The »Ranzow« is a multi-purpose ship designed for operations in shallow, confined waters. It can cope with many tasks including transport of personnel, equipment and materials, the maintenance of navigation buoys, ice-breaking missions and other tasks. The vessel is fitted with a remotely controlled hydraulic crane for work on deck. The mast can be folded down, and the searchlight on the bridge swung forward and down, to enable the ship to pass under low bridges. Powerful rudders and a bow thruster provide excellent manoeuvring capability, while extra electronic equipment allows the crew to operate and monitor all systems from two control towers. Our model of the RANZOW has been developed from documents supplied by the Fassmer dockyard, and is drawn up to a scale of 1:32. The boat is powered by two SPEED 500 motors, and steered using two Becker rudders and one bow thruster - just as on the full-size vessel. The deck-mounted crane is included in the kit, and can be made to work in scale fashion. Additional working systems can be installed at the builder´s discretion, including the derrick for lowering the ship´s boat, a radio control system in the ship´s boat itself, and systems for folding the mast and lowering the searchlight. Most of the parts which are difficult to make, including the hull, deck, bulwark, superstructure and bridge, are supplied in pre-fabricated form, while many injection-moulded parts in the kit shorten the building time considerably. However, the model is not intended for the beginner, and technical modelling experience and manual skill are required to assemble it and apply a scale colour finish.