rvchima

I have also been away for too long. I am so pleased to see your completed Endeavour model. It is absolutely beautiful! Your attention to every little detail make for an outstanding model. Congratulations. Last November and early December my wife and I took a cruise down the east coast of New Zealand and over to Tasmania, Melbourne, and Sydney. I was so hoping to see the Endeavour replica in Sydney harbor, but I learned that it was on a tour of New Zealand for the 250th anniversary of Cook's voyage. Our cruise ship and the Endeavour replica were in the same ports on almost the same days. We probably passed each other one night, but I never saw her. However, I got to talking to a young man in the San Francisco airport who had just sailed on a leg of the Endeavour's tour. He had hundreds of photos on his phone and I saw them all.

I just got back to MSW after a long absence. Your Perseverance model is beautiful! I love the natural wood. Keep up the good work.

Painted Parts

Funnel The funnel is laminated from two pieces of 12 mm limewood carved to shape, with lots of little pieces added later. The Pontos detail kit had a brass ring and about 45 individual pipes in three diameters for the top of the funnel. The detail kit is made for the Bismarck but it fit the Prinz Eugen perfectly. Whew! Various books show many handrails around the funnel. I only added three - enough to give the impression of detail while keeping my sanity. The Pontos box shows a complicated brass grid across the top of the funnel, but the kit does not seem to have those parts. I made a simpler grid from thin wood strips. The view in this photo is odd and my grid is actually aligned with the funnel.

Doors & Louvers I added the doors and louvers from the Pontos detail kit. The louvers were very difficult to make. They comprise a backing plate about the size of your little fingernail, tiny sawtooth rails that have to be bent 90 degrees, and 9 individual slats. They look sloppy here but I got pretty good at them by the last one. The heavy grid came with the kit in a long strip. I don't know what it's supposed to be but it resembles the drawings.

Deck & Rails I glued the deck into the hull using E6000 cement. It's smells like a dry cleaning shop but it has a fairly long working time and makes a strong bond. It took a lot of clamps to hold everything together. Isn't my workbench colorful? Then I attached those railings and anchor chains that I blackened earlier. There was a tiny gap, < 1mm, between the deck and hull in most places so I just put a spot of epoxy on the railing stanchions and pushed them into the gap. The railing conveniently hides the gap. Pure luck. The kit came with some oval shaped eyelets (grommets?) for the anchor chains, but the chain wouldn't fit. I used some black eyelets instead. I made the breakwater on the bow from scraps. Mid deck with cranes temporarily in place. Aft deck. After the Prinz Eugen was torpedoed, a blunt stern was welded with twin rudders operated by the crew turning a capstan on deck. Capstan? Oh no, I forgot the aft anchor! I wondered why the kit had an extra capstan and anchor. I'll have to add those later.

Mast The Germans expected their cruisers to be way out in the Atlantic raiding convoys, so they had very tall masts and lots of antennas for communication. Instead the ships spent a lot of time in Norway where the tall masts weren't as important. The mast was fun to build. I started with a large diameter dowel, spun it in my drill press at top speed, and sanded the three sections to smaller and smaller diameters. Five minutes, tops. That's how I make masts and yards for sailing ships. The antennas are brass rod, soldered in a few places. There is a brass ladder up to the first platform. The other platforms should probably have ladders and rails too, but I think I'll just skip those details. The rectangular block is the aircraft hanger. The plane will sit on top of it. The large block was pre-cut, but the grain goes side-to side. I just painted it and the grain is too obvious, so I filled it with wood filler and will have to repaint. I probably should have sanded those X-pieces better before assembly.

Painting Little Parts I recently took a break from building and decided to paint a bunch of the plastic parts instead. Here's a photo of my work bench and about 25 plastic parts. I started with a coat of Tamiya white primer from a rattle can, then used an Iwata air brush to spray the parts with AK International acrylic, color AK734, Dunkelgrau 51. I had one 17 ml bottle of paint and had trouble finding more anywhere online. Eventually I ordered 5 bottles from 3 different companies. Now it looks like I will enough left over to paint a (real) battleship. Here are the painted parts. The kit came with 9 sets of stairs that look OK until you realize that the steps would be knee high at 1:200 scale. I had hoped that the Pontos detail kit might have some scale stairs. It has 4 sets, not nearly enough. I'm using the plastic ones. Rails & Chains As I've mentioned, the Aeronaut kit comes with 14 lengths of nicely made rails. There are 2 problems, 1. they're silver, and 2. they're as tall as person at 1:200 scale. The Pontos detail kit has lots railing stanchions that would be about chest high at scale, but the pieces are microscopic and I don't want to deal with hundreds of them. So now my deck planks, my stairs, and my railings are way off scale, but no one will ever know except you and me. The Aeronaut kit also comes with 2 sizes of brass chains for the anchors and anchor hold downs. The links are probably way off scale too but I just don't care anymore. I blackened the rails and chains using Novocan black patina for stained glass, another hobby of mine. Hard to tell, but the top 2 rails are black and the bottom 2 are silver.

