I did a little research in my archives and came across this picture of the Bismarck’s tenders amidships.
I then placed the rescue boat on its cradles and positioned it in the pinnace.
Liked it.
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Wow, Jörg, this painting masterclass I more than I expected, thank you! I can’t wait to try out some of your techniques…
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Very happy to help, Tim.
But when I look at your little Roman merchant ship, I think you know everything you need to build an excellent model. 
Hello dear forum community.
Today I just want to share a small step.
The reason: Micro Master’s boats look absolutely fantastic when painted, and I don’t want to keep that from you.
So here are the two of them, piggybacking.
A nice duo.
When painted you can see all the fine details.
The extra expense was definitely worth it.
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I had to expand my dry dock again.
I know, it looks almost like a Mikasa in prison, but it’s necessary. Its creator is a bit of a clumsy person.
While handling it, I pressed my thumb on a gun barrel and it cracked. It wasn’t a big deal; I was able to carefully glue it back on.
But that’s why…
…more protection
Now I can continue working on the ship without worrying and don’t have to constantly worry about the guns sticking out of the sides.
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Hello everyone.
The EME is behind me and the falcon is back in its home. Time to get back to work on my boat.
To warm up, I turned my attention to the two dinghies.
It was clear that I didn’t want to cover them completely. So I designed a little scene to get around that.
I made a tarpaulin out of tissue paper and diluted wood glue. It took me a few tries.
Then guys made to cover the boat.
Add the railing and rudder blades.
Nice extra income, I don’t have to tie down the cutter anymore.
And the first railing was also installed.
A few spots are still shiny, so I need to apply another coat of clear coat.
I’m pretty happy with the way it is, and now I can move on to the funnels.
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Jörg, what an outstanding solution - the best of both worlds!
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Thank you very much, Tim.
Let’s get to another mini-update today.
It cost me a lot of nerves and the whole weekend. But first things first.
I was once again spoiled for choice between Pontos and KA for the funnel surface.
Pontos offers riveted struts, KA rings that run around the funnel.
So, I once again rummaged through my archives of the original ship and looked at conflicting pictures. Of course, often of rather poor quality.
The deciding factor was once again the quite good picture from Vladivostok, which I believe shows rings.
And since it’s one of the last photos of the intact ship, I chose that one. I like it better anyway.
So first I cut the components out of the circuit boards.
And again, KA Model wins.
My enthusiasm was dampened slightly when attaching the rings. They were a little too big. That’s why they were touching on one side, leaving an unsightly gap on the other.
I took them off again, sanded them cleanly, and then primed them thoroughly. Another attempt with the blue BluTack putty. This allowed me to keep the rings centered.
It works. And since I’m using Mig’s acrylic adhesive, there’s no mess like with superglue. Diluted and applied with a fine brush, it flows wonderfully evenly into the gap thanks to capillary action.
Excess glue can then be easily removed with a brush.
Ring by ring it continues downwards.
It’s nice that I managed to solve it cleanly after all, since the funnels are in a rather prominent spot. So I set them up for a test. They look great with the rings.
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Such a great build … Amazing work … I also really like these figures working throughout the ship… Gives it a lot of imagined movement on deck.
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Thanks Johnny.
That’s true. It’s amazing how dynamic these figures create on the ship model. They also wonderfully convey the size of these ships.
Let’s continue with the funnel.
I had to remove all the structures from the chimneys, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to fit the rings onto the cylinders. Now they’re installed, and I’ve recreated them with styrene profiles. Like this ledge at the bottom of the funnel.
I got resin rivets on decal sheets from Eduard to make the surface more interesting.
The same thing in a vertical orientation. I had to do a little trickery here to get them nice and straight and parallel. I applied them, let them dry, and then cut them with my sharp scalpel.
Fits.
It looks good after the initial aging. It’s a bit annoying that I can still see traces of the rings’ original texture. I wasn’t paying attention. 
But afterwards they hardly matter anymore.
