Austro-Hungarian Battleship Viribus Unitis Model

[joe100]

Since quite a few of you were interested in my USS Idaho thread, I thought I'd share my latest project. The Austro-Hungarian Dreadnought type Battleship SMS Viribus Unitis in 1/700 scale. This is how she appeared just prior to WWI in early 1914.

VU was commissioned in December 1912, and was 498' long displacing 20,000 tons. She had 4 steam turbines producing 27,000HP capable of moving her at 20.4 kts. She carried 12 9in guns and had armor plating 11in thick.

SMS Viribus Unitis was the first all-triple turret dreadnought named for the personal motto of Franz Josef I. Her name means "joint forces", which is one of the best dreadnought names in my opinion. She was painted green prior to the war in order to blend in with the surrounding countryside but by late 1914 or early 1915 she was painted grey overall. The dark green with pink boot stripe scheme was nicknamed Montecuccolin after the CiC and was mostly gone from the fleet by 1914.

The bridge and conning tower structure is very intricate with lots of ladders and platforms. The reason it's so light and airy is that VU and her sisters were pretty top-heavy and this cut down on the weight. I've read that her half sister SMS Szent Istvan was dangerous in a high speed turn, so much so that it was thought that it was possible to capsize the ship if the maneuver was too sharp. I've read the same for VU and her 2 full sisters, Tegetthoff and Prinz Eugen but I believe it wasn't as pronounced as it was on Istvan. Szent Istvan was slightly different in that she had only 2 turbines to VU's 4 and this design change caused a dangerous mix of less weight below the waterline and propeller placement which exacerbated the turning issues. In the famous film of Istvan capsizing after she was torpedoed, you'll see the turrets are turned in an attempt to offset the list. The Austro-Hungarians knew all along.

VU was sunk in the last days of the war by Italian commandos in a bizarre turn of events. In the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the fleet was handed over to the newly created neutral State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs but the Italians never got the memo. The commandos placed limpet mines below the ship while anchored in Pola harbor. They were quickly discovered around 4am, and taken aboard VU. They were pretty shocked to find what amounted to a Yugoslavian crew (SCS was the forerunner to Yugoslavia). They warned the captain that there was a large quantity of explosives set to go off at 6:30am. below his ship, so the captain ordered an evacuation. However, 6:30 came and went and the captain was under the impression the Italians had lied about what they'd done and returned to the ship with the bulk of the crew. At 6:44am on the 1st of November, 1918, the mines exploded, sinking VU in 15 minutes resulting in the death of 400 crew members. I think I might have waited more than a few minutes past the time a large mine was set to go off!

Most of what you see is scratch built. The hull is a heavily reworked resin casting and the details like railings and ladders are photo-etched brass. I airbrushed the ship in flat black as a I always do and laid down a few shades of wood for the deck, and panzer green for the hull. I wanted to keep the pink boot stripe visible but subtle since it's so stark. I couldn't find a photo of VU in Montecuccolin green with any rust or streaks on the hull. It seems she was very clean before the war so I kept the weathering to a thin wash to bring out the details.

The model is about 8 inches long





Sub assemblies ready for airbrushing.



And after all that work:

[Danny83]

Wow very nice

[Dr. Robert]

Wow!!!!!!

[joe100]

Thanks guys!

[Soly20]

That's pretty cool.

[bayerische]

Very nice model.

[Old Expat Beast]

Outstanding once again Joe

[cop414]

Amazing work Joe, you have more patience than I'll ever have!

[1William]

Amazing and very cool.

[joe100]

Thanks everyone! Not a whole lot of patience needed really. Anyone can learn the skills needed and it's a fantastic hobby.

[dddrees]

Originally Posted by cop414

Amazing work Joe, you have more patience than I'll ever have!

My thoughts exactly.

Fabulous job!!

[Knappo 1307]

[RichM]

Beautiful work Joe.

[joe100]

Thanks everyone.

My next project I'm staring in about 3 weeks is the WWI German Battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger. Derfflinger was at Jutland and took huge damage but didn't sink. The British nicknamed her the Iron Dog for all the punishment she took. She was one of the finest ship in any navy during the war.

She survived was was scuttled by her own crew after the war

[Kingair]

Nice job !

[joli160]

Beautiful, love to read the history of the vessels you made

[joe100]

The display case arrived today. Varnished natural oak. I put a Rolex 5500 Air King next to the model for scale.