Forward Superstructure & Bridge The kit came with wooden blocks to carve for the forward superstructure, but the main block was crushed. I used a balsa block and attached the various bridge pieces. The drawings show railings, doors, portholes and windows, but there is nothing in the kit to use for those things. I used thin sheet brass for the railings, eyelets for the portholes, and cut card stock for the windows. I had some photo etched brass doors left over from my Arleigh Burke build and attached them. I really wanted to see something completed so I glued everything together. Big mistake. I should have filled the balsa grain and painted everything before assembly. The kit comes with 14 very nice pieces of pre-made railings but I wasn't sure if there was enough for all the little fiddly pieces. More on that later. It also includes a bag of brass railing stanchions and I used those here. I have experimented with thread and several kinds of wire for the railings and am not totally satisfied with any of them. I primed the tower with dark gray spray paint. Here you can also see sheet brass rails on the lower deck. The drawings show lots of louvered air vents all over the ship. I tried to make some using thin balsa strips glued to card stock. Not bad but could be better. The plastic modeling industry has some beautiful battleship models with very complex add-on detail kits. I couldn't find anything for the Prinz Eugen at 1:200 scale, but Pontos Models from Korea has an accessory kit for the Bismarck at 1:200. It looked like a lot of the parts would fit my model so I took a chance and ordered the kit on eBay from https://www.bnamodelworld.com/ in Australia. Their price beat anything in the US and they shipped immediately. Then, because of the pandemic, the box sat in customs in Melbourne for almost a month. Very frustrating but I got it. Pontos 1:200 Detail kit for the Bismark The detail kit is nicely packaged - much nicer than the Aeronaut kit. The kit has five sheets of photo etched parts. Four are brass and include pipes, funnel parts, holders for the ships boats, doors, windows, and louvers. One sheet is some silver metal and includes stanchions for the railings, oars for the ships boats, and antenna pieces. The kit has a bag of parts for the funnel, another bag of parts for the paravanes, and three props. Two of the props turn one direction and one the other way. I attached the props first.

A Brief History of the Prinz Eugen (gathered from several books - maybe I can post some references later) The Prinz Eugen was laid down in April, 1936, launched in August, 1938, and commissioned in August, 1940. He took part in the first raid of the battleship Bismarck in May, 1941 when the British battleship HMS Hood was sunk and the Prince of Wales was heavily damaged. (The German navy refers to ships in the male gender.) He spent a lot of time in various ports with boiler and engine problems. In early February of 1942 German battle cruisers Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, various destroyers, torpedo boats, and other ships made a dash from Brest, France through the English Channel to Kiel, Germany. A massive escort was provided by the Luftwaffe. On February 22 many of the ships departed for Norway. On February 23 the British submarine HMS Trident torpedoed Prinz Eugen. The stern of the ship was almost severed but the ship limped into Lofjord, Trondheim the next day. A repair ship made emergency repairs by welding a blunt stern with twin rudders operated by the crew turning a capstan on deck. (This would make a cool model!) Prinz Eugen returned to Kiel under his own power and was completely repaired by the end of October. After returning to service he served as a training ship in the Baltic, and provided artillery cover for retreating German troops. On October 15, 1944 Prinz Eugen was returning to Gotenhafen, (Gdynia) Poland at full speed in the mist, and rammed the light cruiser Leipzig which as adrift making a routine engine coupling transfer. The ships were locked together for 14 hours. Prinz Eugen continued to Gotenhafen under his own power and had a new bow fitted in less than a month. Leipzig was towed. Prinz Eugen continued to provide artillery support for ground troops, and ended up in Copenhagen at the end of the war. The ship was decommissioned and taken by the British to Wilhelmshaven, Germany for inspection by engineers from all of the Allied Powers. The ship was desired by all, but the USA won her by drawing lots from a hat. In January, 1946 a crew of 40 US navy sailors and 574 German personnel sailed him to Boston and later to Philadelphia, where he was hit by a US Navy tug. The tug was severely damaged. In March he was sailed to California via the Panama canal. In May he was sailed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and then to Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. On July 1, 1946 Prinz Eugen and a fleet of other ships were bombed in an air burst test of a "Fat Man" atomic bomb like that used on Nagasaki, Japan. Prinz Eugen was 1200 yards from the center of the blast and received only superficial damage. On July 25 it was bombed again with an underwater detonation of a second atomic bomb. Prinz Eugen was 2000 yards from the center of the blast and again received minimal damage but high radioactive contamination. Occupation of the ship would be lethal, so it was towed to Kwajalein Lagoon nearby. A small leak went unrepaired because of the radiation. By late December the ship was listing, rolled over slowly, and sank on a reef with parts of the stern out of the water. It remains there still and is no longer radioactive. Search for "Wreck of the German cruiser Prinz Eugen" in Google maps and look at the satellite view. In 1974 the German Navy League requested the removal of one propeller. It is now on display as part of the Laboe Naval Memorial in Kiel, Germany.

