Raimund Paul Kelterer

JSC Nr. 38 Graf Zeppelin 1:400

photos from author

preface
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The combination of ship and airplanes were fascinating for me since I was twelve. But there are only a few kits on the market. The Polish company JSC, with the major scale 1:400, has a section of four aircraft carriers. The 'Graf Zeppelin' (count/earl zeppelin, the famous designer of rigid airships like the huge Hindenburg) will have an overall lenth of 65.6 cm (26.8"). Although my ship scale is 1:250, I could not withstand the temptation to buy all of them (Card, Intrepid, Victorious, Zeppelin) and to start with the zeppelin, which was never operational at all.

Let's take a short view on the flat paper. The kit contains 12 A4 pages of parts, 4 pages of Polish instructions, 4 pages of English instructions, 3 pages of diagrams and 2 pages of overall instructions on the cover's
inside. On the backside there is one page of airplanes.

<p01 - p12>

details of the airplane page

The flightdeck and nearly all wooden planked surface seems to be digitally reworked. The rest of the parts look quite good at first sight (all the little imprecision will be visible on assembly), some of them printed on both sides.
The airplanes look very good, every plane has it's own markings and numbers.

Construction

Flightdeck and Hangar
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If you start a JSC kit, the important question is, how is the hull constructed? Unlike Wilhelmshaven kits the JSC kits cover a wide range of construction possibilities. This one was new to me. The ship will be build from the deck downwards. The three upper and three lower parts are overlapping, so no additional sheet of paper is needed to get a stable deck. The little inaccuracy of the deck should be trimmed and colored. After drying I cut out the elevators and trimmed them to get a good
fit with the rest of the deck.

The assembly of the hanger and the frames is straightforward. The triangles are cut out and stiffed with an additional part. They will be trimmed to the lead the three edged prism. The prism supports the elevator and should move light, but should stay in the upper position without additional support. The elevator platforms were glued on a colored sheet of 120g card and then trimmed to a width of .5 mm (not on the side, because the hangar is as wide as the platforms).

After this preparation the flight deck is glued on the hangar/hull. Obey the markings on the underside. The sternmost elevator is an additional limit, because the hangar ends directly behind it. The elevators are glued on top of the prisms, the movability is checked. The elevators may be built fixed, also - but, great boys need something to play with.

(to be continued)