Mirabell61

Thanks, Nils. I did see those before, but apart from the hefty price they also did not offer a suitable variety of poses.
 
I have not (yet) worked with these resins coming out of 3D-printers, but understand that they are rather brittle, so difficult to carve etc.

good job on the figures Eberhard,
 
I suppose that you did`nt find suitable ones in Scale "N"  1:160 
 
Nils

Eberhard,
 
I found some 1:160 "shapeways" figurines, they are more expensive than Preiser though ... perhaps some surgery necessary
Hope the link works
 
https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace/miniatures/figurines?q=&sort=popularity&facet[pdcId][]=141&facet[pdcId][]=342&facet[price][min]=1&facet[price][max]=2500&facet[price][from]=1&facet[price][to]=2500
 
Nils

Thanks John,
so far so good, now comes the fitting out part and the boatsdeck. The lighttower mast is basicly done already but not painted yet. The soldering of the fragile frontmast in brass will probably be the most difficult thing on this ship, as well as the two ships work / lifeboats. I think I`ll make the boats with silicone mold and raisin cast ( I did`nt see these for purchase anywhwere)
One problem I have, is that all has to be addopted from pics and the web, because I did not buy the buildplan in the beginning, and the plan with side view and frameplan out of Helmut Thomas`s publication is missing all the details, also in bird`s view, on the boats deck, and of course the dimensions in order to scale them down to 1:87
 
Nils

Update
 
all portholes with glassings, all doors with doorknobs and wall boxes for rolled up fire hoses are mounted to the deck housing
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Update
 
made the removeable deck-house together with hand rails and lightshafts with seatight hinged covers. After primering painting the deckhouse  portholes were inserted. Also the aft bulkhead was fitted out with two doors and portholes therein .... Slowly its getting shape
 
Nils
 

the making of the deckhouse

the handrails are from brass wire. There are 5 screws that position and hold down the deckhouse to the deck

 

Dechhouse with portholes

there are 10 lightshafts around the deckhouse, The doors will be next

 
 

Update
 
made the updated forecastle bulkhead and support for the front mast, also the seawater tight access doors. The mushroom-anchor chain end will be connected to the ringspring buffer element on deck
 
Nils

Thanks John,
so far so good, now comes the fitting out part and the boatsdeck. The lighttower mast is basicly done already but not painted yet. The soldering of the fragile frontmast in brass will probably be the most difficult thing on this ship, as well as the two ships work / lifeboats. I think I`ll make the boats with silicone mold and raisin cast ( I did`nt see these for purchase anywhwere)
One problem I have, is that all has to be addopted from pics and the web, because I did not buy the buildplan in the beginning, and the plan with side view and frameplan out of Helmut Thomas`s publication is missing all the details, also in bird`s view, on the boats deck, and of course the dimensions in order to scale them down to 1:87
 
Nils

Update 
 
Yesterday I finaly got the lettering done and positioned as intended. This morning I placed all the portholes (painted in hull color, and now all is prepared fore doing the porthole-glassing. The upper row of the forecastle is glassed already. I use 3mm OD silicone transparent cord for the glassing, glue the bits in with CA and cut off from outside square to the porthole face
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
the lettering at the stern (aft) is made from 5mm high white adhesive stickers
 

 

 
 

Thanks for your idea Veszett, I`ll keep that in mind .....
meanwhile I finished the semi gloss black part, nice clean paint borderline ( credit to Tamiya masking tape ), and removed the propeller before doing the paint job
 
Nils
 

 
 
 
 

Thank you very much Lefebvre, John and Richard,
 
Lefebvre,
yes, its a pitty that this happened, but that paint does not allow reasonable corrections after this happened during spraying. I already tried my best to mend it.
 
John,
I think I`ll leave it as is, because heavy paint corrections will make things worse. I`ll take it as a rough touch with the kay wall in the harbor longer ago
 
Richard,
now the time has come to start with the decals for ELBE 1
I did the masking off for the sub waterline black coating, and fitted the ships name and homeport with small 5mm high white sticker letters, that I had already bought earlier for this purpose. It worked well, and I had left the space on the hull rounding there without "rivets"
Many, many thanks to you again for your kind help in encouraging me to do my own decals. I have received white decal paper for inc-jet printing, but am still eagerly waiting for the decal softener to arrive
 
Nils

the ship`s name is "Bürgermeister Oswald" and the homeport is the town Cuxhaven at the mouth of the Elbe river

to date I hve had good results with Tamiya masking tape

The painted bow-sprit bumpkin in place

both waist railings are fitted

both the stb. side hall-anchor and the mushroom-anchor are fitted

Update
 
except for the black underwater coating I´ve  got the paint on. I think that I will never again apply this bright red signal coating. Once a mistake is made ( I sprayed over several tmes) it ca`nt be corrected propperly. Unfortunately I did not see that the paint started running on the far side.  I did`nt hesitate to carefully wipe off the concerned area with a soft cloth, but the red paint had also solved the underneath primer. Now there are some ugly patches on the stb. side. Hopefully I`ll get that mended a bit later on, if not it will conncidered as wear effect,  with other paints on other models I never ran into such trouble with the paint coat before, and I was so pleased that before that all had worked out well so far.
 
