by Michael Kaintoch
1/250 Oldenburg, Imperal German Navy accomodation hulk (Pro-Modell/Gremir)
This is my latest work, a cardboard model of the accomodation hulk SMS Hulk Oldenburg of the Imperial German Navy. I am fully aware that the real SMS Oldenburg never was a hulk (she ended her service carrer as target ship), but for me she's close enough to two other casemate ships that actually were converted. And, most important, she is available as a kit (either in print from the Polish publisher Pro-Modell or as a file from GreMir).
For the conversion, I used the kit's hull only. I've changed the colour scheme from yellow/black to grey/black and replaced the texture of the wooden decks. Otherwise, it's almost unaltered. not surprisingly, the wooden superstructure required the most efforts of the project. Not because it's so complicated, but because it took a lot of time, experimenting, and several test builds until I was fully satisfied with its proportions.
Also, I was not satisfied with some of the kit's small parts, namely the vents and the anchor davits. Therefore, I've redrawn these, too. The steering wheels and most of the railings are laser cut parts. I only had to build the railings of the gallery from several dozens of tiny strips of paper.