Now prepare everything for the next step. On the right, you can see the pipes leading to the gallery. Here, I had to add a little bit of styrene to the pipe clamps that hold them to the chimney. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have fit over the rings.
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Just absolutely amazing and stunning work. And thanks for sharing your “how to”- about the painting and weathering, too!
I apologize for my long absence and silence, and it won’t be getting much better over then next weeks, real life is not too supportive of the hobby these times…
Cheers
Jan
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Real life often comes first, Jan. I learned that the hard way last year. But it’s great to have you back on board with me.
And look what I have new for you…
I can report that the symbiosis of Pontos and Ka Models on the Funnel has been a success.
It did require a bit of trickery, but I think it looks impressive.
Let’s start on the port side.
I had to position the rings so that the second ring wouldn’t interfere with the gallery. Therefore, it was important to measure the ring spacing precisely.
Next came the task of threading the pipe into the gallery. The lower pipe clamp could only be attached after the pipe had already been installed on the funnel. A serious fiddly job.
Additionally, the rings were in the way of the tubes to the right and left of the center. As mentioned in the last post, they needed to be slightly padded. Otherwise, they wouldn’t fit over the rings.
It was not intended that the two accessory sets would be mixed together.
I did have some initial difficulties, but I think I got the most out of both sets. And the result feels very satisfying.
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Great precise work, and it looks amazing.
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This build keeps getting better and better. A pleasure to follow. 
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And again, thank you both very much.
Once again, the details are sanded down, portholes drilled out, and holes filled in to replace and re-clad everything with beautiful brass.
First, the rear bridge house.
The gusset plates are too thick for me and will be replaced with 0.25 mm thick styrene.
And again on the deck.
Now the same with the bridge house on the bow side.
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And now we continue with the application of the profiles.
I used the same ones on the bridge house as on the hull, only this time I glued them on the short side.
I thought they should look narrower on the smaller superstructures. That’s why they were sanded down quite a bit afterward.
But today is the end of it for now, the whole thing needs to dry properly overnight before I sand it.
Now I can repeat the whole thing at the front bridge house.
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Thanks Tim,
Yes, it’s amazing what a tiny difference makes.
A first coat of primer to check the profile height. Then I sanded it down further and adjusted it.
Now I’m satisfied.
The rain deflectors for the portholes are neatly lined up, and the door looks great. Pontos, in fact.
The height of the portholes on the front bridgehouse is completely wrong; they are positioned much too low. So, they were filled with styrene round material and re-marked.
Drilled and better…
The grinding orgy continues. 
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Jörg,
thanks for your kind remark! And - fantastic updates. The funnels look perfect, and just amazing what effort you put into detail you put into the bridge houses. Just what Tim says, it makes ha difference - a huge difference!
Cheers
Jan
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Thanks, Jan.
It’s fun to put your own stamp on a model that’s produced in large numbers. However, you should be aware that sometimes things won’t work out as you hoped. That’s what happened with the last construction phase.
Cost me a sleepless night, but first things first.
A new coat of primer was applied very thinly to check the profile height and build quality.
I quite liked it.
As I considered how to proceed with the bridgehouse, I encountered a problem. I have to say that building this ship is considerably more challenging than, for example, the Bismarck, with its rather simple, straightforward superstructure.
Everything on this old ship of the line is so delicate and intricate that you really have to think carefully about the order in which you assemble the model. The mast is another thing I’m racking my brains over, but that will come later.
Now back to the bridgehouse and the culprit that made my life difficult.
This one:
This is the external connection from the bridge house to the deck above. The supporting structure is once again extremely detailed by Pontos and simply beautiful to behold.
The problem is that this outer bracket on the bridge house extends very low and could conflict with my profiles. So, to be on the safe side, I removed parts of it and rearranged them.
Believe me, that really bothered me. But I think I solved it quite well. Less is sometimes more.
It was a bit frustrating to remove the profiles at this point, but I wanted to play it safe. With such delicate structures, I felt it would be too risky to just keep going, only to find out at the end that it wouldn’t fit together.
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