not lathed, which made some people unhappy, but after a quick rub with 400 grit sandpaper and a polish with steel wool, they look totally fine for me. This is the last of the teaser issues. The build will now concentrate on the hull structure.

As promised, here's update 2 to catch up with the current issue. The hull structure is expanded lengthwise with another segment and two frames are added. Now I already hear the gnashing of teeth about my lack of a building slip, but with the thickness and density of these MDF boards and the amount of supports and strengtheners that will be added starting next issue, I'm convinced I won't need one. I built the hull of the Bismarck without a slip and never had an issue and that one was much less robustly built. I also get to add a bunch of photo etch parts to the rear 28cm gun turret.

The Scharnhorst is Germanys first battleship built after world war 1. This is a 140 issue partwork published by Hachette and developed by the designers of the Bismarck partwork. Note me not saying Amati. It seems Amatis former design guy went and opened up a design studio of it's own. Which maybe explains why this build is kinda wonky. I needed three issues 1s to get one where the included gun turret was actually buildable instead of being a mess of gaps and wrongfulness. So I think that's a terrific start to something that will either be totally awesome or a horrible horrible letdown. Either way, we'll be entertained. Updates will be weekly, even though I have subscription, I'll build each issue only when it has also been released in the shops. This is an effort to get a bit more organized. I'm also breaking this rule in about two days because you get a two-for this week with all the replacement issues I had. Stage: 1 Oh good, it's MDF. Fun. I love my wood dust being toxic. Remind me to get some new breathing masks. First phase. We build up part of the forward framework and the body of the rear gun turret. This one has the bonus of actually fitting together for the most part. The turret will be height adjustable, so that's nice. It's a bit bare right now, but that'll change next issue

13: Quarter Deck and Waterways. Need to close up the gap between quarter deck and the bulwark a bit, then the boat is ready for painting.

Stage 11 gives us lots of fun while installing the belting. And with fun I mean wood strips that remain inflexible and prone to breaking no matter who much you water them or apply heat. So I happily went through and destroyed the entire supply of 2x2mm strips until one was found that could take the curvature in the stern. Luckily the model shop is 10 walking minutes removed from my office.

10: Stem and "false keel" Welp. This certainly was something. As other have noted with the new Mare Nostrum the stem doesn't actually fit at the top, extending too far ahead for the bulwark to connect. Deepening the front "socket" a bit and modifying the angle slightly allows the stem to fit to the rest of the boat and a short session with filler and sandpaper makes this change largely invisible. At least to me it does.

I'm building Deagostinis huge Soleil Royal at the same time (second planking right now) so I'm glad for a painted boat as a breather. It's much more forgiving with imperfections.

So finally the weather was cooperative enough I could finish step 9, which involves fairing the stern former to match the rest of the hull, then filling and sanding all of the boat. Special care needed to be placed on the filler pieces which required several layers of filler until they could be sanded into a nice organic contour with the surrounding hull. I'm glad this is over.

I think it's mostly intended to leave a little more room for error when installing the screw instead of having to drill down the keel completely straight.

I really don't like when the instructions go "and now do a thing that's not geometrically possible in 3 dimensional space". Case in point: This little filler to be attached in step 8. AL steps off for a short trip into n-th dimensional space while supposedly showing how to build this filler. None of it makes any sense whatsoever. I thought about sending that page to Stephen Hawking or Michio Kaku for an explanation, but I'd rather they deal with easier stuff like developing a quantum field theory for gravity. I suspect there's a reason why I've not seen this part turn up in any other Mare Nostrum building log ever anywhere. In any case, I somehow managed to shmorgle it together my way and I never want to hear about this thing again. It breaks my brain.

Stage 7: Adding the bulwarks was no easy task. As predicted the stern former interdicted with proper placement of the stern bulwark and had to be resanded into a different shape. The scuppers on the left and right bulwark were sitting too high, easily remedied by taking off a bit at the bottom of the bulwarks. The bow section had to be refaired to allow the front bulwarks to sit at a proporly wide angle.

With stage 5 the hull planking is done for now. Before filling and smoothing a couple of other parts are added though. First up as stage 6 is the stern part we prepared earlier. While it makes planking the hull much easier, it's not all that helpful in positioning the stern bulwark. Major adjustments are needed here.

I've seen your build. I love how you turned the 2016 back into the previous hardwood edition basically. She looks amazing.

Stage 5: Planking the hull So Friday I came home to find Artesanias delivery of replacement strips... .... rammed 20 cms deep into my angled mail box. Thanks, DHL delivery guy. After spending 30 minutes trying to pull, wedge and cut the package free I was surprised to find the strips entirely unphased and in top condition. Great quality and great packaging by AL. So this means I can continue with my build, which I promptly did. The strips are very nice to work with so far.

Stage 2: Building the stern former ALs solution to the ridiculously difficult to plank stern section is to not plank it at all. Instead we build up a former out of overlapping wood pieces. Mare Nostrum veterans will notice this very different from the stern former used in earlier kits. Only the upper part of this is sanded to accommodate the stern bulwark right now. The piece itself will not be added to the boat until after hull planking is done and it will be sanded to form even later Stage 3: Planking the decks A simple alternating pattern is used to plank the deck. The veneer delivered is an absolute joy to work with. It's plyable and flexible and holds a very nice and clean edge. Other manufacturers could learn from this. I mean you, OcCre. The tiny quarter deck is shaped, sanded and also decked with the veneer. Also pictured is Stage 4: Building the boat stand The next stage is hull planking, which means we lose the option to use the assembly holder for a short while. Instead the boat stand is assembled and it will give the boat a place to rest in that time. Not pictured yet: The stand was painted black. And now we wait for my replacement planking strips.

Phase 1: Hull structure. As usual we start with fitting crossframes to the logitudinal main frame. This one's a single piece, sorely needed as it is only 3 mm plywood. A sub deck is fit which will carry the non functional model boat engine. All cross frames fitted. There's minimal warpage on the top part of the main frames bow and stern halves. Not entirely surprising as the material along the sub deck is only a centimeter in height. Easily cured with a bit of filling and sanding until the level gives its okay. Adding the mast holder and bow strengtheners. Those are roughly sanded a bit in preparation The engine deck is painted white and then it's on to the main deck. Now we have both a camber and a positive sheer, so this is fun, as the main deck needs to wind against itself in different directions across its length and width. Pictured here is the deck drying for a day after a several hour watering session to preform it before glueing it down. The outer veneer of the decks plywood apparently wasn't glued down correctly in production, so it started to roll up from the board at one location. A bit of sanding solved this quickly. Perfect fit, if I may say so myself. At least from my point of view. I don't usually build boats this small in size, so I wouldn't know. To close out this stage the hull is faired for the planking, which goes remarkably quick.