That stack looks great. Kudos for accomplishing such neat camouflage stripes over those delicate rails!
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Thank you Tim, this camo was actually not too difficult when airbrushed. Just the edges with a fine brush and - mission accomplished. I´m afraid the main tower bridge will be somewhat more demanding 
Looking at my VETERAN resin-etched kits for the 2 cm FlaK and 3,7 cm twin FlaK guns I recognized this will be way beyond my fine motorical skills. There are many parts I even can not grab with my micro tweezers 
I therefore decide to buy 3d printed exemplars from Black Cat Models. These are looking great and show crisp details. Just greatest care and a fresh X-Acto knife blade is necessary for releasing them from the fret.
As I was sitting and watching Black Cat´s webpage I discovered their new Arado Ship´s planes which will fit perfectly for the Graf Spee. Although Very Fire give you two new crisply molded plastic aircraft and some etching parts these 3d printed ones from Black Cat even look more better. The one with folded wings will be used with my Bismarck kit one day but the one with extended wings will be attached to my Graf Spee
Also they give you two propellers, an standing and two sitting crew members for it
Apart from these new 3d printed parts I did finished the rack for the rescue boats. The part from Trumpeter is out of solid plastic but Very Fire´s etched one looks much more sophisticated
Now, together with some more inner railings and stairs its time for priming and painting again
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Finished painting the rack for the rescue boats and already fixed it together with the forward lower bridge superstructure at the ship´s deck. Admiral Graf Spee is slowly taking shape 
The railings and two single 20 mm FlaK guns at the rear upper deck were also attached. Sadly the proposed stair´s numbers in the instructions were wrong again and the stairs are too long. Have to look now which ones will fit in length… 
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Wow, looking very good! Shame about the stairs. Hope you get it worked out!
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Really looking the part now Thomas. She looks very very good 
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Finished to tackle the two board cranes. Etched parts were again a mish-mash of Very Fire and Eduard. The rear cables are white EZ-line rigging wire
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Those look great Thomas
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continued the last week with all these lifeboats and launches aboard the Graf Spee. Again Very Fire leave to be desired again: All in all I have 8 cutters but only etched parts for 4 boats and just 2 resin hulls (which were unfortunately also warped and have to get straightened in boiling water)… So I decided to attach the etched parts at the two outmost cutters where the details will be most visible.
I didn´t want to spend another 50 EUROS or so for more resin cutters so the rest of the cutters just got etched rudder blades which were optained from EDUARD´s set. Later on they will receive etched rudders from EDUARD, too. I just ommitted them here for better painting later
The two bigger barges were provided as lower resin hulls with etched upper deck and superstructures. The build was quite forward without problems here. The driveshaft and the etched propellers had to be handled with outmost care.
Sadly one part of the etched roof railing have become victim of the carpet monster. I converted a similar part from a ladder into two railings. The usual spectator hopefully will not notice it…
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Finished the etched Davits for the two cutters at the ship´s port and starboard side and the dinghies which are strapped on top of the secondary gun towers. 8 dinghies are needed but here Very Fire provides you 16 pieces with no mention if or where to place the 8 others…
Also the ship´s catapult was finished. The pressure bottles were provided in resin, all the rest are made out of very fragile etched parts. It will look impressive once painted with the aircraft mounted 
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That catapult looks superb Thomas … super detailed
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Thomas,
great work as always, wonderful PE all around!
Those boats, the barges and admiral’s gigs, seem to be the same type as on Gneisenau - wow, yours with the etch improvement make a difference!! The Dragon parts are certainly good for OOB, but what you are showing here is looking fantastic!
Cheers
Jan
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Thank you Jan 
May I ask a question toward the expert? I don´t know the right designations to all these different boats, I just call them “Liveboats”, “Cutters” or “dinghies”. Can you shed some light into the different lifeboat classes and tell me their correct english and/or german designations? Until now I have no Idea whats the difference between a cutter, launch or sloop and so on. Would be nice to know for me 
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Hi Thomas,
I can certainly do that - however, give me a chance to do a little background reading before that. Writing a quick comment regarding different boat types is one thing, trying to get it all straight and correct is something else…
So stand by, will do, promised 
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Straight into the spares box for your next project!
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already done Rory!
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Gladly finished all the small lifeboats. These are small kits themself but painted they will look nice at the main ship.
Cranes are also finished
and finally the aircraft catapult, too is ready for installation
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The boats look great! I never noticed that some of Graf Spee’s boats were camouflaged to march the rest of the ship.
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Nice update Thomas. Certainly putting the work on all these small items, but they look superb… PE has come out so nice, and the lifeboats / small skiffs are top work…
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Hello Thomas.
With all of my projects, I no longer have the opportunity to look over other people’s shoulders. But what I’m doing now. Especially if you’re building a ship, that’s what you should do.
What can I write, once again fantastic model building that you deliver here, and a great ship.
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