SMS WESPE 1876 by wefalck – 1/160 scale - Armored Gunboat of the Imperial German Navy - as first commissioned

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen, for your kind comments!

 

@Keith Black: I decided on 'hearts' and lashings, as this is what the photograph seems to show for the fore-stays. Not very clear though. Bottle-screws would be longer and thinner.

 

@KeithAug: Caught me red-handed ... yes, the stays and shrouds - unfortunately - are not completely straight. This due to the fact that I used wire and that the anchoring is not that strong. I have used such wires in the past, but could tighten them more and it worked very well. Have to rethink that in the future and perhaps build a serving machine that can handle really thin materials. Also, the only material I had that was thin enough was solid wire, stranded wire would have been better for that purpose.

Edited May 1, 2023 by wefalck

[KeithAug]

18 minutes ago, wefalck said:

only material I had that was thin enough was solid wire,

Eberhard - I am surprised they came out as well as they did with solid wire, but as I said I only noticed it in the one close up shot. I find small electrical motors from broken toys are a good source of very thin wire.

[wefalck]

Interestingly, those silk-wrapped (stranded) wires are available again commercially, as there seems to be a fashion for non-IC and legacy electronics. I also inherited a small stock from my father, who was very much into electronics/electrics.

 

Otherwise, ebay et al. now make accessing such fancy materials much easier than before, when you had to rely on local shops. I have a large collection of wires from different materials from about 0.008 mm diameter upwards. Not everything turned out to be really useful though.

 

One thing I really regret our those threads that were used to mend ladies' nylons. One type is still available, but this is multistranded and fuzzy. This nice, two-stranded tightly twisted stuff is nowhere to be had anymore and the manufacturer in Germany that I knew is defunct. I used to scan fleamarkets for them, but was never lucky in that respect.

[Keith Black]

24 minutes ago, wefalck said:

This nice, two-stranded tightly twisted stuff is nowhere to be had anymore and the manufacturer in Germany that I knew is defunct.

 What is/was the manufacture's name? I'm asking because I keep a mental list of things to look for while searching flea markets and websites and I'll gladly keep an eye open for you. 

[wefalck]

The company was called C.C. Egelhaaf & Sohn, located in Aalen (Baden-Württemberg). The yarn size is Nm 300/2, which means that from 1 g of material 300 m of a two-ply yarn was made. 

[Ras Ambrioso]

Amazing work. I smile when I think of your tolerance of 0.008 mm when mine is about 0.500mm. Its a real pleasure to look at your work.

[Montaigne]

Excellent build and very impressive details. Hats off!

[Mirabell61]

Congrats Eberhard,

a very nicely built and a beautiful model

 

Nils

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen, though a bit belated for your encouraging comments !

 

*******************

 

Foredeck Chain-Rails

 

Progress has been slow over the last few weeks because of various travels in the course of May (Italy, Germany, Spain) and because installing the rails is actually a slow process with breaks in between steps to let glue or paint dry.

 

I was a bit worried about the various corners these chain rails take on the foredeck – not a problem in real life, but the fake chain made from double-twisted turned out to be surprisingly compliant, without getting kinks that could not be straightened out.

 

Also, the ventilators for the crew-quarters beneath the foredeck were installed now.

 

Next thing on the to-do-list will be the anchor-buoys that, according to the photographs usually were tied to the rails near the anchor-davits.

 

Apropos anchor-davits: I realised after taking the above pictures, that I didn’t put them back yet – I had taken them out to facilitate the threading of the chain-rails.

 

 

To be continued ....

[BANYAN]

This is one very nice model Eberhard, especially at the scale you are working.  Kudos!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Mirabell61]

very nice Eberhard,

I like the simulated water and the wakes

 

Nils

[amateur]

When I take pics of my model and show them 'larger than life', all kinds of unwanted specs, uneven surfaces, blobs of glue etc show up.

Yours only show impeccable craftmanship.

A joy to look at.

Jan

Edited June 5, 2023 by amateur

[mbp521]

Eberhard, my thesaurus of unused adjectives for words to describe your beautiful work is running low. I’ll just have to reuse Amazing.  😁
 

-Brian

[wefalck]

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your kind comments.

 

@amateur Well, when you look really close, it is not always as perfect as you may think. However, I try to use the airbrush, whenever possible, because this gives an even coating. Spraying white is difficult due to relative coarse pigment particles, black on the other hand is easy, because these particles are probably the smallest. Everything else is somewhere in between.

I am mainly using Vallejo model air and Schmincke acrylics. I also tend to use less glue, but rather varnish to cement parts in place. Most parts have some sort of mechanical lock as well, so that the glue just provides added strength. The varnish can also cleaned up with solvent - when the cementing takes place before painting.

 

Forgot to mention: some time ago @Toolmaker sent me a PM about braiding wires to imitate chain, a method that looked quite convincing. I tried it with the 0.06 mm Konstantan-wire I need to use and this is just to flimsy. It breaks very easily, when handled and I was not successful at that size. I gather with wire of 0.1 mm diametre or above it should work. In order to get the 'links' even one needs to pull quite a bit.

