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

[Keith Black]

What an achievement, everything is so lovely and so perfect.

[mcb]

The covered boats are great, the open boat is incredible.

Soon I will have to read this entire thread from the top again.

 

Thanks for posting this,

mcb

[mbp521]

Beautiful work Eberhard!

 

Your straps have given me an excellent idea. I have been struggling with my build on how to make my fire hoses. If I “borrow” the technique you used for your boat straps, I may just be able to disguise them as hoses and lay them in their racks. 

 

-Brian

[BANYAN]

You have done a superb job on this model Eberhard; such great detail at the scale you use.  I know that term is overly used, but in thios instance well and truly deserving.

 

I have enjoyed the voyage.  thanks.

 

Pat

[FriedClams]

Wonderful at any scale - mind blowing at 1:160.  Thanks for the info on the silk/paper repair tape.  Could be very handy in many modeling situations.

 

Gary

[Mirabell61]

Very nice Eberhard,

I like your arrangement with the boats. Especialy that with the open dinghi without cover

 

Nils

[wefalck]

Thank you very much, gentlemen, for your appreciation !

 

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Installing the ship’s boats 3

 

The installation was movd further to completion by tidying up the loose ends and producing the bunts for runners of the boat tackles. The runners are about five times the distance between the head of the davits and the waterline long, plus some extra for handling. However, as the rope is slightly overscale the runners were cut a bit on the short side in order to make the bunts not too bulky. The actual runners were cut above the cleats and the bunts were formed over two clothes pins driven into a piece of wood and have a loop pulled out with which they can be hung over their respective cleat. 

Note that the runners for the ‘ready’ boat are not arranged in bunts but in coils, ready to be thrown loose so as to allow the boat being lowered quickly e.g. in a case of man-over-board.

Again, working from the inside out, the next items to go on were the stays for the davits. Luckily, the stays are drawn in the lithographs so that their points of fixation are known. I had to deviate a bit from those drawings, as they pertain to the longer, turning davits for the boats stored on rack, which belong to a slightly later period. The stays are supposed to keep the davits aligned, rather than helping to swing them around.

 

It was a bit of a trial-and-error procedure, before I came up with a protocol for making miniature fake chains of exactly the right length and with loops at both ends. The chains would have been shackled into ring-bolts at the head of the davit. No way of making shackles in this scale, so I just tied the fake chains to ring-bolts with fly-tying thread.

Some people may think now that’s it, but in fact there still is quite a long to-do list for little details:

 

- davit for the stern-anchor

- flag-poles and flags

- for the gun: tampon, wiper, rammer, and two gun-sights

- and the … crew!

 

To be continued ....

 

[Keith Black]

31 minutes ago, wefalck said:

and the … crew

 Eberhard, I can't wait to see this addition. I've toyed with the idea of crew in my 1:120 build and have been stumped by lack of off the shelf figures and my inability to make believable figures. But if there is anyone that can pull if off, it's you. Absolutely beautiful/impressive work thus far. 

[Ras Ambrioso]

Wefalk, you don't cease to amaze me.👍

[BANYAN]

Wonderful work Eberhard; a stunning micro-model.  I have enjoyed following this build tremendously.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[shipmodel]

Keith -  Look for figures in the model railroad TT scale which is 1:120.  I took a quick look and Preiser has a set of about 50 unpainted railroad personnel for $18. 

You will have to select and adapt them, but it is a good place to start. 

 

Eberhard - Really excellent work.  Your deck fittings and fixtures at your scale are wonderful.  You might look into making your guy wires and other lines out of polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line.  

 

As always, best of success to you.

I will continue to watch with interest.

 

Dan

[Dr PR]

Eberhard,

 

Very nice work!

[wefalck]

Thanks again, gentlemen, for your praise !

 

@Keith Black: A Preiser set of unpainted figures, in N-scale, will be the starting point for making the crew. Lots of carving, sculpting and micro-surgery, I expect.

 

@shipmodel: I had been toying with the idea of using such monofilament, but I don't like its sort of light translucency (which would require painting) and I am not sure, whether simulating chain by double-twisting the material would work with this material. Perhaps I should give it a try with thermosetting the twists with my hot-air gun.

