Excellent work and THANK you for the excellent water tutorial... I can FINALLY tell the wife I found a way to keep the basement workshop free of sanding debris

I also want to give you kudos for taking the time to name and explain the substances used in your various construction steps. More useful to me ( a newbie) to read that you use Mr Surfacer 1000 and for what reason (acrylic grip etc) , than simply read "coat of primer was added".

Cheers mate, and a happy new year!

Hi, there!
Thank you for your kind words! I am glad you like the tutorial. I'll try my best to continue as quicker possible.
I try my best to lay it all out, but sometime one is so much into the topic that forgetting details is quite easy. Please feel free to contact me in case you have questions or in case you can't understand a technique!
Cheers,
Guido

Good Lord! my wife would kill me if I started anything like that Guido, I'd better stay with painted pieces of paper. BTW, very effective my friend, and I can say that because I've seen your sub for real, and it really works!

Cheers,

Peter F

I wouldn't dare trying (again) without the vacuum cleaner running along catching the dirt in the making.
I hope the method will turn out similarly well as on U217! Having experience in 72nd and 144th with the method, it is the first time I tried this at such small scale.

Good take on the points this month again. I am glad I was able to stop you in your stride a bit! If you score more than anothere 61 points not even Nanond will be able to stop you.
Now that more than half of the race is done there will hopefully be more density at the top.

Cheers
Guido

Gentlemen!
I continue to get the hull into ready-to-paint status.
Leipzig has rather prominent hull plating features, so I feel obliged to try myself on representing them. In another 700th scale project I had tried this last summer by using scotch tape: It worked out brilliantly until winter came. Resin hulls react pretty dynamically to the surrounding temperature: They expand exposed to heat and shrink in the cold: The bigger the hull the more dramatic the change in dimension. Consequently, no media with different thermal behavior can be put on to represent such plating without risking cracks or coming off. To me it seemes that adding layers of paint is the first and best choice to suit the needs.
In last month’s progress report, I had started to work on the hull plating: I had taped off the first plating belt around the edge of the weather (main) deck extending to the forecastle and applied three thick layers of Mr. Hobbies Mr. Surface 1000 primer.


It is not quite easy to create a nice and even edge, so a little scratching with the knife will help to remove some overflow and create as sharper contours as possible.
Leipzig has another belt of hull plating running right across the waterline area, which is – I think – the main armor belt. The tricky part is to have the upper and lower plating belts running parallel side by side. To achieve this, a lot of tape is being used. (Maybe there is another way, but I couldn’t help myself to another solution) First I have to remove the lower tape from the hull. I strongly recommend you to not let the primer dry fully before removing the tape. The primer should be able to resist to the touch, but not fully cured, because it may cause the layers to break unevenly and leave jagged edge behind: The cleaner the edge the better the final result.


In the following (Step 1) I use the lower plating edge created by the previous primer application as a guide to apply 3mm wide automotive pinstripe tape (1). I use pinstripe tape for the lack of getting any true 3mm masking tape in the local market. Right below tape (1) I apply 5mm wide Tamiya masking tape (2) again using the the tape edge as guide in step 2, while another layer of tape (3) is to be added right below tape (2). In this third step I had used 10mm wide making tape that covers the complete bottom of the hull.


In step 4 I have to remove tape (2). Now only the armor belt is left bare and is ready for paint application in step 5. Once the primer layers have become resistant to the touch the masking is removed, hopefully leaving a cleanly marked armor belt behind. If you have – like me - used automotive pinstripe tape you will find that the primer has crawled underneath the tape leaving you with a jagged edge in a few of places. This means first scraping off this overflow, smoothing over with sanding paper or fingernail-files, taping the edge again (his time using Tamiya masking tape) and repairing the damage done. The lesson (re-)learned is to use the proper tool for the job at hand!


