Here she is, the SMS Dresden, in the naval dock yards undergoing dryfitting. The Dresden was a WWI german light cruiser which was used as a commerce raider and gave the then British fleet quite a few headaches until outgunned, out of fuel and nowhere to run, she was scuttled by her own crew.

The kit seems to fit quite nicely during dry fitting. The deck is one piece and has wooden plank textures in the center.

The lower hull comes in 2 halves and four pieces, with recessed lines. One pair is for the main hull length and the other 2 halves are for the lower stern where the propellers mount. They all come together quite well, on initial dry fit.

Talk about surface details, this is a good kit. Let's get going with the main structures.

Thanks for the post Poohbear.

wow!
details look great. I suppose Kenny G's tips the other day really helped a lot to pick up all the small bumps and what have yous on the top deck.

At this stage, I've only gotten the lower hull glued together.

Paint works hasn't started yet.

Will update more later. :D

some completed pictures of 1:100 SMS Emden, sister ship of SMS Dresden.

http://www.steelnavy.com/emden100.htm

an article of Dresden's heroic action at both Coronel and Falkland battles.

http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/Dresden.htm

Thank you, emechelmi, for those links.

I had read the article but have not come across the 1:100 scale of the Emden which looks extremely fantastic.

It seems that the Dresden differed in colour scheme to her sister ship in that Dresden had grey coloured hull, superstructures and funnels.

Thanks again for the helpful links.

The color scheme for that 1:100 Emden represents the Kaiserliche Marine standard peacetime paint scheme of white and buff. During WWI, all Kaiserliche Marine ships were converted to gray scheme.

More information on Kaiserliche Marine ship color can be found in this site:

http://german-navy.tripod.com/sms_paint-overview.htm

Thanks for the help emechelmi. It is very much appreciated.

Some updates...

This pic shows the hull having been pieced together. Stern is facing towards the camera. The white strips are styrene scraps for strengthening the hull joint seam. The 'T' sprue is for internal bracing of the stern pieces and also to push the pieces outwards so that I don't have to blend in the outer hull more than I have to. If you're interested to know, the numbers on the 'T' sprue are 11 & 12. :P


Bottom of the hull. The problem with multi part hulls and their complex shapes is that joining them together will leave you with joints that don't blend together very well. Quite a bit of putty / surfacer was used to get all the stern pieces to blend together. The propeller shaft housing had sink holes so that was fixed up too.


Close up of the stern.


Topside with the funnels, side walls and bridge(?) on for dryfitting. It's wierd that the roof is moulded with the deck but the walls are separate pieces to be glued on. Overall fitting so far is quite good. There is a slight warp in some parts but should not pose a problem once it is glued together.


Another angle showing the structure details.


To be continued...

Cheers & thanks for looking.

Coming on really well PoohBear. I am following this post.

Thanks, Kenny. :D

Just a little bit more update...

1. This is the kit's port/starboard extension from the bridge. I don't know what's the correct term for this? Anyway, I had to fill some sink marks here.


2. Revell gives you decals to represent the windows on the side houses, which are moulded as solid(?!) triangles. I didn't like this so...


3. ...Let's get to work! BBBbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrr.......:D


4. After the grinding and drilling session.


5. Another angle.


6. Test fit to the bridge. Looks okay to me..but is funny because the roof is still missing.


7. Use some scrap styrene to fix it up...


8. ...And test fitted to the bridge again. Done!


Next is to work on the 105mm guns.

To be continued...

Cheers and happy modelling!

Good work so far Pooh,

(It's wierd that the roof is moulded with the deck but the walls are separate pieces to be glued on.)

To answer this, I guess the manufacturer thought it would be easier for the modeler to paint the deck and side panels seperately. It's especially difficult to paint the upright panels from the deck onwards in 1/700th scale. Masking is even more tedious.

Kenny G has a great method which he shared with us at the last workshop in doing away with masking and using thinner to clean away the overspray on the panels.

Great WIP. This should get modelers interested in ship building.

Richard.

Thanks, Richard. :D

I kind of thought along those lines too. Still, separate structure pieces would have made things even easier. But then, where's the challenge in that? :lol:

Back to the build...

Managed to got some work done on the 105mm turrets and here are a few quick pics of them. The turrets are still a little rough and needs to be cleaned up some.

1. Overall view of the deck with the six turrets up top. One pair on the bow, one pair amid ships and one pair on the stern.


2. Another angle on the turrets. The real thing had no armour protection at the rear but the kit turrets were moulded as enclosed all round. The kit has you painting the rear of the turret black to represent the opening. As usual, I choose to do things the hard way and wound up hollowing out the turrets.


3. Here's a close up of one of the turrets. The front armour of the turret is moulded smooth. I carved out the gun elevation port to give it some depth.


That's all for now. Until next time...

Thx for looking.

Cheers!

Small update as progress is somewhat slow this week.

These are works that were done on the below deck 105mm guns and are the first few parts of the ship to receive some technicolour.

