Thomas,

That flag looks wonderful.

Mark

Excellent flag!

Gaz

What Tim, Mark & Gaz said!!

Great job with the flag Thomas.

Happy new year,

Cheers

Si

@Tim, Mark, Gaz and Simon: Thank you for your commendation - appreciated

And by the way: I wish you all a healthy, happy and peaceful new year with lots of projects to do

First update in 2019 : as the horde still slept I went down into my mancave and continued silently with my ship. First I painted the ship´s bow emblem with oil colors


Then I started rigging with the funnel stack holders (correct designation?). I remembered the precious hint from Simon that he use telephone wire for this job. Since that time I also use Simon´s telephone wire (yes it was me digging around your house recently Simon ). Straightened with a ruler and prepainted black with an EDDING pen it is ideal for this task. finished the funnels this morning:




Now starting with the real rigging with EZ-line thread

That is a great start to the New Year, Thomas. The bow emblem adds even more color to a colorful build, and those funnel stays look just right.

I wondered why our phone hasn't been working Thomas

Very tidy job on the funnel rigging, looks the part, and so does the bow crest.


Great build.

Cheers
Si

Ditto!

Dear Gentlemen,

today we are proudly announcing that the ship seiner kaiserlichen Majestät EMDEN has now officially commissioned today as the build was completed by our indefatigable and diligent builders. Three cheers for the Emperor! Hooray - Hooray - Hooray!

There were not much things left to do: I closed all drilled out portholes with Kristal Klear to resemble glass Windows. Then I made the rear foldable fender poles with their rigging.


Yes and then we gave permission to our master-spider to attach all the rigging. Joking aside - EZ-line took me away the fear of rigging as this thread let itself beautifully work with and was a lot fun in the end. I was therefore able to resemble the ship in its complete rigging as far as I can say from my limited resources and pictures. This is the final result:








So far I´m very satisfied and I think my efforts were really worthwile about the outcome. So far it was my most complex ship build as there were so many small parts, ommissions, simplifications and of course 4 x PE-frets to tackle. The Special ochre brown had to be mixed out of 4 different colors in a ratio of 5-4-1-1 which also contributed to the complexity of the build - I had to mix colors at least 4 times for different subassemblies... If you plan to build this ship too, I would recommend you to use Gunze H71 Middle Stone as it is very close to the mixed color tone of me. Maybe add a bit white or yellow to achieve the exact match; will make your build a bit more comfortable than mine


I will continue now with creating the anchorage diorama

Thomas,

My compliments to your master-spider for some first rate rigging work! You could stop right now and have a build to be proud of... but I do look forward to seeing your anchorage!

Thomas,
Outstanding results. Simply jaw-dropping. Well done sir.
John

Thomas,
Wow!!! What a beautiful model!!

The Kaiser should give you three cheers!

Gaz

It just so happens Santa brought me that same kit for Christmas. By an incredible coincidence I had already bought the same PE sets (happily on sale), 3D printed guns, wooden deck etc. Now all I need to do is try to replicate what I see posted here--frankly the results might not be up to this level, and might require a rather long time.

I also got several books on the subject, at the moment I'm reading "The Swan of the East" which is very well written and recommended for anyone interested in the astonishing tale of this vessel's final voyage.

Thomas,

Your rigging looks wonderful. Congratulations on the commissioning.

Mark

Beautiful work on the rigging and a very nice commissioning to boot.....Cheers Mark

Stunning work Thomas!

EZ line is an absolutely wonderful product and excellent medium to rig with. You have done wonders with it!

Look forward to seeing the diorama!

Outstanding build Thomas.

You have done this elegant cruiser proud. I have enjoyed following along.

Cheers

Si

Thomas,

I'm so sorry I missed out on your commissioning!! She's a beauty, you did an absolutely outstanding job, you did this fine small vessel pride!!

Congratulations to a job very well done!! Excellent my friend!! And I'm already looking forward to your next build, whatever it might be!!

Cheers,
Jan

I´m so sorry for this long radiosilence - the reason was that I had to wait for Northstar´s figures (bloody slow german custom) and I had some obstacles to tackle which lowered my "combat spirit" for some time:

I did my anchorage Scene as planned and laid some paper on top of the Scene. The Intention was to paint the paper and then to apply Vallejos still water over it (never used it before). Paper then throw waves because of the humidity and it looked awful. The still water was colored in a greenish tint but it also was not satisfying to me - it shrinked immensely after drying and also produced a strange "coat" on top of its surface. Then I broke some parts and snipped some rigging wires when the Navy Hospital ordered me some days off from the project. I did a 1:48 Eduard Polikarpov I-16 which gave me Relaxation and reconvalescence again.