Of cause after all this re-working the belt surface is not 100% smooth and even. I am left with the hope that after further painting, coating, and weathering it won’t show as much.
Having finished the hull plating I am clearly heading towards another tedious part of this build. Good old Leipzig has eyelids over all of them 266 portholes in the hull, yet the model shows none at all. Should I show the white feather and leave it as it is? Quite obviously I have to put a bit of heat on PeterF and his fabulous Averoff build to be able to keep my chances for the winning spot alive: I have to make good for 3 months without countable results! From this perspective I have no choice but stride toward perfection. The lids will come on! (… what have I gotten myself into?)
As recommended by leading modelers, strands of copper thread drawn from electric wire are great for making eyelids. I decide to apply the eyelids to the hull before applying the final over-all primer coats so they may blend into the hull features most naturally instead of appearing “put on”.
Tools and material needed are: pin-pliers, small and sharp scissors, hobby knife, copper strands, white glue, and finally a mandrel (in my case a 1.3mm drill bit). The mandrel should be selected in a diameter a bit bigger than the porthole diameter (in case of Leipzig the portholes are about .9 to 1mm).


First I wind lengths of the copper strands around the mandrel. The spring I have created this way is cut on one side in the second step. I repeat this 12 to 15 time to get about 150 copper rings (3). The copper rings need to be cut in half (4). Be aware that quite a few of the lids created will be misshapen beyond being of any use and a good portion is doomed to be “pinged” from your pliers into kingdom come, so I advise you to make a sufficient number of full rings right from the start.


After having spent about 2 hours making eyelids I start to apply them using white glue. As almost all of them differ in length I take care to select neighboring eyelids in similar lengths.


Applying the 27 eyelids as shown took about 15 minutes, so with a bit of luck these doldrums will be passed by in another 2 ½ to 3 hours at the workbench. The lids are fixed with white glue now. Maybe I will seal them in by using highly liquid super glue. I’ll have to check, how the primer likes the touch of superglue first! …

Guido

Great work Guido,

The armour belt looks good in the photos, a slight surface bulge at the edge of the primer is visible, nothing that can't be easily sanded away. Regarding the thermal expansion/contraction, I too have had this occur with long sections or PE railings. My Tamiya 350th PoW model over the last 15 years has undergone numerous cycles of expansion/contraction, to the point where sufficient stress has popped off sections of the railings. Lesson learned, I always cut down the lengths of PE railings to allow for these cycles, I usually maximize my lenghts at 10cm.

The eyelids look good, and will make a noticeable improvement on a part of the ship that is lacking in detail, a lot of repetitive work there.

commendable work Guido,

Frank

Impressive attention to details, look forward seeing it with a basecoat to see how much the hull details stand out.

Good SBS on the water, have to try that for my current build.

Cheers/Jan

Great work and attention to detail as usual, not to mention even more helpful construction tips and information.. cheers!

Hi Guido,

Just catching up on your build. Great explanation of how to use sytrofoam for modeling water. I really admire your patience - was that 240 portholes to drill and ALL those porthole eyebrows!! Wow.

Barry

Gentlemen!
Thank you for your kind words regarding my effort. I come back at least once a day to read them to keep my mood up: That eyelid task is a lot more daunting than I had thought! I have about three hours put into fixing the eyelids and have almost one side finihsed.

At this point sitting down to get the job done is a task in itself...
I hope I get the hull painting finshed and the hull set into the water this months! Somehow this seems quite a bit!
Cheers!
Guido

Well done, Guido, you have demonstrated why it takes up to a year to complete one of these builds depending on how much detail you want to get into. With the 1:700 scale you can get away with a pencil line over the portholes but your 350 is much more of a challenge.

Talking about tedious stuff, I have decided to remove the railings I've placed so far and go for something much thinner - I will explain on the blog.

Great work, Guido, keep it up please.

