I ordered plans for german battleships (Linienschiffe) SMS Brandenburg & SMS Baden (both 1:100) from M.Z. Modellbau (German language site), and I was able to pick them up from the post office today. Delivery from Germany took 10 days from my time of order. The plans arrived in a small box (~12"x18"x8"), which at first, I thought was odd as I was expecting a manila envelope (or a tube). Upon opening the box I discovered why the plans were shipped in a box. The SMS Brandenburg plan set consisted of 9 folded sheets, and the SMS Baden plan set consisted of 10 folded sheets! Also in the box were sheets describing each ships statistics, class members, and brief history in german, as well as an MZ Modellbau catalogue (which I can only describe as porn for the model boat enthusiast). The quality of both plansets is absolutely superb, to be honest they are the best (non-CAD) ship plans I have ever seen. They are comparable to the French plans that are freely available via the SHD website, but much cleaner. SMS Brandenburg (1893) Plan Set Sheet 1 - Side profile/Rigging Plan 1905 config (1:100) Sheet 2 - Side profile (cutaway view) & top detail view (1:100) Sheet 3 - Various top/superstructure views (1:20, 1:100) Sheet 4 - Armour Deck, Steerage Deck views (1:100), Armour, bow (above waterline) & torpedo tube views Sheet 5 - deck plans for engineering spaces (1:100) Sheet 6 - Various cross sections (1:100), detail views of main & secondary guns as well as davits/cranes (1:20 & 1:50) Sheet 7 - side/top profile views for hull, plan view (1:100), bow, prop & rudder detail views (1:50) Sheet 8 - Side profile/Rigging Plan (1:100) Sheet 9 - Side, top, bow & stern views 1893 config (1:200), Ships boats (motorboats, lifeboats, various launches etc) with plan & profile views (1:100) I am not sure who drafted the plans, as I can't read the signature but it appears as though all 9 sheets were done by the same person in the mid to late 1990's. SMS Baden (1917) Plan Set Sheet 1 - Lines & Ribs (1:100, 1:125), steerage & prop shaft diagram Sheet 2 - Cross Sections (1:100) Sheet 3 - Ribs, midship cross section, detail views of steerage/rudders (1:50) Sheet 4 - Detail views main turrets (1:50), secondaries (1:25), ships boats plan & profile (1:50), davits/cranes (1:25, 1:50) Sheet 5 - Side profile portside (above waterline) (1:100) Sheet 6 - Various deck, superstructure views (1:100) Sheet 7 - Top View (1:100) Sheet 8 - Battery deck top view (1:100) Sheet 9 - Side cutaway view (1:100) Sheet 10 - Side profile starboard side (1:100) Nine out of the ten sheets were drawn by Lothar Wirchmeyer between 1980-1985, and one was drafted in 1977 with the name Abramowski signed to it. All text on these plans is in German, though this won't stop anybody with working experience with other plans from understanding what is what. Having Google Translate close by, or an understanding of german will help some. Both plan sets have many rib stations (I counted in excess of 30 for the Baden), so are suitable for use in building to the Battlestations 1/96 format once enlarged slightly. A note about the M.Z. Modellbau The website is in German, and though there is a "english" language version of it, if you click the UK flag near the bottom right hand side, I found it to not work that well. For example, in the english version of the site, the names of the ships are not displayed when viewing the plan sets, just what I can guess is the product ID. I didn't have any luck loading the german version of the website through Google Translate either, as it did not translate anything that I could tell. In the end, I just cut & pasted to Google Translate, and taught myself enough german to complete my purchase. The site did not properly calculate shipping to me, so the site owner, had to send an email to request additional funds for shipping. MZ Modellbau has plans for various, mostly german ships, mostly WWI or prior, but some newer. MZ Modellbau also sells a line of 1:100 kits and hulls which look very nice, but are very expensive, as well as various fittings.
What a great site. They have my favorite torpedoboote the V-116 and a 1906 Deutscheland! Plus a Popovka!
To find the plans on the MZ Modellbau website, click on the Baupläne link on the left side of their main page. This will bring up a screen where you can click on the ship type you are interested in. For those of you intimidated by the website, most of these plans are also available from the german ebay seller "das-geschichtsbuch". I've ordered from them several times and been quite happy with their service. Their ebay store webpage is still in German, but it is still ebay, and fairly easy to navigate. To find the plans in this ebay seller's store, search for "planmappe". The MZ Modellbau site has more WWI German ships while the ebay seller has more WWII German ships. However, the ebay seller seems to have cheaper prices. Hope this helps, Carl
1) Planmappe: Uboottyp VIIC, Fritz Kohl plans, 1/100 scale, 10 sheets 2) Planmappe: Die Deutschen Zerstorer, Z-15 thru Z-32, Gerhard Koop plans, 1/200 scale, 6 sheets 3) Planmappe: Uboottyp XXI, Fritz Kohl plans, 19 sheets All three sets of plans were awesome. I also picked up a couple of the Vom Original Zum Modell books from them. Carl
FYI, ebay seller das-geschichtsbuch will not be taking orders for the next month. They have suspended their ebay auctions, and the note on their website (http://www.das-geschichtsbuch.de) has the following translation: Carl
