Airfix 1/72 scale "E" boat.

[GazzaS]

HI everyone,

     Got in the mood to do a bit today.  So, I started populating the upper deck. 

Instead of endless masking or sloppy hand painting, I decided to do what I have heard the pros do:  Paint it all nice, weather it, and then glue it on.  So I put a bunch of those pieces on a board with blutack, and they await painting.

 

The engine deck, and the after deck...   with the not-quite-complete torpedoes.  I've looked at the limited number of photos available...   and not one engine deck looks like this...  C'est la vie...

These torpedo fins...  No room to sand...

Bah...   more touch up required.

 

The business ends...

 

 

 

 

[DocRob]

Shaping up nicely Gary. Accuracy might be an issue with the kit, but hey, it's vintage, either you accept it as it is or roll up the sleeves. I would go with option #1, I think .

Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

Looking good Gaz, the fish are a thousand times better. I was thinking the same on the Elco, the deck components will have to be finished and then applied to the deck, fingers crossed……

[KevinM]

Hey Gary looking good as usual and atleast for an older kit you got the correct double row of blades for the torpedoes.One can surely tell that this was the early model with that layout.

[Martinnfb]

Amazing work on torpedos. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Gary, looks great. 

I think those of us building boats are all in the same boat, uh, situation and will need to paint and then attach stuff. 

Me, I'm trying to figure out how to paint the cabin interior when there's stuff that gets attached to the windows including their frames. 

[GazzaS]

3 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Gary, looks great. 

I think those of us building boats are all in the same boat, uh, situation and will need to paint and then attach stuff. 

Me, I'm trying to figure out how to paint the cabin interior when there's stuff that gets attached to the windows including their frames. 

I just painted the interior of mine black...   Due to the scale and complete lack of furnishings.  I'm not using any clear plastic.  Once painting and weathering is done I'm gambling that micro Crystal Clear will fullfill all of my glass needs.

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Completely agree on the interior - black is the way to go as there is so very little details to be seen.

I'm with Rob, just do what you can do without knocking yourself out. In the end, your E Boat is going to looking fantastic. 

[GazzaS]

I've dropped my poor torpedoes repeatedly.  I fear another drop will result in a rebuild.  I painted them today.

  The

Despite the warlike artwork printed on the box by Airfix, this boat is in a prewar configuration.    The Reichsadler is still on the upper hull, the mast is still in place, and the armament hasn't been augmented.  It would be a major research work to find the proper mountings for her wartime outfit.

So, due to it's prewar appearance, I went with practice torpedoes.  But they didn't turn out as well as hoped.  No masking material I have would hand the curves of the torpedo head.  Don't look too close.

As usual the red and white have been de-saturated with gray.  I'm not sure about the sparkly paint,  I will add some pencil shine once a matte coat is down all over the  boat.

 

I learned a new form of masochism...   Trying to mask low-height deck details.  Honestly...  If I was gonna design a maritime model kit, all deck details would be added on later.

I did some clean-up of the torpedo tubes this week, but still have a long way to go on them.

 

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Torpedoes look mighty good and the paint work is very well done. Yup masking small molded on parts with little relief is a tough act for sure and agree completely that these parts should have been molded separately. Of course, more parts, the kit cost would go up but a better model will surely be the result.

 

[GazzaS]

On 2/17/2023 at 11:18 PM, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Torpedoes look mighty good and the paint work is very well done. Yup masking small molded on parts with little relief is a tough act for sure and agree completely that these parts should have been molded separately. Of course, more parts, the kit cost would go up but a better model will surely be the result.

 

Thank you, Peter!  The only thing I hate more than poor masking is poor hand painting.  And I do both.

 

Anyway...   update time.  I'm on a long weekend, so I've been nose to the grindstone on the upper works, mostly.

Try as I might, I couldn't find a single photo of how the torpedoes were restrained.  On most models, they seem to be held in place by friction. 

In the photo below, you can see that the torpedo is attached to some trolley by two straps or chains.

And there are two rails that lead to the torpedo tubes...  but none of these are modeled on any kit I have seen.  If those rails aren't there...   and if there is no crane, it means the guys have to carry them to the tubes...   and that just ain't hap'nin.

Moving on...

These salmon colored patches....    In the Kaiserliche Marine days, a supposedly peach colored linoleum was use on the upper decks of the Kaiser's ships.  This linoleum was held down by brass strips.  The Japanese were still using linoleum in WWII.  Brown linoleum. 

