Graf Goetzen: Building the german steamer - NEW: SHIP FINISHED! 27th May

[Admiral Benbow]

From Wikipedia:

"The MV Liemba, formerly the Graf von Götzen, is a passenger cargo ferry that runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The ship was built in 1913 in Germany, and was one of three vessels operated by the Germans to control Lake Tanganyika during the early part of World War I. It was scuttled by its captain on 26 July 1916 off the mouth of the Malagarasi river, during the German retreat from the town of Kigoma. In 1924 the ship was salvaged by a British Royal Navy salvage team and recommissioned in 1927 as the Liemba. The vessel is now owned by the Tanzania Railways Corporation  and runs between the ports of Bujumbura, Burundi, Kigoma, Tanzania  and Mpulungu, Zambia  with numerous stops to pick up and set down passengers in between."

Some weeks ago I talked about a commission to build a tramp steamer for a gaming scenario in East Africa. As I had just finished reading the fantastic book "A Matter of Time" by Alex Capus, I researched the "Graf Goetzen" a bit further and suggested to build her for my customer. He happily agreed, and we decided to build the ship with separate guns to use it either as militarised or civic version.

Here's a historic photo of the ship and the 10,5 cm SK gun salvaged from the sunken "Königsberg" and mounted on the Goetzen:





And this is how the ship looks like today, one of the oldest working ships around:



When building a wargames model from an existing ship, the most important decision is to select what to realize, what to simplify  and what to leave out at all. The customer wanted a ship fitting his gaming table, no longer than around 45 cm, so I decided to only build the front cabin and leave the second one out. I looked for pics of existing models of the Graf Goetzen and found quite a couple of those, for example the original shipyard's model and a another one showing it nicely from the side:





From the side view I could measure the proportions of the different sections, scale them down and transfered them to 3 mm polystyrene sheet. This was the ships bottom foundation:



When building a ship from plasticard, you usually would cut a lot of bulk sections and add decks and walls to them. To save time but still get a sturdy and level construction, I used two layers of 1 cm and a top layer of 3 cm foamboard (Styrodur), glued with a special foamboard glue.



Another benefit when working with foamboard is that you could shape nice curves and don't need to go for the traditional vertical stern sections so typical for wargames ship models. The Goetzen had an elevated stern section which reproduced quite nicely in foamboard. Top decks were added from 2 mm sheet and the first sidewall from 1 mm plasticard was glued to the sides with both foamboard glue and polystyrol cement, then clamped.





Walls were added, the cargo holds cut out and clad in plasticsheet and some metal shipdoors added. The portholes were carefully measured on the sheet and drilled out before the walls were glued on; after painting the holes will be filled with rivets simulating ship portholes. After a while, the ship was completely clad in plastic sheet and looked like this:



In the background you can see the cargo hold covers and start of the cabin. More next time soon!

[Calimero]

Even at that early stage it already look like a nice ship... looking forward the final result

[Westfalia Chris]

Oh yeah, the Admiral's back. 

Looking much forward to seeing that one finished. I'm currently considering building a model of the "Ulanga" or some steam sloops and towed barges to ferry my new German colonials around, but that'll probably have to wait till the summer, if I actually get around to doing it.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Finally, Admiral builds something again I really looking forward for more!

[former user]

very promising already indeed

amazing idea with the portholes
You mean grommets I guess?
Ringösen?

prefabricated portholes are indeed pretty expensive...
and how did You mold the plasticard around the stern?

please let us see it before You "ship" it to customer  

[ushistoryprof]

What a challenge, looking forward to future posts.

[Admiral Benbow]

Back again with the latest pics. Yes, I know, that was fast ... 

former user, you're correct, grommets or "Ringösen" will be used for the portholes. And concerning the plasticard around the stern, please have a look here:



There is only a small plasticard ring meeting the upper deck, used as a clean and smooth line. Everything else is spackle compound and other putties sanded smooth after drying. Three rounds of puttying and sanding were needed to get this result. After that I painted on two layers of acrylic paint to fill in the last scratches and get a smooth surface before undercoating the completed ship later.



The cabin was cut from 3 mm plywood, all the windows were cut out with a fretsaw, a very tedious job I didn't like at all. But cutting it from plasticard wouldn't have been easier ...



Upper cabin deck with basic construction for the sun-blind from steel wire, and the next pic shows the smokestack with steampipe and some detail parts from the shipmodeller's shop. For the smokestack I bought a cheap plastic pipe for cable covering from the DIY which will last for at least 20 more ships:





Current situation at the shipyard here:



And a box with some more goodies arrived from the Schiffsmodellbau-Onlineshop:



I'm still waiting for my order from Reviresco with the guns and more detail parts, really hoping the stuff will be usable and in good shape. Now working on the masts from brush handles and some deck railing using model railroad fences.

Will be back for the next instalment after some more progress.

Thanks for your interest and all the nice comments!

[OSHIROmodels]

What a cracking build   

Nice to see you back and doing what you do best Admiral 

cheers

James

[former user]

phew, what a piece of work!!

I can only admire the tenacity....
and I will shamelessly steal the porthole Idea for my future cruiser, that is a 1:72 model with too small portholes
that is be converted to 28mm

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Awesome...these lifeboats, what scale they are?

[Admiral Benbow]

Alex, please have a look here:

http://www.schiffsmodellbau-onlineshop.de/Schiffsmodellbauzubehoer-Beiboot-110-mm-Bestellnummer=94=15

These boats are not scaled, but their overall length is noted; so you're able to guess what model would suit your needs best. I choose the 110 mm variant. 7 Euros for such a detailed boat is a snap, isn't it? And the boat davids are even better ...

[Prof.Witchheimer]

what a treasure trove! thanks for the link, Michael!

[gamer Mac]

WOW this is a great build so far.
Looking forward to seeing the progress.
Useful links as well. Thanks

[Svennn]

Tremendous

Always a delight to be able to follow such a professional detailed thread

[Axebreaker]

So far it looks just great!

Cheers
Christopher