The Ship Model Forum

Hi everybody,
I am Andreas working on the 1:200 Bismarck from Trumpeter.
I like to introduce my build with a detailed description on how I build and what seams to me important to show.
Detailed pictures will follow, especially the mistakes I have or will make in order that we all that are not so skillfully can learn from each other.

I have build a few ships from kits and scratch, these are not battleships therefore now this post on the Bismarck.

A bit about my self;

Living in Indonesia, Tamiya shops are available in the last past ten years or so. However no shops for ships are available and any kind of material or parts are hard to source.
Why the Bismarck? A time ago on parties, together with friends of many nationals, some of them invited me and another German friend and as it happens after a few drinks the old saying, we lost he WWII came up as a joke. My friend and I said after many calls of being "Krauts", to do build a Bismarck and make a oil spill in the swimming pool of our friends, of cores we needed a ship. What better to build for this, you guessed "THE BISMARCK".

So of i went, the next Tamiya shop and the 1:350 Bismarck was mine. After four month the small Bismarck got me back my skill set and the next project was the actual I wanted to build, the beast.

On a Europe trip, was standing on and I ordered online the trumpeter kit. The German guy, I ordered from, had the hazel to get me as much parts as he could organize. I then hand carried that "Beast" to Indonesia because, if I had ordered online, the cost on customs and tax would have killed the project. Not to mention they would have gone through it and many parts would have either been broken or missing (previous experiences). Shortly after arrival I scanned the net for all photo etch parts and so on, to build the ultimate Bismarck. Everybody that build a large ship like this, also comes up with the problem to spend endless amounts of money, so I decided to make parts on my own, not but not least to get the approval of my wife.

Enough said, here we go and start with the Hull, so please fell free to comment and any tips or input is highly welcomed.

Never less to say, this forum has given me the best ideas and therefore a big thanks to all builders on this side.

I hope we all have a lot of fun in the future, thank you for letting me join.

Regards,

Andreas

Your thread might get moved out of the scratchbuilding section but I'm interested in seeing how your project goes as I'm working on one myself. Welcome and keep us posted!

_________________
-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Was not sure where to post it, thank you for having me.

Many welcomes indeed. The best place for your project where it will get many more views is the picture post/works in progress. The Bismarck projects always receive a lot of attention and response.

Regards. Tom

Could you please move it, another question; all progress updates need approval?

Hi again,
I like to start with the basic of fixing the hull's molding issues, and then start with the docking keels.
I will write only if necessary because I like that the people see the actual problems with this model.
Picture 4, this is the torpedo net holder and mooring pipes, it will be sanded off, the replaced by self machined parts.

I sanded the whole hull with 36o grid sandpaper, because I read that someone on a German forum, had problems paint sticking to it.
The docking keel measuring where taken from pictures of the forum sides, and on this forum of a 1:100 scratch build. Some of the measuring you can see during the progress. it is for sure not 100% scale, but i tried my best to work it out.

Just for information I am currently working still on the hull, therefore about 100 pictures are coming just to the process of where I am now. I hope i am permitted to post so many pictures. If not please let me know. Just find 10 is the maximum

As I added the first and section of the stern docking keel, I was so focused on sanding the shape, that I forgot to cover the Sonar "U" shape, I sanded it almost off, re-driling them from the beginning some mm in is much easier as recreate them. However I took a masking tape and used a pencil to have a stencil to recover, lost holes, the same for the water intakes.

Before I decided to build the docking keel i glued the swinger keels on, simply because i was not aware that the Bismarck had docking keels. Leave them of to the last until the docking keel has finished. But make sure you do not sand of the fine grove!!!

use green car putty, it is more corse but sticks great, compare to the fine stuff.

Gluing the page midsection, was weighted down with about 10kg of metal. This is the part to watch, because if this is laid to one side, then you got a big problem to straighten this out. Use small cuts of wood or any material to glue it on either side onto the hull, so it becomes straight and does not bend the sides inward towards the hull. Remove them after and fill the gab.

do not be tempted to pick the model up for at least a few hours. Also if you use to much hardener don't panic if it gets hot, just poor water inside the hull to keep it cooling down.

Guess it's up to him, it's RC as mentioned in the title, so it also fits in here, certainly when the RC part is covered in detail. But as Tom said, if you wish more views, it's better to post it in picture post since more people visit that part more regularily. I think the RC/scratchbuild section is only visited by a few regular builders/posters.
Good luck with your project though. I guess these 1/200 ships really do lend themselves for RC conversion.

_________________
The merchant shipyard

If you use late amounts of putty, then get some resin and thin it out, jus so it does not start running. Mask all areas on the hull where no resin should stick to, then cut and sand them of later. Masking is vital in order to save sanding time and get clear lines, most of the time it is important to take it off before the putty sets.

Other times i let it sit so i have a barrier between the hull while sanding, especially when there are intakes or similar things that need to be taken care of, like the sonar holes.

