@Russele Thanks, same to you 
1 Like
Merry Christmas to all.
I was not lazy over the holidays, but progress was a bit slow withsanding, puttying, sanding… This is the result up to now
I increased the bilge keels, turned around the aft anchor pocket, added the degaussing cable and modified the bow with a raked stem, much more flare and larger bulbous forefoot. I am quite happy that I used brass form PE for the stem. Its really razorsharp.
Some minor repairs, then I can start painting underwater.
Cheers
Tom
7 Likes
Over the holidays I finally got some paint on.
I decided for the 3 color scheme during “Operation Wunderland”, Scheer’s cruise into the Arctic. This operation was not a great success, because Scheer did not find the expected russian convoys and just sank a small icebreaker. To achieve at least something Scheer then bombarded Port Dickson, but broke off the attack after return fire from some army guns.
All in all not a great military success, but a great adventure to “boldly go where no German warship has been before” 
I decided to do the weathering (mainly the underwater hull and waterline) now to avoid damage later. Underwater i used different reds, some orange and green and white. In the arctic waters there would have have been not too much growth, but the antifouling will be for sure have aged and got lighter afrom the original red brown as Scheer has not docked for a while. The waterline got some paint damage and rust from contact with ice.
Normally the waterline in German ships should be a dark gray (abt RAL 7016) but in this case the dark gray of the camouflage was darker than the waterline, which is not supported by the few photos. So I used a much darker gray this time.
Finally I repainted the darker camouflage areas with different gray, too as the contrast between the grays looked not right and there was a green tinge.
This looked more like the photos. I temporarily added the lower superstructure to get the camouflage areas aligned better.
About the colors: Unfortunately i could not get the WEM colors here (Sovereign does not deliver directly and their German agent is out of stock), so I tried to find Gunze equivalents.
For the standard Kriegsmarine peace colors there are RAL equivalents.(I got actually mixed something in a Do-it-yourself market) But as the navy colors are older than the RAL system it is just an approximation. The camouflage colors are not specified at all.
I used an equivalent of the standard hull color, a dark gray similar to the dark grays in the Baltic
Camouflage (like Bismarck) and an off- white (Schnellbootweiß) because these paints were probably easieast available
So prove me wrong
Next will be a lot of small items on the main deck before i can install the wooden deck.
Stay tuned
Cheers
Tom
6 Likes
Moving along nicely, Tom! 
Excuse me for asking, but gluing the deck and some part of the deck house early on to the hull isnt that going to make painting the deck difficult ? I dont understand this approach.
Ben
@carves: I glued the deck on to make the hull more rigid. During all the sanding and puttying there were frequently seams opening in the flexible plastic. For painting it is not a problem in this case as I am using a wooden deck. The superstructure is not glued,on. I just put it on to achieve continuity of the camouflage. I will have to build the superstructure in layers here especially to take care of the conversions of the Scheer.
Cheers
Tom
1 Like
Cool. Thanks for the explanation
Finally an update. I was working a bit on the weekends on Scheer, but not too much to show for it
Some tiny ladders for the boat booms. Very Fire let you not drill a lot of small holes for the separete stepirons but have complete part which can be bend.To hide that a bit I cut parallel grooves in the hull in which I glued the ladders
I testfitted the wooden deck. Fits quite well except the aft part. Nothing what a scissor cannot solve.
In the foredeck you can see how much I widened the hull to get the shape right. This is not a real problem as it will be mostly hidden by the railing. Additionally the waterway at the side of the deck is normally not planked but left in steel and painted dark in the German Navy. I actually consider cutting all decks a bit smaller to show the dark stripe.
The deck is very nice but seems a bit light colored. It should be Teak which is quite dark when wet and greyish when untreated. Maybe I have to stain it a bit.
I fixed the model on a stand and on a basplate temporarily. So I avoid touching the tiny stepirons and booms.
More soon
Cheers
Tom
4 Likes
Finally an update.
In the moment I only manage a few hours of modeling at weekends.
The deck is a bit darker now with a mix of grey and future and is a bit protected against glue and paint. I actually hate that Very Fire split the deck at the same spot like Trumpeter just to save box size. How should you hide this.
The tower bridge looks actually very nice in plastic. Very Fire gives you brass replacements which I used but it does not improve the look in my point of view.
Scheer had her bridge structure rearranged during her refit in 1939/40 and the upper part replaced by a strong mast with platforms. I use a piece of bamboo (from a brush) here.
As you maybe can see iIreplaced the ladders on the hull by single stepirons involving drilling a lot of tiny (0.3 mm) holes. The ladders were just too prominent.
Scheer got a very prominent funnel cap later in the war. Looks simple but it was not. I finally did it 3 times
I wanted to bend thin plastic sheet into shape and glue it on the funnel cap. After a lot of try and error I found that it must be kind of diamond shape with rounded edges.
I than laminated more sheets of thin plastic sheets inside to give it a bit more strength because the funnel cap has some slots in the forward part. Then i discovered that the cap is to wide 
.
So 2 more rounds.