[NH76]

Outstanding! Bravo Zulu!


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[Lion]

Joe, well done and looks great…and thanx for the history lesson!!!

Take care…..Leo

[TheRolexKingofLV]

Well done Joe...they are pieces of art

[bdex75]

I enjoy the history lesson as much as the beautiful models. Just incredible.
Some really tight macro shots and one would never know it is 8" long.


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[joe100]

Glad you guys enjoy these little trips down history road

[joe100]

I thought you might find this interesting.

This is the last known photo of SMS VU, taken from her sister, SMS Tegetthoff. It's grainy but you can clearly see the boats from her earlier evacuation.

[joe100]

Also, here is a dramatic colorized video of VU's sister SMS Szent Istvan rolling over after being torpedoed by the Italians on June 10, 1918. Although 89 sailors died in the video you're watching, it could have been much higher had it not been for the fact that the KuK Kriegsmarine required all sailors be proficient swimmers. This seems like common sense, but wasn't required in most of the world's navies at the time.

The video is only 20 seconds long, filmed from SMS Tegetthoff

http://youtu.be/dvJVHFSTNrI

[TheBluePrince]

Great work!

Nice to see the SMS Derfflinger too with it being the 100th anniversary of Jutland very soon

[joe100]

Originally Posted by TheBluePrince

Great work!

Nice to see the SMS Derfflinger too with it being the 100th anniversary of Jutland very soon

I hope to have her started by the anniversary on May 31.

Jutland is one of those naval battles which absolutely fascinated me. The largest confrontation of battleships and battle cruisers in history, although it wasn't the largest naval battle in history, that was The Battle of Layte Gulf October 23-26 1944.

Jutland was a tactical win for the Germans, more-or-less, but a strategic win for the British. The Germans sank more ships and killed more men, by a wide margin too, but by not destroying the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet ceded control of the North Sea to the British and ceased to be an effective fighting force. The reason the Germans sank more ships and killed more men is because the British were bypassing their safety systems in place to prevent magazine explosions. HMS Queen Mary, HMS Indefatigable, and HMS Invincible all suffered magazine explosions due to poor cordage handling practices. German shells touched off explosions so violent that they're still listed as some of the largest non-nuclear explosions. Ever. Of the 3,311 across all three ships, only 26 survived.

[Lordofrolex]

very nice

[Rockrolex]

Beautiful model, Joe. Once again proving your prowess in this arena.

[TheBluePrince]

Originally Posted by joe100

I hope to have her started by the anniversary on May 31.

Jutland is one of those naval battles which absolutely fascinated me. The largest confrontation of battleships and battle cruisers in history, although it wasn't the largest naval battle in history, that was The Battle of Layte Gulf October 23-26 1944.

Jutland was a tactical win for the Germans, more-or-less, but a strategic win for the British. The Germans sank more ships and killed more men, by a wide margin too, but by not destroying the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet ceded control of the North Sea to the British and ceased to be an effective fighting force. The reason the Germans sank more ships and killed more men is because the British were bypassing their safety systems in place to prevent magazine explosions. HMS Queen Mary, HMS Indefatigable, and HMS Invincible all suffered magazine explosions due to poor cordage handling practices. German shells touched off explosions so violent that they're still listed as some of the largest non-nuclear explosions. Ever. Of the 3,311 across all three ships, only 26 survived.

Yes, been reading a lot about Jutland lately, obviously there is renewed interest here at the moment, fascinating.

There was an Obit in the daily papers here a few weeks ago that will interest you, Lt-Cdr Kenneth "Tom" Cobley, Gun Control Officer on Duke Of York in the action against Scharnhorst at the North Cape, the last ever Royal Navy all battleship engagement and the penultimate ever all battleship engagement between any forces.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituarie...ley--obituary/

[joe100]

Thanks for the link. That was a great read!

Scharnhorst was one of the best looking warships ever built, massively undergunned, but impressive looking none the less. She didn't stand a chance against a King George V class battleship like Duke of York. Scharnhorst was built with 11in main rifles with the option to upgrade to the excellent 15in rifles when they came available, the same 15in turrets used on Bismarck and Tirpitz. The work was never carried out though. Duke of York was an excellent design with high velocity 14in rifles, on par with the German 15 inchers. DoY and her cruiser escort made short work of Scharnhorst and out of a crew of nearly 2,000, only 36 survived.