 

Edited March 10 by wefalck

[Bob Cleek]

Exceptional! Thanks for sharing it with us.

[FriedClams]

Excellent work, as always Wefalck!   Will miss this build when it's finished.

 

   

On 3/9/2024 at 11:02 PM, shipmodel said:

polyester fly tying threads that go down to 0.003" diameter and can be tensioned after installation by heating with a just-extinguished match held under the line

 

Good tip, Dan - thanks.

 

Gary

[KeithAug]

Impressive - as always.

[mtaylor]

Totally mindboggling details at this tiny scale and looking perfect.

[mbp521]

Beautiful work as always Eberhard. 
 

-Brian

[wefalck]

Thanks once more gentlemen for your encouraging praise!

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Toolkit for the gun

 

The operation of the gun required quite a few different tools for handling the projectiles and the powder-bags, as well as for cleaning and maintenance.

 

There were two different wipers, one for cleaning with soap-water and the other one for greasing the bore after use. This still was the era of black powder, which means that the bore had to be cleaned frequently.

Loading required a rammer to push the projectile and the powder-bags into the chamber of the gun. The rammer also served to unload the gun by pushing it through the muzzle. It had a depression in the front so that one would not push onto the fuse.

 

The large-scale instruction model in the (former) Orlogmuseet in Copenhagen came with many of the necessary tools. Their look tallies with the description of a textbook on the Imperial German naval artillery (Galster, 1885). The length of the shaft was given as the length of the barrel plus some extra for one or two men to be able to hold onto it, while it was fully inserted. If there were not enough space for such long implements, there were also versions in two parts with a brass connecting sleeve.

Wiper (top) and rammer (bottom)

 

The body of the implements was turned from some 2 mm steel rod, as I had this to hand. The shaft is a 0.8 mm piano wire. The latter appears to be quite hefty, but seems to tally with the photographs.

Wipers and rammer before painting

 

As the gun will be shown undergoing a drill, the wipers are not needed and will be shown in their protective canvas covers, stored in the racks on deckhouse as per photograph below.

Wipers in their protective canvas covers

 

The canvas covers were simulated with some Vallejo liquid putty. According to Galster (1885) the covers were supposed to be painted black, but the above photograph indicates that they were white, which is what I opted for.

The rammer body has two copper-bands to protect it, which were simulated with paint. The limited space in barbette seems to prevent the use of a full-length rammer, so I gave the end of the shaft a connecting sleeve simulated with paint.

 

Tampion

The photograph of the instruction model in Copenhagen also shows the expanding tampion that was constructed from two brass discs with some fibre material in between that was contained by a leather sleeve. An internal screw operated by a T-shaped handle squeezed the fibres between the disc and made them expand to lock into the muzzle.

Expanding tampion for the 30,5 cm gun

 

The tampion is probably going to be the very last machined part on this model. It was turned from a length of brass rod. The handle was first turned as a thin disk and then the excess material was milled away to leave the T-shaped handle standing. The greased leather sleeve has been simulated by some brown paint.

Turning the tampion

 

Milling the tampion handle

 

 

The painted wipers, rammer and tampion

 

Next on the list are the anchor-crane, the flagpole and flag and finally the gun-sights

 

To be continued ....

Edited March 17 by wefalck

[Keith Black]

 Lovely detail, Eberhard. 

[KeithAug]

Eberhard - When I think you are done you find even more detail to add. Do you have an end point or is it a project for life?

[druxey]

Fascinating and amazing detail!

[wefalck]

Thanks, gentlemen. I have not intention to leave this World in the next few months, so this is not going to be a 'project for life' 😉. 

[Ras Ambrioso]

I agree with Wefalk, this is our hobby and we really have no deadlines.

[wefalck]

Just a little bit of further progress before the Easter-weekend …

 

Stern anchor-crane

 

There are drawings as well as the photograph below that show the anchor-crane in some detail.

 

 Basically, the dimensions are the same as that of the boat-davits, so that I was able to use a spare one that was left over. The ball at the end was drilled for the ring into which during service the anchor-tackle would be hooked. When not in service, the davit was steadied with two chain-stays.

