Dear all,
some work done on the guns.
Added forgotten periscopes and some PE to the turrets, including a railing around BRUNO barbette which I honestly don’t really understand, but there’s plenty clear evidence that it was there…
And started some paintwork. Red turret tops, I avoided masking as good as possible. Due to the shape of the turrets that was possible, just in the end, after some touch up with brush, I had to apply a stripe of tape to the front and then to the forward top, for the last coat.
The blast bags painted grey as the superstructure and then some “salt streaks” enamel brushed on, I think the effect is ok.
First part of the superstructure installed, and the additional ladders installed. And yes, I did several dry runs, installing the superstructure first and the BRUNO barbette afterwards works actually better than the other way round…
I managed to finish CEASAR with its barrels, but still dry fitted, as ANTON and BRUNO, just “for effect”… I do like the bright red turret tops, and the little lighter colored blast bags I think look just right.
So much for today, I can’t exactly say when the next update will be up, due to my commuting I will spend the next weekend at least at home, and I don’t know how busy the workweek will be…but it feels good to get some progress.
Thank you all for looking, and as always, all comments highly appreciated!
Cheers
Jan
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Nice progress Jan,
The main turrets look very good, even without the barrels fitted.
Cheers,
Si
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Nice. Those turret tops really pop.
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Nice progress Jan. The red turrets really stand out… Was the red for aerial recognition ? I know some Italian WW2 ships had bright deck work for that reason …
She’s going to look very nice at the end of it all.
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Lovely work Mate. I love how the Turrets add a bit of Colour and make her really pop…Cheers mark
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Thank you so much Gentlemen,
that’s very kind and motivating!
Yes, the red was for air recognition. I am going for April 1940, last part of Norwegian Operations. Turret tops for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were bright yellow at first, then RN picked that up for some of their units to cause confusion, so it was changed to bright red.
I will do a Scharnhorst sometime down the road, haven’t decided wether 1940 or '41, and she will have the yellow turret tops.
Cheers
Jan
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Those turrets are really eye catching, Jan!
Great work mate and good to see her making head way! 
Found this video on her from my favorite youtuber, Drachinifel
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Thanks mate!
And thanks for the video, too!
Glacier is moving…
Cheers
Jan
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Ok, just a very brief update. Actually, quite a few pic since I like the look, but not really much work done…barrels of the big guns fittet!
And parts of the breakwaters around the forward 3.7 cm AA fitted, two sets of Veteran’s guns test fitted. I have to start the production line for the 3.7’s (and the 10.5 cm, and the 2 cm…). It’s quite a long time since I built those, and they suffer from being the first, so I don’t actually know if I will be using those or build eight guns. I will see about this when I build the next guns, if they turn out better than those ‘old’ ones I’m probably not using them.
Cheers for today, next update may very well be some weeks away, as I won’t see my workbench very much before probably June…
Thank you all for following and your patience!
Jan
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Looking good. She has her teeth now which always makes the ship start coming together.
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Wow, those turrets are very eye catching, Jan
Certainly not something that will avoid detection 
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Very striking … you can picture her crashing through the waves on the high seas …
Would the red be that muted in real life or brighter ? it looks very good though 
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Johnnych01Patron
Very striking … you can picture her crashing through the waves on the high seas …
Would the red be that muted in real life or brighter ? it looks very good though
Prinz Eugen’s maroon turret tops were apparently pretty bright, so it is a safe bet that Gneisenau’s red turret tops might have been even brighter!
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Gentlemen,
thank you very much for your kind comments!
I have to admit, that I don’t have that much of a clue about the ‘red’ - on all sources that I have it simply looks like a rather bright red, I would assume that some red color ‘at hand’ was used and that it was not really specified. Same with the yellow that was used. So I decided simply to go for the Tamiya XF-7 flat red. For a future project with yellow turret tops, be it Scharnhorst or a cruiser, I’ll go for the Tamiya XF-3 flat yellow… I really like the look of her with the red turrets, sitting here on the workbench in front of me…
What I don’t like that much was the fact that on a sprue I spotted parts that look like the rudders. That reminded me that I would better start finishing shafts, screws and rudders before I continuer working at the superstructure 
…was a little ‘carried away’, but it should still be no bigger problem…
So, shafts, props and rudders up next…
Cheers
Jan
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Hi Jan,
Loving the red turret tops, I will admit I do like the Kreigsmarine’s air recognition markings, they do add a splash of colour.
Great build, I remember ho much fun this kit was, without converting it into a sister ship.
Cheers, Si
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Hi Si,
thank you very much - and of course I remember your build log of the Scharnhorst, one fantastic builds of yours!
Glad to have you around, even if this is once more slowing down a bit due to me being away from the work bench during most of the next weeks…but it’s for sure going on, as you say, the kit really is fun to build, despite the sometimes confusing instructions.
Cheers
Jan
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Hi Jan,
I understand things slowing down on the bench, I am hoping to get a bit of time over our long weekend. On the colour of the turret tops, something occurred to me; my seagoing days were on Shell Tankers, which had red funnels, fresh out of dock they were quite a bright red, but over time faded to a colour similar to the Turret tops in Tim’s Photo.
When I built the Hans Lody a few years back, I used the same red for the gunshields as for the red band on the air recognition markings, assuming the ship would only have one shade of red in the paint locker.
Just my thoughts.
Cheers, Si
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Hi Si,
fully concur with your assumption - I’d think they’d use whatever red or yellow they had in stock for the air recognition markings, and the range of colors you have is usually limited. So the same color for gunshields and the red band air recognition marking I would say is a safe bet.
As for the fading of the red color, true, however - from what I understand those marking on the turret tops never lasted really long before they were painted over again. Bur during their initial trials in the baltic that could have been different, so it could very well be the case for Prinz Eugen on that photo.
Cheers
Jan
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Dear all!
Wow, it’s been quite a while…real life is not very supportive to my workbench this year, and when I finally had a weekend off and was looking forward to restarting work on my Gneisenau, I’d caught a silly cold, no CoViD, but nasty enough to keep me from being productive.
I only managed to finde a way to turn her around without harming anything to install ‘propulsion’
and painted the shafts, props and rudders
Now office work has slowed down, which would give me opportunity to work a little in the afternoons, but with my cold leaving a heatwave is approaching, up to almost 40°C, which again keeps me from doing any productive work after office. As such temperatures are absolutely exceptional for Germany, we don’t normally have A/C. My office doesn’t, and my flat neither, so I feel completely beaten when coming home…
I hope next weeks will be a bit more fortunate and productive, I really hope to get some substantial progress before fall…
So, work re started, even if slowly, another re-start after some trouble with mostly work related issues. Oh well…
Thank you all for your patience,
Cheers
Jan
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