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

[wefalck]

thanks, that would be good news, as I already have a 4 mm shaft, 5/32" = 3,97 mm ...

[wefalck]

Quarter-deck v4

 

While the wooden quarter-deck previously produced (v2) was not entirely bad, it lacked the crispiness I had wished for and also the colour was somewhat murky, more like oak, and not like the teak it was probably made from. In addition, I found a mistake in its shape that could not be corrected.

 

This quarter-deck is somewhat unusual in lay-out, as the planks are radiating with the gun-pivot as centre. This lay-out probably was chosen to minimise the effect of the certainly considerable blast from the 30.5 cm-gun. Apart from the fact that most wood-species would be too coarse at 1:160 scale, it would also be a challenge to produce such deck with tapering planks only 0.4 mm thick. A painted version renders more likely a realistic representation, is technically easier to achieve and more in line with the style of the model.

 

The shape of the wooden deck was cut from a 0.4 mm thick sheet of bakelite-paper and carefully fitted to the hull of the model, which was quite a bit of work given the multiple curvatures. The caulked seams were indicated by narrow engraved lines as described earlier in this building log. The holes for all the fittings were also drilled at this stage.

 

In between, I had tried using black styrene, rather than bakelite-paper as a basis for the decking (v3). The rationale was that I would clear out the engraved lines after painting down to the black plastic. This strategy did not work for two reasons, namely the styrene (Evergreen™ sheet) is much softer than the bakelite and the acrylic paints form a kind of quite soft skin, which tends to rip in flakes when trying to re-engrave the lines, so that I dropped this idea.

 

The wood character of the quarter-decking was to be achieved by giving each plank a slightly different colour, imitating the natural variability of wood. The piece was given a base-coat of Vallejo Model Air 71075 ‘sand (ivory)’ using the airbrush. In a next step single planks were randomly given a light wash with Prince August 834 ‘natural wood transparent’ or Vallejo Model Air 71023 ‘hemp’ (which turned out to be a bit too dark actually). In a next step randomly selected planks, particularly those ‘hemp’ ones were given a very light wash with Vallejo Model Air 71288 ‘Portland stone’. Another very light wash with Vallejo Model Air 71041 ‘armour brown’, toned down with yet another very light wash using Vallejo Model Air 71132 ‘aged white’, pulled everything together.

 

Painted quarter-decking before sealing it with varnish

 

To facilitate the picking out of the caulking seams, the decking was given a sealing coat of acrylic glossy varnish. The definition of the caulking seams was enhanced by running the back of an old scalpel along them, making impressions, rather than cutting through the paint. The caulking was imitated using a 0.05 mm marker with pigmented permanent (hopefully) ink. After each line was drawn, the ink was allowed to dry for a few seconds and the excess wiped off with a barely humid finger. This leaves the ink only in the incisions, resulting in a very thin black line. In spite of the glossy varnish, a haze of the ink is left on the planks, darkening them somewhat, but this effect was calculated in, when setting out the original paint scheme.

 

The surface was lightly rubbed down with an abrasive foam block (as used in mani-/pedicure) to thin down the glossy varnish without damaging the underlying paint. This rather complex procedure was concluded by applying another very dilute wash of Vallejo Model Air 71132 ‘aged white’ and finally a sprayed on coating of Vallejo matt varnish.

 

Finished quarter-decking ready for final installation

 

To be continued ....

Edited February 25, 2022 by wefalck

[Keith Black]

Eberhard, an ingenious technique that turned out beautiful. Very well done. 

[KeithAug]

Very complicated paint job. I think you should have said "I made the deck from teak" no one would have been any the wiser.

[druxey]

Whew! A lengthy procedure rather, I suspect. like walking a high wire. Glad you didn't fall off! Terrific result.

[mtaylor]

What an amazing result and appears to  be worth the effort.

[BANYAN]

Persistence has paid dividends Eberhard; looks very realistic and 'crisp'

 

cheers

 

Pat

[mcb]

Hi wefalck,

Another excellent simulation of wood.  I had never given much thought to attempting it as I thought such results were not possible, especially in this scale.

It is not overstated as well, which seems to happen frequently with effects like this.

MCB

[mbp521]

Wefalck,

 

Simply amazing work. I still have a hard time believing that the deck is painted and not individual planking!

 

-Brian

[Ras Ambrioso]

Great work Wefalck. I couldn't figure why they would done a radial planking in front of the gun, now I know.

[FriedClams]

Excellent, excellent rendering of the deck "wood" Wefalck.  Bravo!

 

Gary

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen, for your continued moral support!

 

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

 

Quarter-deck – further work

 

Having now satisfactory wooden decking for the quarter-deck, this was permanently cemented into place, allowing to progress with the installation of the various bits and pieces that had been fabricated years ago. These include the anchor capstan, the four patent chain-stoppers, chain-bollards (which are hollow and double as a base for the crew accommodation ventilators), various eye-bolts to which stoppers are shackled, that secure the chains during mooring, and the forward pair of mooring bollards.