After that I was able to complete the Project. I laid another top coat of a tinted acrylic gel on top of the ill-fated still water and this saved me. These are the final steps I would like to share with you:

The Diorama began with some Evergreen Stripes and a Styrodur plate cutted in size


Then I glued everything together and made a try how everything will look together with the template


The ship´s form was carefully cutted out of the Styrodur and the connections of the Evergreen Sheets were puttied and sanded


Then it was time to prime everything in black color


I did add the paper, set the small cutter and the Emden in their proposed place and prepainted the paper with a greenish color.


Then it was time to add some figures! Northstar makes some very nicely and delicate 3D-printed figures. Although they are surely the best available out there in this scale, I do have no idea how to remove them without accidents from their fret - They are all squeezed together at one tiny plate. This makes it very difficult to paint and remove. Accordingly to this we had an average loss rate of About 25% of the figures (legs/arms/heads etc. broken).

First the sailors have to stowage the rum before the pilot cutter will lay alongside ship




There is the pilot´s cutter. You can recognize the local port pilot in its dark blue uniform


He is already awaited by some sailors and officers at the gangway



And the Captain is patiently waiting for him with his staff at the top lookout of the ship´s Bridge


This is the final view at the completed Diorama




And finally everything will be protected in a well-tried display box from SORA. It will get a place of honor within my business office next monday


It was surely the most complex, colorful and demanding ship I did until now. It was a real challenge to convert this small, toylike REVELL kit with a lot of extra 3D-printed and etched parts in what was formerly known at the german Navy as the "Swan of the East". If you did enjoyed this build and also the history of this ship as much as me then my mission was completely accomplished.

Thank you very much for your Attention and all your encouraging comments - without it I would have been hard I have to admit.

Cheers

Thomas



P.S. I still have its sister ship, the Dresden in its gray livery and with its own very thrilling history about its struggle in the southern atlantic and pacific waters in stash - of course with all the necessary extra parts and a prefinished template again - waiting for its time. But it would be madness to start this ship right now wouldn´t it?!

Thomas,
How wonderful she is! I'm very impressed. You are inpiring me to get to work on one of my stalled ships. I have Markgraf started and Seydlitz and Graf Spee waiting in boxes.

I have a tidbit of information regarding the sailors uniforms you might find useful for color variation:

I was told that the German Bosun always wore the blue blouse even in the summer uniform. I noticed that I would see picture with groups of Kaiserliche Marine sailors together that there was often one who was wearing the blue blouse.

I asked about it at a naval forum, and it was the only answer I got.

Bravo!

Gaz

Hello Gaz, thank you for your words; it was a pleasure to have had you OnBoard. Regarding of the sailor´s uniforms I have different informations about it. As far as I discovered the sailors in the North Sea and Atlantic wore indeed blue uniforms. The fareast battlegroup wore white ones, even the officers. I have to prints and two stills from the movie EMDEN for you:





Cheers!

P.S.: Graf Spee is another hot candidate for my next shipbuild

Thomas, that is absolutely splendid work. I have a real affinity for that era. It's either that or I am overly fond of white and buff. You take your pick.

I have not checked my references, but I am going to assume that Emden was coal fired. That leads me to ask about the boot topping. Many ships in that era did not adopt boot topping until oil fired ships replaced coal fired ones. Would you happen to know when boot topping was adopted in the German Navy?

Chuck, thank you very much for the flowers, appreciated
I also have a soft spot for These buff and white paintings as these ships did looked so elegant for their time. Yes the Emden and ist sister ship the Dresden were still coal fired.

You got me with your question as I had absolutely no idea what boot-topping means. I had to consult a dictionary and they gave me the following explanations:

boot topping

1. (Nautical Terms) a coating applied to this part of a ship to remove marine growth
2. (Nautical Terms) (nautical) The process of cleaning the upper part of a ship's underwater hull and daubing it with a protecting layer of antifouling substance.

Actually I have regrettably no idea at which time this was invented in the german imperial navy. Sorry mate!


Best regards

Thomas

Great build Thomas,

I have really enjoyed following along, the figures bring it to life. That diorama would not look out of place in any Maritime Museum.

Cheers

Si

Thank you a lot, I feel honored mate!

Cheers

Thomas