Nils

Port view and front view is all OK


here the ugly patches (aft stb.  and stb. mid side )

 
 

Update
 
the upper forecastle portholes are mounted after plating this area, and  the Stb waist reling is dry fitted.  Also the area for the sprit bumpkin and its fastening eyebolts and stays.
Aft deck the template for the breakwater is being estimated for fit. I am eager to get all the hull-related plating complete in order to continue with the painting job and the ELBE 1 name decals.
For making the decals I got a great support from another MSW fellow builder. Here credit and thanks go to "Retired Guy", Richard for all his help. That gave me confidence to try and make my own decals instead of using larger sticker letters ( problems with the structured hull surface )
 
Nils

The Railing is from Aronaut- Modellbau in brass and nickel  plated. the wooden fastening rail underneath is to get the correct hight

 

 

 

the aft breakwater will be mounted in this area. The blank space in the plating ( aft round between the rails ) will take up the 5mm small sticker-letters for the name "Bürgermeister Oswald" and the homeport "Cuxhaven" after painting.
 
 

Update
 
yesterday I made the fastening (still removable) of the stb side anchor. Because when the forecastle-deck is on, there will be no more access to the fastening line (no visable chain here), and the line is running in a curved thin copper tube, leading the line to midship area where the end will be fastend using a spring  to the frame somewhere. That gives a little springload to the line and keeps the anchor well in contact with the achor fairlead.
Also in accordance with the plan drawing, a rather short bumpkin with fastening points, a handrail on top and an eyebolt to the ships stern frontside was made. Also a non spanable metal bupkin stay
 
Nils

here the anchor line, and the eyebolt (upper right side) for the waterstay

copper lad-tube for the line

the line goes to the mid ship for fastening with a spring. The plate with the 13mm boring will adjust the lighttower later on. The deck is in 4mm wide pine-strips and black pencil "caulking" at the plank contact lines

waterstay with fastening points and topside  handrail

side anchor when pulled up and waterstay in dryfit
 
 
 

Thank you very much Keith,
I`m moving on with the plating, its almost completed ...
 
Nils

 
 

Hi and thank you Gary,
many of the sequences have been performed with my previos models before, so I don`t have to spend too much time and headachs in thinking of how I shall do it.
Here for example, I started with the plating today.
New this time is the use of 10 mm wide Tamiya masking tape as a space holder, as I`m plating in "Belts" and need the better steady horizontal line for optical appeal 
The plates are cut from a self adhesive aluminium foil roll with a table paper guilutine. Poncing is done with a suitable double tooth wheel ( clock cock wheels) to the back of the protection paper before removing it.
The foil thickness (without glue film) is 0,125 mm for best results
 
Nils

starting with the trick part

in Basic the plates are 15 x 50 mm, The rows, apart by 10mm, and then a cover plating "belt" over the 10 mm wide horizontal gap. The platings are stagered to the next line above.
 
 

a nice smooth hull surface provides a good ground for plating on
 

10 mm Tamiya distance holder, removed again before the covering, overlapping "belt is put on

The Crew
 
The WESPE-Class had a complement of around 80 crew, of which 3 where officers. This seems to be quite a number for a ship of only 46 m length. Unfortunately, there is no information on the different duties and the distribution of ratings. There are some crew photographs from the 1900 to 1910 era, but they manly show officers and petty-officers and in addition, they come from the short periods during which the boats were commissioned for exercises in groups and may show crew from a whole flotilla.
 
Gun drill on the WESPE-class around 1900
 
The intention was to show some gun-drill on the boat, as in the historical photograph above. There are about ten ratings visible and a couple more or so may be hidden behind the gun. There would be probably also a petty-officer in charge. On the bridge there would be two men at the helm and a couple of officers. In total, I estimated that about 15 figures would be needed to present a reasonable picture of activity.
Below the gun there would some ten men or more manning the cranks with which the gun is trained. In the boiler-room, some further ten crew would be working hard on stoking the fires, trimming coal etc. The same number of crew, would be on the off-watch. The machine would be tended by perhaps three to four engineers and petty officers. I am sure there are other duties, such as maintenance, signalling, plus a certain number on off-watches, but there is no information available on how these ships were ‘run’.

