I guess better late than never. I've been wanting to join this campaign for a while, but didn't have a kit that fit the bill. I wanted to get either of the Revell kits of SMS Emden or SMS Dresden but couldn't find one anywhere. Apparently they are out of production. Then I thought to contact a guy in our local IPMS club, Bob, who has a huge stash of ship kits. He had the Dresden kit, along with the Gold Medal Models Emden/Dresden P.E. set.



I plan on writing a full review of the kit. For now I'll just show what little progress I've made.

The instructions show adding a number of items to the deck prior to gluing the hull together and adding the deck. That's not the way I normally do it. I am going to glue the four piece hull together, (more on why it's in four pieces later,) and then the deck. Before I can do that though there is some surgery needed to be done to the deck. The kit has "Aztec" style ladders in a number of places. If I'm going to use the P.E. ladders I'll need to remove these first.





The single ladder aft, second picture, was easy to take off, just using a razor saw. Unfortunately the other ladders are in a pretty tight place and you can't get to them with a saw. I used a number of tools, exacto chisel, dremel cutting tool, sanding stick, etc, to remove it as best I could.



In this pic I've just put the folded ladder in place to see how it would look. I still have to clean up the area a bit better. It took me maybe 30 minutes to get to this point, and there are four other ladders to work on. I have to decide if it's worth the effort, but so far I think it is.

Once I get the ladders removed I'll glue the deck and hull together. Just dry fitting these parts together I think I'll have to use some filler. This next step looks to be the hardest part on the kit, so I hope things will go smoothly from here.

You're off to a great start Roger! Those PE steps look way better than molded on Aztec steps. I'm looking forward to your next update!

Hello Rodger,
I agree with Scott, Removing the stairs and replacing them with the PE ones look great.
I have the Emden and it has a 2 piece hull, That is weird. They are made by the same company.
Good start with your build.
If anyone thinks that they need an extension, Let me know. The end date for this build is February 15th.
Cheers,
Bruce

The reason for the four piece hull is the Dresden, for reasons known only to the Kaiser's ship designers, has four screws, as opposed to the Emden's two screws. Revell chose to represent this by cutting away the lower stern of the Emden's hull and creating a new stern with the four shafts. Dry fitting this thing has been a joke up to now. Every time I try to fit the lower stern in place it falls through into the rest of the hull. I really wish they had gone with a waterline hull, and a full hull piece, ala Trumpeter. One full hull could have two screws, and one could have had four. Typical German engineering.

Meanwhile even more bad new. I've lost a major part of the kit. The bridge wings had some solid railings that needed to be removed in order to use P.E. rails. While trying to baby sit my grandson, fix my wife's computer, do some laundry, and get some modeling in I managed to lose the bridge wings part! I'm going to tear the house upside down and inside out in the morning to try to find it. if not I'll have to try to scratch build that part.

If you consider that this model kit is already past 20 year old, I'd say that it can still hold its own quite well. At that time there wasn't any discussion about the way a hull should be split. Having a horizontally split hull would increase the kit's price by no less than 30%. Compare a 1/350 destroyer size kit price of today and the one in your hand: The Revell kit price is a joke. At the time of the first release the solution of the hull inset was considered super-clever, both by modelers and engineers.

The reason for the the differences between Emden and Dresden was that latter was the first German High Seas Fleet vessel to employ the (then) revolutionary Pearson steam turbine propulsion as opposed to the standard quadruple steam expansion system.

Why don't you glue some styrene strip to the inside of the hull to create a lip to prevent the inset from falling back into the hull?

Cheers,
Guido

Great job everyone!

I am close to starting my project, the ubiquitous Revell SMS Emden. I will build it straight OOB with all its faults. My technical aim for this build was to do complex rigging for the first time, so will skip the GMM PE set.

And yes Bruce, you have another vote for a tad of an extension if at all possible

cheers, James

Update time.

The bulkhead of the wheel house was cut down and new sills were put in for the windows. You can also see the binnacle painted. I added the helmsman before I buttoned it up.



The deck was weathered and the crew added along with the torpedo load.









She's ready for gloss coat and decals. Then dull coat, weathering and on to the base.

Thanks for the tip. It worked, sort of. I managed to line up one side perfectly, I was really impressed with how well the seam matched. Then I looked at the other side. Huge doesn't really describe the gap on that side.

I will now change my plans. While I prefer full hull, museum type, displays, I'll be making the Dresden as waterline. I have an old picture frame I'll be using. I plan to put down a layer of celuclay, then caulking on top of that to model the water. I also hope to heavily weather the ship, and fly the white flag she wore when she was negotiating surrender prior to scuttling.

Ahoy mates
Due to the weather and an ebay cock up,my builds only just arrived
But my nephew has shown an interest in ships(for his bedroom shelf) so I dont need to bother with any PE
So this is going to be an OOB 1/600 Airfix Iron Duke speed build!!!!!!!
Crack on ,lets scare some plastic!!!
Andy

Guido - Thats a great sequence for the searchlight.. I saved the pics and info for future use

Rodger - Ill get that scan to you at some point this weekend!

