Fleetscale Admiral Graf Spee

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Semi kit

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Hi All,

I have been working on my 1/128 scale Admiral Graf Spee for about a year using a Fleetscale hull and a few Fleetscale fittings. Progress quite slow but photos below illustrate the current state. My previous experience of model warship building has been through Deans Marine destroyer kits so no surprise I intend most of the construction to use Styrene plastic. The main deck and quarterdeck is fully planked using 1.5mm x 1mm x 50mm lime planks on a 3mm birch plyword support. The main turrets are scratch built as are the torpedo tube batteries and the light AA. I have Fleetscale resin mouldings of the eight secondary armament turrets, the funnel the 4,1 inch AA and main rangefinders and AA directors although most of these are still in their plastic bags. Not intending to post a day by day account of this build, just the occasional update. The intention is to produce a reasonably detailed model for occasional careful use on the water in about 2 years time.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Really impressive Robin, especially the planking – how long did that take?!

Colin

[John W EParticipant @johnwe]

hi there,

really interested in your build, looking really nice. I like the way you have set the internals out.

The Graf Spee holds a special place for me and my family as one of my Uncle's was a Prison of War for a short time aboard her. He was on The Ashleigh which was sunk by the Graf Spee and he spent a short time on there before being transferred to the Altmark.

So it looks like we are going to have the Battle of the River Plate on the forum as I am in the process of building HMS Exeter.

aye

john

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Hi Colin

The planking took about 100 hours. The only way to retain my sanity was to do just a few 1 metre strips of lime in a session and to take time out to do another task, in this instance the two main turrets.

John – I had noticed your HMS Exeter thread and must say that is a very impressive model you are building. Interesting you have a family connection with the events of late 1939. Related personal anecdotes do add to our hobby. I have an HMS Kelly and when displayed I have often had people comment that a relative had served on her. Puts things into perspective. As to a Battle of the River Plate – some time before AGS will be ready for that!

Robin

Edited By Robin Lee on 11/11/2013 17:53:46

[Andy HustlerParticipant @andyhustler32076]

John , a just" by the way" comment i had a great uncle who was at the river plate on on a " New Zealand ship " when i asked why as a British chief po engineer/chief stoker and he was training the engine room crew when they were called into battle .

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

The anecdotes really make warship modelling fascinating. Your Great Uncle was fortunate in that he was not on HMS Exeter as the HMNZS Achilles received only minor damage albeit with 4 dead compared the much greater losses on the Exeter.

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Have made progress particularly with the main deck structures and with the secondary armament, AA and range finders. The deck structures are entirely of styrene as I find this the easiest way of doing it. Having said that styrene for all its good qualities is a bit flimsy specially for large deck houses and as I do not want to use plastic of thickness greater than 1mm for weight purposes the deckhouses etc require a lot of reinforcement to prevent the occurrance of undesirable warping in walls and decks. This is just my method derived from my Deans Marine modelling experiences and not necessarily the best way of building but it works for me. As stated above I have done a lot of work on the secondary 15cm turrets, the dual triaxially stabilised 10.5cm Flak turrets, dual 3.7mm Flak mounts and single 2cm Flak mounts but I will leave these to later on.

Forward structure – one wall attached to supporting frame.
Forward structure – both sides attached. I have also triangular styrene pieces added to force the sides to remain square to the supporting frame. The small metal blocks are type face elements which are very useful for assembling styrene parts together for bonding.

Forward structure – complete and showing the supporting arrangements.

Forward structure – the top view. The square aperture is for the smoke (mist) generator flue to pass through.

Rear structure – partly built. The aircraft catapult and aft control centre sits on this deckhouse.

Aft control centre which has the aft main armament 10.5M rangefinder included. The rangefinder used as its basis the Fleetscale resin moulded part with some enhancement such as the rangefinder optics and the rods running parallel to the arms and he access ladder rungs.