Sanding in-between is important to get it straight, for the one that have not don a big job like this, 50 hours sanding has gone into the hull for the docking keel alone. I must say so, that also because the putty was not the best, 5-6 hours repair can be deducted.

Please move it to the post picture post, appreciate your effort.

Applying the dock keel, was in parts a bit of a challenge. First the scale, there is little or no information on it. Thanks to Mickosh3 post in this forum and last but not least viewtopic.php?f=13&t=57213 in the forum known as "109", I started, my build with the docking keel. It is not as precise, but I tried my best to get it done. The skills are coming by doing, that has been quiet a task, manly shaping it, as to the above postings of their scratch builds in 1:100 scale.

The Work
I started cutting the dock keel from the front to the back in the center and super glued them applying the super glue in the center as much I could cover.

After the first initial gluing to set the part, I waited 24 hrs, then I placed the hull on either side and masked the ends, so no super glue spilled over the hull itself, through holes in the center. Applying the filler with a thin plastic into the gabs and mask tapped the hull beforehand to remove excess putty. Each section has been sanded smooth, as you see on the pictures.

As mentioned before use rough putty instead of the fine version. Fine cracks and split up sections were removed with a Dremel diamond and filled with Tamiya putty. For the sanding I used 240 grid to start rough then finished with 320-400 grid as necessary.

When sanding be careful, since gabs you sand into the hull need fixing afterwards. I made out of sandal rubber different rubber shapes to do the sanding. Smaller section work is more efficient, as trying to sand lager parts in one go.
However I always finished all new parts applied, up to 6hrs in one sitting.

Remove excess putty with a rotating sanding toll first, that will speed up the process, since you anyhow have to do a fine filling of putty several times.

I had a rubber hose and a bucket on top of the hose resting on a rubber matt, close to the area of the hull I sanded. Also I placed a whole rubber matt below the hull to avoid damages to the same.

I never fully finished the sanding in one go to a final finish, then I dried the hull for min. 3 days before I started again filling remaining gabs. Sometimes I used only dry sending for small areas. Even after I waited three days, sometimes water re appeared from gabs.

In the aft section adding the putty barrier from styrene, made the work much easier. The styrene has been sanded to fit onto the hull, the putty I cut to the angle I needed as seen on the picture. Again glue the area on the hull shut and mask before applying the putty. Masking saves time and make clear lines too, it is worth while.

In picture 038 you can see the shafts, we coming back to them at a later stage, lets concentrate on the docking keel first. If you go slow with sanding in-between jobs, you reach faster and better results as when trying to get it done at ones.

A final sending all around, again let it dry for some days, you will be surprised what happen, because the putty shrinks and delaminate of the hull, so longer you wait so more you can see and repair in one go.

My Indonesian wife is very tolerant, so I can leave my projects around as I please (got to thank her for that).

After a week drying I scratched lose putty away and used the dremel tool to clean the gabs until contact of putty and hull was satisfying, i did not fill these gabs before priming!

I then applied an anti corrosion primer, acrylic based. This primer has some zink in it and is kind of thick and has very good gab filling properties. I applied Tamiya putty on all areas shortly after priming (2-3hrs), so the bond of Tamiya putty and paint fused. It again takes quit a time to fully harden, so take your time and be patient before starting sanding, I left the hull for a week to dry before starting sanding, even so the putty I applied still delaminated, very frustrating.

Wow, that's a helluva lot of work on that ole banana boat! Your dedication is admirable.

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Here the last pictures of the docking keel section, also some pictures of my cave I am working in.

I could also send some picture of the leaders that i tried to produce myself as such the bull eyes, before I did find the photo etch parts in my whole collection. (stupid really) So much work for nothing but experience!! So worse while anyhow to get more skills.
If you are interested send me a note then I will also post these pictures.

I will stop for now before I start the next section and see wherever it is worse while doing such a detail description of this build, hopefully we have something in common, also I would like some other people that are on the sam Bismarck Trumpeter project to respond and exchange ideas. Thank you for now!

Shaft and Motor
I will give a detailed description of how the shaft and motor holders are build and set into the hull.

One of 7 plans I have on canvas, it is hung in my Restaurant & Bar in Jakarta

Did you post your Bismarck here too?

The shafts and motor holder

I went over many sides of buying after market stuff, especially the propeller and shafts, but I only found a expensive set that not even looked like the original Bismarck shafts. Neither does the kit itself cover it as shown on the pictures. Since I have a lathe, I thought that we do the whole thing my self. Here the problem started. Since I wanted all motors next to each other, I could also not find the length needed to get to them when the deck is mounted.

Again this is Indonesia, you just can't run into the next shop and buy what you want. I searched for 3 weeks in an area called Glodok, where all shops are located to by any kind of hardware. Small shafts with 2mmø not possible, ending up buying stainless welding rots. Straight 4mmø piping, the same problem. A run to that area is a day event!! so after several runs I got it.

