1:72 Scale German WW2 Heavy Battle Cruiser K.M.S. Scharnhorst 1943

Hello Steve,   

Welcome aboard mate. It's always nice to have a new marine member in the team.

Very sorry to hear that the hull is cracked, but I an sure that it can be repaired. The only thing is to make sure that the hull alignment will remain as before, as the plastic and fibreglass hulls tend to warp; especially after a disasterous accident.

I see that you are building a PA2. be careful on this project, as the revel kit (the old matchbox kit) in fact is the upgraded version of the flower class corvettes. the French had the licence to build the early versions. Conway maritime has published a very good book on these corvettes - Anatomy of The Ship series - The Flower Class Corvette Agaziz. The book give a real insight on the early versions. Once modified, you have the easy job of placing the additional AA guns and the gun platforms.

The deck planking was more or less the same, as in reality one copied the other. The only issue is the real colour and tan of the wood used. The Germans used teak wood. the size was more or less the same. 150mm wide x 2000mm or 2200mm. Now just one advise. Do not stick to just information like scale plans issued by scale modelling companies. I have over 48 books related to the Scharnhorst, hundreds of pictures downloaded from the internet and a whole pile of useless scale plane, which costed me money.
stick to the real photos of the period, as the 3D authors and designers, in many ways interpretate and draw out the scale plans as how they deem fit and understand, and not how the thing really was. So please be very careful.

would be very happy to meet you here in Malta.

Nice layout!!!!

Can I move in with you... all I need is a small corner.........please

No problem,

Meta trid habib, imma dak kollhu li ggib mieghek, isir propjeta' tieghi

u Bhal ma ghid il-Malti - xoghol, justizzja w liberta'

Hello Paul et al,

sorry for not replying sooner but have spent the new year in hospital with heart problems, (probably to much rich food)

I've stripped everything of the Scharnhorst except for the running gear which seems to be ok.The deck is broken into 5 pieces and the superstructure into about 200!!.

I take your point about rebuilding a hull, once built (the first time ) as the various glues and resins, and to a lesser extent the paints and varnishes dry / cure they impose tensions onto the hull, these can cause warping and distortion when that pressure is released and create an unsailable hull. This is my concern with my Hull.

To overcome this I am constructing a lightweight internal rigid skeleton with adjusters to bring the hull back into true, the skeleton will also support the steering gear , motors and batteries and main armament to keep the COG and meta centric hight as low as possible and  to spread the loading across and along the whole hull, just in case there are any localized weak points left after the accident..

Regarding the PA2 I have the Agaziz book and have converted the hull to the earlier short forecastle design, my late father in law also served on the early flowers and he has passed on many details. currently my only problem is finding 1:72 scale flakvierlung AA guns, there is a lot of 1:76 about otherwise i'll scatch build them.

I hope to get some photo's of both projects up on line soon.

happy new year to you all,

may your boats always sail true and never come to harm..........

regards to all

steve

Hello to You Paul. glad to see the Sharn looking so good. I and a few other people have missed you on a few of the other forums, so I told them to check out this one to get the full picture of your project. I have been spending the last 3 months writing a book about the Z Plan ships and their design aspects. I have also been learning 4 / 3D graphics programs for illustrations, and for 3D printing in the near future. I have 4 machines that are coming from Canada. My brother and I are going to be Beta testers for them and the company plans to put market the machines in 2 years. I am going to update my log on this site. I have them caught up on the other 6 and I am checking out one called Axishistory which looks promising, however sometimes the forums can be like having a second Job. Oh and Happy Ney year, may it be prosperous for You. Smooth sailing as always. Haratio.

When are we going to see some progress, hope in this life time