Dear all!

After finishing HMS Hood, it's time to get on with something new.

I will be building the F125-Type German "Baden-Wuerttemberg"-class frigate as the last and latest of her class, as the F225 "Rheinland-Pfalz".

What I have on my slipway now is something very new in many perspectives - new to me, since it is my first model in 1/700, my first resin kit and my first waterline model.
And it is currently the newest ship of the German Navy, having only recently undergone the first shipyard trials, and completing engine trials very successfully.
The F225 "Rheinland-Pfalz" on top of that has a very special meaning to me personally, and is part of the reason why I have been rather on and off, and more off than on, here on MSW lately. And probably this again will be a build log with slower times and pauses - I hope you will follow me nevertheless, and I hope this beautiful ship will catch your interest. What makes it so special for me I'll tell you at the end of this post...

Now here's the kit - I plan to do it OOB, since the detailing is very fine, the resin parts look spot on, and the etch provided seems sufficient for a modern times warship.















Two helicopters provided - though it's not clear yet, which type eventually will be operated on board. These here are NH90 derivates, one possibility.



The four 10.10m boats named BUSTER, which actually is an acronym denominating their possible roles (Boarding, Unterstützung (=support) Special forces, Transport, Escort, Rescue):



Quite a few resin detail parts so small that I can't identify them all by only looking at them - I'll have to work my way through them...













Turend 127mm brass barrel



PE parts





And decals allowing you to build all four of the class.





To - at least formally - fulfill the rules of posting only started builds, I cut out, sanded and test fitted the mast that also holds the underway replenishment stations.



I also started sanding the lower part of the hull near the waterline, all in all the 'main body' of the ship is in great shape and does not require any further touch ups. The casting seems really excellent to me at this early point!!

However, 1/700 is small, really small. This will most likely be my first and last 1/700, it's just so tough to see...
But then, there's always the discussion about the 'right' scale. Normally pretty fruitless, but I would say there is one very special scale, that is 1:1!

Here she is during her trials off Jutland:







Meeting her sister F223 "Nordrhein-Westfahlen" in a fog bank





And myself on her bridge wing. You should now know what makes the F225 "Rheinland-Pfalz" so special and dear to me...





For now I'm sitting in front of the kit, somewhat hesitant and not really sure how to start. But during the next weeks, I should get a better feeling for the scale and the material, and I hope to post some progress soon.

I hope I got you interested in the ship and the build, and I hope you will watch and comment as you did for the Hood, that was great support!

For now,
Cheers,

Jan

Wow! This kit and breakdown are great!! 1/700 isn't bad!! You get used to the tiny-ness! Just get some really, really good magnifying glasses and you're good to go!

Looking forward to seeing the built!

A fine looking fighting ship Jan. You can be justly proud to serve in her.

Will be along for the ride Jan,

Good luck building this fine ship, always more testing when you have a personal connection.

Cheers

Si

A mighty fine choice, Jan!

Following with interest mate

Jan,
Interesting ship! I'd like to follow along.

Gaz

She's gorgeous!

1/350 scale coming when?!?!?!

Good luck with the build! Looking forward to seeing progress shots!

Watching with great Interest Jan. Having a personal connection would make a big difference in your Build of her I would say. Dodo also make some Australian Vessels based on the Meko 2000 Class. Would love to get one of those and you could backdate one to German Service.....Cheers mark

Gentlemen,

thank you very much for your kind comments and your interest in my newest project. And in advance, thanks for your patience...

Mark - Dodo has some pretty interesting kits of modern warships indeed. And the MEKO's are really good ships and designs - however, German Navy is pretty special...we've never had any kind of MEKO ship in our service, German Industrie only sells them. Honestly, I think it would be smart to have some MEKO's for German Navy as well, but that's just a very personal opinion...

Rory, I doubt there will be a 1/350 scale model at any time. Pretty sad, though...

Micro update, again no time for the workbench - yes, 1/700 IS tiny and tough for my eyes...

First PE





and spraying the boot stripe (will mask it and spray the hull grey over it - merely to check how the paint sticks to the resin. Pretty good, actually...°



That's it for now, thanks again!

Cheers,
Jan

That ladder looks great!

"Micro-update" I see what you did there mate!

Looking good. Definitely recommend you get hold of a magnifying head band, and preferably one with a LED light for working at this scale. Alternatively a desk mount magnifier could do the trick, and possibly also a set of helping hands with a magnifier may be helpful

Otherwise this is a great start...

Jan,

Off to a nice start with the PE.

Mark

Hi Jam,

Good to see the build under way, the etch looks very fine.

Cheers


Si

Dear all,

thank you very much for looking in and following, even though progress is - and will continue - to be slow. Next weekend I'm busy, but the weekend after eventually should give me the opportunity for some more bench time.




Russ, all those goodies are in place, mate. I already need most of those for my 1/350 scale work, I realize that eyesight just is decreasing.
The magnifiers I use have three different lenses you can use, x1.5, x2.5 and x3.5. The 1.5 is not really enlarging anything. The 2.5 is the one I use, it provides still some depth of focus that makes it pleasant to work with. But for the 1/700 I need the x3.5 set, and depth of focus here is really small, so that need quite a bit of adjusting and just training on my part. So far, after half an hour or so I feel I need a break..

Cheers,
Jan

Right there alongside you, mate with all the same gear. 1/2 hour is about as much as I can do before the eyes need a rest.

Currently have a magnifier without lighting so looking to upgrade in the next week or so to one with a LED built in!

Dear all,

as I said - slowly....

There seems to be something in the way for me the last months when it comes to good bench time. Now it is neither real life nor any personal issues, time would be perfect. But then somebody sent a heatwave over Germany, that - at least for me - makes it almost impossible to work on my shipyard. Every few minutes have to wipe sweat away, drops falling from my forehead into the optivisor, and not starting to talk about keeping a steady hand and temper... In northern Germany, were I live, houses are built to sustain cold weather, but not heat...

Anyway, within the occasional few minutes I managed at least a little progress...and 1/700 IS small and fragile...

Still the RAS / UNREP mast, etch from Dodo is brilliant!















If it cools down a bit - forecast says so - there should be another update soon...

Cheers,
Jan

totally understand the problems you're facing with the heat, Jan!

it's not fun when it gets that hot, especially when you're working over a hot light with an optivisor on

Fingers crossed it cools down soon mate

Nice work Jan,

That etch looks so fine,.

It has been a bit uncomfortable over here too, not as bad as mainland Europe, but it does take the shine of bench time when you have sweat dripping into your eyes.




Hope it eases off for you too.

Cheers

Si

Nice looking mast!

Jan,

The mast work look great, nice and clean.

Mark

Dear all,

thank you so much for your kind comments! And it's great to see that this build attracts your attention!

I managed a little more today, just working on the sub assemblies - don't feel ready for the big thing yet.

So here are the Harpoon launchers. Every launcher consists of eight parts - the four missiles as resin, and four PE parts.
Dodo included 10 Harpoons, and that is really good!! I launched one from my tweezers, it did not ignite nor explode, but I could hear it land somewhere, but all efforts to recover it were useless...



















Somehow I always knew that Dimes are just huge coins...







Cheers and thanks for looking in,

Jan

So tiny! I applaud your efforts!

Jan,

Those Harpoons launchers look wonderful. Very nice PE work, I'am not sure if I could work with it at that scale.

Mark

Hi Jan, agree with Mark: wonderful work there - you must have the eyes of a hawk. That ship in 1:350 scale would be tempting for me.

Horridoo

Thomas