I have seen the Kaiser's linoleum depicted quite brightly.  But I reckon once I hit it with a brown wash, it'll suit my needs for colors that aren't too bright for scale.

You'll also notice that the after deck is empty.  The kit depth charge rails are just too thick and too tall to be real.  And the depth charges...  They look more like earth-mover tires.  So I'm leaving a minimum of deck furnishings.

 

The barrel of the 20mm AA gun was bent in two places.  I replaced with with some fine brass tube.  It doesn't look as goods as what might be made by Master...   but it will do.

All of these parts are just dry fitted by the way.  I've already put some black and white oils on a cardboard pallet for tomorrow.  I will tell you something...   unless you are depicting rust, wood, or linoleum, there is no good reason to use brown, yellow, or red to weather your gray warship.  It just looks wrong...   So, I'll have to stick with grays.  I've already done some subtle color modulation in the deck and hull.

 

Finally, our S-boat has a name.  S-Boote 10.

It's an easy mask, not a decal.  There must have been a lot of different directives on hull markings.  I've seen black.  White.  None at all.   ...

 

Anyway...   that's it for today. 

 

Happy modelling!

 

[DocRob]

Nice progress Gary, the deck starts to look busy. I like the color dots of the torpedoes, but how they were transported into the tubes, I have no idea, but carrying, I can't imagine. Sailors moving on the deck like drunk in a rough sea, carrying a ton of explosives in their midth, I can't see that. 
The torpedos have to be lashed somehow to the racks, you don't want to loose one or have it rolling on the deck.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Nice progress for sure, dealing with the smaller parts and assemblies. Fascinated as well as to how the torpedoes were moved once on board, as there just isn't any hints of how the crew could lift and move such heavy armament at sea. Just also seems so careless on Airfix's part to pack the barrel of the 20mm AA gun, so it was bent to the point of needing to be replaced.

Looking forward to the beginnings o the oil weathering as the next step.

I am still a bit confused as to what the actual purpose of the Kaiser's linoleum is, since it seems to be a material that would be slippery when wet and wear down with a lot of walking on it.

Nice clean masking on the '10' - looks good.

[GazzaS]

11 hours ago, DocRob said:

Nice progress Gary, the deck starts to look busy. I like the color dots of the torpedoes, but how they were transported into the tubes, I have no idea, but carrying, I can't imagine. Sailors moving on the deck like drunk in a rough sea, carrying a ton of explosives in their midth, I can't see that. 
The torpedos have to be lashed somehow to the racks, you don't want to loose one or have it rolling on the deck.

Cheers Rob

Thank you, Rob.  I have toyed with the idea of laying rails on the deck.  But unfortunately, one of the raised, linoleum patches is in the way...   and I don't want to have to remove it.  So it may just be another case of accepting the model for what it is.  I hate it when you discover a possible improvement, only to have it negated by your state of progress.

[GazzaS]

8 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Nice progress for sure, dealing with the smaller parts and assemblies. Fascinated as well as to how the torpedoes were moved once on board, as there just isn't any hints of how the crew could lift and move such heavy armament at sea. Just also seems so careless on Airfix's part to pack the barrel of the 20mm AA gun, so it was bent to the point of needing to be replaced.

Looking forward to the beginnings o the oil weathering as the next step.

I am still a bit confused as to what the actual purpose of the Kaiser's linoleum is, since it seems to be a material that would be slippery when wet and wear down with a lot of walking on it.

Nice clean masking on the '10' - looks good.

Thank you, Peter.  The truth is that everybody used linoleum.  Lighter than wood, more durable than paint on steel...   remember, mostly it was on the upper works...   so it didn't get wet except in rain.  When I say Kaiser's linoleum...  I was just trying to connect the WWI past to this pre-WWII boat.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Gaz, appreciate the explanation. 

 

[GazzaS]

Welcome everyone,to another Reader's Digest Senior Edition of my update.

Things haven't changed much since last update.  I glued the torpedo tubes in place, which turned out to be a nightmare.  The main deck has a gentle turtle-back which was not the same curvature as the lower edge of the torpedo bulkhead.  In making it so that it fit better, it also lowered the height of the torpedo tubes themselves which necessitated some heavy reshaping of the mounting brackets.  I'm not happy with the final result.  But if you don't look too closely, you won't notice.  There are also other parts affected by the height change, but since they aren't even painted, we'll let that pass.

