Jump to content

Prinz Eugen WWII German Heavy Cruiser by rvchima - Aeronaut - Scale 1:200 - Finished


Recommended Posts

Catapult and Arado 196 Floatplane

841651596_catapult01.jpg.d9d0a47d86b9775986fc7e3bf6460ecf.jpg

 

I spent a full day building the brass aircraft stand that comes with the Pontos detail kit. They actually give you enough parts to build 4 of them although you only need 1. Good thing because I screwed up 2 1/2 of them before I settled on this one.

538870444_catapult02.jpg.06c24e64255933e02c1728aa15a51e28.jpg

Then I built the catapult (from scratch) and the Arado 196 floatplane (came with the Aeronaut kit). Hey! what happened to my aircraft stand?

 

The real catapult rail is about 15 m long and the catapult launch speed is 130 km/hr. I did some quick calculations that show that the pilot would pull 4.3 g's at takeoff, about the same as an F-18 pilot on a modern carrier. Must have been quite a ride!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oops, I Put the Platform on Backwards

1923262448_mastbefore.thumb.jpg.96b2bc75d7982d6cde4a8e420833d7f9.jpg

I've been standing the mast on top of the plans for a month and just realized that I installed the lower platform backwards. So how to fix it? I  broke off 3 triangular gussets on the bottom, then gently twisted the platform until it broke loose. Cleaned up the glue, rotated the platform, glued everything back together, and touched up the paint. 15 minutes tops.

990994564_mastafter.thumb.jpg.e31cc445471d96d37cd935cefa86d111.jpg

 

And while I was fixing things I installed the rear anchor. Well, you can't see the anchor, but it's there.

1201344810_rearanchor.jpg.988da4d0a2c3fd342785d0ccce1e2d52.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Yves,

 

Welcome to the build log. It's a little short on detail but I wanted to get some information out there about the Aeronaut kits.

 

And thank you for the the welcome to Asheville. Our son lives in Apex so I am very familiar with the Raleigh area. I am always interested in finding new shops, shows, or museums related to aircraft or ships. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

 

Rod

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dazzling

2141323305_Dazzle00.thumb.jpg.0cd2c2d7636f0fd33f6a60c896ed2c40.jpg

I bit the bullet and painted the dazzle camouflage. It took a full day to mask and paint each of the diagonal stripes. I stacked all the components with 3-M double-sided tape to hold them in alignment. I made a skinny pencil by gluing a bit of pencil lead in a 1mm brass tube. Then I used a thin ruler and my skinny pencil to mark the diagonal. Very difficult to keep the pencil perpendicular to the ruler as it stepped over each layer of the superstructure. Lots of Tamiya masking tape and several hours later I was ready to paint each stripe - by hand.

 

I also painted the tops of the turrets red. They were painted red briefly for recognition by German aircraft.

 

I didn't realize that this overview photo was so grainy until now. I'll try to get a better image later. Here are some other shots that look better.

576427356_Dazzle03.jpg.a1a3767bd8464c4dc38a022ae245b7fb.jpg

Forward superstructure

 

1428411433_Dazzle04.jpg.44952d2df26e14fafd217ed3fbd6f4db.jpg

Funnel

 

1647501160_Dazzle05.jpg.e13d407d9506f59d6cc4272a64a4621c.jpg

Aft superstructure and mast

 

650454819_Dazzle01.jpg.d7521d9e0af03b5984649d3f89210d52.jpg

Aft end with painted turrets

 

1044272476_Dazzle06.jpg.fd60386877753a883180310808a2a42e.jpg

All the components are stacked temporarily in position. I have been adding railings to the second and third levels. More on that in the next post.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Railings

The Aeronaut kit came with 14 pieces of prefab railings, each 250 mm long. I knew that would not be enough but I wasn't sure how much I would need, so I avoided using it for miscellaneous railings. The 14 pieces circled the 1st deck completely and finished the second deck with inches to spare. One deck to go. A couple of stores in England sell the prefab railings but I was in a hurry, so I made my own using the brass stanchions and music wire included in the kit. I decided to use a shorter double railing on the 3rd deck, so I cut the 3-hole stanchions down a notch and sanded them smooth. I made this jig to solder the railings together.

4984841_Handmaderailings.jpg.5b3d36bb1d22c0d44afe44a8e6f9a607.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Toy Boats

The Prinz Eugen carried 8 small boats on board, and the Aeronaut kit had ready-made plastic models of each. In fact my kit had 9 boats, but I think that one was a mistake.

258861121_Toyboats01.jpg.b06ca51077b4d9c045d082d88f4a6336.jpg

 

216558202_Toyboats02.jpg.41a36e2680e1c4f6110a9081ab3107e8.jpg

You should always wash plastic parts before painting to clean off any residual mold release.