Officers of SMS HERTHA 1874-1877. Source: https://senckenbergarchiv.de/kolonialesbildarchiv/.
 
Uniforms
The 1870s were a time of transition as far as the naval uniforms are concerned. In the early years of the Empire much of the features of the uniforms of the Prussian navy were retained. To a certain degree the uniforms also followed the general fashion in terms of the height of the waste-line, the width of trousers and blouses, the shape of the caps etc. By the early 1880s the uniforms of all ranks were quite consolidated and were changed only in details until the early years of WW1. There is abundant information on these later years and on officers’ and petty-officers’ uniforms, but information on ratings in the early years is quite scarce in the primary and secondary literature. In particular, information on working kits is not very detailed. Normally, a certain ‘kit’ would be ordered for certain duties, but photographs show a certain variety of items worn and how they were worn, for instance some men would have the sleeves rolled up, while others would not.

Helmsmen on SMS HERTHA 1874-1877. Source: https://senckenbergarchiv.de/kolonialesbildarchiv/.
 
Photography was still rather new then and it was difficult to take ‘action’-pictures with the cumbersome equipment of the day. When a sailor had his likeness taken in a professional photographic studio, then it was in his Sunday-best parade-uniform and not in workaday fatigues. The same applies actually to all ranks. There are fortunately a couple of photo-albums from training-cruises in the mid-1870s (e.g. of the cruise of SMS HERTHA to the Far East in 1874-1877) which on purpose show the real-life of the crew, as much as was possible with the equipment of the day, thinking of heavy tripods and large-format cameras with wet glass-plates. These photographs are an important source of information on how the uniforms really looked like and how they were worn for different duties, although virtually all situations were ‘posed’.

Gun drill on SMS HERTHA 1874-1877. Source: https://senckenbergarchiv.de/kolonialesbildarchiv/.
 
Apart from photographs, there are a number of printed works can be considered as primary sources, as they were published at the time, and just two or three secondary publications, which mostly reproduce the plates from earlier publications:
 
ANONYM (1872): Uniformierungs-Liste der Königlich Preußischen Armee und der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine. Zweite bis zu Gegenwart fortgeführte Auflage.-  114 p., Berlin (E.S. Mittler & Sohn).
 
ANONYM (1887): Die Uniformen der Deutschen Marine in detaillierten Beschreibungen und Farbendarstellungen (Reprint 2007, Melchior Verlag, Wolfenbüttel).- 61 p., 18 Taf., Leipzig (Verlag von Moritz Ruhl).
 
BURGER, L. (1864): Uniformierung der preußischen Marine, Originalzeichnungen.- Über Land und Meer, Bd. 12, Jg. 6, Nr. 31: 487 u. 489.
 
HENCKEL, C. (1901): Atlas des Deutschen Reichsheeres und der Kaiserlichen Marine einschließlich kaiserlicher Schutztruppen in Afrika in ihrer Uniformierung und Einteilung.- 32 pl., Dresden (Militär-Kunst-Verlag MARS).
 
Lintz, G., Raecke, K.-H. (1978): Die königlich preußische Marine.- Z. für Heereskunde, 275: 20-21.
 
Marineamt [Ed.] (1984?): Die Geschichte der Matrosenuniform.- 79 p., Wilhelmshaven (Marineunterstützungskommando).
 
NOESKE, R.,  STEFANSKI, C.P. (2011): Die deutschen Marinen 1818–1918. Organisation, Uniformierung, Bewaffung und Ausrüstung.- 2 vols.: 1336 p., 304 pl., Wien (Verlag Militaria).
 
RUHL, M. [Ed.] (1887): Uniformen der deutschen Marine in detaillirten Beschreibungen und Farbendarstellungen, nebst Mittheilungen über Organisation, Stärke etc., sowie einer Liste sämtlicher Kriegsfahrzeuge und den genauen Abbildungen aller Standarten und Flaggen.- 98 p., 26 pl., Wolfenbüttel (Reprint 2007 by Melchior Historischer Verlag).
 
RUHL, M. (18936😞 Die Deutsche Marine und die Deutschen Schutztruppen für Ostafrika in ihrer neuesten Uniformierung.- 78 p., 20 pl., (Faksimile Fines Mundi).
 
RUHL, M. (1892): Uniformen der deutschen Marine.- Starnberg  (reprint 1989).
 
SCHLAWE, K. (1900): Die deutsche Marine in ihrer gegenwärtigen Uniformierung.- 98 p., (M. Ruhl).
 
