Hi Everyone,

Now that I have cleared the Shipyard of the IJN Maya and the USS Heermann I can now focus on the 1/350 Dragon Z32 German Destroyer Build Review that Todd kindly selected me to conduct. With that I apologize for taking so long, I bit off more than I could chew and my shipyard workers went on strike.

So here it is, the Dragon 1/350 Modern Sea Power Series German Z32 Destroyer. The Review is currently in the editors in-box awaiting approval and posting to the review section of the website.

I will go a head and proceed with the build so that your not waiting any longer.

Here is the kit I will be building.



The box has a nicely rendition of the Z32 cruising through relatively calm seas probably up to no good.

The box was crammed with quite a few sprues which you can see are placed randomly in the box following the review.



So to give you a clearer picture of what the box contains I assorted them neatly and took the following pictures.





This will be an out of the box build with the exception of some Flyhawk DKM railing that I pulled out of inventory. Unless there is a drastic change that will be the only AM kit that is added to this build.

I do need to buy some paint as the paint shop is pretty much limited to US and IJN colors at the moment but there is time for that to arrive.

I will begin the actual build tomorrow and document it thoroughly with pictures and opinionated comments so please keep watch on this page.

thanks for visiting and as with all of my builds, comments, opinions, and criticism are always welcome and encouraged.

thanks

Dave

Hi Dave,
I wish this kit had been available when I converted my Dragon Z39 smartkit into the Z32.
I'll be looking forward to watching you build yours.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Count me in to follow along on this one Dave! I have this one on list to pick up one of these days! Enjoy the build!!

Gents,

Great to have you along. Grab your favorite beverage and snack and pull up a seat.

I studied the instructions some more and decided to bounce around some. We will see how it goes.

Researching the paints now. Lifecolor Kriegsmarine set 1 and 2 don't have the right colors.

Todd, does that Sword and Pen discuss the colors and pattern for the Z32 camouflage?

Thanks

Dave

Hey Dave! Took a quick look through the book, but oddly, color seems to be the only thing not covered...but I will continue to look, I could have sworn there was something in there. There was side profiles of camo, sadly, 32 was not among them, but, 33 and 32 look to have been painted the same measure.

With that said, here were two pics form the book listed as Z-32:





I am sure your research has things covered and I am not trying to clog toe works any, but here is what I have on color so far... don't typically subscribe to following instructions or trying to match colors exactly...more of a what looks good approach, unless I have something definitive...and then still I probably won't...LOL!! I will put them there for reference:

The DML instructions seem to be close. Looking at the B&W pics form the Pen & Sword/Seaforth book, there are three tones not including the deck. The brightest color is a light grey most likely Hellgrau 50 (RAL 7001)which often appears to be almost white in some light...like some of the pictures of the Bismarck when launched, the top dark section to the abstract looks to be a medium grey possibly Dunkelgrau 51 (RAL 7000), followed by the darker lower sections of abstract seen on the bow descending aft dividing right down the points to the abstract... looks to be dark grey most likely Dunkelgrau 52 (RAL 7024)which has a blue tinge to it...the bootstripe is probably Schiffsbodenfarbe III Grau (RAL 7016)which was a dark grey anti-fouling paint for the hull. The instructions are calling for Dunkelgrau 2...which is also Dunkelgrau 52 (RAL 7024)...you could do a natural finish for some contrast but that is entirely whatever you see in the build my friend!

All in all, anything close will certainly work if you asked me. The worst thing about getting the colors right is when there is nothing documented stating what was actually used on a specific ship. You can only go by what you think it might be. Case in point is the Dunkelgrau 52, in a B&W pic, who knows if they did not use another approved camo color like Schlickgrau 58 which has a green tinge or Blaugrau
58/1 which is another dark grey with blue mixed in...LOL!! You can go mad thinking about it!

IMHO trying to get the 'right' colors is a thankless task when you don't have hard evidence. Take the Graf Spee. Was it really painted in shades of green? Or was it more likely painted in the varios shades of black and grey that stocked Kriegsmarine paint lockers?

