HMV1/250 Schaarhoern
Ralf Schnurbusch

Photos by the Author

History:

In 1907 the Hamburg Senat ordered a new ship for measuring the water depth in the Elbe. The ship was build by Janssen & Schmilinski and delivered in 1908. In the first World War the Schaahoern was working as a minesweeper.� From 1919 to 1925 the ship was not in use and in 1925 transferred to Cuxhaven. In the second World War she continued her regular service and only at the end was used to evacuate people in surrounded areas in the East.

In 1971 the ship became obsolete particular due to his age and was sold to Scotland where it was used for Charter tours. In 1987 the ship was discovered abandoned at the English East Coast. It was brought back to Hamburg and restored. In 1995 after finalization of the restoration the ship took her first journey and is now laying in the Hamburg Harbor as museums ship

�� The Model:

This is the smallest model I have built so far. It is only long 7 inch and 1 inch wide.� It can be build as a waterline model or with full hull. The construction starts with the egg crate design of the waterline model. The additional hull is built at the end with the same egg crate structure. Both elements can be seen in the picture below. I laminated the bulkheads on 0.5 mm cardboard, but because of the size of the model it is really not necessary.

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The underwater hull is designed in the same egg crate design. The outside consists of two pieces as you can see in the above right picture. This makes the fit a little more difficult as it has to be shaped into three dimensions.

After deck is applied the main structure will be added and then the hull to the waterline. HMW kit usually contains for every door a double so the doors stand more out. This was not the case for this model, which is regrettable. Next I applied the railing and stairs, which I used from the photo, etch set for this model from HMW.

�I used the photo etch set from HMV for the building of this model.� All HMW kits are available with a photo etch set and all model are designed with this feature. This has considerable advantages. One of the most important for me is the fact that for example the kit is designed to be build without the paper railing and can be easily replaced with the photo etch set version. I also replace the railing in models from other publisher, but can be difficult if the model is not designed for it, as some paper railings can be part of the structural elements and you might end up in some problems.

The construction of this model was otherwise straight forward and not difficult. I had to paint the vents inside yellow as this kid did not provide backside printing and I did not like the vents with outside yellow color to be white inside. As this model is very small so were the bollards and was not easy form the round.

Conclusion:

This is a very nice, small model, which relatively easy and can be built in short time. The kit is of very good quality and the diagram instruction, as always with HMW model are very nice too.

Summary:

Model:	Peildampfer Schaarhoern
Kit:	Hamburger Modellbaubogen Verlag HMW
Designers:	Peter Brandt
Availability:	www.Moduni.com
Scale:	1: 250
Difficulty:	intermediate
Number of Parts:	334
Instructions:	Only basic introduction
Diagrams:	Yes, very good
Fit:	Good
Coloring and Artwork:	Excellent
Printing:	Good
Resources:
Contact or Questions:	Schnurbusch@rogers.com

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