I did a dark gray pin wash at the end of  last weekend.  Friday night I used white acrylic paint to lighten all of the bolt and rivet heads.  Some stand out a little too much...   but I can live with it. 

And last night, spent a lot of time lightening the gray of the upper works with white oils, thinned a little, and tinted with the tiniest amount of blue.  Why a hint of blue, you ask...   Well, I have found in the past that plain white seems to look wrong once dried.  So I always add something.  But never use brown over gray...  it looks bad.

Mainly I used a dry brush to blend it into the gray, hopefully not obliterating any of the pinwash.  The same treatment was given to the hull.

There are still plenty of parts to do.  I won't be weathering this one very heavily.  It's a prewar boat, and since they lived tied to tender vessel...  and the hulls were wooden...  there's no need to rust it up.

I still have to make a 3d brass part for the boat.  All Kriegsmarine ships prewar carried one or more semi-3D brass Reich Eagles.  Destroyers carried it over the bridge.  Capital ships carried it on the stern.  Early S-boats carried one on either side of the bridge on the torpedo bulkhead.  I'm going to try repousse to make it work.  Otherwise I may have to make a plastic alternative.  And I'd much rather have brass.

Anyway...   enough typing, here are some current photos.

 

 

[Peterpools]

Gaz

Outstanding work and a terrific update. Loads of work and all looks so good. To the untrained, ship modeler eye, everything looks perfect and what small gaps I can see, surely appear to have been on the actual "E" boat.

Going to try your method of oil washes and with white, add a touch of blue to blend in the effect even better - thanks for the tip Gaz.

 

 

[DocRob]

What I like about these early S-boats is, they still carry some sporting yacht genes. You are close to the finish now, and I'm a bit jealous, not having participated the GB with my S-38, due to having lost the PE and other brass parts, still a miracle to me.

Cheers Rob

[GazzaS]

4 hours ago, DocRob said:

What I like about these early S-boats is, they still carry some sporting yacht genes. You are close to the finish now, and I'm a bit jealous, not having participated the GB with my S-38, due to having lost the PE and other brass parts, still a miracle to me.

Cheers Rob

I wanted this kit so badly when I was young.  Looking back at the build so far, I wish I had replaced any vertical tube-shaped structure with metal.   Because cleanup has been a bit of work, and often a failure to keep them round...  if they were round to begin with.  I'm sure there is a long OOP dress up kit for it out there in somebody's attic.  There are a lot of KM models I would like to visit.  Many have never been modelled and a few, have been done by...  let's call them "companies known for a low standard of accuracy".

 

But I am happy to be visiting this kit now.  I saw some build photos of one in this class in 1/35 scale with a more late-war fitting.  That would have been fun to do.

[GazzaS]

8 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Outstanding work and a terrific update. Loads of work and all looks so good. To the untrained, ship modeler eye, everything looks perfect and what small gaps I can see, surely appear to have been on the actual "E" boat.

Going to try your method of oil washes and with white, add a touch of blue to blend in the effect even better - thanks for the tip Gaz.

 

 

Thank you, Peter.  I only used blue in this case because I didn't think it would wreck the gray.  You might be able to use other colors in other circumstances.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Gaz, a technique I'm planning on using a bit not to far down the road.

 

[CANicoll]

Gary,  Really looking good and appreciate the tip - adding some blue!  Never would have thought of that so definitely, like Peter, will be giving that a try.  I hear you on the 'companies known for a low standard of accuracy".  Definitely makes the building more difficult and less enjoyable.  She's looking really good, however!  A very interesting subject and one I would love to try and build sometime.

Chris

[Bomber_County]

Looking amazing Gaz, you’d love the Italeri 35th boats. There is quite a lot of cleanup but I think Griffon do a PE kit for one of the E series……….

 

[GazzaS]

9 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Gary,  Really looking good and appreciate the tip - adding some blue!  Never would have thought of that so definitely, like Peter, will be giving that a try.  I hear you on the 'companies known for a low standard of accuracy".  Definitely makes the building more difficult and less enjoyable.  She's looking really good, however!  A very interesting subject and one I would love to try and build sometime.

Chris

Thank you.  Again, blue is not necessarily the only color you could use.  It would depend on the rest of the color on the subject.   Heller makes a few kits in the oddball 1/400 scale that I have considered.  But I can imagine needing to replace so much of the upperworks that it makes the task seem daunting.  Then there is procuring railings for the scale...  I don;t know if anyone makes them.  I might as well build a boat from scratch, tbh.