 

Populated quarter-deck

 

Probably the only bought-in item will the studded anchor-chain. Recently, some really good 3D-printed chains have become available. My excuse is that that many shipyards did not make the chains themselves either, but bought them from specialised forgeries (apart from the fact that I didn’t want to go insane over making such microscopic studded chains). I choose the smallest size from yxmodels (Product no. YXN700-001). With 8€ plus shipping for a length of 120 mm they are the most expensive (not considering my time) item on board. They are printed in a light brown resin and were given several light dusts with acrylic paint to turn them black without clogging up or cementing the links together. The connecting link with the anchor shackle was bent from 0.2 mm tinned copper wire.

 

The anchors are held in place with chains attached to the release gear that had already been installed. These chains were imitated by twisting together two strands of 0.1 mm blackened copper wire so that each twist is about the length of the assumed link length. The length of twisted wire then was folded over in half and twisted together in the opposite sense. With some imagination this looks quite like a slightly twisted chain. The anchor were secured in place with a couple of dots of shellack and then release chains installed – which not unexpectedly was a really fiddly task.

 

I arranged the chains as they would be kept ready for dropping the anchor or in light weather, without further securing by rope chain-stoppers, as I do not have any pictorial evidence for how that would have been done on the real ship. 

 

The quarter-deck later will receive some light weathering and the chain-rails need to be installed, but as they are extremely fragile, this will be put off to the moment, when the model is installed on its final base-plate.

 

Populated quarter-deck

 

To be continued ....

[KeithAug]

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

I didn’t want to go insane over making such microscopic studded chains)

 

Eberhard, When i looked at the picture i wondered if you had made the chain - i thought you had perhaps gone mad and was somewhat relived to hear you had bought it. Thanks for the suppliers details - added to my tools and materials list.

[Bedford]

You never cease to impress with your skill and determination

[Keith Black]

 Eberhard, more micro detail wizardry. The Wespe is really starting to take shape, how much longer do you think it will take you to complete her? 

[starlight]

Hello wefalck, this is some really impressive work and of a subject from what I feel is an unjustly forgotten period of history. I had a few questions about your recent posts if you will indulge me:

• Please forgive my lubberly ignorance, but are the forecastle deck and the quarterdeck the same thing on SMS Wespe? I only ask because you previously called it the forecastle.
• Do you have any more information on the theory behind the radial planking pattern? I've not seen this design on later warships, so perhaps the benefit did not outweigh the cost?
• Also, you mentioned that you remade the deck because you wanted it to look more like teak. Does this mean that this deck and the one in the barbette would be planked from different wood species (in reality)?

Thanks!

 

-starlight

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen!

 

@Keith Black I don't have a time-plan, it takes as long as it takes. Making and in particular installing the boat will be another challenge ahead, as this arrangement will be very flimsy.

 

@starlight to your questions:

 

- sorry for loose use of terminology, yes they are the same - sometimes my mother-tongue confuses me also, as it is 'Vordeck' in German ...

 

- as said in an earlier post, the idea behind the planking pattern seems to have been to arrange the seams in the direction of the gun-blast to reduce the risk of damage; the muzzle is quite low above the deck.

 

- I do have information what kind of decking material was used by the Navy in principle, but I don't know what was used on this particular class of boats; teak was expensive, but makes sense on this exposed deck; perhaps I should have changed the decking in the barbette to this improved paint scheme, but I don't want to rip it out again and repainting in the confined space will also result in a lot of collateral damage - I tacitly assume that it may have been another species of wood; once the gun has been installed, it will also be much less visible.

[Gahm]

Your level of detail at that scale and quality of execution is just mind-bugling! 

 

Thomas

[Ras Ambrioso]

My hat comes off to the master. 

[GrandpaPhil]

Eberhard,

  Amazing work!

[wefalck]

Thanks again too all for your continued moral support !

 

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

 

Mounting the model

 

In another thread the question was raised as to when (permanently) mounting the model. It is a question of scale, of course, and also whether we are looking at a full-hull or a waterline-model. Smaller scale model can be very delicate, while larger scale models tend to be inherently more robust. A waterline-model may not offer you a lot of positions from which you can grab it during construction and final mounting. So, in general, it will have to be done earlier than for a full-hull model. In this particular case, adding more delicate items, particularly also those outside the hull, would make it almost impossible to handle the model without damaging it. Therefore, it was decided to prepare the mounting now.

 

The base-plate, a piece of 20 mm thick, MDF, forms an integral part of the display case that had been constructed earlier. To this the model will be fixed with a single wood-screw from the bottom. The hole in the model for this had been drilled early on in the construction process. I did not envisage to have to mount and unmount the model frequently, otherwise I would have embedded a threaded nut into the bread-and-butter hull and used a machine screw instead.

