Deutschland / Victoria Luise / Hansa 1:500 waterline model from scratch

[MBJ]

Starting my 3rd 1:500 waterline model in this forum, and an absolute favourite of mine: HAPAG´s only four stacker and speed record holder DEUTSCHLAND (1900). This fantastic, yet troublesome ship carried three different names during her 25 years in service, and her exterior design changed with each new name given to her. First, she served as a transatlantic liner from 1900-1910:

Source: https://passengershipsandliners.fandom.com/wiki/SS_Deutschland_(1900)

When she was outdated in terms of size and speed by Cunards´s LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA, she was converted into a dedicated cruise ship and named after the Kaiser´s daughter VICTORIA LUISE:

Source: https://alchetron.com/SS-Deutschland-(1900)

She cruised until WW1, during which she was laid up in her home port Hamburg. After the war, the allies refused her as reparation, so she remained with the HAPAG (or what was left of it) and put into service as emigrant carrier HANSA:

Source: https://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=hans2

She was an important asset to re-build the company, but became obsolete when the Ballin-class quartett (which featured the next DEUTSCHLAND in 1924) came into service during the 1920s. She was sold and scrapped in 1925.

My plan is to build three models simultaneously, each representing one of her three lifes.

 

[MBJ]

As in my previous builds, first thing was to find same good deckplans, which I managed for DEUTSCHLAND and VICTORIA LUISE, but not for HANSA. I first sawed the lower decks from 10 mm plywood. When I built my WILLEM RUYS (see https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/willem-ruys-1-500-waterline-model-from-scratch.14555/) I tried to recreate the sheer by wetting and drying her decks, which did not turn out as I had hoped. Therefore, this time I´d try something else: attaching various layers of thin wood to the "base", and finishing off with an end-to-end deck.

 

[Bryian]

Looking good.

 

[MBJ]

The sheer turned out nicely this time.

 

[MBJ]

I applied B-deck to what I had so far, thereby finalizing the hull. This is the first step in which the three models differ: While originally the welldeck (I hope that´s the right term) was open, it was closed when Deutschland was transformed to Victoria Luise. You can spot that difference in the pic below.

After that, the next step is to carve the hull and turn the layers of plywood into something like a ship. To do that I first made some frames/stencils:

Based on these, I carved the hull. Unfortunately, the wood I used for the "base" of the ships turns out to be quite soft and almost impossible to carve. Next time I´ll go for proper wood, as a forum member already suggested in my Willem Ruys thread. I guess sometimes you have to learn it the hard way
Also, I´ll have to buy some proper filler, the one I have is quite crumbly. Anyway, this is where I stand with the first of the three:

Still rough, but getting there! Thanks for your interest!

 

[Bluemaxone]

I love the lines of this ship! Good job!

 

[MBJ]

I love the lines of this ship! Good job!

Thank you! Yes, truly elegant. I hope I´ll be able to resemble that adequatly. It is surprising to compare this old liner to my Stena Germanica (https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/...1987-1-500-waterline-model.17007/#post-456618) which is in the same scale: The Stena Germanica is much shorter, but much larger in terms of beam and height. Completely different ships.

 

[MBJ]

I could not spend much time on my models in the last days, but here is an update finally. I am almost done preparing the first of the three hulls for the next steps.