Dear all,

I will be getting this ship -the first ship since I built the Aurora cruiser when I was about 12...

What are the must-have aftermarket for this model? I've seen a very extensive PE set, wooden decks and metal barrels among others. I am sure I would get the metal barrels- something I am doing with most of my tank models. However I'm not sure what other sets I should be getting. Does the PE really make it stand out, or am I going to get mired down in 0.1mm PE parts, for example? (In my experience not all armor model needs extra PE, for example, since the models are getting extremely well detailed. If I can avoid it normally now I do not buy extra sets.) Since I have no experience with ship models I would like to ask before making (or not making) this investment in both time and money.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Andras,

I built the ICM Konig the sister to your ship. I replaced the guns with metal because the one's in the kit looked out of size and the molding was not that great. I did go with the PE kit to dress up the coal scuttles, hatches and doors. I painted the deck so I did not use an after market wood deck. I also changed out the plastic main mast and yardarms with a brass ones as they seem to flimsy to support the rigging.

I hope the fit between the hull and main deck and the fit between the superstructures and main deck are ok. I really had a hard time with getting them to sit correctly and even than I used a lot of putty to close the gaps. I also added strips of styrene to the underside of the main deck to stiffen it so it didn't flex.

Good luck, that class of ship is sweet to look at and are tough fighters.

Mark

Dear Mark,

Thank you, so the gun barrels and the PE is a given, right? (Too bad about the PE... don't really like working with it.)


The rigging will be an issue as checking the instructions available online, there is not much help given about the location. What did you use for it? (I was thinking of thin fishing line. I was planning drilling holes in the plastic to hold it securely from the bottom, and superglue to fix them to the masts.)


Now I just need to find out how is weathering a ship different from weathering a tank

You should at least get the PE railings to add to the ship. I would get the gun barrels because they are far superior then the kit ones.

As for rigging I used EZline fine, both black and brown. Black for the radio antennas and brown for the flag and signal lines. The main problem during rigging installation is getting the rigging taunt. EZline is flexiable so you can stretch it a little during gluing and it will stay pull back and give you that taunt look. A modeler skill with using fishing line can get the same effect, but I am not one of those so EZline makes up for it for me. Make sure your masts and yardarms can handle the tension. Some plastic masts and yardarms are so weak the slightest tension will bend them. I had to change a few masts and yardarm on ships with brass so they would not bend under the tension.

As for weathering that will depend on how you want to display the ship, just out of the shipyard or weeks or months at sea. Ship hulls and main decks gets the most weathering with less weathering as you go up the superstructure. I suggest you look at photos of ships and how the weather has effected their paint work.

I mix my paints at a ratio of 81% base color with 19% white. This will give the paint a faded color that weathered paint take on after being at sea for a while.

Oh, and one other thing, build up and then out when doing the assembly. Nothing worst then knocking stuff off or breaking things off while working on the upper decks and superstructures.

Good luck, and don't forget to post pictures.

Mark

Dear Mark, thank you for the detailed response. I hope I will be able to start the kit in a few months... we'll see how fast I manage to build. (I have a 3 months old daughter; hobby time has dramatically decreased.)

By the way, is there a rail-only PE set for the kit? (I only found one- and it is not even widely available...)

Congratulations on the addition to the family.

I couldn't find PE railings just for that class of ship, but there are generic PE railings for German ships you could use but you will have to custom cut them to fit.

Mark

Andras: Your mention of the Aurora cruiser, USS Saint Paul brings back a lot of really good memories of an earlier day. Wish I had a couple today to try out newer/better paints, and the construction techniques I have learned over the years.

I built mine using the Gold Medal Models PE set 350-20 (http://www.goldmm.com/ships/gms3prdred.htm).

I also used a WoodHunter deck (Hunter 1/350 W35044 Wood deck Imperial German Grosskurfurst for ICM). I bought it through ebay.ca (not ebay.com). When it arrived, it was stamped "Not for sale outside of Peoples Republic of China"

I just found mine in the attic in a box... At least 25 years old. (Wasn't even painted...)

I am thinking about doing some work on it to see what I can do to make it look decent.

Awesome. Thank you I will get this...

Thank you. Never thought about generic sets; it is a great idea. (They are not that common with land vehicles.) The railing is something that has a great effect on the results, so it is definitely worth updating.