Friedrich Wilhelm Zu Pferde 1/48 scale by Euro Model

neptune

neptune

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I was chatting with Brian and he mentioned he had built one of these kits, so I thought I would post my build log of it that was deleted on another forum,

I have put it in the kit section although it is mostly scratch using the kits castings.

This is a Euromodel kit of The Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde, I believe it translates as Fredrick William on Horse back, I started this kit quite a few years ago, and due to many things I am only just getting round to finishing it.
When I received the kit and checked it over, there were a few things that did not seem right, the four middle bulkheads were approx 4inches apart, which seemed to much, also when I dry fitted the bulkheads to the keel and ran a strip of wood along to check the alignment there was an obvious bulge where bulkhead four was, when I checked the plans and line drawings I found that they had drawn and cut bulkhead five twice, so after re cutting one of them to the size of bulkhead four, the strip of wood then ran fair, but I still did not like the spacing of the center bulkheads, so I decided to scratch build the hull with full frames, this was my first attempt at lofting and cutting frames so you will probably pick out a few mistakes, these early pics were pre digital camera so I only took a few because of the cost, see following pics,


1.jpg
View of the hull in frame. Luckily they gave a good set of drawings including the body plan and water lines, so I tried to place the frames between the ports to make things a bit easier, I decided on my frame thickness and drew the lines between the ports taking the lines down over the water line plans and with the help of the body plan I redrew the frames.

2.jpg
another view

3.jpg
Bow shot

4.jpg
Looking down on the orlop deck, I must emphasize this is scratch built, not boasting or anything, just want to make sure so you do'nt buy a kit thinking this is what you get.

5.jpg
Full length overhead

6.jpg
Transom, in hind sight the timbers are too large, wide.

7.jpg
view through the transom.

8.jpg
This was my objective to build a fully framed hull with cut aways so that you could see inside of the ship


9.jpg
The lower gun deck being planked.

10.jpg
In the top left corner, these parts make one double frame, and below these will make four frames.



11.jpg
Close up of the orlop deck


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28.jpg
Looking in through the side, I made a rudder and was not happy with it but could'nt bear to throw it out so I stowed it in the hold, they would have a hard job getting it out

29.jpg
main hold.


30.jpg
main hold again.


31.jpg
The cable tier.

32.jpg
And the poor old cook, he looks a bit worse for wear, probably been on the grog.

When I was in the Merchant Navy, one time there was a shortage of beer due to a strike or something,
and beer was rationed to two cans a man per day, so everyone was pretty sober except the baker,
who was drinking a lot of what we thought was Coke, turned out it was Coke but he was adding
Vannilla Essence which is used in cake making and highly alcoholic and which he had plenty of.


33.jpg
Cant frames and hawse pieces



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John,
a huge improvement over the standard kit with heaps of scratch building I see.

I have a soft spot for Italy, and I wish Euromodels would update their kits. They seem to be stuck in a time warp of 40 years ago when they were first produced, and they have not kept up with new technology of other model ship manufacturers. Having built Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pherde and H.M.S. Royal William, I feel I can speak from experience.
 
I agee Brian, they do make beautiful models but as you say they could do with a bit of an upgrade, the plans are pretty good.
 
John,
the plans are dated from 1975 when they were drawn, and I reckon thats when the kit was produced.

Seems to me its remained in production all these years without modernisation. For example the awful cast metal gunport hinges and rudder hinges just don't cut it against other manufacturers with superb photo etch.
 
John,
your FWzP looks very good! High time to continou!
At one stage I was thinking of buying a Euromodel kit but at the end I did not - fortunately!
Yes, those European and American kit builders are stuck in the past. They still think that they can sell those models which they developed 30-40 years ago, without any modification and unfortunately they still manage to sell it in lack of any real competition. Now they can start scratching their heads as some really nice kits are on the market. Amati (Victory models) have some better kits thanks to Chris Watton but otherwise everything is the same as it was in the 80's!
Janos
 
John

Another fine build.

yes you are correct with the translation"Friedrich Wilhelm zu Pferde" does mean "Friedrich Wilhelm on horseback.

Cheers
Geoff
 
37.jpg
First job after the cleaning was to locate the positions of what was left of the cast decorations,
so I took photo copies of the areas that had to have decorations attached, I'm only showing
one but I did do several, this is one of the bulkheads.


38.jpg
The painted decorations in place over the drawing

39.jpg
Now this is what I mean about showing one thing on the plan and giving you another, big difference in size
and also with the capstan


40.jpg
same with the capstan



41.jpg
Now for the up side of things, these are the cast decorations for the lower beakhead, I think the top casting is from the other side, as it looks kinda flat to the lower casting, if you see what I mean, my mistake.

42.jpg
and sitting over the plan

43.jpg
Some of the castings for around the quarter galleries were not too good, so I made a casting plaster mould of a good one and cast some more in white metal, which the original ones are made of
 
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G'day Geoff and Janos, I'm sure I put in a post thanking you for your visits, must not have submitted it properly , so thank you both for taking the time to respond to my build log,

best regards John.
 
John
these castings are not bad at all (not talking about those which you had to replace) - probably the best cast decorations attached to a kit which I have seen. The next level up what the kits are concerned are the CNC pearwood carvings from the ZHL kits.
Janos
 
John
yes, I can see what you mean about the differences between the drawings and the reality of the kit. Unfortunately commercial interests win!
Janos
 
46.jpg
First up was to repair the coat of arms badge and the Lanthorn
which were both loosened and damaged by a knock on the transom awhile ago.



44.jpg
I removed the lanthorn for repair and while it was off I repaired the Coat of arms]

45.jpg
To repair and make it stronger I cut a thin piece of brass to the size of the total coat of arms



47.jpg
I then CA glued the top broken part onto the brass piece and glued the brass piece with the top part back onto the coat of arms

48.jpg
After the repair.

50.jpg
after this part is gilded again you wont even notice the repair


49.jpg
The lanthorn back in place after replacing two of the stays
 
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61.jpg
The forward Knights head ready for attaching.These knights heads I cut from some wood
and just drilled and shaped with files to obtain the shape of the sheaves.


62.jpg
Turning up the mast coats


63.jpg
another view




64.jpg
Mizzen mast coat in place



65.jpg
The mizzen mast and the coats for the different decks, these are not glued yet so I can slip them down into place as each deck is fixed in place



66.jpg
Turning up the main and fore coats.


67.jpg
main in place.



68.jpg
Fore in place




69.jpg
Looking down on the main mast knights head




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