Thank you for your comments Lou. I obviously don't know the distinction between a battleship and a heavy cruiser, but I'd like to learn. Mostly I just enjoy making things, and a heavy cruiser looked like a challenge. Please continue to correct me when I get the history wrong. Rod

Rough Superstructure Superstructure parts for the kit are made from sheets of limewood either 10 mm or 12 mm thick, plenty high enough for a 1/200 scale sailor to walk under. The parts are stamped about 0.25 mm deep, but you have to cut them out with a scroll saw, and then sand, sand, sand. The superstructure layers are sandwiched between sheets of 1 mm 3-ply that constitute the decks. In some places the deck is flush with the structure below, and in other places it overhangs, often to hold a gun. The ply pieces are warped so it's hard to hold the sandwich together to sand the flush edges. I started gluing each layer to it's upper deck after this photo was taken.

Painting the Hull and Deck The Prinz Eugen was painted with 20 different paint schemes over its 6 year lifespan. This web site has drawings of all of them. http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=470#p10532 I chose the dazzle camouflage scheme used in the Baltic in May of 1941. You can see it in the photo below. I carefully chose all of my colors and went searching for paints online. Between the worldwide pandemic and the fact that there are few hobby shops left in the US, I had a terrible time finding what I wanted. After several disappointments with online shops I walked to my local hardware store and bought four rattle cans of Rustoleum - Colonial red, granite gray, black, and white. h I painted the red and then the gray. Here I'm masking off for the white parts of the camouflage. Painting the superstructure is going to be a b****. I planked the deck using long strips of 4 mm lime (bass) wood left over from another model. That's still 5x too wide for scale but it looks much better than the stuff that came with the kit. I glued down long strips with CA, and then notched the strips every 30 mm with a chisel to show individual planks. I sealed the surface with Timbermate wood filler, sanded, wiped off a quick coat of dark stain, and airbrushed everything with 4 coats of orange shellac. Much of this was not exactly planned, but it came out pretty good in the end. The ship had big swastikas painted on a red field on the deck for identification. I printed the swastikas on an ink jet printer, sprayed them with clear, and pasted them on.

Portholes on a Battleship? The plans for the Prinz Eugen show 209 portholes on each side of the hull. It seemed odd to me that there would be ANY portholes on the side of a battleship so I Googled "Portholes on WWII battleships?" Turns out that there are a lot of uninformed modelers out there with the same question as me. Here's a good discussion of the topic. https://www.quora.com/Why-did-German-battleships-in-World-War-2-like-the-Scharnhorst-and-Prinz-Eugen-have-porthole-windows-all-over-their-hulls-like-passenger-ships The short answer is that before the end of WWII most battleships had inadequate ventilation and no air conditioning, so they had plenty of portholes for crew comfort. The portholes were all above the heavy armor belting on the lower parts of the hull and had steel covers that could be closed over them during battle. The kit came with 10 bags with about 50 tiny eyelets in each, which I assumed were for portholes. I taped a side view over the hull, marked the center of each porthole with a pin, and started drilling. After 30-40 holes I realized that this wouldn't be accurate enough, so for subsequent holes I clamped a metal straight edge along the pin pricks and used that to keep the holes even. I thought I could just pop the eyelets in the holes and glue them with CA, but they never sat flush with the hull. I ended up crimping each one across the hull with a smooth pair of pliers. In retrospect I should have bought a specialty eyelet crimping tool, but it's too late now. After I finished the portholes on the hull I realized that there would be hundreds more on the superstructure and I was down to my last bag. I ordered 500 more from a doll supply company on eBay. I think that the kit has enough eyelets for an RC model where you probably would not want 418 holes in the side of the hull. It seems that I didn't take any photos of the hull covered with brass eyelets, but this photo after painting gives you an idea what they look like. That leads me to painting the hull.

