After finishing my second 1:350 surface ship I let me get more involved in ship modelling and want to start a new ship build. I did manage to collect a small but attractive stash of surface ships with some extras for each vessel.
As I can not decide which ship I should do next I would like to ask you to do me a favor and decide for me which vessel will be started next. I would suggest the vote is open for one week and after this I will start a blog with the winning kit.
Here are the applicants:
1) The legendary german one: The Admiral Graf Spee was responsible for the sinking of quite some shipping spreading fear and attraction at allied side in the southern atlantic at the outbreak of the second world war. To save the crew of its sure death after she have to leave Uruguay again after 72 hours with some british ships waiting for it and almost out of ammo its captain decided to self-sink the ship at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata.
2) The stealthy one: Swedish modern Visby Class Corvette. It is a small resin vessel with photoetched and metal parts.
3) The rare bird: Hasegawa`s limited Edition seaplane tender Akitsushima. This one costed me a full broadside towards my wallet
but I´m very happy to own this one finally after years of searching. I do have alliance model AA-guns and a Voyager AA-gun to improve the kit´s plastic ones.
4) The Steamer: Another limited kit from Hasegawa, the Heian Maru. It was a submarine tender with an attractive Camouflage pattern. I have the full PE-sets, a wooden deck and turned Barrels for its few guns
5) The russian guy: Orange hobby´s Steregushchi class corvette, one of the most modern russian surface ships in current duty within the Baltic fleet since 2008. This is a resin kit with photoetched and metal parts.
6) The beautiful one: Aoshima´s light cruiser Tama with its characteristic white Camouflage pattern during her northern operations in 1942 in Hokkaido, Kurile Islands and the Aleutian Islands. I do have the very crisp and huge photoetched set for the ship and its ship Floor and turned Barrels from Rainbow Models. This one will give me a lot of work!
7) The emperor´s ship: BRONCO´s release of Imperial Chinese first modern Battleship and Flagship Ting Yuen. Build in Germany for the Chinese it was considered as the most modern Battleship of its time - at least even with germany´s and british ships of this class. During the economical and financial weaknesses, loss of interest in the Navy (outstanding payments and no funds for exercises and fresh ammo) and growing corruption of the chinese government in the years after, the combat effectivness of the chinese Navy dropped considerably. As the hostilities against the Japanese empire broke out at the Yalu River in 1895 the Ting Yuen also got severly damaged and its captain decided to self sink the ship and committed suicide after it.
I do have an (very expensive) wooden deck for it together with turned Barrels and a photoetched set from Voyager for it.
8) The doomed carrier: Hasegawa´s Gambier Bay. It was sunk off the Philipines from Admiral Kuritas ships. The Gambier bay is the only carrier who used its single 127 mm in direct Engagement against other surface ships.
I do have both photoethed sets and the deck set from Hasegawa for it. Artwox masking foil was also bought for it. And there are some turned barrels for all the small AA-batteries. This one would also be a huge project!
9) The antarctic Explorer: Hasegawa´s Soya Research vessel. Build before the second world war as an Icebreaker for Russia it survived somehow and was later converted as an arctic Research vessel. I build this as a very young Boy and played with it inside the bathtube. Now I would like to build this ship with its very elegant orange color once again with all my current abilities.
I do have a wooden deck for her and its photoetched set. It took me quite some time but I was also able to optain Mr. Color´s set specificly made for the Soya with the true "alert orange" Color
10) The odd looking one: Alliance Model´s U-Boot salvage ship of the Kaiserliche Marine. This one is a catamaran shaped boat which was intended to be used after submarine accidents and it was indeed successful in salvaging two drowned submarines. The russian Navy used one of this class (heavily modernised until around 2007!). This is a multimedia kit out of resin and photoetched parts.
11) The tiny one: Orange Hobby´s IJN Type 28 class submarine chaser. This is a very small vessel out of resin and photoetched parts and will Need all my abilities and surely let me get blind during the build because of the small parts
12) The mighty one: MERIT´s new IJN battleship Mikasa in 1:200 scale. A PONTOS huge upgrade set is already on its way for this one. I would prefer you would not let me start this one as it will surely the biggest and most complicate build of my Collection
It is up to you now: The vote is open until next friday evening
Ahoy!
Thomas
