Graf Zeppelin

[beowulf]

improvise, adapt, overcome, survive!

well....done some improvising 

had no suitable tape so i cut some 1.5 mm strips from some frisket and tried that..........not as small or neat as i would have liked but it will have to do

the flat top has been done in darker grey, kleared ready for a wash to try and bring out the details

[beowulf]

slow progress..............came to add the yellow stripes on the flat top and they disolved before my eyes!  .............so it going to get done without them  ......flat top on hull, island on flat top............i decided to give all the port holes a wash to try and make them stand out a little,......bit mind numbing dotting about 300 tiny portholes 

[scooter]

Looking good.  A buddy of mine built a mask for the out of bounds markings on angle deck carriers out of strip balsa.  You might be able to do something similar.  Plus it looks a little more realistic.

[beowulf]

i might try to do something like that....but then again i might be CBA  ..........anyway, the real one was never finished so who knows if it was ever going to get the stripes on the deck?  ...ive done a little research and lot of people do the kit with 'wooden' decks......dont think that would have been right, the USN carriers had wooden decks but were painted, i think the Kreigmarine would have done the same...........the more ive been doing this the more i have been thinking of a KriegMarine '46 type one  ..............get some better aircraft, upgrade the ship with some 'radar' and better guns.............give it a 'dazzle' type camo like the Bismark or Tirpitz had at times

[Pablo1965]

get some better aircraft, upgrade the ship with some 'radar' and better guns.............give it a 'dazzle' type camo like the Bismark or Tirpitz had at times

It will be great,  I follow closely this thread.

[dumaniac]

yes - me too

[beowulf]

well...its done 

things i learnt from this.....................

a reinforced respect for guys who habitually do this stuff...............the scale was daunting to me.....i sometimes struggle with 1/72 cos of chubby finger syndrome 

trying to paint a Me109 or Stuka with a 10mm wingspan aint easy!!!!!!! 

and...............it was a lot of fun to do something completely different to what i normally do.....thoroughly enjoyed doing this


bad points................the decals were rubbish!  ...the ones that were supposed to go on the flight deck dissolved..................so did the 'flags'............when i get some ink for my printer i might have a go at making some for it to finish it off

excuse the pics on a slant.........only way i could get it all in the frame and not be too far away from it 

[sequoiaranger]

Nice work beowulf! The GZ is my favorite German ship, and you have done a nice job of it!

Just one thing I noticed that maybe you could change without much effort--the "slanted pole" thingy is supposed to start alongside the funnel by the searchlight--there is a support extending from the rear of the funnel (with another searchlight) to help hold it up. Maybe the instruction sheet didn't show this properly. The illustration below is from a FABULOUS book by Siegfried Breyer:

[Leading Observer]

I have never understood why the Germans still planned on using the Me-109 as a carrier fighter even after the advent of the FW-190. The wide track of the undercarriage of the the 190 would have been much better suited to deck landings.

[scooter]

I have never understood why the Germans still planned on using the Me-109 as a carrier fighter even after the advent of the FW-190. The wide track of the undercarriage of the the 190 would have been much better suited to deck landings.

As would the radial BMWs, less weight (no glycol) and minimal complexity to the cooling system.

[Spey_Phantom]

looks great, i like it  

but 1/700 it a fiddly for me, i think i'll wait t'ill Lindberg (eventually) releases they're 1/183 version  
hats off to you for building at a scale that small.

[beowulf]

thanks guys

as for that pole thingy.......i checked the instructions and i am wrong  ........slip of the brain cell i think,i was doing a lot of the fiddly stuff like that very very early one morning when i couldnt sleep,  however the hole to locate it that should have been there wasnt, and even if it was it wouldnt looked like that cgi pic  ....................im going to leave it like it is cos i cba to alter it

[sequoiaranger]

Simple snip-and-move. Nick the stack searchlight platform and attach!

[dumaniac]

yes - it does look good = but as a suffered of fat finger and failing eye-sight - I might hold out for the larger scale as well

[NARSES2]

Nice build