Finally the look I wanted
To compare the existing parts with my (not so good) drawings I installed the plastic bridge wings and platforms at the tower mast. Looks actually good. Only the base of the direction finder is quite wrong (also for Graf Spee)
I then sanded off the nice details and added the brass parts for the bridge. The bridgewings are nice, but fiddly but the small triangles of the tower mast are seperate and fit not very well. Why they not make the thing in one part?
Fortunately you cannot see much of it because of all the platforms. If I would do it again i would keep the plastic and just replace the platforms.
VF have forgotten the deck in front of the tower bridge. It should be either wood or linoleum (like the boat deck around the funnel. As I build Scheer later in the war I will probably just paint it dark. Linoleum removed due to fire hazard 
As you can see I use thicker material (bamboo too) for the mast. Looks better.
I have the feeling i do everything 2 or 3 times in the moment. A lot of try and error. The Very fire instructions are very clear printed in color but follow no sequence at all. So its a lot of testfitting and later probably repainting. And then I have to compare it wth my reference to do the conversions from Graf Spee to Scheer. There are not many pictures of her later in the war and not many show details.
Even the AA outfitting at a certain stage is not clear. its just “up to 32 2 cm”
Enough whining.
More later
Cheers
Tom
5 Likes
Heller produced all three ships albeit with accuracy problems. The “Lutzow” and “Scheer” have mishappen bows and forecastles, while the “Graf Spee” includes an accurate hull and deck. Therefore, I have begun a project to convert the “Lutzow” into the “Deutschland” using the Spee hull and the Artwox wooden decks (I had the decks of all three manufactured by them). Granted, these models are in 1/400; I would rather have them in 1/350. If Trumpeter manufactures all three, I will scrap my project and get them.
Yours looks great so far!
Bill
@Bill. That sounds like a "fun"project too. I was considering Lützow because there are plans readily available. But except the bridge the position of the funnel and the forward 15 cm is different and I would not be able to use any of the existing PE except rails. And Schee looks more attractive to me .
BTW I like the Heller Models. I still have a Scharnhorst, which is more than 40 years old but looks not to bad. In their time they were really good kits.
Cheers
Tom
The Admiral is coming along very nicely, Tom 
Me too. Heller is the only manufacturer that has stepped up to the plate regarding these ships.
Don’t forget that Italeri released these ships in 1/720, including them in their other guises. In other words, Deutschland was also released as Lutzow, Scheer was released in her original guise and her converted appearance. Graf Spee was released in her “as sunk” guise. They are also excellent kits.
I also love the Italeri kits. They are quite easily detailed, but they usually need some reshaping. But, I have seen many outstanding models built from them.
Very short update today:
All plattforms on the foremast are installed and in the right height. It was not easy to find the correct arrangement for the period I wanted to show. It seems they were frequently revised.
It looks a bit rough, but I wanted to have the shapes right before I start with bulwarks and details.
The rest of the changes are easy to handle:
- funnel platform with different shape mast slightly more aft
- only 1 crane with a different jib and a derrick on the stb side
- pedestal for lower direction finder round
- several platforms for added AA
More soon!
Cheers
Tom
5 Likes
I am very slow making in making headway with this build. Too much real life interfering. 
However I managed to install the nice PE at the superstructure
For some reason the VF set includes a brassdeck for the superstructure, but omitted the wooden deck behind the armoured control tower (which is clearly shown in the photos in the instruction). As this deck anyway have to be revised due to a slightly different dechouls carrying the lower director it is not a big problem.
I made the bulwarks for the various bridge platforms from thin styrene with the help of glue and thinner.
My Nitro thinner (lacquer thinner?) is like very thin glue and makes the plastic soft.
This is how it looks with a first layer of paint (mainly to get the borders of the white top right)
Btw the wooden decks are much darker now. I got them stained with artist paint (umbra). Still not 100% the color of teak, but much more realistic.
Next I will detail more the bridge platform with all the available PE and than look for the main mast and funnel arrangement, which is a bit different on Scheer. Hope to get something done this weekend.
Cheers
Tom
2 Likes
Hey Tom! It sounds like you are chasing down the same glacier as @JJ1973 Jan and I.
Don’t take any offence at that-it’s just a running joke that we share about how real life takes us away from progressing our builds as much as we would like
Your work on the Admiral is coming along really nicely though 
Tom,
Don’t know how I missed this build up until now, but your build is looking wonderful. To do a conversion with minimal plans to assist is some under taking.
Mark 
I mean the Heller kits, not Italeri! Oops!
Bill
@Russel: I have the same problem like Jan. I can work only a few hours on the weekend at home, because most of the week I stay in a different city. Maybe I have to move my shipyard to get at least some work done at the evenings during the week.
@Mark: The sources are not as good as I thought before. There is said to be a very good plan in 1:100, but it is not available anymore. The available plans for the class are mainly for Deutschland/Lützow. Most photos are from Graf Spee in Montevideo. As Admiral Scheer was converted during the war there are not many clear pics showing details. So its a lot of try and error and comparing with the pictures I have. The small sketches e.g. for the camouflage all differ in details. Even large models differ in details. So at the end its a lot of educated guesswork
Cheers
Tom