Hi Everybody,

I have started the third of five ship models, the German armed auxiliary cruiser HSK Kormoran. This model can be considered the companion piece to the model of HMAS Sydney II. I hope to do some renders of the two ships in battle.

Kormoran is a famous ship, at least to Australians, made even more so by the recent discovery of her wreck. She was responsible for what must be one of the most remarkable of naval victories when she sank the vastly superior HMAS Sydney II. The two ships fought a point blank gun battle leading to their mutual destruction and for Sydney the loss of her entire crew of 645. Kormoran's success seemed so unlikely that doubt has been cast on the legality of the Kormoran's actions ever since. It can be safely said I think, that at 1000m Sydney had little advantage over Kormoran and in fact, in the opening salvos was disadvantaged by reliance on those "advantages". In something of a pub brawl, she was king hit at the outset and it is amazing to me that she managed to hit back at all.

Kormoran is a difficult ship to research. There seem to be few photos of the ship, perhaps because of the secretive nature of her war service and the lack of glamour attached to it. Thanks to Jean-Paul I have a set of Russian hull curves and profile to use (which look simple but are quite nicely drawn). I also have another profile drawing for reference and a handful of useful Wikipedia photos. Finally there is an NNT model of the ship for which I have found a useful review and a very nice completed model. Link to the scale model for anyone who wants to know what this 3D version should probably look like: http://www.modellversium.de/galerie/5-schiffe-militaer/1998-hilfskreuzer-kormoran-nnt-modell+buch.html

I have rambled on! Shots of the start of the model....