1. Here's a close up of one of the guns after a coat of grey + gloss + acryllic wash.


2. Same gun but with the deck mounting.


3. After flat coat and some very subtle drybrushing.


4. From the front. The gun barrel was smooth at the end so I carved it out. Come to think of it, I've been carving up bits and pieces of this ship quite a bit. :lol:


5. Dry fit into the hull. Looks good. Gun action starboard! Open fire! Wooo! :D


Okay, that's all for now. Should be moving onto the upper deck next, once I get the rudder in place.

Cheers and thanks for looking in. :D

Pooh,
its deceiving looking at the photos but your finger nails really give the scale reference. How about a shot as close to scale as possible so that viewers can appreciate how small those guns really are.
I shall now maintain radio silence again. Tracking this like a hawk!

That's a good pointer, Loo. I hadn't thought of that at all.

I'll do that in the coming updates.

Thanks for your kind input. :)

Cheerio!

Hello everyone, here's a short followup of the progress so far.

1. An overall shot of the ship after priming to fill in the fine scratches and check for defects.


2. Different angle with funnels and bridge on for test fit.


3. Time to paint the decks... I used deck tan+few drops of red brown as base. Then with strips of masking tape it was onto simulating different shades of planks. Sorry the picture is a little blur (somehow the camera had focused on the background instead <_< ) but you can still see the strips of tape (I think this is the 3rd round). The idea is to lay the strips on and spray progressively lighter shades. Which leads to...

4. ...A few rounds later and the masking tape is removed with subtle planks as result.


5. Another angle of the mid deck.


6. Close up shot of the mid deck. The (oversized) wood grain texture adds to the effect nicely.


That's all for now.

To be continued...

Thanks for looking in and happy modeling! :D

Hi Jason,

I must say this is some excellent WIP. Sure does inspire me to do some ships.

maintaining silence...........with watchful eyes.

thinking outloud. where's my darn ship?

Thanks Jeremy :) It would be great to see more ships built for the NGB.

Chief Silent Eagle - did your PoW become a Prisoner of War?


As for progress, I've got the fore and aft decks painted over the weekend. Took me slightly over 3 hrs to mask the mid deck. Sorry no pics at the moment as the batteries had flatted out. Will update soon as the batteries are recharged.

Anyway, next step is to mask the fore and aft decks (ouch time) and it's on to painting the hull and superstructures.

Cheerio!

poohbear
although i dont build ship (not yeat at least)
i might be poisoned to get one by seeing ur WIP here..
so i better stop here before the poison get into my vein and when that happens i might be running to Luckymodel for some ships to build.. :D

i'm going to join Chief Silent Eagle now.. :D

keep them coming Poohbear :D

kuman

HOW!

Chief Silent Eagle say Dresden good medicine.
Make Chief heart go thump thump
Chief go open POW box
PE set make Chief eyes water.
Chief take picture machine
Send smoke signal when sun go down
After sun wake up.

Hullo everyone. Here's a little update as to what's recently been done. As mentioned earlier, I've gotten the fore and aft decks painted. Subsequently, I've done up the fore/aft gun platforms and also the forward anchor chain deck. The masking was oooh so fun to do :P

Well, on to the pictures then...

1. Overall with the painted decks, gun platforms and the anchor chain deck.


2. Same as above but with some accessories, namely guns/bridge/funnels laid on for test viewing.


3. Close up of the fore deck.


4. Low angle view of the fore deck.


5. Rear deck. I scratch built the gun breech for all six of the excavated turrets.


We'll stop here for now. Next step is probably to do up the little itty bitty deck houses.

Thanks for looking in and happy modeling!

Now, where'd my masking tape roll off to??

Short update and to continue from where progress was last left off...

1. Main deck structures and the little itty bitty deck houses are done up. That ends the second most tedious part of the build. The next one will be masking for the hull paint job.


2. Same as above but with the masts on for the first time. From bottom of hull to the tips, the mast are about 140mm tall.


3. Close up view of the weathered and faded structures. All effects done by post shading only.


To be continued...

Thanks for looking in.

Cheers! :)

Small and quick update. Finally, after dreading and procrastinating over it, the worst of the worst - masking the main deck - is finally over and the main hull has been painted. You should see the pile of tape that was accumulated at the end. Sorry, there are no pictures of the masking step/process as I had no access to a camera at that time. Besides, you have much better things to do than looking at piles of tape, right? :P

Anyway, here's a short succession of pictures on the progress to date. We'll go from front of the ship to the rear.

1. Start with overall view of the ship. The weathering streaks are all post applied with heavily diluted Tamiya smoke for a subtle effect.


2. Close in on the bow section. I used Nato Black for the CWL (water line between upper and lower hull). It looks just right and is not too 'black'.


3. Moving on to area behind the bridge where the below decks gun are.


4. We're now at the mid section. Looks nice with all the masking tape removed.


5. And here we are at the rear of the ship...and the end of this short update.


To be continued...

New 'upgrade kit' has arrived for Dresden! Thanks to my most thoughtful and supportive HM :D

The upgrade kit is a length of fine chain links which I am considering to use for the anchor chains. I need to figure out how to go about the surgical works first. Would anyone like to share their experience of installing anchor chain links?

