Wonderful job! The result was worth all that photoetch. Kudos to you for sticking to it, I would’ve lost my mojo by this point and stuck it on the shelf. Hats off to you!
Colin 
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Thank you Colin. Believe me I was sometimes on the verge of pause this build because of the awkquard instruction manual. The two rear captain barges for example: In the instructions they somehow show them installed at their resting points but in my build after finishing them both there was just no space for them left to sit. Therefore I had to leave them off and glued some cutters on. Many parts are still left on the etched fret where I don´t have any clue where they are intended to be. Sometimes the Kagero book helped me out but it was really sometimes an arduous work for me. I tried to contact Very Fire but their website is gone…
Happily there is now light in the end of the tunnel 
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Gentlemen, I am glad I can report the finishing of the ship´s rigging. I did my best and used 0,3mm (fine), 0,2 mm (medium fine) and 0,1 mm (super fine) MIG/Uschi van der Rosten rigging wire to represent about 95% of the real ship´s rigging
Next station is weathering the upper ships hull a bit and filling the portholes with Kristal Klear. After this I will tackle some crew members for it 
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Looks superb and the rigging is really nice … Gives it a great complete look.
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Woah!! That rigging is superb 
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Love the rigging!!! 
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Painted around 100 figures of the crew, mixed of sailors, non commissioned officers and officers. Some poor souls were lost to the carpet monster and some just lost their head so there are around 90 remaining for duty. The figures are used out of the complete ION Kriegsmarine “chilling on deck” set and NORTHSTARMODELS “German Kriegsmarine in action set 2”. Painting was fairly easy at this scale
Oh and there is one of the two pilots aboard in his Kapok lifevest which is argueing about the defective engines of the single Arado Ar-196 spotter plane aboard.
Now its time to release the guys from their carriers and fix them at their stations
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Very cool… The figures will add a great sense of movement and a feeling of life on deck.
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Gentlemen the work at the ship itself was finally finished with the placement of the around 90 surviving figures which came off the sprue completely together with their heads, feet etc. and avoided plunging away toward the carpet monster (another two or three lost that way). Despite around 90 figures it still look sparsely crowded but I don´t have energy to make another 100 and call this ship finished I placed a bit more figures at the port side as this is where the main guns are pointing for their first shot and therefore more people will watch this direction.
No officer should see this…
The only remaining task for me now is to create a sea diorama where Graf Spee is heading full speed toward the british cruiser squadron…
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“ no officer should see this “
sort of the opposite of Kate Winslet on the Titanic …
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Hey Thomas,
fantastic work! And well, pretty much commissioned - but I’m sure your sea base will lift it to another level regardless.
Your figures look great! I’m personally not a big fan of figures on my models, but that is due to the fact, that if done wrong, they can spoil the impression, and those 2-D etched figures you get i.e. with Eduard Big Ed’s, well, I don’t know… But what you did here is just outstanding and makes me think twice about maybe populating a future model? They really give a great perspective on how big (or small) things were, adding a new dimension.
Well done, very well done in fact!
Cheers
Jan
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What a fantastic build.
But it wasn’t to be expected any different from you.
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Hi Radu,
I also have the 1/350 Academy kit of the Graf Spee and would like to attempt building it this winter. If you don’t mind me asking, what are the companies that you used for aftermarket accessories? Thank you.
Hi Tom, if you want to scroll up at the beginning of this blog you can see in one of my first post the pictures of upgrade sets, colors and books I did used for my Graf Spee. The build was partly demanding (the etched main bridge) but highly satisfying. You will have a lot fun.
With your post you remembered me friendly to finally finish the sea base for it… 
Regards
Thomas
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great work
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