Great work on the Bridge Thomas,

The etch adds a huge amount of depth to the bridge structure.

Cheers

Si

very tidy work on the railings, Thomas, building up into a very impressive Assembly!

I continued work on smaller parts. I installed some nautical signals at the stern mast but have no clue what they are intended for. Can some nautical experts enlighten me? Kapitänleutnant Jan?

I am afraid I can't help with Italian WW2 signals Thomas, but shapes are still used today under the International regulations for the prevention if collision at sea to indicate a ships condition.

For example a ball at the Foremast would indicate a the ship was at Anchor.

Two balls shown vertically from the mainmast, not under command, etc.

There some for fishing vessels, minesweepers and that sort of things, they are shown in daylight to back up lights which would not be as visible.

Cheers

Si

Thank you for your Input Si! These shapes seem to show up at different ships of various nations. I have pictures of the IJN cruiser TAMA who have the same two signs in the same colors. There is also a picture of Imperial german light cruiser Dresden which have cones in green and red.

Cheers

Moin Thomas!

While Si is absolutely correct on the signals in general, this is not what your red and green shapes indicate.

You find them on most older (=WWI, WWII etc. ) vessels, and they indicate the rudder angel. Before you had gyro repeaters and all kinds of fancy intercom all over the ships, this was the means to show the crew, especially the gunners, the ordered rudder angel and hence the direction, in which the ship was to turn momentarily, so they were prepared for the turn and could adjust accordingly.
Both equal hight = rudder amidships, green up, red down = rudder to starboard etc. Hight difference between the signals as a measure for rudder angle.
No precision instrument, but more than nothing...

Cheers,
Jan

And great job on your bridge, and the ZARA in general - she looks awesome my friend, another fantastic job. Your attention to detail, rigging and your PE work is truly inspiring!!

Cheers,
Jan

Moin Jan! Thank you for the educated explanation - I knew I can count on you

Beste Grüße

Hello,

after spraypainting, bending and glueing a lot of railings, stakes (veery fragile affair), some last stairs, the stern flagpole and small Davits for the boarding ladders and the aft lifeboats it´s done - well almost... just the rigging is missing now. Some short pictures for you to see the latest state of construction

















Now the rigging is following. Trumpeter, unlike Hasegawa, don´t provide you a rigging diagram. I also don´t have any books about this ship so this time I am completely dependent on salvaged pics of the real ship from the Internet and the boxart. I will nevertheless try my best. Need to wake up my spiders now...

Brilliant work, Thomas!

She looks just outstanding, with your clean and crisp work! Fantastic!

And a very interesting ship, pretty unique way to build ships, but she definitely has a cool look to her!

Be careful not to break anything when you're doing the rigging...

Cheers,
Jan

Totally agree with what Jan said, Thomas.

She's looking really fine and those Italians sure had some different ideas about building ships, but does make it interesting!

As for the rigging, I always like to think of them as powerlines: you can't see every detail, but you can see that they are there; thus even if you only put in the basics lines, it is more than enough to convey that it's there

Thomas this ship looks great, well done!! Display it with pride.

Bravo, Thomas!!

Thomas,

She's a beautiful looking ship, very nice work you performed on this kit. Good luck with the rigging and hope you don't knock anything off.

Mark

Great job Thomas,

A very elegant looking cruiser. do take care with the rigging, looking forward to seeing her finished.

Cheers

Si

Gentlemen, this is my last chapter as my heavy cruiser is finished now


There were some last steps to do - Before rigging I did spent her some life buoys at the appropriate places


Then there was just the rigging left. Unfortunately TRUMPETER don´t provide a rigging scheme unlike HASEGAWA so I had to rely completely at the boxart and the few clear pics I had of the real ship. It was nevertheless not a difficult work with this ship as there isn´t excessive rigging necessary here. These are the final pictures of my finished ZARA:















After everything was finished I placed her under a plexiglass showcase



After all I can say Trumpeter´s ZARA is a nice kit by its own but the upgrade set will lift it to a new Level of details. The set have its pro´s and con´s: You will benefit from many etched details, some crucial small parts are doubled inside so if you once will sacrifice a part to the carpet monster you have a second chance. The downside was the wooden deck set which wasn´t glueing anymore in my set and it was just copied from the too short stern deck so you will need to paint a bit to camouflage the shortcoming. The instructions are also not always like a stroll in the park - sometimes you need to guess things and some parts are still on the fret which are a mistery to me where they should have been installed... Trumpeter´s Regia Marina naval flag provided in the kit is way too small for my taste but I have no other alternative so I did used her on a small lead foil behind her stern mast.

Anyway this was my biggest ship so far and it was big fun for me, essentially also because all your diligent comments which made a big morale boost during my build. I hope I will see you again aboard at my next build here.

Thank you all again for watching and commenting - Arrivederci!

Thomas,

The rigging looks wonderful, very clean work.

Congratulations on the finish, she looks great. She is going to display just great.

Mark

Thomas that rigging looks perfect, well done!!

The finished ship looks brilliant sitting in the case too. Congrats again.

Thank you very much Mark

Thank you Ned for watching!

Congratulations on a beautiful addition to your fleet, Thomas

You overcame the challenges nicely and have done an excellent job!

Thanks for sharing and I'll be looking for your next build to follow along

This is one beautiful Build you have done. Congrats on a fine job.....Cheers Mark

Great Job Thomas,

Have enjoyed being along for the ride, congrats on commissioning, captures the elegance of the real thing.

Cheers



Si

It was a pleasure to have you aboard, too Russell!

Hello Mark, thank you for being with me within this build