Thanks for dropping by.

my budget anchor chain comes from 'Baju Melayu' collar studs securing chain. You can buy them cheaply in Mydin (a pack roughly consist of a dozen sets of butang baju melayu). The chain link is almost in scale with 1/350.

Emechelmi, thanks for your tip.

BTW, where is Mydin located KL / PJ?

Wow, my last update was so long ago that it dropped from the forum list. :P

Anyway, here's a back dated update on the life boats before they received a coat of paint.

1. The lifeboats on for tryout.


2. Close up.


3. And closer... It's only soo big... :D and my pitiful attempt to add oars to the boats.


4. A whole fleet of life boats. :lol:


To be continued...

Poohbear,

Do you have any plan to add PE on your Dresden? AFAIK, one of the PE for Dresden class is produced by GMM (Gold Medal Models) from USA.

Emechelmi, no, I don't think I'll be adding PE for this build.

I believe the PE set is for Emden, which can be used for Dresden.

Thanks for asking. :)

Managed to get into photobucket after some heavy F5 wrestling. <_<

Anyway, here's a short update on wee little Dresden.

Overall view.


Close up of one of the front search lights. I drilled out the lights and painted the internal with humbrol polished aluminium. I will add the lens with either micromark or white glue.


Close up of the below deck guns with the armor plate doors in place. The kit supplied armor doors were too thick so I used some styrene strips as replacement. I drilled out the windows and gun port hole on the doors. Don't know why but this little armor doors had me procrastinating for a long time. Anyway, I finally got round to doing it.


Close up of the rear half of the deck. All the open deck guns are in place. You can't see it here but the barrels have been carved out. I'm still wondering about the exposed steering wheel under the mast. Is it for decoration only or does it work? :blink:


That's it for now. There's still work to be done for the rigging lines, lifeboats, props etc.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers and happy modelling.

Pooh,
nice to see the little one still intact after all the tsunami it went thru! The oars came out nicely. You need to build a ship to appreciate how difficult it is! Well done me man....

It'll take more than a man made tsunami to sink her. :D

The oars are largely due to your valued input. Thanks for that one. :)

Yeah, ships can be rather complicated affairs. Challenging and fun. And I haven't even gotten round to using PE yet. :ph43r:

Cheers! :)

I'm having some problems seeing the pics but I'm very sure its nice detailing work Jason after having seen her up close and personal earlier.

Be careful to avoid the 'dark side' of ship building....PE. Better take your anti-poison pill before discussions with Darth Vader Loo. :)

Hmm...anyone else having problems with the pics?

I fear it's too late, beachdude, the dark side of the force is indeed powerful. Got a few more ships in the to build list which hopefully, in time, will receive brass decorations. That is, as soon as I get used to the intricacies of PE. :lol:

Sincerely,
Darth Pooh
Tyrant of the 100.5 acre weeds

100.5acres......
expanding are we?
At last the true colour and intend of the creature called pooh is revealed!
Ursurper of the young, Corruptor of the weak.Manipulator of the unprepared....

Wait a minute, he is on my side......
ahem.....
Good form old chap...

Wow, can a pooh be that evil? :D

Okay then, here's the obligatory evil laugh : Muahahahaha!

Time to go kill some weeds... where's my lightsaber?

Darth Pooh
Dark Lard of the 101.0acre weeds

Dressing up the Dresden. :P

As mentioned earlier, I won't be using PE for this ship. So, in this episode, we'll look at the process of dressing up Dresden with some stretched sprue. :)

Here's a recycled pic of Dresden from the last update. Looks pretty bare to me. So, let's get to work on dressing her up with some railings.


First, I lay out a strip of masking tape sticky side up. Then, using my trusty old Bofa set compass and a 1/350 PE set (yes, from a German ship) railing as a guide, I measure the height of the rails and also the distance between the posts. Mark the distances with an artline pen, draw the lines and we're ready to begin!


After stretching some sprue, I lay it on the masking tape post by post and the long rail, following the pen marking that was done earlier. The masking tape helps to keep the all the pieces lined up in proper order and prevents it from flying all over the place. Since it is plastic sprue, I use thin cement to 'melt' the pieces together. Let dry a few minutes and after some careful lifting...


Eureka! We have a section comprising of 40 pieces of plastic all cemented together. One section is not enough so I'll have to make three more for total of 160 pieces which leads to...


1/350 scale plastic railings. Here, we see the railing after placing on the bow of the ship. One third done, two thirds more to go!


More rails.


Three hours later plus a sore butt / neck and it's done. The rails were oh so fun to put on.


Okay, enough with the rails and on with the riggings / lines. Here's the beginning of some rigging work with much more to come.


Low angle of the bow and with that, the end of this little episode.


I had a 'rail' good time with the railings. And no, I won't be doing this in 1/700 scale. :P

Thanks for looking in.

Until next time, cheers and happy modelling. :)

Last update. :)

Here's the final pic in this WIP of Dresden. She's all rigged out (phew) and awaiting final touch ups. The bow and stern flags are decals on aluminium foil cut to size.


And with that last pic, we reach the end of this WIP. Thanks for following and for your valued assists / comments throughout the build.

More pics will come over the weekend.

Till then, cheers and happy modelling. :)