Peter F

Hi, Peter!
I have been thinking about it lately: If your are clever you take on a big 700th model instead of 400th or even 350th for such a competition. If you decide to build 400th/350th you gotta make sure that the base kit makes a build at a top level competition feasible without going out of your way.
Still I chose to join the competition in the first place to have that gentle push going that I need to process and finish(!) such a big project. The monthly update mode of this competition carries one forward so one actually gets something done. It's just too bad when real life gets in the way.
When I look at the little time that is left I think that one can surely miss out on one month of progress, but hardly on 2, while three makes it almost impossible to complete an average quality model in 400th or 350th.
Anyway I have (almost) already decided for the subject for the next group competition that will hopefully follow this one soon after- and it will most likely be a lot tougher than this one.
;)
Cheers,
Guido

Attention to detail in yours and other builds is so inspiring and enjoyable to see here.While only using MSW for a short time I,ve learned so many new techniuqes and hopefully will keep on doing so in the future and I will always have the Missus to keep me right aswell

Hi, Guido, and continuing your observations, when you show your build at Telford this year - not long now! - you stand a better chance with 350 scale. Even Jim Baumann was having trouble with 700 but a big ship - Mauritania made all the difference, and won that year. I said to him that to win it you need a big bold statement which turned out to be the 350 Roma.

Unfortunately the 700 scale kits tend to be overlooked but suit this on-line competition. I would hate my 700 to meet your 400 in real life!!!

Cheers,

P

Keith-
Your doing really good with your baby carrier. In next competition you should join with a full build!

Peter-
That's the thing with reality and virtuality:
In real life you need to hit the average model builder over the head with a big subject to make him see the work involved. In a life competition the larger scale models will stand a better chance.
In an online competition running for a year, it is better to have a smaller scale vessel. As you say so eloquently: You can get way with far more "tricks", but can show nice big pictures.

I will certainly put the Leipzig into the contest this year in Telford, as the Gamblers won't be able to make it. So I have no other place to put it than the competition tabel. Still in the 400th and larger category hardly anybody will have a chance to win gold: I am quite certain that Jimbo will have his 192nd Queen Elizabeth ready by the time.

These are very good points you guys are making regarding small scale versus big scale in competitions. Many shows use the ancient "1/351 and smaller" and "1/350 and larger" idea. I see people use this to their advantage entering 1/400 kits (of course, not the same quality as yours, Guido!) against 1/700 and 1/72 subs against 1/350. Even when the builds are nowhere near in quality, the big stuff almost always does better.

Also, this is starting to happen much more in armor modeling where people take advantage of the "1/36 and smaller" class to put 1/48 models up against 1/72 and 1/76. Oh well, such is life...

This quantity over quality problem is very prevalent in my neck of the woods, I've seen way too many 72nd scale armour kits, 72nd scale aircraft and 700th scale ships bypassed at shows, for larger, inferior models. We run a small show in my town, and average about 300 to 400 entries per year, we make it our goal to provide an equal footing for all entries, regardless of scale, and have awarded best of show to both 72nd scale armour and 700th ships in the past. We constantly have to remind ourselves to stay objective and impartial while judging.

Frank

Gentlemen!

It's a small consolation to see that the problems of competing small-scale-modellers seems to be universal.

I got my act together yesterday while the missus was in the opera (The Ring of the Nibelung). I put on the remainder of the eyelids, finished the overall priming and started the couflage. I have a half a day free tomorrow, so I am confident to put in another good update before the end of this session.

Cheers,
Guido

Gentlemen –
After having successfully applied the 260 eyelids, I primed the hull using one dense layer of Mr. Gunze 1200. As you can see, both plating and eyelids can be well seen from close up. Of cause these details are a bit harder to see from a meter away, but they still do add to the depth of detail even from a distance.


Naturally, after all these coats for primer you can’t make out the waterline of the kit any more. Mindful of this I had taken measurement before starting to prime. I used a circle cutting tool (slightly modified) to scribe the waterline back onto the hull.


I have to admit that I am generally a lazy SOB, so I bought myself the Lifecolour Kriegsmarine color set that should contain all coats I need to finish this build. I have not yet worked with Lifecolour, but sincerely hope that it will stick to the primer as well as other color coats and will stay on under use of Tamiya tape: If it doesn’t I will probably drop out of the race, because a full strip and remake of the work invested in the build so far is certainly outside of being workable. So keep your fingers crossed for me!