[wefalck]

To begin with: in the meantime, I have completed the chain-rails around the barbette:

This was a straightforward operation with the experience gained previously and only one corner to go around.

 

 

Anchor-Buoys

 

A fairly conspicuous detail on warships of that period were the buoys for the bow-anchors that were lashed to a convenient place near the anchor-davits, when not in use. Their purpose was to mark the location of the anchors. It was important to know, where the anchors were laid out in order to detect, whether they may have shifted and to indicate their location to newcomers, so that they don’t throw their anchors across yours, which could cause trouble, when you have to raise your anchors.

At the time of SMS WESPE, the buoys were made from galvanised sheet-iron and had the shape of two cones joined at their base. A web of served wire-rope gave two attachment points, for the rope with which they were attached to the anchor and for a fishing-lanyard.

Instruction leaflet from 1909 for the construction and fitting out of anchor-buoys of the German Imperial Navy. Source: https://forum.arbeitskreis-historischer-schiffbau.de/download/file.php?id=19837&mode=view.

 

As per the official instruction sheet from which this illustration was taken, the sheet-metal was supposed to be painted in red lead-oxide primer. There is, however, no clear information in what final colour the buoys were to be painted. Typically, modeller chose green for the starboard anchor-buoy and red for the port one. There is a certain logic in this, because in this way the anchors can be identified, even if the boat may have swayed around them. 

There is a picture taken on board of S.M.S. HERTHA around 1876 that shows seamen working on such anchor-buoys:

Seamen at work on the deck of S.M.S. HERTHA in around 1876, Source: https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/kolonialesbildarchiv/content/pageview/11408859.

 

There are two buoys visible, one on the left in a quite light grey and another one, almost covered by the seaman at the front, which is a lot darker. Considering that the glass-plate negatives of the time were less sensitive to red than to green, which would appear darker in the positive print, one can conclude that the buoy on the left was probably painted green, while the other one was probably painted red. This is so far the only evidence from the period in question for them having been painted in different colours.

 

While the shape is seemingly simple, it is not so easy to produce and to manipulate. The two cones have to be turned separately and then fitted together. I choose Plexiglas for ease of gluing the halves together. Turning proceeded in steps: first the diameter for the wooden caps was turned and a groove to mark the overall length, then the top-slide was set over at an angle of 28° to turn the cone. As per prototype four notches were cut into the caps using a pointed cutting tool set with the cutting-edge vertical. Finally, the cones were parted off. The two cones were glued together making sure that the notches for the rope-web were offset by 45° at each end.

The unpainted anchor-buoys

 

Another consideration was how to reproduce the carefully spliced web of served wire-ropes. I decided that tightly twisted 0.1 mm diameter tinned copper-wire would be the best route. Four strands of twisted wire with a loop at the end were produced and slipped over a ring of twisted wire which then was soldered closed. The four strands were distributed equally around the ring and fixed with a tiny amount of varnish. The arrangement was slipped over the buoy, gathered together at the end and secured with a short winding of thread soaked in varnish. One of the strands was bent into an eye and secured with a half-hitch of thread. Finally, all the ends were trimmed down to the binding.

 

The buoys then were sprayed red and green respectively and once the acrylic was dry, the wire-rope was picked out with a sepia artist’s marker pen (which seemed to give more control over the paint flow than my brushing technique).

 

I did not take any pictures of the manufacturing process, as each step was actually quite straightforward.

Finished anchor-buoys

 

On several photographs one can see that the anchor-buoys were tied to the chain-rail near the rear anchor-davit. I don’t know how long the rope was with which the buoys were tied to the anchors, but I would think it would in the order of 20 m, accounting for typical anchoring depths. A thin ‘rope’ was produced on the rope-walk from slightly brownish material, assuming that such rope would be heavily tarred to resist its permanent exposure to the elements. A ring was formed and tied together with the buoy to the rail.

Stowed anchor-buoys

 

 

To be continued ....

Edited July 4, 2023 by wefalck

[BANYAN]

That some very finely detailed work Eberhard.  The quality of your work at this scale is outstanding.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[druxey]

Lovely details, Eberhard.

[wefalck]

The shipyard re-opened in early September after a long summer-break that I spent away from the workshop, but it was followed by various business and private travels. So, producing the small detail below took an awful lot of time …

 

Some ‘clutter’ on the deck-house

 

I found producing the stanchions for the awnings too much of a challenge at this small scale and didn’t like the look of them anyway. So, I did not install them on the model (and even omitted their sockets, as I did not have any information on how these really looked like). My excuse was that the model will be shown in a semi-battle-ready gun-exercise situation, where the stanchions would be stowed.

