The Ship Model Forum

I'm putting a post in my "Commissioning Day" log discussing my trying difficulties with waterlines on this 1/200 Trumpeter Bismarck. Look there!

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Bill

SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM.

Jason:

NEVER GIVE UP THE SHIP !!! (an old USN slogan)!

Your build has been VERY helpful to me, and I hope you'll continue.

Regarding the Kriegsmarine, it was a very handsome, but not very effective navy, which IS a bit tiresome. Grossadmiral Eric Raeder said on the first day of the war "All we can do is die well." The DKM did not plan to be on a war footing until 1945...yet they went to war in 1939!

Most of the KM ships looked great, with the rakish, Atlantic bow, but they performed terribly. There were propulsion problems...the destroyer fleet was notorious for drydock time. The capital ships had propulsion problems, too. There seemed to be some common weakness in the stern construction...Deutschland, Bismarck, and Prinz Eugen all exhibit problems with the stern snapping off transversely under some kind of structural "stress."

The German fleet in Norway was operationally handicapped by fuel shortages and limited air cover from the Luftwaffe!

The Germans tried to innovate, to find ways of strangling Britain's commerce, since they could not beat the Royal Navy numerically. They employed the U-boat (very effectively) and Commerce Raiders (Atlantis, Cormoran, Penguin, et al) somewhat effectively. The latter are interesting but uncommon subjects among model ship builders.

But, the greatest weakness of the Kriegsmarine (and the greater strength of the USN, Royal Navy, and IJN) was the total absence of any operational aircraft carrier. A navy without airpower was already doomed in 1939, and maybe that's what Raeder was thinking on Day One. The Japanese used their carriers very effectively until Midway. The aircraft carrier went on to become the premier weapon of the U.S. Navy in World War II, supplanting the battleship. Maybe that's why the USN prevailed. It was simply massive airpower.

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Bill

SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM.

Don't worry Wilhelm, I'm not abandoning the project... So far everything is going great on the build but this IS a hobby after all and I know it's time to switch gears for a while when things stop being fun. Otherwise I'll find myself cutting corners and end up with an inferior end product. Plus, I'm hoping for more PE beyond the KA set which will allow me to scrape off and redo most of the tiny superstructure details I obliterated during my porthole replacement process for a REALLY spectacular model.

It seems most internet Bismarck builds are hitting the dreaded "end of enthusiasm" wall, but doing a hardcore superdetailed "big bissy" is a HUGE job, I'm building it for me, have no schedule or deadlines and I have my whole life to build it so there's no rush.

And Nigel, I AM tempted to do another Arizona... one project idea I'm hanging onto is to do a WW1 USS Pennsylvania using the Trumpy Arizona kit as a base. I'm gonna tackle that after I've moved a couple slots up the modeler continuum, from "ambitious wannabe junior model monkey master" to "journeyman model god".

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

A question .... the KA Models Mk1 Design deck was used in this build. The other deck currently on the market is that from Artwox but haven't seen any reviews. Does anyone have an opinion as to the pros and cons of each? Just curious as I'm about to make the proverbial plunge and buy one and am not sure which is the best/safest option.

I can't speak too much for the Artwox deck as I've never seen one in person or used their decks before but the KA deck went on flawlessly for me and looks great too.

I personally like the appearance of the KA deck better too; the KA deck looks more like individual planks while (from the pics) the Artwox deck uses a thicker grained wood and looks less convincing to me. I do like how Artwox used PE to replicate the square panels on the bridge though; the KA set uses wood which is easier to match I suppose but still less detailed than PE would be.

I don't think you could necessarily go wrong with either...

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Hi Jason!

just started looking at this huge ship of yours. Sorry to hear that there isn't so much selection when it comes to PE parts in this scale, but it seems to me that you make up for that with your skills! Very nice paint-job so far, and I love those individual hand-hold pieces down the side of the stern.
Keep it up, I hope you have given up on giving up!

Cheers:Laci

Naw, the Bismarck will be finished someday; I haven't given up. I've jumped over to another project for now; the way I see it the important thing is that I'm building something and once I get Gato burnout I'll be right back here.

Burnout is hard to avoid on huge projects like these... it never was a problem back when I was doing model cars! You've just gotta think of them as a couple dozen small models put together on a big diorama that happens to be a ship hull.

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

I know that burnout feeling with HMS Victory.....rigging, rigging, rigging! sigh...

I just installed the Artwox wood deck on my Bismarck. It went on great. Very pleased. The color appears to be darker then the pictures I have seen of the KA models Mk1 deck but it looks great to me. Note that when you peal back the plastic it should remove the cutaways for the various hatches and holes. I had to push some of them out as they did not quite pop out. This required some care as when you pushed a small piece out it often flipped and stuck to the adhesive under the deck and I had to carefully remove it with an exacto. Only Had this happen on 3 small pieces so far.

Also note that it is so thin that while you can tell it is wood, it is like a thin cardboard. But I had a few tiny holes that Did not pop out and when viewing the deck under 10x magnification to cut the hole it was amazing, it looked like I was cutting thru actual planks of wood. Just totally cool.

was hanging around for the Pontos set having had the kit since the beginning of Dec. Watching these builds has now got to me. I order some PE from a supplier in Germany covering stuff like the hull vents and this turned up yesterday. That was the final straw, just order the Mk1 DX pack so will be joining you all, using the lessons from fantastic builds so far documented. Haven't the skill to do the re-engineering of the hull that some of you have done and quite frankly I don't care if the completed model isn't correct, as long as it looks like a boat and is vaguely similar to the Bismarck then I'm happy !