 

The set-up is very similar to that of the boat davits and the same processes were used.

 

Gun-sights

 

Gun-aiming technology didn’t significantly progress until towards the end of the 19^th century. Just very basic front sights were used that sat on the trunnions, while the rear sights were adjustable in height for different distances and laterally for lead-angles. The rear sights used on the 30,5 cm gun a clearly visible on photograph below. Galster (1885) gives a detailed description. Basically, it is brass-tube of about 4 cm diameter that is set into a whole drilled vertically through the rear of the gun. In this tube runs a graduated brass-rod for setting the elevation as a function of the type of projectile used and the size of the powder charge. Firing tables were provided with the gun. On top of the rod is a cross-piece that runs in a dovetail-slot and allows to pre-set the lead-angle. The lead-angle was calculated inter alia on the basis of the estimated relative speed of the target and its distance. There was the usual V-notch on the top of cross-piece. 

 

It took several tries to produce these tiny pieces. In the end their dimensions are slightly over-scale due to the limitations of machining brass. Starting from 0.8 mm brass-nails, which are slightly harder than the usual brass wire due to the forging process, a 1.5 mm length of 0.2 mm diameter was step-turned over short lengths successively. Then a 0.2 mm long length was turned down to 0.7 mm diameter and this ‘rod’ with a disc at the end parted off. Luckily, I have a 0.2 mm collet for the lathe, so that the part could be inverted and the parted-off end cleaned up. With a pair of cutting-tweezers the disc was clipped down to the size of the cross-piece. Burrs were removed with a fine file.

This part fits into a 2 mm long section of 0.3 mm OD brass-tube (from Albion metals).

 

When I made the gun-barrel in about 2008, I did not have really the technology to safely drill to any depths the 0.3 mm holes for the sights, I was glad to be able to mill the flats with a broken drill that I had ground flat at the end. With my micro-milling machine and the dividing head this would not be a real issue anymore. Unfortunately, I forgot to do that before painting the barrel. Therefore, the sights had to be simply cemented onto the flats with a tiny drop of shellac.

Before doing that I also added the protective frames over the sights using some 0.007 mm diameter silver-wire.

 

Also installed were the last two of the ventilators for the officers’ mess.

 

What remains now is the flagstaff and the ensign. I have already found a suitable technique for the complex ensign of the Imperial German Navy, but have to still get the right red for it.

 

And then on to the crew …

 

 

To be continued ....

[Bob Cleek]

There's just no getting used to the level of detail at that scale which you are accomplishing with this model! It's a fascinating piece.

 

[KeithAug]

On 3/29/2024 at 3:58 PM, wefalck said:

It took several tries to produce these tiny pieces. In the end their dimensions are slightly over-scale due to the limitations of machining brass. Starting from 0.8 mm brass-nails,

Wonderful work Eberhard.

 

When I have needed small diameter hardened brass in the past I have taken a length of brass wire and put one end in a drill chuck while clamping the other end in a vice. While keeping the wire taught I have turned on the drill for a few seconds to twist the wire, thus work hardening and straightening it at the same time. I got the idea from looking closely at some 0.6 mm brass rod supplied by Cornwall model boats. under the magnifying glass you could see a definite helix along its entire length. Unfortunately I don't have a ready supply of brass nails.

[druxey]

You continue to amaze, Eberhard!

[wefalck]

Once again, Thank You for your kind comments !

 

Again, real life including (business) travels got in the way of progress on this project. In addition, while I was having dinner in a restaurant together with colleagues, suddenly some ‘floaters’ appeared in one eye. I went immediately to the eye-doctor, who checked my eyes thoroughly. Luckily the floaters are harmless, but annoying signs of age. No retina-detachment or something else serious. Apparently, they can spontaneously disappear or the brain sort of ignores them after a while – keep fingers crossed. For the moment they are quite bothering, when working on really small things … so on to the ensign.