WALDORF-ASTORIA [Hrsg.] (193?): Uniformen der Marine und Schutztruppen.- 14 p., 8 pl., München (Waldorf-Astoria Zigarettenfabrik).
 
ZIENERT, J. (1970): Unsere Marine-Uniform – Ihre geschichtliche Entstehung seit den ersten Anfängen und ihre zeitgemäße Weiterentwicklung von 1816 bis 1970.- 451 p., Hamburg (Helmut Gerhard Schulz Verlag).

Gun drill on SMS HERTHA 1874-1877 – note the high heels of the shoes at this time. Source: https://senckenbergarchiv.de/kolonialesbildarchiv/.
 
Preparing the Figures
Starting point is a set of unpainted figures by Preiser in 1/160 (N-scale). Compared to HO-scale the selection is much smaller and the sets of unpainted figures are not so easy to find. Individual figures were selected on the basis of their poses, but very few had vaguely useful dresses. Some of the railway officials formed a suitable a basis for the officers and petty-officers.
Fortunately, the figures are small, some 10 to 11 mm in height, so only a rather summary representation of their attire needs to/can be achieved.
All figures required quite a bit of carving and sculpting with ‘Green Stuff’. The single-breasted jackets of the railway staff had to be converted into the double-breasted, longer frock-coats of the time. The peak-caps of 1960s officials (many of the figures were originally modelled by Preiser in the early 1960s) looked quite different from those worn by naval officers in the 1870s – German (naval) peak-caps underwent a significant change in appearance between the 1870s and the early post-WWII years. 
Naval ratings required more substantial carving: jackets had to be cut away and blouses tucked into high-waist trousers had to be carved. Safety helmets were cut away and the characteristic sailor’s cap sculpted with ‘Green Stuff’. Shovels etc. were cut away and hands drilled for more appropriate implements. The sailors also got their traditional large collar.

The crew-member at various stages of modelling
 
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a ‘before’ picture, but the one above shows the 15 figures at various stages of the carving and sculpting exercise. Amputations and reassembly à la Dr. Frankenstein are difficult at this small scale and were not attempted with few minor exceptions.
 
Again, a text-heavy post, but it serves myself as a memo of my deliberations and what I did.
 
To be continued ....

Another small update.
 
The first image is an overhead view of the very long poop deck - now cleaned of dust, dirt and general grunge. 
 
The second image is of the forecastle, showing the first tentative steps towards correction of some errors on the model. Part of the railing has been removed on each side of the deck, as these sections were removable and had chain, rather than steel bar railings.
 
More thinking and study of photos has brought to light another major problem. The original ship had a beautiful teak capping rails all around the poop rather that the pipe rail shown on the model. The Senior Curator would like to have this changed to conform to the original, so - yet another major alteration. My current thinking is that the simplest way around this will be to file down the tops of the stanchions a little to bring them to the height of the bulwarks forward, and then to run the wooden capping around on top of the current steel piping. A lot of work, but I think easier than ripping out all of the railing and starting again. If anyone has any better ideas, I'd love to hear about them as I'm not looking forward to all that additional work.
 
Another problem is the number holes and gaps in the deck caused by the removal or alteration of items that were no longer on the ship at the time of her last voyage. I need to find some kind of filler to close up all those holes and make them a little less obvious.
 
This model is turning into a real lesson for anyone thinking of taking on a restoration; the number of problems on deck on this model that have come to light since I started serious cleaning operations is amazing!!
 
John
 

Update
 
all portholes with glassings, all doors with doorknobs and wall boxes for rolled up fire hoses are mounted to the deck housing
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

You'll be finished before you know it, Nils!
 
John

Update
 
all portholes with glassings, all doors with doorknobs and wall boxes for rolled up fire hoses are mounted to the deck housing
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

Update
 
all portholes with glassings, all doors with doorknobs and wall boxes for rolled up fire hoses are mounted to the deck housing
 
Nils

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

many thanks Michel and Rick,
 
Nils

Update
 
made the removeable deck-house together with hand rails and lightshafts with seatight hinged covers. After primering painting the deckhouse  portholes were inserted. Also the aft bulkhead was fitted out with two doors and portholes therein .... Slowly its getting shape
 
Nils
 

the making of the deckhouse

the handrails are from brass wire. There are 5 screws that position and hold down the deckhouse to the deck

 

Dechhouse with portholes

there are 10 lightshafts around the deckhouse, The doors will be next

 
 

Update
 
all portholes with glassings, all doors with doorknobs and wall boxes for rolled up fire hoses are mounted to the deck housing
 
Nils