 

With hindsight, I perhaps should have extended the hull a bit more than just 2 mm below the waterline. The 2 mm are not that much to model the sea, but would translate into a wave-height of around 32 cm or a good foot. 

 

The scenario I imagined for the presentation is that the ship moves in a rather calm sea, but at moderate speed (the max. speed of the WESPE-class was only around 10 kn anyway). The weather is fine, with sun and a light breeze – a summer day on the North Sea or the Baltic. 

There is only one image I am aware off, that shows one of the boats moving, S.M.S. NATTER moving slowly along the Kiel-Kanal. Therefore, we do not really know what their wave-pattern would have looked like. The bow is quite full, it has a ram protruding below the waterline, and hard bilges with a flat bottom. In a way, this is the form of our river freighters. Therefore, I looked around on the Internet for pictures that show such ships on the move. Of course, there is a difference in wave patterns due to the restricted water depths in river channels. The wake would be more or less a Kelvin pattern with the waves radiating from the ship with an included angle of around 40°. The base is not much bigger than the ship to allow close-up view of the model, so there is actually not so much sea to model.

 

Base-board covered in moulded water-colour paper and primed

 

I decided to try something new (for me) and instead of sculpting and carving the sea from plaster of Paris, as I had done in the past, I used a sheet of thick water-colour paper. The waves were formed by placing thin scraps of acrylic foam (because I happen to have some) underneath and then gluing it down with white glue, working from the bow to the stern. The space for the model was cut out first, of course. Once the glue set, the paper was trimmed to size. The gaps under the paper were filled with acrylic wood-repair putty and the edges sanded smooth once the putty had set. At this stage also the fit of both, the model and the display case were checked and small corrections made. Finally, the whole base was given a coat of sanding filler to seal the paper and the wood. The edges were sanded smooth again.

 

Base colouring sealed with gloss varnish

 

Painting proceeded in several steps. First a coat of Schmincke AeroColor turquois acrylic was applied by airbrush. However, the paint was applied in a glancing fashion against the direction of the waves. A second coat using Vallejo ModelAir ‘steel blue’, again glancing, but with the waves was applied. Here in this application, it is not really apparent, but when there are shorter, steeper waves modelled this causes a colour change effect, when you look at the sea-scape from different angles. The front of the waves then was lightened up somewhat by a light spray of Schmincke AeroColor chrome-oxide green and the crest areas further lightened up with a light dust of Vallejo ModelAir ‘hemp’ to give the sea a flatter green appearance. This base colouring was sealed by two generous coats of acrylic gloss varnish applied with a flat hairbrush. 

In the next step, the wave crests were modelled using acrylic gel and gel filled with acrylic ‘micro-balloons’. In the past I actually used crystal sugar as a filler, which works very well, as not all crystals dissolve, but remain as transparent parts. I used this even before I became aware of acrylic gels together with wallpaper-glue and this ‘icing’ is holding up well after 40+ years. Part of the bow-wave was sculpted again in this way.

 

Sea-scape with wave-crests sculpted in filled acrylic gel

 

With the sculpting of the wave-crests and foam stirred-up complete, the sea-scape was given several more coats of gloss varnish to smooth it out, playing also with more rough areas behind breaking waves, as these should appear more matt. Assuming that the top of the waves would be more exposed to the action of wind than their front, these areas were also stippled with acrylic gel using a bristle brush, simulating the wind rippling that indicates an incoming gust of wind to the attentive sailor. 

 

S.M.S. WESPE placed temporarily into the sea-scape

 

Having prepared the sea-scape in this way, the model will not yet be placed irretrievably into it. Filling the gap between the sea-scape and the model with acrylic gel will be left to the very end, so that the model can be removed, should the need arise.

 

S.M.S. WESPE placed temporarily into the sea-scape

 

To be continued ....

[druxey]

An excellent result, although personally i'd like to have seen a little more 'sea-room' fore and aft of the hull. But, it's personal preference!

[wefalck]

@druxey You are probably right, but I used the materials that were at hand. In addition, I am rather limited in display space, so I wanted to keep it small 😊

[BANYAN]

Nice results Eberhard, the base looks great.  The sea colour looks pretty well spot-on.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[G.L.]

Very realistic sea surface! I like the color, me too.

It seems to me that you won't have to fill much gaps between the hull and the sea.

[KeithAug]

Very instructive Eberhard.

[Mirabell61]

Very nicely modeled seascape Eberhard, its looks good...

 

Nils

[Ras Ambrioso]

Again, a great job Wefalck.

[mcb]

More nice work.  The blue and green blend well.  Very convincing.

 

MCB

 

[Gahm]

Beautiful work! Very realistic.

 

Thomas