I have a neglected project on my bench that was described by her WWI UK opponents as being dark grey close to the grey used by the RN. By the time the ship went to Scapa Flow, it had been repainted in regular HSF livery. I asked myself why would the Germans make a specific color for a one-use operation? Or, would they mix it up by the pail by the side of the ship? Two months later I found a single close up shot that must have been taken during the operation. There was no way that the color was anything but black, given the lighting.

After you lighten your paint for scale and add a little color from your Diorama...are you doing a diorama... Since colors are affected by nearby colors?

The only way to be really wrong is if make no effort at all to be close.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Todd,

Thanks for the information. After the research I determined that the Dragon instructions are lacking for the color code table as it doesn't coincide with the RAL numbers on the illustration. I am trying to stay away from enamel paints but I might not be that lucky. Night invest in some colourcoat paints for this build but only after doing some more looking.

Time will tell

Thanks again.

Dave

Very nice choice Dave

I'm definitely in for the ride!!

I have one of those in stock, so I'll be watching with particular interest!

I briefly saw the discussion about the camouflage, I do have a book on DKM camouflage and I will look what they say, but I don't have it at hand right now...
But for the most part I agree, if it looks sound, that'S most important. There's so much speculation around (e.g. Graf Spee, as mentioned), and it's not likely to be solved...

Looking forward to your build!!

Cheers,

Jan

Looks like a very nice Kit. Will watch with interest.....CHeers mark

Looks a good one Dave,

Will be along for the ride, the camo looks fun, fancy adding one to my stash.

Cheers.

Si

Jan, Mark and SI - Welcome aboard, glad to have ya'll along for the ride.

Gary - you do have a point about the paint and determining the right shade of a particular color. Unfortunately without the benefit of color photos we can only make an educated guess as to the right color.

I do know that the Dragon color scheme is incorrect though. I believe I have decided on a path using the Lifecolor Kriegsmarine Set I.

Obviously the black will be black, but I believe I will be using Silbergrau (RAL 7001) for the sides, Dunkelgrau for the stripes. It seems a close match to RAL 7016 (Anthrazitgrau).

I do need to pick up some sky blue for the edge of the main armament and still decide on the transition color in the vicinity of the boot stripe.

So for now that is the plan, lets see if it stays intact or falls apart upon first contact.

Now on to the more fun conversation, the build. As promised I started today and decided that the stand would be beneficial to have in the beginning verse the end.



So I drilled the required holes in both the stand base and the bottom hull and put the stand together.



It makes for a good resting place while I am not working on the hull.

The next step was addressing the port holes.



As you can see they are well molded with the brows and probably could have been left alone and filled with wash to make them pop, but I couldn't. So I began the tedious task of drilling out all of the ports using a 1 mm drill bit. It was a perfect fit.



Once I was finished drilling I cleaned the backside with a standard hobby knife and a round file in order to widen the backside of the port. It reduced what was an unnatural thickness.

Once that was complete I moved on to mounting the bottom hull piece to the upper hull. No picture yet but will follow. Initial impression was that the fit was good. After letting it rest for about 30 minutes I took a closer look and the fit is near perfect. No gap between the upper and lower hulls. However on one side there is a little overhang that will need to be addressed. I will provide before and after pictures tomorrow.

The next step was beginning step one which leads the builder to start the AA weapons and main armament guns.

So I started one of the AA guns and found the first error in the instructions. Having followed many of Si's build I was expecting an error as I cannot remember on of Si's Dragon builds that didn't have one.

Luckily this was simple to decipher. As you can see in the picture they have part H5 and H7 misidentified on the instructions.



After deciphering that issue I moved on. Here I will place a warning. While it is great that Dragon did not go the easy way and just mold lumps of plastic AA guns they did break the AA guns down a little too far. The parts are extremely small.

So I am taking these slowly and exercising patience so that I do not ruin them. Here is the beginning of one and what was my stopping point for the night.



Believe it or not there is a PE seat under the plastic part in the middle. Again a very small part.

I will keep the AA pedestal on the sprue until it is build so that I am not fighting with small pieces.

Well that is it for now, so far a great kit that will challenge my abilities, one I am excited to undertake.