 

Photograph showing awning-stanchions in a storage rack on the deckhouse

 

There are quite a few stanchions, which are tapered and slightly curved at the upper end with the ring. The upper section is round, while the lower section that fits into the sockets is square. According to one picture available, it seems that the stanchions were stowed in sort of racks along the rails of the deck-house when not in use. The same applied presumably to the wooden beams that formed the centre ridge of the awnings.

Mass-producing these stanchions that would be barely seen, when stowed in the rack, from brass-wire seemed a disproportionate effort. Hence, I decided to laser-cut them from card-stock. They are very flimsy and were stiffened in varnish before proceeding them to paint them with acrylic paint. The paint was applied quite generously to have a sort of rounding effect.

The two racks ready for installing on the model

 

I could not find any picture that showed the stowing racks, so I had to invent something that seemed reasonable. Somehow the racks seem to be associated with the rail-stanchions. I devised a sort of cage with a laser-cut base and uprights made from thin tinned copper-wire. The racks also accommodate the (foldable) wooden beams that support the awnings amidship. In addition, it seems that the mops etc. for the gun were stored in these racks.

The racks installed

 

To be continued ....

[druxey]

Welcome back! Quite a fiddly detail.....

[Keith Black]

 I never tire viewing your work, Eberhard. 

[Bob Cleek]

Thanks for the updates! She's really coming along beautifully. 

[Ras Ambrioso]

Amazing, at 1/160 scale is also incredible the amount of realistic detail you have included in this model. 

[BANYAN]

Welcome back Eberhard, have been missing your updates (as if I have been posting  )  Those extra details really add to this wonderful model.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mcb]

Its good to see this one again.

[FriedClams]

Good call on the rail stanchion racks and associated awning beam stowage.  Avoiding the visual clutter of the detail while still acknowledging the existence of it, is a clever solution.

 

Gary

[wefalck]

As usual, your encouraging comments are much appreciated !

 

********

In the meantime, I had to make myself a list of all those tiny details that still need to be fabricated and installed. It is easy to forget them, when you are getting closer to the end …

 

Crane above the projectile hatch

 

Projectiles and powder bags were stored in different compartments for safety reasons below the barbette and in consequence, each had its own hatch. That for the powder bags was round, while the one for the projectiles was rectangular in order for them to lifted out on a trolley.

As discussed in a much earlier post, the lithographies from the early 1880s do not show any mechanical device to help the 330 kg heavy projectiles from their storage space to the floor of the barbette. Man-handling clearly is out of question. However, drawings related to a later re-fit show inside the deckhouse a winch marked as ‘winch for the hoisting of projectiles’ and a simple derrick-like wall-crane bolted to the rear wall of the barbette. In these drawings it is not shown how the runner rope would have been led from the crane to the winch, there most have been some sort of opening in the rear of the barbette. Also, not clear is, how the in the gun-crew in the barbette and the men in the projectile storage room would have communicated with the winch-men inside the deckhouse.

Interestingly, in the same drawing a simple wall-mounted crane for the powder-bags seems to be indicated, but no winch belonging to it. Perhaps the 45 kg bags were hoisted up with the help of a tackle.

 

The assembled and painted parts at their place, port view

 

The small detail (about 3 mm by 3 mm) of the projectile crane caused me a lot of aggravation and took a long time to fabricate. I drew it in several versions to be cut from Canson-paper on the laser-cutter until I arrived at a solution that worked. Assembly was also rather difficult and several parts jumped into the invisible black hole on the workbench, so that they had to be replaced. The pulley was turned from 1 mm steel rod.

 

The hook was fashioned from tinned copper-wire and the shape built up from Vallejo acrylic paint ‘oily steel’. A short piece of rope was spliced into the ring and the spherical weight built up from acrylic paint. 

 

Likewise, the powder-crane was cut from two layers of Canson-paper, soaked in varnish and painted. There is no information on what it may have looked like. I did not model the tackle, assuming that during the gun-drill in which the model will be presented, no charges were used and therefore, the tackle was not rigged. Only a shackle was fashioned from tinned copper wire.

 

Lamp-boards

Another small item on my to-do-list were the lamp-boards. According to the very first photograph of SMS WESPE these were placed at the front end of the deckhouse surrounding the barbette. In the lithograph and in later photographs they are shown on short poles towards the rear end of the deckhouse and raised above the rails.

 

These lamp-boards were laser-cut in three parts from Canson-paper and painted appropriately after assembly. The petroleum-lamps are not shown, as during day-time they would have been cleaned and then stored in deckhouse(?).

 

The assembled and painted parts at their place, starbord view

 

Not much to show actually for the amount time and effort spent on the parts …

 

 To be continued ....

 

[BANYAN]

Wow, spectacular result Eberhard, that looks great, especially at 1:160. 

 

cheers

 

Pat

[GrandpaPhil]

That looks amazing!

[mtaylor]

The amount of detail you have such a small size is amazing.  

[KeithAug]

Superb work as ever. loved the anchor buoys and the rails. The images of the gun emplacement are wonderful. You ended your summer break much sooner than I.