1/600 SMS Derfflinger WIP #2 - The Shopping List!

I've made little to no progress on the model, but I'm in the middle of writing a list of things to be purchased. So this post mostly serves as a guide for myself. For the sake of simplicity, I will not be making every tiny bit of detail by hand, and these things help a great deal. I'd really like to gout on this model and make it as accurate as possible.

I'm assisted by a new Dremel tool which I've got for my birthday, this should make some tasks such as cutting and sanding (especially the concave sanding at the bow) more time-effective and comfortable. I'm still going to have to do the sloping deck by hand, probably with a large sanding block.

So far my shopping list includes:

• 4mm balsa plank for the turrets and superstructure, also the boats (I'm going to try a more complex boat construction instead of single blocks of wood)
• Various girths of steel wire: 0,8mm for the secondary battery barrels and cranes, 0,5mm for the 88mm AA platforms, 1mm for the main battery barrels and masts. Fortunately these can be had for a small price.
• Pins or small brass nails used for wooden ship models, for coaling hatches
• 1/700 scale photoetched railings (upping my game a little bit here), there are some generic pieces out there that I can use, and I really hope the scale difference does not matter
• 15mm washers for the turret rings (either to be used as templates or glued on)
• 4/5mm dowels for the secondary casemates; 13-14mm dowels or pinewood rods for the stacks (may also be shaped out of balsa)
• 0,1 and 0,25mm rigging thread

There are multiple things that make this build a bit more difficult. One is the secondary battery - on one hand, it is above the plain of the deck, so I'm going to have easier access while building it; on the other, it's still a tedious task, with multiple raised surfaces going in all directions. I think I'll approach this Lego style, and build smaller pieces, paint them separately, then assemble the entire thing - it is easier to replace messed-up pieces than throwing out a single large one, as I did with the Viribus Unitis. Doing multiple sub-assemblies instead of one general task is usually a good idea.

The second, and the one I'm thinking the most about, is the gradual slope of the main deck towards the bow. It'll have to be ground/sanded out from the basic block before I can move on to the superstructure. It also means that I'm going to have to stop when the hull is roughed out, as the line of the deck has to meet the sides at very precise places if I don't want a wonky ship.

I will probably make a progress chart with stick notes again. The next step is shaping the hull, then the main deck; after that, it's time to add the filler, sand it down, add the ridge of the main armor belt (using a paper template), and then some more details. As the top view on the blueprint does not take into account the deck slope, for positioning various elements on the deck, I can consult the side view as well. The rest is child's game from then on.

A note on the ship: the large tripod is an interesting construction, and a very good example to show how our point of view can be deceiving. These are pictures of the same ship from different angles and distances - on one, the tripod is a large towering structure, on the other, it's just a regular mast on a warship.

You can spot the original caption on the bottom image, I chose this one because there is no chance of mistaking her with her sister ship Hindenburg, which had a smaller tripod installed.

I'm greatly helped out with reference pictures by various Facebook groups that focus on this era of history, both period photos and pictures of models. The first photo is one of the more common ones, the second is a bit more rare. Overall I have more than a hundred reference images of the Derfflinger and her sisters now.