Hull, Deck, Stand, and Propellers I trimmed the excess plastic off the hull with a razor saw, and glued wood strips to the inside edges to support the deck. I decided not to use the bulkheads. I shaped a piece of poplar and glued it inside the hull as an attachment point for a stand. The prop shafts were then glued in place. The kit includes red plastic props for RC . Later I replaced them with scale brass props.

What's in the Box The basic kit is sometimes sold separately from the fittings kit, but one is not too useful without the other. Most vendors sell them together. I got mine from Cornwall Model Boats in England. The kit includes an 8-page instruction manual, all in German, and half of which is a parts list. It's not too useful. The kit also includes 5 pages of full-sized plans. Two of those plans are hull sections in case you want to carve your own hull. They're not too useful either. The other 3 plans include nice 3-views of the ship and lots of details of all the components. A well-made vacuum-formed hull is included. Here it is, all 1170 mm of it. You get to trim off the excess. The kit includes prop shafts, plastic props and rudders for RC, but few details for doing that. I am building for display only. The framework for the deck was pre-cut but printed off center. You still have to cut the bulkheads out of the center with a scroll saw anyway. The decking material looked like it was printed but it turned out to be laminated light and dark strips! However, the scaled planks would be about 2 m wide and just didn't look right. I ended up planking my own deck. More on that later. There are several sheets of thin plywood parts for all the upper decks and fiddly pieces. The parts are stamped but mostly not die-cut. They are jammed together so closely on the sheets that they are very difficult to cut out. I found that the easiest way to cut them out was with heavy scissors. The fittings set include lots of beautiful plastic parts for guns, torpedo tubes, cranes, boats, etc. These parts are almost perfect. There is even a kit for an Arado 196 floatplane. Finally, the fittings kit has a lot of miscellaneous metal parts, and it's not always obvious where they belong. There are about 500 tiny eyelets for portholes, but I used up over 400 on the sides of the hull alone and had to order more. The railings are beautiful but I'm not sure that there will be enough for all the decks. There is a formed brass strip to use for ladders, but the only stairs are plastic and are way off scale. Well that's what is in the box. It seems like a lot, but as I soon discovered there are lots of pieces to a battleship that aren't even addressed in the kit.

Prinz Eugen, WWII German Heavy Cruiser I am afraid that I haven't been on MSW since I finished my MS Bark Endeavour over a year ago. My wife and I moved from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA to Asheville, North Carolina, about 540 miles (870 km) due south. We found a beautiful old stone house in the mountains that has demanded some attention and kept me from building much. Now that we are all social distancing I have had much more free time, and have made a grand start on the Aeronaut kit of the Prinz Eugen (pronounced "Prints You-gen," pardon my German.) I wanted to build a battleship model but there aren't many out there. There are lots of very detailed plastic models, and a few very large, 1:100 scale RC models. German company Aeronaut has several 1:200 scale models of German WWII battleships. They are pricey and there is almost no information about them online. I posted a query on MSW a few years ago and didn't get much information, but I decided to take a chance anyway. I really wanted to build their Bismarck kit because that's the ship that everyone knows. But I had a built-in bookshelf that was 4 ft. (1220 mm) wide and the Bismarck is 1255 mm long, so I bought the Prinz Eugen at 1170 mm. And then we decided to move and leave the bookshelf behind. I finally started the model back in March and am now well underway. This is not your typical MSW model so I wasn't sure if I would keep a build log, but I took some photos on the way and will try to catch up. And I promise to catch up on many of the other logs that I was enjoying in the past.

Case Completed I built a case for my Endeavour from scratch in about 3 weeks. It came out very nice and looks good next to my Syren model. They are temporarily displayed in a basement rec room. I don't know where they'll end up when we move. I forgot how hard it is to photograph anything in a plastic case. I tried all kinds of lighting and Photoshop tricks to get rid of reflections. The photo of the Endeavour alone is OK, but the photo of the two ships together is pretty bad. Oh well, I tried. Rod