Happy modelling all, thanks for the inspiration

neil

Jason, is there any chance that you could post some close-up pictures of your Mk.1 decking similar to the pictures which can be seen in the Artwox web site (http://artwox.com/index.php?document_srl=7541)??? I'd also be very interested in seeing pictures of 'thinking-man-too's Artwox deck installation. I also noticed that Artwox has gone the photo etch route for the bridge grating. How does Mk.1 approach this area?

the Mk1 set does them with the same wood as the rest of the deck; here's how they look on my set:



I'm just not dedicated enought to try to copy all of Artwox's pics exactly (besides, I'm not that far on my build anyway) but I've posted quite a few pics and Anton did on his build as well ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=144178 ) so you should get a good impression of what the Mk1 deck looks like.

Anyway, I put a good day's work into the Bismarck today; here's where I ended up:

I sealed the maindeck with a clear polyurethane finish (satin finish). It darkened the deck slightly, but I think it looks alright and will keep the deck preserved into the distant future. I also intend to either dull it out with fine steel wool or dullcote it:









I also did a fair amount of cleanup on the superstructure; I bought an airbrush so I am going to ditch rattle-cans for the superstructure of the ship, though I'm probably going to stick with the same color.

This means I've gotta get things cleaner for a smooth paint job, especially because this color grey really highlights errors. On the aft half of the lower superstructure I ended up completely sanding off the remaining details to finally clean up the mess I made with my porthole replacements:



I will rebuild the L-shaped vent air deflectors with styrene strip (probably a good move anyway as they were molded on crooked on the angled aft section). I will also need to replace a couple of doors and pipes but it won't be anything too difficult.

The forward section came out a bit cleaner so I might not have to do much beyond adding the additional PE I already have:



Both my wife and daughter came down to the model dungeon at different times during the afternoon...I guess to make sure I was still alive.

They both said: "Wow! you're almost done!"

If only they knew...

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Man I am so jealous of those grated decks, been wanting that for my Revell kit forever! Please someone hear our plea for the Revell 350 kit……

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"Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left
port and the other was an atrocious liar."
-Don Bamford

Even though I am "taking a break" on the build work still manages to creep along. That's what happens you are a model junkie... and for once it's OK to share needles.



No that's not the "good stuff" in the syringe, it's white glue... the best way I've found to get tiny bits of glue where it's needed. Free syringes are perhaps the only benefit of my son's medical problems.

Anyway, here's an example of the Mk1 set's PE on the Admiral's staff quarters. I pre-painted the vents (which actually go all the way through on the PE!) and cut out the area behind for that extra bit of realism. Now that I'm armed with a shiny new airbrush it should be easy enough to paint around them without clogging them up.





I'm gonna try to get moving again here; I took some of the forum's advice and went looking for a mistress as a small side project . My wife wasn't pleased until she arrived in the mail and was found to be 1/24 scale and well, not real:






Her name is "Sasha" and she can weld, which should come in handy on the Bismarck.

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Nothing too fancy this time but work continues on...

I replaced the the vent wind deflectors that I cut off earlier, now they are all the appropriate 90 degree angle to the superstructure:



And I started work on the funnel:





Just that represents about 6 hours of work. Still plenty of work to go here... this is probably the most complex piece of superstructure on the kit once you throw all the extra PE in.

(edit) Just a quick FYI for those who haven't arrived at this point yet...

I replaced the vents on the side of the funnel with the PE from the KA set first off but the slats will bend if you look at them wrong and look like they won't take much bending before they break off. One would be counted wise to resist the urge to add them and/or or bend the slats up until they are closer to finishing the funnel... it is a serious struggle to get the rails on and you will want the extra manuverability (and not-ruined vents). It also appears the KA instructions tell you to put the vertical ladders in the wrong place though Trumpeter got it right in the instructions (I double-checked with the Kagero book); something to keep a lookout for.

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Well Jason as I said on my wip I found this build of yours and have looked through all of it.
Man that is a lot of detailing your doing to this thing.
And all of it looks great.
I will be back tracking on here as I need to when I get further along with mine.

I decided to drill my windows and portholes before seeing yours.
Now that I've seen yours it will make that a lot eaiser for me,and that is my next step on mine.
Earl

Thanks Earl! Let me know if you need any advice, encouragement or bad jokes for your Bismarck build!

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Jason, how does progress go on your Bismarck? I rally like this build just like a great bunch of other guys here

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Greetz, Ronald from the Netherlands.

My Blog: http://metusajunction.blogspot.com

My photos: https://www.flickr.com/people/52307730@N06/

Things have been slow in my model dungeon lately. I've had a lot going on at home and just got back from a trip to Las Vegas (I even came back with 30 bucks more than I left with... only the second time that's ever happened in Vegas history ) and Los Angeles.

I saw the USS Iowa last Tuesday... It gave me all sorts of battleship inspiration and I have the next 4 days totally free to build so there will be some more progress soon.

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Oke, that's nice. I was in the States in 2011 and saw the Iowa in its resting place at the reserve fleet at that moment:



At that point there was still no idea that she would travel to Los Angeles. So that alone I think is a great accomplishment for the people who arranged for that.

And from far away in the fleet:



Luckely she is now in LA. I hope to re-visit the States next year in summer 2014. LA will be my place of interest and yes, I will go see the Iowa! Can't wait for that

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Greetz, Ronald from the Netherlands.

My Blog: http://metusajunction.blogspot.com

My photos: https://www.flickr.com/people/52307730@N06/