Herr Nilsson wrote:
The foretop deck wasn't planked, but covered with 5 cm pine wood lath gratings.
Thanks for the information, Herr Nilsson. I just took another look at the illustrations of Tirpitz' colour schemes (1941-1944) on
http://www.bismarck-class.dk .
I noticed (on the schemes K and L) that the deck on the foretop was wooden grated from March 1941 (beginning of career) - March 1944...
....and replaced by diamond grate steel in March 1944:
Note also the plexiglass pergola up front, perhaps added at the same time.
Maarten Schönfeld wrote:
Hi Aop, what does the foretop in the 1/350 kit of the Tirpitz from Revell look like? (I KNOW you have it on your shelf...) It must be pretty accurate I think. If grating instead of planking, I second Herr Nilsson.
Generally, planking width of the higer decks neither had the width nor the thickness of what was used on the main decks, so I would say, max plank width being 4 inches or something in the order of 0.3mm on scale.
Thanks for your comment, Maarten! Of course, the Revell kit is sitting in a cupboard as a proud member of the stash. The foretop part is MUCH better! As you can see, the Tamiya part does not resemble any of the two sisters.
Bismarck's (taken from Hans Gally's plans):
Tirpitz's (taken from Mirosław Skwiot's drawings):
Here is a comparison shot of Revell (left) and Tamiya (right) parts:
They differ from each other not only the shape, but the width as well. I'll measure the drawing and check if Revell got it right...
I will make two versions of my 3D design, one planked and the other as in March 1944 (with grating and pergola), of which I would be using for our Nov 1944 Tamiya build. I will try to post some screenshots of the design soon.
Regards,
Aop