 

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The Imperial German Navy Ensign

This ensign was first conceived for the navy of the North-German Alliance (Norddeutscher Bund) in 1867, bringing together the colours of the dominant powers, namely Prussia (black-white) and the Hanseatic City States, Hamburg, Bremen und Lübeck (red-white). The design obviously was inspired by the British White Ensign and makes reference to various medieval symbols, such as the cross of the Teutonic Order, and the more recent Iron Cross from the Napoleonic War. After the proclamation of the 2^nd Empire on 18 January 1871, this ensign became also the ensign of the Imperial German Navy and remained it until the end of the Empire in 1919. There have been, however, some smaller modifications over the years, thus the eagle was somewhat modified and in 1902 the arms of the cross were made heavier in order to avoid confusion at distance with the White Ensign of the Royal Navy.

Overall, it is rather complex design to reproduce purely manually. First, I had to find a correct image for the ensign, as it looked in about 1878 and was lucky, as the Internet furnished a digital image of sufficient size and resolution. The idea was to print it on both sides of very thin paper (the kind that was used in the old days for carbon copies on type-writer, of which I kept a small supply). Such paper, however, does not feed well through the laser-printer and aligning for double-sided printing is practically impossible. Therefore, I resorted to so-called transfer-sheets. These are a kind of waxed paper that is used to transfer laser-printouts to T-shirts, mugs and such things. Laser-printer toner is basically carbon-black mixed with some plastics powder. It can be remelted with a heat-source, such as an ironing-iron and thus transferred to another substrate. I also experimented with overhead-sheets, but the results were not as good. 

Printing layout for the ensign (as it would appear on the transfer sheet)

 

In a first step, the red stripe in the flag was eliminated from the image in Photoshop, as it would print grey otherwise. The ensign was then scaled to the right size on the basis of some trial-and-error, as the laser-printer prints a few percent undersize. I then added reference marks some distance from the image and duplicated this for mirroring. Several of these left-right-pairs were arranged on an A4-sheet and then printed onto the transfer-sheet using the highest quality print setting.

Preparing the pouch for double-sided toner-transfer to the ensign-blank

 

Using the best matching pair, I made a small pouch (as you would do for the masks, when producing photo-etched parts), aligning the images against each other for a perfect match on an illuminated board (they can be bought for a few €/£/US$ on ebay et al. and are powered through a USB-charger). An oversized strip of the thin paper was slipped in between and everything taped down onto a piece of thick cardboard.

I pressed down an ironing-iron set to the lowest temperature onto the package, which made the toner firmly stick to the paper and no residues left on the transfer-paper. And voilà, a double-sided printed flag with a very detailed eagle etc.

The toner is (almost) completely transferred to the ensign-blank

 

In the next step the missing red stripe was added using red acrylic paint. I also added colour to the legs and beak of the Imperial Eagle, to the Imperial Insignia and the crown using yellow-ochre acrylic paint. If one has a colour laser-printer this step would not be necessary.

The flag was cut out exactly to size, except for the rear, where it was left a tad longer to provide for a hollow ‘seam’ into which a thread with two loops at the end was laid The seam was glued down with some diluted white glue. This area also needed a bit of touch-up afterwards with black acrylic paint.

 

The ensign before adding the colours

 

Draping the flag is best done or least pre-arranged on the flag-staff. The paper was slightly wetted and the flag laid into diagonal folds in alternate directions. Toothpicks ensured that they became folds and not creases, which would be unnatural. Such a large ensign (2.9 m x 4.96 m) would fully unfold only in a moderate breeze and not in the light wind assumed in the scenic setting. So it flaps lazily in the wind, which I tried to reproduce.

The completed ensign

 

To the thus prepared ensign the halliard was attached as a loop. This loop was taken over the top of the flag-staff and a tiny laser-cut paper disc glued on as truck. There was no way to cross-drill the staff for the halliard. The halliard was belayed on the clamp. With this the assembly is ready for installation on the boat. But I will not hoist the ensign before the crew is on board. The recruitment process is still on-going …

Ensign wetted and shaped

 

Sorry, this was a rather lengthy essay on just and ensign, but the idea was to describe in detail, how to arrive on a reasonably realistic looking flag at such as small scale.

 

The ensign attached to the flagstaff

 

To be continued ....

[Rick310]

Nicely done!!

Rick