Forward SL-4 Director mounted immediately forward of the main tower. This is an Flak director for use with the heavy 10.5cm Flak guns.This uses the Fleetscale resin moulded item with enhancements.

Forward armoured control tower with 7M secondary armament rangefinder mounted on top. The control tower has curved walls presumably to deflect incoming rounds but this does make it difficult to make. I made mine using a foam former which is easy to shape then bonding 0.25mm styrene sheet to it. Hopefully the blue interior of the control tower will not be a an issue after air brushing

Happy New Year everybody. Robin

[Paul FreshneyParticipant @paulfreshney24971]

Robin

That's fantastically good workmanship and your model should be a show-stopper when complete.

Congratulations also on your award for your miniature waterline model (not of Graf Spee!) at the recent MEX at Sandown Park.

Happy New Year to you and Heather as well.

Paul Freshney

Editor of MB

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Hi Paul

Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated from a master modeller such as yourself. This model has been the most challenging I have attempted so far and is a long way from completion. Anyway one can only do one's best.

Happy New Year to yourself and Rose.

Regards

Robin

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Recent work has been on the main tower. I have also been working on other fittings in parallel whilst waiting for glue to dry etc.

Had to do some air brushing on sub decks before the next sub deck was built.

Hand rails around the tower are of 0.35mm diameter tinned copper wire. The pipe work uses 0.45mm diameter nickel silver rod from Albion Alloys (very nice material). The ladders on the tower are soldered 0.35mm tinned copper wire for the uprights and 0.2mm dia tinned copper wire for the rungs.

Following photos are of the tower more or less complete apart from guns, search light, small reange finders etc. The horizontal spars are of small brass tubes from Albion Alloys of 1.1 and 1.3 mm diameter.

Edited By Robin Lee on 24/02/2014 11:22:11

Edited By Robin Lee on 24/02/2014 11:24:03

[Andy HustlerParticipant @andyhustler32076]

After seeing all your work has given me fresh " speed ???" to battle my trumpter bismark so hey ho off we go !!!!!

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

I am glad you have been inspired Andy, enjoy your Bismarck build.

Robin

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

More progress on AGS. Since completing the main tower I have turned my attention onto the funnel. I had planned to use the Fleetscale fittings of the funnel including the funnel cap and the searchlight platform. After some consideration I have used just the funnel tube itself. It was usable as it was received in fact very accurately moulded but I did use some filler to straighten up one side but as I said could have used it without modification. A tricky aspect of the platform is that the designers in their wisdom decided to have flared railings on it rather than vertical, presumably to enable the area of the platform itself to be smaller? Anyway a bit of a sod to make. The funnel is covered with horizontal rails as was the tower, presumably to facilitate maintenance. The funnel has a strip mast mounted on it. I have made this from very thin walled brass tube from Albion Alloys, first class materials. I have made the funnel cap with a removable panel so that when sailing it can be removed so that the "smoke" from the mist generator can exit easily.

Flared railings being made on a jig. The small block care old printer type which were used as a height gauge for soldering, in this instance the middle of three rails.

Railings and ladders. From 0.2mm and 0.35mm diameter tinned copper wire.

Funnel cap added.

Funnel cap with removable panel. Tubes are 12mm diameter styrene.

Completed funnel with mast. Things that need to be added are 4 searchlights and 2 single 20mm AA guns plus a small signal lamp on the small platform under the rear of the main platform.

[David WooleyParticipant @davidwooley82563]

Hi Robin just picked up on your Graf Spee build, excellent work especially around that armoured tower .

Dave Wooley

[Gareth JonesParticipant @garethjones79649]

Hi Robin,

I just love your beautifully crisp detailed work. I look forward to seeing the finished article. I wish my models were as neatly finished.

