Any progress is good progress, my friend, and good for the soul! 
Enjoy Easter and the break 
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great progress
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Nice work on the deck fittings Jan,
Small progress is way better than no progress.
Cheers
Si
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Great work Jan!! I haven’t been on this site since they changed it and now catching up on all the builds. Looking forward to following this build
Mike
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Gentlemen,
thank you all for your kind comments, that helps keeping motivation high!
Anyway, as I feared, long working hours and no time for modeling during the week - easter at home with family, but without shipyard. Next update should be in 10 days or so…
Thank you so much and cheers
Jan
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Dear all,
I managed to find some bench time this weekend and can present an update. Small, but progress!
First a little scratch building, the platforms and inclined ladders that are different from Scharnhorst.
Working in this area, the 28 cm turret BRUNO becomes important, so I spent some time with the big guns. I bought turrets from Shapeways, since I need all three turrets with rangefinders; the kit only has two, which is correct for Scharnhorst 1943, but not Gneisenau 1941.
The printed turrets will require some modifications to the kit’s parts to fit -
While on first glance the printed one looks great with a lot detail, after I sprayed it with some remaining grey I had left in the gun, however, it reveals a nasty surface. And I even invested the highest quality available at Shapeways…
If I try to sand this, I’m afraid I will loose all the detail at the same time…if I manage to sand it properly, at all. So I am considering to use the kit’s turrets, which don’t look bad at all - only I have to scratch build a pair of rangefinders…probably the better solution…
Some more small parts installed, some artistic license with a few more doors and hatches to cover areas that I didn’t manage to get as smooth as I wanted without sanding of other details, and the kit’s BRUNO turret test fitted.
So here we are, moving slowly, but moving forward again. Thank you all for following and looking!
Cheers
Jan
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Jan, nice work! I too have been disappointed in Shapeways products… 
Great detail, but their technology just isn’t the best. I’ve had better success with North Star and Model Monkey products - less selection, but they seem to be using better 3D printers. Live and Learn.
Anyway, you are making steady progress, and I continue to be enamored with that wood deck!
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Superb, Jan!
And thanks for the compliment, Tim!
Regarding the Shapeways turrets, yes, Shapeways is using an older technology that suffers from surface smoothness problems because of the nature of how Shapeways’ tech prints the models and the hot wax that tech uses to support overhanging features during printing.*
But some good news: the designer of the turrets you have from Shapeways is Micro Master out of New Zealand (Simon Percival). Originally, Micro Master designs were only available from Shapeways but 2 or 3 years ago, Simon purchased his own very expensive state-of-the-art 3D-printer and now offers all of his designs printed in very smooth gray resin. To get Micro Master models printed by him, click here.
Micro Master’s designs are themselves very well-researched and highly accurate. To capture the accuracy and very smooth surfaces achieved by his own printer, consider ordering his designs directly from him.
Micro Master specializes in Royal Navy subjects but he does offer a nice selection of DKM and Italian Navy models, too, and loads of small armor models.
I have no professional relationship with Micro Master, just an admirer.
*Shapeways acrylic resin printers extrude resin through a nozzle, together with a hot waxy material, layer by layer to build a model. The nozzle’s movement causes surface smoothness issues in the form of unintended texture on any surface not horizontal. Any place that hot wax comes into contact with the resin will suffer smoothness issues, too. More modern acrylic resin printers harden liquid resin in a tank with either a laser or with micro LEDs. These newer printers are capable of much smoother surfaces.
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Steve and Tim,
thank you very much! And Steve, thanks for the link and the explanations, too - I bought those turrets from Shapeways some time ago. Two, three years? More likely three years… I didn’t know then about Simon Percival, only about Micro Master on Shapeways (as I didn’t know about you at first).
And thanks to you I know how excellent resin printed 3D model parts can be, thank you so much again for your great and gracious support with my build. I won’t be buying stuff from Shapeways any longer, but directly from you or Simon, whenever I need something.
I did check Simon’s site today, but the Gneisenau turrets are not on offer any longer - which leaves me with the same problem I am facing right now.
So I was out of office a little earlier today and tried my hand at scratch building the range finders for a third turret. Here’s what I achieved:
Not perfect, but if I use that one as the CAESAR turret, ANTON and BRUNO will look the same and it should not be too obvious.
Some trusted Mr. Surfacer and some etch for the front openings to enhance them a bit should do.
Cheers
Jan
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Jan - have been silently following along - first off glad to see you back on the bench; second - amazing work
Can’t wait to see your build moving forward.
David
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Hi Jan
Have to agree with the comments so far about Shapeways stuff: Whilst good back when they first came out, they’re simply outclassed by the latest 3d resin printing tech employed by Model Monkey, Micro Master, Black Cat etc…
Meanwhile, your solution to add scratch built range finders to Anton is elegant and straightforward and the best method to resolve the issue
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So far, I only had minor flaws with items from Shapeways that wasn’t hard to correct. They do have a large selection of items for the ship builder, I just wish they were more affordable as it is easy to exceed the price of the kit as you add to the shopping cart.
Mark 
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Hi Mark,
I fully agree that “Shapeways” has a huge selection of items for ship builders, however, it isn’t really Shapeways, but those enthusiastic modelers as Model Monkey, Black Cat, Micro Master, to name just a few. Shapeways is only printing their designs on Shapeways’ (contracted?) 3D printers, and while I generally like the concept, as it brings a huge selection ‘under one roof’, but: to me it seems that Shapeways’ printers are no longer ‘state of the art’, and more importantly, if those enthusiasts as mentioned above go the next mile to offer their own printed models, in a far superior quality than that offered by Shapeways, I would rather buy from them directly, and support them rather the the ‘trade platform’ Shapeways.
Cheers
Jan
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Wow! Model Monkey, Black Cat & Micro Master are amazing!
Pompom’s with ring sight open!
…even 1/400 main gun turrets for Heller’s Scharnhorst…
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Nice to see the new work space and it must be nice to have a little area of respite after a heavy day with all the red tape that office life brings … Lovely updates as well, that decking looks superb and the PE is equally nice. Shame about those turrets though… nice to see it all back on track 
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Dear all,
thank you for your kind comments! Yes, properly resin-printed you meanwhile get absolutely awesome stuff…
I found just a little time to do some work at the turrets - while I was working on two, I decided I could as well do all three and finished them, omitting for now just barrels and blast bags (and paint, obviously). While those blast bags are in a nice light brown color that could resemble leather, I think they were more likely in a lighter grey-ish color, so I’m going to paint them later on, too.
So here a little PE added to my scratch build rangefinders
and here all three test fitted for effect and motivation on the ship:
Cheers
Jan
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And looking great, they are too, my friend!
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Great stuff Jan,
Interested to see you the small differences between the two ships that you are capturing. Sorry to see the issues with some of the printed turrets. I have recently acquired some Black Cat twin 37mm, quad and single 20mm, they are very nice.
Cheers. Si
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Just catching up with your Build of one my favourite vessels Jan. Love the work and the detail you have added. Am definitely going to be watching this one…Cheers mark
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Russ, Si and Mark,
Thank you for your kind comments!
Si, well, some bad luck, but no major problem. And the turrets / Micro Master are fine, lovely detailed and great design. The flaw is jut the print quality, which is not Micro masters fault or even responsibility…
I did miss the periscopes on my turrets so far - realized that while looking at my pictures. Maybe I go ahead and fish the turrets next, including paint.
Thanks again and cheers
Jan
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