First step of the preparation was to scan and up-scale the paint diagram of the profile book. Comparing the picture to the few photos available of Leipzig in this guise, it becomes quite obvious, that the color profile has several mistakes. As most obvious example I should name that the hull and superstructure have the same grey, which is definitely wrong; the stripes on the hull below the funnels are in a wrong position and a few others. Certainly Leipzig had no black boot topping. One photo of Leipzig suggests that she had white boot topping. If you scrutinize the photo you may come to the conclusion that is it is a trick of the light playing on the torpedo bulges. (Most folks I asked said “white boot topping line” spontaneously and only revised it after being asked to check again) Anyway, I use the little room for interpretation to paint that white line: It will look good and it’ll add to the detail of the build. Even if this seems unacceptable to the historian in me, the artist is doing a tap-dance .
I apply a coat of white (not included the Lifecolour set!! !) to the appropriate areas and and tape them off: First the boot-topping than the Baltic stripes. This is followed by the application of Dunkelgrau (dark grey). It is actually unusual to apply this color at this point. Usually one should apply the colors in sequence from light to dark, to avoid them shining through. Subsequently I should apply Mittelgrau (medium grey), but since the application of medium grey before dark grey would require the use of a huge amount of expensive masking tape, I choose to paint dark grey first and mask it off. Then I will use an additional layer of primer to tone it down before using medium grey all over.


Of cause all the steps of color application demand good drying time before masking. Not sitting around idly, I turn my attention to the base while the coats cure.
If you should follow the way to making the water display as previously described, you will come to following observations and conclusions:
1. The sides of the water display look butt-ugly
2. The acrylic gel and colors shrink a little bit while curing. This causes the end of the styro-foam to lift: The base plate is not sitting flatly any more.
These are two good reasons calling to hide the volume part of your sea base.
What I do is to hide it behind a wooden frame. I will use 20 mm plywood as an underlying base and 9 x 90 mm branchless pine wood planks for a frame. While the plywood will provides dimensional stability, the pine can be crafted and stained nicely without being overly expensive.
First I determine the size of the base plate needed and cut it with a buzz-saw.


The cut-to-size base plate gets a nice rim profile using a router. After That I clean up the board using fine sanding paper.


Then I cut the pine planks to size to make the frame.



In the next step I trace the sea-scape using a pencil…


… and remove the excess wood with a jigsaw.


After a lot of fitting, sanding and cleaning, I have what it takes to hide the twisted sea-scape.


The individual parts are not yet connected, but…
… that’s it for today. Look out for another update (hopefully) tomorrow.

Cheers,
Guido
To be continued…

Since your wife was out to see Ring of The Nibelung, has she come home yet (it's so long!)? I believe this is my favorite opera, so I'm very impressed!

And speaking of impressed, WOW! I love what you're doing with the base-- the quality of the woodwork and shading of the water!

Continued

Gentlemen,
I am having a pretty good swing and I am trying to stick to it. The missus (having resurfaced after that 5 hours opera) has a lot of prep work to do do in the evenings, so I am set free to further my project as I see fit (after having brought my boy to bed, of cause).
In between the shown steps of work on the base and frame, I was busy completing the paint job on the hull. Yesterday I had explained why I changed the “natural” order of paint application. The top section of the following picture shows the hull with applied and masked off dark grey portion. The center section shows the hull after having received the cover-up layer of primer and the Mittelgrau (medium grey) main hull color. Prior to the application of the medium grey, I had applied superstructure’s Hellgrau (light grey) and masked it off. I did not make a separate photo, as the Hellgrau is almost exactly the same color as the Mr. Gunze 1200 primer.
While it is still early in the evening I mask off the complete upper hull and apply the Schiffsbodenfarbe I Rot (ship bottom color 1 red) as the final step of the camo application. The result can be seen in the bottom portion of the picture.


Removing the tape would be the most exciting part of this evening, but the red coat must have fully dried before doing that (can’t wait!). So I turn my attention back to the construction of the base.
The roughly shaped and sanded frame planks get drilled with a 2 mm drill bit and receive wooden dowels to connect them. Prior to drilling I masked off the ends of the planks to avoid uncontrolled splintering. Good side effect is that the wood is protected from glue too. If glue touches your wood you should immediately wipe it off otherwise you will suffer problems staining your wood later.
I use simple toothpicks as dowels. I first connect opposing corners without using any glue. Then I connect these two “L’s” to shape the final frame. Here I am using Elmer’s. Just inject the glue into the drilled whole and knock in the toothpick and wipe away the excess glue.
Make sure that there is no glue on the inside of the frame before test fitting your sea bed.