More to follow tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping in and as always, comments, suggestions, and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Dave

And just like that...we are underway!! Nothing wrong with getting the ole girl's home port out of the way early!! Nice work on the little guns!! You have to expect the numbers to be screwed up when it comes to DML mis-directions!! Keep up the good work my friend!!

Hi all,

Well here is the second installment of the Z32 build.

I continued working the AA armament. It is a little tricky with the small PE parts but by taking my time I was able to make a decent AA gun.









As you can see by the color of the PE I followed a recommendation from Luciano to acquire some blackening agent. This is the formula sold by Master Models. So far it seems to be working. Guess we will see once I apply some paint.

The next step was finishing off one of the main guns. I haven't added the life rings yet but that is coming soon.



It is interesting that Dragon took the time to make PE for a lot of the AA armament but overlooked these main guns which have an open back. The breachblock is pretty plain.

After I completed that it was time to address the upper and lower hull joint. It took some sanding but in the end it came out smooth.

In these pictures you can see the overlap. No gap issue but in some locations along the hull the upper hull overlaps the lower hull.







The next step was to start the lower bridge housing. Here Dragon again lives up to mis-directions. The N1 part is open on one side but there is no part number in the instructions.



So searching commenced and resulted in finding the required part on C3.



I then commenced to building the lower bridge housing. The detail is quite clean and extensive. The doors were added with one remaining open.





I have finally realized what Si meant when he said the Dragon kits were over engineered. It is great that the doors are not molded so that you have the option of open or closed without having to drill through the plastic but the small doors are a royal pain in the tail.

After completing that I moved on to the upped bridge. I am lacking with some photos of construction and will relook my photo plan as I move forward. Here is the mid point construction of the upper bridge.





I was a little too anxious in the build of this part. Now I will need to mask quite a bit to get the deck color painted. Oh well.

The next step was building one off the mid-deck housings, well at least starting before I had to call it a say.



The PE you see is the vents with screen. I think this was a great idea by Dragon to include as PE instead of molding. Will definitely pop once painted.

So here is a run down of the progress in pictures.

The Hull sanded



The mid-deck housing dry fitted.



Oh, the deck is dry fitted to. I plan to pain the deck before adding it to the hull.

Here is the lower bridge and upper bridge housings dry fitted.



Well that's it for now. I will try and get in a little time during the week but real life has a busy plan this week.

Thanks for stopping in and as always comments, suggestions and criticism are always welcomed an encouraged.

Dave

Wow Dave, moving right along!! Fantastic work on the tiny armament! Small stuff right there!! Nice bit of work on the superstructure as well!! Keep having fun!!

Great start Dave,

Like the trick building the twin 37's on the sprue, did that on my Z38 (HMS Nonsuch), all the way up to fitting the barrels, spraying and detail painting.

Following with much interest.

Cheers

Si

Looking good Dave,
I never thought to work behind the portholes to make them look better. Thanks for the lesson.

The Z39 smartkit offered PE hatches in addition to the plastic hatches. It Offered PE radar as well. I'm hoping this kit does, too.

Gary

Todd - thanks, I am trying to move swiftly but not too swiftly. I think I have decided that I will be bouncing back and forth between the I19 and the Z32. That way I do not get overwhelmed with too many kits but also giving myself a break and a moment to sit back and review my work.

Si, thanks, I actually borrowed that idea from you on one of your previous builds. I don't think it was the Z38 but another one.

Gary - I am sorry to say that this one does not offer the PE hatches but it does have the PE Radar which I will be mounting during my next session. Right now with this kit being so new there are no upgrade kits yet but I will keep my eye out for one.

thanks gents for the comments.

Dave

Great work so far, David. The kit looks very well detailed but difficult as well, so its a good idea to take a break from it.
The ships camo does look really interesting, i am really looking forward how this will come out.

Bernd,

thanks for the kind comments.

Thank you everyone for the great comments.

Well after a couple of busy weeks I was able to slip in a couple of hours at the dockyard. Since I knew time was not on my side I decided to tackle small things, well maybe not small but something with low number of parts.

The first was to continue building the bridge. Here it is with the side walls applied.