I think I'll just play with the boats like this for a while.

 

So far I have completely ignored the ships boats. When I looked at the plans I found that 6 of them were on racks on deck 2, right where my railings were. So time to construct some racks and deconstruct some railings.

 

126425706_Toyboats05.jpg.480377bc465e245f81b2d1ba3698d245.jpg

This rack holds 2 boats.

 

547612593_Toyboats03.jpg.ad4d853b788acd11104f2c7ddb8b7205.jpg

This rack holds 1 boat. The boats look pretty dirty close up. That was another good reason to wash them.

 

Those racks are duplicated on each side, accounting for 6/8 boats. The remaining 2 boats hang from davits. As usual, there is nothing in the kit for the davits so I soldered a pair up out of brass. Spent a few hours today painting toy boats.

Toy boats 04.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Q: What's Black and White and Red All Over? 

A: The Prinz Eugen in it's 1941 Baltic Camouflage!

 

1332708864_PEsideview.thumb.jpg.ab72f2d069f8c152269dff4833aac37a.jpg

 

My Prinz Eugen model is complete! I've been very busy since my last post. Here's what I've done.

  • Finished and attached all 8 ship's boats.
  • Attached all the superstructure components.
  • Attached dozens of smaller plastic components.
  • Built some custom vents that go around the B turret, and found and attached a ship's bell.
  • Rigged miles of antenna wires with EZ line.

Here are some photos of the completed model.

 

963976987_PEside01.jpg.35d1074c70c7200cda34700518727590.jpg

You can barely see some of the vent shafts around the second turret.

 

873794117_PEside02.jpg.295e0584f7ef4477a585afacca74e7d3.jpg

Here are some of the 8 boats and the Arado 196 on the catapult. The ship's bell is hanging on the rear mast.

 

719867247_PEside03.jpg.9601b91698f2f57ce5aca99d25e8f874.jpg

 

1640786981_PEfront1.thumb.jpg.e8fe7551be37bed4fdf28844af7fc92a.jpg

 

 

605472125_PEfront2.thumb.jpg.24d51eb7abe7a4504a25a06e1e458ebd.jpg

I would not like to see this view in person!

 

1421262708_PErear1.thumb.jpg.e566ef63b24cd9605716d46caa6b045e.jpg

The Pontos props were worth their weight in gold. That's about how much the accessory kit cost anyway.

And see, I really did install the aft anchor.

 

513811670_PErear2.thumb.jpg.d4803c88aea52224eb5bb6a5a8c245f3.jpg

The stern looks a lot like the bow.

 

1020893917_PErigging01.jpg.8de42971d5096bd3cd522450ffbb4f4a.jpg

I rigged the antenna lines with EZ line. It's an elastic polymer thread that supposedly can stretch up to 7x it's original length. You can get it on Amazon but it's a lot cheaper on eBay from Burbank House of Hobbies. I bought the thick, 0.5 mm material but it still seems quite thin.

 

I rigged the triple antennas first using tiny PE Delta-shaped fittings from the Pontos kit, but I ended up throwing out two complete antennas before I got it right. The line tends to curl so it was hard to control while gluing it to the fitting. The instructions say to use a fresh bottle of thin CA, but I had a large bottle that I'd been nursing for a couple of years. I pulled a new bottle out of my freezer and man, what a difference! I found that I if I licked the EZ line it would stick to a piece of wax paper. Then I dipped the PE part in the new CA and touched it to the line. Voila, instant attachment.

 

The only trouble with the EZ line is that the lead wires from the antennas to the ship tend to bend the antennas. In a couple of places I used thread for the antennas to help keep them straight.

 

I am concerned that the rigging might become brittle with age. Please let me know if you've had any long-term experience with EZ line.

 

The Aeronaut plans were pretty worthless for rigging. One side view shows some rigging but you can't tell if you're seeing a single antenna or several side-by-side. Instead, I used The German Heavy Cruiser Prinz Eugen by Waldemar Goralski for most of the rigging. To be honest, I took some liberties with the rigging and left out a few lead wires.

 

1722684431_PErigging02.jpg.98328c4c047fe48a5f7451a1004b2a94.jpg

 

You'd never do this with thread rigging!

 

1744262252_PEdiagonalview.jpg.cf12b9f4be6bdb65005446c7b5cf6b99.jpg

I made a nice base out of quarter-sawn white oak. I bought the brass pedstals from Bluejacket Shipcrafters. The model should probably be in a case but you can only have so many big cases laying around your house. I'll probably put the model on top of a bookcase somewhere.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...