Let the whole assembly sit for some 15-20 minutes and try to keep your hands off the still freshly painted hull while waiting!
The glue has not fully cured after 20 minutes, but the assembly is stabile enough to endure further proceedings. First I saw off the dowel ends. Then I use my Dremel tool smooth the whole assembly over.
Of cause you are free to choose the effect of wood to your liking. You may go for a pristine and new look while I am aiming for age-old, worn tropic wood: I want an antique-furniture-look to come with my model. As old furniture is usually a bit dinged and rarely has sharp corner, I “wear off” all sharp edges with my Dremel tool and craft imperfections into the wood surface. I even take a small drill bit and simulate wood worm holes. Just a few locally, not too many!
Of cause old furniture is at its best if grown dark by age. I sneak up to the missus desk, steal her inkpot and apply the deep black ink liberally onto the frame concentrating on the corners and creases. Before she knows it the inkpot is back in the place it is supposed to be. The ink is not even fully dry, but I start sanding off the ink-stained parts of the wood, which takes on a grayish appearance. Now the whole assembly needs sufficient drying time.


Somewhat more than 2 hours of drying time for the hull now… is that enough? I tell myself that it is enough, if I am careful enough not to touch the hull sides.
This is what it looked like last:






I am now carefully removing the tape praying for the colors and the eyelids to stay on. Did I get the sequences right? Do the stripes line up? Did I forget something …?







No I didn’t!












All turns out fine, even though the medium grey of the hull and the light grey of the superstructure look so similar that at first that I thought of a mistake, but indeed in changing light one can see the subtle difference in shades of grey. Actually it’s a little too subtle for my taste, but I will leave it as it is.
Of cause there are some spots that will need clean- and touch-up (see arrows), but this the usual work to be done at this stage.


I even had cared to paint the steel decks dark grey already so, if all runs well, I will attach the separate deck amidships permanently (hopefully) tonight.


After that the wood deck will lose its mask and I can apply an over all enamel clear coat for protection before proceeding any further.


Cheers,
Guido

Beautiful Guido! (I mean the model...) Thanks for the step-by-step documentation on your build. It really helps novices like me. I'm learning something new with every one of your posts. Leipzig looks terrific - fantastic job on the camouflage.

Barry

Gentlemen

Tonight’s update is but a little smaller than lately.
During the past say 36 hours I was on and off to get the desired finish done for the wood base.
After having dirtied up the light wood with black ink and wet sanding, I let the frame sit overnight. In the morning before going to office I used mahogany wood stain all over on frame and base.


During lunch break I sanded the frame off again, leaving some of the ink and stain standing.


After removing the dust I used rosewood-colored paint that is usually used for painting wooden garden furniture or fences and let it dry until evening.


Another go with the sanding paper was necessary after that to get back the wood structure. However I was careful not to send too much to allow that dark brown color to persist.


Finally I made another pass with the mahogany wood stain. The colour is now as I want it to be. I will let it rest until tonight before applying 4-5 thin layers of high-gloss clear coat from the rattle can.
I was pleasantly surprised when the brass name plate arrived only a day after having ordered it.


The frame and base are not yet fixed to each other and will stay that way for some time now.

Now it is time to get back to the ship!

Cheers,
Guido

Gentlemen,
It is a bit late indeed, but I thought that this may come nicely as the finihsing move for the frame.
After a series of gloss coat applaction and 240 grid sanding both frame and base have reached the gloss effect I was aiming for. Unfortunately digital pictures don't do it full justice really.


The wood is now dark brown with a silght reddish touch just as old English furniture is supposed to be. Bits of wood structures are shining through. The gloss is high enough to reflect nicely without being a mirror.
Right now the base is in sharp contracts to the reltively flat sea-scape, which does not look so nice, but this will be worked on as one of the ultimate steps in this blog, even after the ship is finished.

On to session 9!

Cheers,
Guido