Gareth

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Hi Dave and Gareth, thank you for your comments. The Graf Spee is progressing steadily but slowly. I still need another winter to finish it. My next big challenge is the ship's boats. The designed fit is 8 boats but you can cheat by building it as at the Battle of the River Plate where it had only 5 boats remaining but then to be authentic it would need a camouflage paint job which I am avoiding so my model is just approprate for the outbreak of WW2 with no camouflage but with the seaplane recovery boom ditched (literally). The boats. Quaycraft do a reasonable set of cast resin versions which I guess would be plan B but I would like to try the traditional moulding from polysheet method as described by Brian KIng but am a bit wary of the hands in boiling water bit! Any suggestions would be welcome.

Robin

[David WooleyParticipant @davidwooley82563]

Hi Robin I have found Jelutong a pattern makers timber superb for making ships boats of any type either as a one off or as a plug for repeated moulding . I have recently completed two Halmatic Pacific 24 RIBs using this timber giving an excellent surface for painting as the grain is very fine and you can create angles such a knuckles , undercuts and sharp stems.

Dave

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Robin
I can endorse what Dave W says about using Jelutong. Once you've created one hull why not try your own hand at resin casting? There are a couple of companies who advertise the necessary kit and materials in MB.
Dave M

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

I have never used jelutong – how does it compare to Lime which I have used quite a lot?

Robin

Edited By Robin Lee on 18/04/2014 12:09:34

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Chalk and cheese, Robin. Jelutong has virtually no grain and carves like soap. You can take a paring so thin that you could read a newspaper through it. That's why it was the pattern maker's preferred wood for hundreds of years until very special (and expensive) high-density foam materials came along more recently. Needless to say not every timber merchant stocks it and it's not cheap, but fortunately EMA Models sell it here **LINK**

Dave M

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Thanks Dave, I shall have to get some Jelutong and give it a try.

Robin

[Robin LeeParticipant @robinlee31938]

Hi all. Not done a great deal on Adm Graf Spee since last post. I have been building the ship's boats. The Fleetscale fixture packs do not include boats and a look at the commercial ones available at this scale was not promising. Very expensive. As a d.i.y. approach I have used styrene for the construction based on a vacuum formed hull. U-tube has many examples of how to approach Vacuum forming using just a domestic vacuum cleaner so I used the methods demonstrated. The AGS as built had quit a fleet of various boat types but by the time it was at the River Plate quite a few had been removed. I decided to minimise the number of boats to be built and have settled for 8. A 11 metre Admiral's gig, two 11 metre launches, three 9.5 metre launches and two 8.5 metre cutters. At 128:1 the largest boat measures about 3.4 inches long. For the vacuum moulding I tried using 0.5 mm thick styrene sheets but these become too thin on the mould. I settled for 0.75mm thick sheet and this thins out to about 0.5mm thick which I is useable. If trying to make larger hulls for say 1:96 1mm plastic would be necessary but not sure that a domestic vacuum cleaner would be adequate. The boat plugs are from balsa. Ideally a harder wood should be used as all the slight indents due to finger nails etc that the balsa picks up are on the moulding of course so filling is required. On the other had the use of balsa does mean the plugs can be produced quickly. Four different plugs required for AGS's boats. The plugs need to be significantly deeper than the actual boats so the plastic bend at the bottom of the moulding can be cut away. The plug also needs to have tapering sides (conveniently similar to a real boat) so that when cool the plastic can be released from the plug like a jelly mould. The boats are finished with 0.5mm thick styrene. All this has been very time consuming but I am pleased with the results. On to the catapult and aircraft next.

[Paul FreshneyParticipant @paulfreshney24971]

Robin

Absolutely fantastic in 1:128 scale!

How did you make the steering wheel, ventilators and oars?

Woe betide Heather if you dropped one on the floor when she was hoovering, but there again perhaps she can't since you have cannibilised the vacuum cleaner!

Paul.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Robin. excellent work. One day I must get round to trying this technique. Your little moulding box is very neat.

Ashley. Nb this method has just become more difficult now with the EU ban on more powerful vacuum cleaners!

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