SMS Derfflinger 1/600 WIP #1

If you thought I had too many projects at the same time, I've started work on the 1/2000 Espana class dreadnoughts, and also this. For a reminder, my last build has attracted some attention, you can find its results here. 

This time I'm doing a more iconic vessel, lead ship of the WW1 Imperial German Navy's last completed battlecruiser class, none other than (if you could not guess from the title) SMS Derfflinger. 

This is probably my favourite dreadnought era ship of them all, with an excellent battle record, also less of an ugly duckling than some of her contemporaries. 

Viribus Unitis' plans could fit on an A4 page, well, Derfflinger could not, so I've had to use A3 size. I have four copies of a very good scale blueprint. Some people have the opinion that she looked better without the large tripod mast, well I tend to disagree, this is a huge ship and she kind of looks odd/ridiculous with the original tiny mast, plus the tripod does not really ruin her lines. Thus my build will be the tripod version.

The first step was to have a balsa piece thick enough for the hull. This waterline model will have a hull 12mm high at the bow, and the total thickness was achieved by gluing a 6mm, a 1mm and a 5mm thick piece together. Why not two 6mm pieces, you might ask - well, I did not have enough of the 6mm plank, plus I kind of wanted a visual aid for the slope on the upper deck. Completing this will be a pain in the bottom anyway.

I glued the three pieces together with woodglue, then let it sit under quite a big weight for about four hours. In the end, it warped a little, but only to a negligible degree.

Then I traced the outline of the hull to the block of wood with an Ikea pencil (I've got a nice stash of those from the olden days), and began to whittle the excess away. At the end of Day One, this is how far I got.

Here's some of the excess wood, this comes handy when starting a fire (for boiling tea in the outside or a nice grill), but alas, there is little chance we could get out to the woods. I might find some other use for them though.