Here we go, lining the shaft into its housing was the next challenge, it took me about 2m of pipe and countless trials just to cut the right size (never used the lathe before), because I wanted the teardrop shape mounting onto the pipe and make the pipe sticking out of the whole scale too. I cut the pipe to length, then machined the hole into the brass fitting onto the pipe.

Brass

Cutting the brass of 4mmø to 50mmø length to get a grip. then center drilled the 2,1mmø for the shaft, after that drilled the 3,5mmø
for the pipe. Making the same pcs of brass for the motor side with 2mmø wall flush with the outside diameter of the pipe.
Cutting then the shape and sanded it on the lathe (don't do that at home) this is by far a tricky bit to get tree parts the same.

Te two arms of the teardrop made also of brass needed to be grooved into the teardrop, here I used the small proxon milling machine.

I used the plastic parts for measure the brass, get the angle for the hull and fitted; them solded and sanded them flush.

Motor housing

I used a solid 40mmø aluminium pice to machine the motor holder. Again drilled the center for the shaft 4mmoø then used the biggest drill for entering the motor side, until I could use a cutting tool to make the motor diameter hole. +/- 0,5mmø. since the motor will heat up the size is kept to an expansion minimum.

I added some of the aluminium shop pictures, this is compare to many other countries I know a gold digger ground, because you can buy any size you like. the same for brass or cast brass.

The shafts and motor holder

I went over many sides of buying after market stuff, especially the propeller and shafts, but I only found a expensive set that not even looked like the original Bismarck shafts. Neither does the kit itself cover it as shown on the pictures. Since I have a lathe, I thought that we do the whole thing my self. Here the problem started. Since I wanted all motors next to each other, I could also not find the length needed to get to them when the deck is mounted.

Again this is Indonesia, you just can't run into the next shop and buy what you want. I searched for 3 weeks in an area called Glodok, where all shops are located to by any kind of hardware. Small shafts with 2mmø not possible, ending up buying stainless welding rots. Straight 4mmø piping, the same problem. A run to that area is a day event!! so after several runs I got it.

Here we go, lining the shaft into its housing was the next challenge, it took me about 2m of pipe and countless trials just to cut the right size (never used the lathe before), because I wanted the teardrop shape mounting onto the pipe and make the pipe sticking out of the whole scale too. I cut the pipe to length, then machined the hole into the brass fitting onto the pipe.

Brass

Cutting the brass of 4mmø to 50mmø length to get a grip. then center drilled the 2,1mmø for the shaft, after that drilled the 3,5mmø
for the pipe. Making the same pcs of brass for the motor side with 2mmø wall flush with the outside diameter of the pipe.
Cutting then the shape and sanded it on the lathe (don't do that at home) this is by far a tricky bit to get tree parts the same.

Te two arms of the teardrop made also of brass needed to be grooved into the teardrop, here I used the small proxon milling machine.

I used the plastic parts for measure the brass, get the angle for the hull and fitted; them solded and sanded them flush.

Motor housing

I used a solid 40mmø aluminium pice to machine the motor holder. Again drilled the center for the shaft 4mmoø then used the biggest drill for entering the motor side, until I could use a cutting tool to make the motor diameter hole. +/- 0,5mmø. since the motor will heat up the size is kept to an expansion minimum.

I added some of the aluminium shop pictures, this is compare to many other countries I know a gold digger ground, because you can buy any size you like. the same for brass or cast brass.

After machining the parts I drilled the hull to fit them, here I encountered some problems!
I could not get the drill close enough to the hull, so i started with the biggest diameter drill i could fit into my small dremel, then used differed size files to get to the desired diameter. That took a while and was a challenge not to loose to much body on the hull or brake things, slow go is the key (do not force or shorten time).

Since I have had the hull loaded with metal beforehand, to see ho much load that beast needs, to come to the waterline I was not worry about using a lot of epoxy to fit them in.

First fitted the motor holder and checked that the shafts run smooth, I super glued the same into the hull. Masking the shape of the outside shut where the two plastic parts where located, so if I add the e to poxy, the main structure outside of the hull would need only to be sanded to shape. Check your work twice, because if you like to safe on masking tape and the epoxy start running out, this can backfire on you! (previous experience on the small Tamiya model).

I added inside the hull styrene to make a wall, so that the epoxy is in a chamber and not running through the inside of the hull.

Now when you use large amounts of epoxy, one thing is for sure, ITS GETTING HOT.
I mixed the 1:1 epoxy, filled it in and tapped on the hull to get as much bubbles out as possible, (DO NOT GO AWAY DURING THIS PROCESS). I Did use epoxy a lot, so I know how to it gets!! I sit by and watched gras growing and had my hand on the hull to check the temperature. In the moment the epoxy started getting hard the heat started too. The epoxy to that stage was not more running, so I took the hull and turned the inside down, and had running water from outside the hull flowing for about 10 minutes, I turned the hull, and touched the inside so it was hard enough to receive pouring water now from the inside until it cured fully.