The side legs are molded on and are a little delicate so care must be taken when removing them from the sprue.

Once the side walls were applied I decided to dry fit on to the other parts of the bridge.

Here are all the parts so far.



The upper bridge deck (with walls) dry fitted to the lower bridge housing.



and here is the lower bridge and the upper bridge housing dry fitted.



One thing for sure with this kit is that you should pre-plan your approach to painting. There are a lot of nooks and crannys that will not get hit with paint if you progress too far.

I am still planning that you but I think I have a general idea of how I will proceed.

The next task was the dual barrel main gun.

Here are the parts



Very simplistic in its build. The dual barrels are connected at the rear and sit inside a bracket inside the gun housing. It appears that replacing the barrels with brass would be quite easy.

Here she is together.





There is a life raft that will go on top of the turret and the brackets on both sides hold two life squares per side. I left those off until after painting.

Now here he is with the upgraded bridge and the main gun dry fitted.



overhead shot



It looks like I will get more time this weekend so stand by for another update.

Thanks for looking in and as always, comments, suggestions and criticism are always welcome.

Dave

Nice to see you sneaking some time in Dave! Things are looking good so far! Even the main guns! I'm a big fan of the AM Barrels, especially with the low cost..if that's all that gets bought, but if the kit barrels look the part, grip-n-rip!! Best of luck getting to the bench this weekend!!

Coming along nicely Dave.
Like the "pink" effect on the guns. I thought that was the styrene colour for a moment

cheers

Michael

Gentlemen,

thank you for the comments. This is my first German ship so I am trying to move a little slowly.


Well here is another update as promised. After working the main gun I decided it was time to re-attack some of the AA guns. So with that I decided two of the single mounts were the prime target.

The single mounted AA guns are well molded. The PE set comes with enough PE for all 4 guns so if you loose something, well you will have to go to your spares box.

here they are finished:



The shoulder rests are a little delicate to work with and do not bend very well. So I did what I could. The small spare ammunition magazines that mount into the side bracket are very small.

After that I decided to continue building up the mid housing deck.

Now here is where reading the instructions would have ben beneficial. There are several parts that are not used in this kit. I am assuming it is because the sprues are applicable to other Z Destroyers.

So when I was mounting the top deck to the mid deck housing I was not paying attention. It was not until later I realized my mistake and had to destroy what I had already completed.

I had already moved on to mounting the details.



The deck on the sprue is the correct deck.



In the end all came out well. After man handling the deck off the mid deck housing I was able to clean everything up and mount the correct deck.

While the cement was drying I moved on to the main bridge housing.





This sub assembly is a little tricky as I couldn't attach it to the deck without blocking critical painting areas. So I forged ahead as best I could. My placement was a little off as the open ends to not conform to the already build bridge too well. Luckily the plastic is flexible enough that when I do connect them together there should be too much trouble.

Well here is the main bridge housing dry fitted together:





The trick will be gluing them together after painting.

here is everything dry fitted to the hull from fore to aft:







Well that is it for now. Hopefully I will get some build time this week but if not it will be this weekend.

For all, thanks for stopping in and I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I do hope that Santa and your loved ones are kind in filling your Ship yards with supplies and hulls.

Dave

The pant in bending the shoulder supports on the AA paid off Dave! The guns look great! As dose the superstructure! A bit ironic starting out with the wrong deck because you did not read the instructions...typically with DML "misdirections" would put you in the same predicament! Good save!! Best of luck getting to the bench!

Wishing you and your family safe and very Merry Christmas as well my friend!!

Dave,

that's great work you are doing there on your Z 32, and a good recovery from your little set back!! I am glad that now serious damage was done!!

Somehow I happened to miss out on your last two or so updates, now idea how that happened, but now your build is back on my radar screen!!

I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas as well, and I am looking forward to follow your progress - even though away from the bench, I'll be watching!

Cheers,
Jan

Coming on great guns Dave,

Got to get on with some single 20's on Scharnhorst before too long, so thanks for heads up on the issues with the shoulder rests.

Good recovery on the slip with the after gun deck, those multiple sprues make it fun.

Merry Christmas to you and yours mate.

Cheers

Si