Kenny - Great update, looking good!

Andy - look forward to your build! some of us (ahem) have yet to start!

I loved your Markgraf, Jan! ... but you can't leave a venerable lady like that so naked around the top. Come to the show in Lübeck with Nils in March we'll do some rigging practise there.

@Kenny: She getting really sexy! Can't wait to see her splitting the waves!

Cheers,
Guido

Thanks mate!

Hello All,
@ Ken,
Great job on your build. the weathering looks great. Thanks for the photo and update.
@ To everyone else,
I looks like at least 5 of us need an extension. It will be for only 1 month. I will send Mark a PM about it. There are no guarantees that we will get it.
Cheers,
Bruce

Model on, mates!

And, just to help solidify the completion by our later starters, this Campaign will run until April 15th, 2010, where by herein Bruce can then evaluate the status of the builds and builders, and make his decision as to herewith extend or end the event.

Keep Modeling!
~Gunny

Thanks alot, you are much too kind - its a offer difficult to refuse and I am planning on going - a lecture on rigging is certainly worth a cold beer or two at the local beertemple - a Biergarten is propably too cold at that time of year !

Cheers/Jan

Cool! I shall be looking forward to that. Drop me line, when you fix your decision so I can make sure to have the necessary material. Lübeck is quite beautiful and well worth a visit on its itty bitty self. ... of cause we shall bail a few beers!
Cheers,
Guido

Thanks for the extension Mark. The April end date will give us some breathing room since many of us joined the party already in progress. I really want to try and do a good job on my SMS König.

Gentlemen-
It is good to know that we got an extension for the build. I hope it’ll help us get more finished models up into the gallery. I myself had stuck to my New Year’s resolution to shut up a little more and model a little more, so I reckon I will be able to finish my contribution within the confines of the original campaign. Now that we do have a little more time I thought I’d share a bit of what I had done since x-mas. I’ll probably post a full building blog, but I am not certain yet.
My project is the 1/700 SMS Goeben from the German supplier NNT. The build is basically OOB, but I could not help, but add a few bits and pieces form scratch and other detail sets.

Here is a picture of a dry fit I did a few days ago




Here is a picture of the current status of the seascape. A “making of” will be posted in the “Devine Waterline” campaign as soon as I get to finish it.



Have fun!

Guido

Hello All,
Thank you Mark for giving us the extension I think we all needed it.
@ Guido,
That is a good looking kit you have. I have run accross NNT items and they look great. They have a USS Maine I have been looking at, But I do not think that they ship to the U.S.
Thanks for the photo and update.
My subchaser is about 20% done. I am having problems with the deck colors, 1 source shows them gray, another shows them yellow pine and another shows them a deep brown.
So I do not know which I am going to do, Yet.
Cheers,
Bruce

Just a quick update on the SMS König, nothing photo worthy to report with this update.

I'm just about done with the 8 searchlights. The cleanup of the mold seams on the searchlight mounts has been a bit tricky but nothing that a little patience, a sharp blade and my needle nose files couldn't handle. The big square sprue stubs on the sides of the cylindrical shaped search lights are a bit of a pisser... they're big blocks that rise up on the curved side of the searchlights so they're a bit difficult to trim down and sand while maintaining the proper curved shape... it would have been much better if the sprue stubs had been on the flat surface, they would have been way easier to clean up. I hope to have those finished tonight, been working away at them with some very small files and sanding sticks.

Nice progress Guido!

Thanks everbody!
Bruce- NNT certainly does ship to the US contact Nobert and Nadja by e-mail via the page. This may take a bit. If you encounter any difficulty, please let me know, I'l be glad to help!

Guido

Hello Guido,
Thanks for the info. I will send a E-Mail and see what I can get done.
Cheers,
Bruce

I've gotten some more work done on the SMS Dresden.



The biggest news is I managed to find the part representing the bridge wings. While on my hands and knees looking for another part I saw something WAY in back under my desk, and it was it. Thank goodness!. I've cut off the molded in railings from the top of the bridge and the bridge wings. I'm ordering some Gator Glue today and when it arrives I'll be putting on the P.E. rails.



Just to get some idea of the final look of her I've dry fitted the bridge, a few guns, the stacks, and the mainmast. The main hull and decks are painted. I'm working on sanding down seams, cutting away molded in features, and planning the assembly of the P.E.

Hello Rodger,
Good looking ship. Thanks for the photo's and update.
Cheers,
Bruce

That Dresden sure is looking nice. I've poured the water for my entry and will have the Audacious embedded tonight and should have the same to report on the Liverpool the next night. Then, it's the two destroyers and LOTS of crew figures.

After all that, I still have to photograph the blasted thing!

--Karl