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Graupner Hertha Jeep

Okay, so I’ve just finished the Graupner Taucher Wulf, and I’m one of those modelers that likes to have the workbench..ahh..working. Now, the Wulf was a bit of a pain in the rump to build, mainly because the instructions were almost non existent. There were pictures, mind you, lots of pictures, some even contradicted each other..but precious little info, measurements, that sort of thing. Anyway, I swore up and down that I would never build another modern Graupner boat again. I have a small stash of kits and a couple of boats to restore..nope, not doing it. Then, that little voice in my head returned..same voice that tells me it’s okay to drop the hammer at a red light because that voice didn’t see the police cruiser in the parking lot..same voice that says “you’re not THAT full, one more slice of pizza wont kill you”. That voice. The one that said..”Look! The little Hertha Jeep is on sale! You’ve already seen the worst with the Taucher, go ahead and buy it. You KNOW what your getting into this time...ahhhhahahahahaha!” So theres a Hertha Jeep on my bench. And, again, lots of pics, a little more info this time, some things that make me scratch my head and some that make sense. The hull is blow molded..I think it’s ABS but it just looks different from any plastic I’ve ever seen. Nicely made though. The kit parts and fittings looked good, so I dove in. I decided that this time, I was going to build everything as sub assemblies and make sure everything fits to my satisfaction before I build myself into a corner like I did with the Wulf. The first thing I started was the cabin. It’s built from some very thin laser or machine cut abs. Much thinner than the Wulfs pilothouse. The cabin roof is molded in either resin or plastic and primered, and I used that and the hull to jig up the cabin. Everything fit okay until I got to the forward windscreen. The oblique angles and the way the darn thing fit had me stumped. Then I trimmed it, which was a mistake. However, it started to look decent when I realized that some of the ca had dribbled down and glued the bottom edge of the windscreen to the hull. !!@&&%!!!! I had to break the bottom edge of the windscreen to get it loose from the hull. However, I was able to fix the damage with some scrap plastic and a little “modelers bondo” (Tamiya plastic filler). This was a rookie mistake, I was thinking of protecting the hull with , but I didn’t heed THAT voice, and got burned in the process. Lesson learned. Once the cabin was done, I built the insert that goes into the aft part of the hull. I don’t have pics of that yet but I’ll post them soon.

5 years ago by Cashrc

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Hints and Tips.

No pics, but when I do lettering on a model, I use sticky backed characters. I’ll line everything up on , once it’s to my liking I take a thin strip of masking tape and place over the lettering. This way I can peel the letters off the (they won’t stick to it) and place the finished lettering on the model. Once it’s burnished down, you can slowly peel the masking tape off, and the lettering stays in place.

5 years ago by Cashrc