Case Construction Back in 2012 I designed and built a case for a Model Shipways Flying Fish that I built in 1969. I reused the design for my Syren a couple of years later and now again for the Endeavour. Here are the original drawings and calculations for the Syren case. The Endeavour case is exactly the same size but 2 inches shorter. They should look good together. The moldings were cut from 3/4 inch white oak. I cut 1/8" slots for plexiglass with my table saw, the larger rabbet in the base with a dado blade, and the profiled edges on my router table. I made most of the cuts while the wood was much wider to keep my fingers from the blades, then cut the pieces to the correct width at the end. Here are the finished molding pieces before sanding. I ordered 0.118 inch plexiglass cut to size from Tap Plastics in California. For the last two cases I bought large sheets from Home Depot and cut them myself with the scribe and break method. Tap Plastics was about the same cost and a whole lot easier. Today I mitered the top and bottom moldings with a chop saw. I taped everything together to make sure it all fit, then glued up the top frame and later the bottom frame (shown.) I may shoot some brads into the corners for a little extra strength. I will glue a veneered plywood panel into the bottom frame, and screw the Endeavour to it at the end. I will attach the top plexiglass with glazier's points. The side pieces will be held with 8 screws from the top and bottom. Everything can be disassembled by removing those screws. Final photos coming soon.

Thank you all for the kind compliments on my model. I know that it is not completely historically accurate, but I am happy with it. I sincerely appreciate all the help and encouragement from my (few) followers. I really could not have done it without all your help. I'll keep watching for Dave Row to finish his beautiful model, and for Fernando to start his! May you both have fair winds and following seas. Rod

Dave, I attached my shroud cleats as shown on the plans and they ended up below the rail. I didn't think much about it until I started belaying lines to them and they were out of reach for the sailors. Your shroud cleats look great. Keep up the beautiful work. I'm anxious to see you model finished. Rod

Happy New Year Mates! The fireworks in Sydney, Melbourne, Darwin, and every other major city in Australia just look spectacular. I wish I could be there to see them in person. I worked for a small fireworks company while I was in grad school and still love a good show. Here in tiny Chagrin Falls, Ohio we celebrate by lowering a giant popcorn ball from the flagpole in the town square at midnight. I am not making this up. The popcorn shop has been in business in an old gristmill by the falls since 1948. It's not fireworks but it's still fun.

HM Bark Endeavour - Finished! 1 year, 4 months, 10 days, 664 hours I put in a lot of hours since my last major post, and completed the model on Dec. 30. Here are some photos. Anchors Since July I've had the main anchors lashed to the channels. When I attached the second set of anchors I decided that the model would look better with the main anchors hanging. That's how they're displayed on my Syren. After a bit of deconstruction I hung them from the cathead. I like them much better this way. Anchor buoy lashed to the first shroud Fore and main masts Main and mizzen masts Rigging Problems The kit has two plans for running rigging. Plan 7 is mostly lifts and the plan 8 is mostly braces. I started with plan 7 and rigged all the lifts, working fore-to-aft. All of those lines belayed to many of the pins, eyes, and cleats shown on the deck plan. I tried to follow AOTS for attachment points. Then I opened plan 8 and started rigging the braces fore-to-aft. It turns out that plan 8 shows many lines belayed to the same points as plan 7, so I started using unused points nearby. By the time I got to the mizzen mast I had totally run out of deck eyes and mast cleats to belay to. There were line cleats attached to each of the mizzen shrouds, but they were totally unused on the plans. I ended up rigging some of the mizzen braces to those shrouds. They're probably incorrect but it was all I could do at that point. Please don't tell the admiral. Bow with jack Stern with Ensign Flag Problems I bought the jack, ensign, and commissioning pennant from Cornwall Model Boats. They are made by BECC in the UK and are perfectly sized and beautifully made, but he fabric material is very soft and hangs limply. I experimented with several products to make them hold a wavy shape - spray starch, white glue, and polyurethane spray. Nothing worked very well so I ended up washing everything out of the ensign and starting over. Luckily the paint is waterproof. I ended up putting a couple of coats of clear shellac on each flag, crumpling them up, and putting them aside to dry. Then I held them in front of my electric workshop heater and worked them into shape. Even the easy things are hard. Case I designed and built a case for an old Model Shipways Flying Fish a few years ago, and later scaled the design for my Syren. The Endeavour has nearly the same height and width as the Syren but is 2 inches shorter, so this rescale was easy. I have ordered five pieces of plexiglass cut to size for an Endeavour case and will start cutting wood today. It looks like my wife and I will be moving to Asheville, North Carolina soon, so I need to get this ship in a case before the move. Pictures to follow.

Dave, Thank you very much for the booklet. It's beautiful on its own and should be a big help with the remaining construction. Rod

Pat, I've been through the AOTS book many times now and completely overlooked the deck plan on pages 120-121, maybe because it's sandwiched between many pages of sail rigging. That plan will help a lot, but I'm afraid to look to see what I've done wrong already. At least the spiritsail yard brace pin 11 isn't used yet. Rod