DKM Wiesbaden: Kriegsmarine escort carrier

[Spey_Phantom]

okay, its been a while, but i thinkim gonna have a go at this group build.
im gonna attempt at making a bit of a risky project, namely a German Kriegsmarine escort carrier, the DKM Alexander von Monts.
scale will be 1/144.

im using the 1/700 Graf Zeppelin and recently aquired techincal drawings as a basis for this build.
its airwing will consist out of Ju-87C torpedo bombers and either Bf109T or Fw190T fightersbombers.

as a hull, im going to use a hull from a scrapped 1/350 Bismark i bought at a rumage sale many years ago (i never throw away scrapped ship/boat hulls), the rest of the ship will be scratchbuild. airwing will be 1 or 2 Ju-87's and 3 Fw190 or Bf109's from Revell (could do a combination, pending how many i have left in the stash).

[Spey_Phantom]

update:

research is in progress, most of the drawings on the blueprint are 1/50, 1/100 and 1/400, so i will have to rescale most of it to 1/144 on order to make them fit. then i will see what parts will be added to the new ship and wich ones not.

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

rough work on the deck has begun, first off, the 1/350 ex-Bismark hull (that previously was a 1/144 frigate) was sanded down, the edges were powersanded with the multitool and work has started on raising the deck height.

i might check the storage bins for some personel figurines for the flightdeck.

here's a pic of the works now, the second pick it the planned flightdeck with 3 earlier built Bf109E's and a Ju-87. the airwing for the carrier will be newbuilt (kits can be seen in second pic).

[zenrat]

Lot of plastic there man.  I'm gonna get shares in Evergreen.

[Caveman]

That's not a whole lotta deck! Escort carrier pilots had some serious stones!

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

with the partial lockdown in place, i found some time to get some more work done on the carrier.
the deck has been fitted on the heightened lower deck and the deck has been somewhat shaped, to prevent it to look like a regular ractangle deck. shortly after these pictures were taken, i started on the framework on the bottom.

next on the list is more bottom framing and detailing, then comes the hard part, the island structure and smokestack.

[NARSES2]

She's coming along Nils 

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

framework was done last sunday, took long enough but at least i got rid of the basic sheet look.
added some extra beams on the front and back of the deck for extra strengthening.

since im now going to be stuck at home due to my workplace shutting down due to corona, im gonna try to get some work done on it over the next few days/weeks.

here's a pic of the framework on the bottom 
used 2mm thick square rod (bought cheaply on aliexpress long before the outbreak).
next up on the hull is some PSR work to smoothen out the gaps.

[Old Wombat]

 

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

work has begun on the island superstructure, first started with building the basic layout and dry-fitting 







then i started to add some detail, more to follow, including system fitting 

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

basic airbrushwork has been done, the bottom hull is mostly a basecoat, the deck color seems okay, she is starting to look like a carrier right now. i can now start on scratching and adding the systems to the island structure. the bottom hull needs more painting, but i ran into some problems during the painting, including airbrush blockage (thats what i get when spraypainting matt enamels).

all in all, this is how it looks like now:







and here's a dryfit of the structure and deck as it is now 

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

today, i started the last part of the airbrush phase, namely the red on the bottom, the rest will be handbrushed.

started with the masking....



and ended up looking like this, not too bad 

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

over the last few days, little by little progress was made.
the black line has been added to the hull, pretty much completing the painting of the parts below the deck.

red and white lines have been added to the deck, followed by the white circle decals and swastika's on the front and aft of the deck.

the island superstructure is now mostly completed, next up is rigging of the radio and antenna wires.

next to do is a fine layer of humbrol clear to the bottom deck to even everything out, then its time to seal in the deck paints.
after that, its drilling the holes for the arrestor wires, building the airwing and repainting N-scale figurines to add personel to the ship.

back history will be written when the build is finished, wich should be soon.
also, im changing its name from DKM Alexander Von Monts, to DKM Wiesbaden.

picture time:

[Spey_Phantom]

Update:

today's progress was HELL 

after drilling holes for- and fitting the arrestor wires, and spraying a coat of clear on the hull (wich went fine) i started on wiring the antenna's on the island structure.
at first everything went okay, and after about a hour and a half, i was finished.

then i thought i would put a coat of clear on the island to even everything out, and thats when the sh*t hits the fan 
during the spraying, the top mast broke off and pulled the rear mast along with it 

after spending almost an hour in stress and anger (and a lot of cursing) to fix it with 1-second glue, nothing worked and it kept breaking off. since i was already on the verge of suicide, i decided to redesign the top end and that seemed to fix the problem. (last pic).

anyway, the broken parts were fixed and repainted and the islandstructure has been securly glued onto the deck. with the exception of liferafts and defensive .50cal machine guns, the ship itsself is finished. next phase, the latter, the crews and the airwing...

[PR19_Kit]

These things are sent to try us, or so my grandmother said anyway...................