Schlachtschiff Scharnhorst (1:200, Hachette)

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst 27



We start covering up the freestanding parts of the middle deck structures decks with brass from below. Again the piece is shown downside up. The brass extends beyond the wooden parts by ca a tenth of a millimeter which will provide a natural anchoring point for the railings we will be fitting soon.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst 28



Covered the rest of the walls and roof of the middle deck structures lower level with brass.

We've reached the 20% point in this build, so it's time to have another look at the complete ship so far.

[tom1992]

Looking good mate! Did you build the Bismarck series too?

[greyhawk]

Looking good mate! Did you build the Bismarck series too?

I am. Well, I need to continue building it at some point, have not really touched it in a year or so.

[tom1992]

Would be nice to see the two posed side by side as a comparison

[greyhawk]

That can certainly be done. I'll post a pic with the next update.

[greyhawk]

I forgot about your comparison pic. Will make one for the next update.

Scharnhorst Issue 29



We get to add the railings to the middle deck structure. Luckily the brass is pretty robust, as we have to bend it to follow the outline of the deck. This is made a little bit easier by the tiny overhang of the PE already attached, but still is not exactly a walk in the park because the brass wants to return to its earlier shape. So you have to overbend a bit, but not too much. Only when the brass perfectly follows the shape of the deck, can you glue it down, otherwise internal forces will soon rip it clean off again.

For the first time the kit drops the pretense of "being easy enough anyone can build it" and the fallout is of course a lot of new builders dropping out of the build and trying to sell or even just give away their incomplete Scharnhorsts.

[tom1992]

For the first time the kit drops the pretense of "being easy enough anyone can build it" and the fallout is of course a lot of new builders dropping out of the build and trying to sell or even just give away their incomplete Scharnhorsts.

Ha ha ha yeah! It took several attempts to get mine right on the Bissy! Also you need to wait for the brass walls to be glued in before attaching the doors, vents etc. Or they'll just ping off when you try and bend them!! I've seen so many Bissy builds part completed coz they've got too difficult for the builders
Great work so far mate.

[greyhawk]

Yeah, I was pleasently surprised they're doing it the right way around this time. First stick in the walls, then the detail stuff.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst issue 30



Installed more brass on the middle decks structure to simulate netting. Also extended the areas between the curved sections with a grating and railings.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst 31

We're finishing up work on the middle deck structure for now by adding doors and air conditioning equipment to the walls. This is a step up from the Bismarck, where things were done the other way around. Doors were added first, then the walls were bent and the doors plinged off into oblivion.

We also get to make two rope drums.

Next time, we start planking the hull. No, really, we do.

[greyhawk]

Almost forgot it's Wednesday.

Scharnhorst issue 32



As announced we finally begin planking the middle of the hull with the 32 first planking strips. At 3mm width these are the slimmest planking strips I've ever used, making them both the easiest and most tedious to work with. Easy because it's really simple to have them follow the lines of the ship without watering or prebending. Also chamfering becomes unneccessary. On the other hand, you have to put down a lot more strips than usual.

Tall ship builders might be wondering why the strips are not layed down in a pattern. With the strength of the MDF hull skeleton theres no need to pattern for more stability and as the hull is made of steel plates in the original anyway we actually don't want a pattern of planks to show.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst Issue 33



When it comes to planking there are two very different groups present in the ship model building community. There's the ones like me, that find an almost meditative quality in the work involved and then there's the second larger group of ship builders that absolutely DESPISE planking getting increasingly annoyed at doing the same task over and over again with hardly any progress seen, oh God, why won't it END?

To accomodate the second group, this kit has sporadic intermissions where we do something different to break up the planking work a bit. Here's the first one already.

With this issue we clad the area around the drive shafts with preformed ABS parts. Like the stern and bow, this area would be very very hard to build out of wood. We also extend the keel a bit with a wood strip we received a few issues ago.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst issue 34







More planking on the middle hull section. This issue teaches us about the difference behaviour of wood strips on a flat surface versus a curved one.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst issue 35



Finishing up planking of the middle section of the hull, we learn how to cut strips to size so they will fit in gaps. Afterwards all the nails are pulled and the planked section is given a once over with sandpaper to smooth it.

We've reached the 25% landmark in the build, so it's time to have another look at the whole thing put together so far.

[Paint_With_Penny]

Only just caught this build. Its looking amazing.

[greyhawk]

Thanks PWP.

Scharnhorst issue 36



We start planking the second section of the hull. Now that we know HOW planking is done, the instructions speed up things a bit and so we lay down about double the amount of strips then we did in the sessions before.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst issue 37



Time for an intermission. We get to take a break from the planking marathon to fit a first batch of photo etch to the forward upper deck structures.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst issue 38



Closing up the second hull section. Nothing much to say about this really.

[greyhawk]

Scharnhorst issue 39



A big step ahead. We get to plank the entire third hull section. With about 110 strips layed down in the last two issues next weeks intermission is going to be quite welcome.