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1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=161097
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Author:  Harquebus [ Mon Feb 22, 2016 8:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

The funnel details look very nice! I think the vertical lines on the funnel look super even though, as you say, they are inaccurate for Tirpitz but a little exaggerated detail is not such a bad thing. Maybe you should convert the kit to the Bismarck so it will look right? :big_grin: Also nice to see you both have made good use of the PE foot rails. How were they attached to the funnel--did you drill holes for the foot rail supports?

:nod_2:

Author:  Aop Aur [ Tue Mar 15, 2016 12:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Harquebus wrote:
The funnel details look very nice! I think the vertical lines on the funnel look super even though, as you say, they are inaccurate for Tirpitz but a little exaggerated detail is not such a bad thing. Maybe you should convert the kit to the Bismarck so it will look right? :big_grin: Also nice to see you both have made good use of the PE foot rails. How were they attached to the funnel--did you drill holes for the foot rail supports?

:nod_2:

Hello Harq,

Sorry for replying very late... and thanks for the kind words :smallsmile:

As said, we were busy with our piano stuffs..

I could go with Bismarck conversion, but then I would find more and more differences between the two and end up converting back and on forever!! Let's call her "DKM Tirparck" for now! :big_grin:

My brother, who was responsible for the funnel, simply glue the supports right on it using superglue. No holes were drilled, though that will ease up the process..but would take lots of time. Well, as the kit is not the best for Tirpitz, the build is going to be rather straight-forward, so we won't fix much errors, but detailing will continue. :heh:

We didn't post any updates (again) as we intended to, but there are already a little progress done..we'll try to post it as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Aop & Aur

Author:  Aop Aur [ Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Hi all,

Some progress was made on the funnel, and it is almost completed, being left with only searchlights, small cranes, and it will be ready for painting. My brother planned to devote his day to searchlights detailing, since Eduard did not offer PE parts for them at all..

A pic of how the first searchlight looks like...I cannot imagine how long detailing the rest of them will be.. It's hardly perfect at all, but should look good painted. This is the first scratch-built detailing with styrene for him.

Cheers,

Aop

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Author:  Aur [ Thu Mar 24, 2016 1:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

---UPDATES---
More photos of the first two searchlights, detailed and painted. Some styrene bits are..well..it was a windy day when I was making them outside, and the better ones were gone with the wind.. :huh:
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Here is a photo of the funnel parts, taken some days ago...lower part was painted with a mixture of dark grey described below. The searchlights were really tired, so I let them get some rest while shooting...lovely..
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Tamiya instruction indicates XF-54 dark sea grey, XF-24 dark grey, and XF-54+XF-2 flat white colors for the 1943-44 camo, so in this case, Nov 1944 they are the superstructure, hull/A&Dturrets, and superstructure top respectively. However, according to John Asmussen's drawings and photos, the two colors should actually be (much) more contrasting, so I created a mixture of dark sea grey and flat white for the superstructure, dark grey and flat black for the dark color, and dark sea grey and lots of white for the lightest one.

The hull, completed (at last!) funnel, and some other parts will be airbrushed with the new colors tomorrow.

I just noticed that the Tirpitz got as much as 18 sets of 20 mm-MG-C/38 Quadruple AA guns in July 1944, and the problem is that Eduard only provides 10 sets...I guess I'll just make it as is. Although Veteran Models makes very fine sets of all AA guns, they are too expensive, and not worth for such an erroneous kit.

I chose to depict her funnel searchlight covers closed, according to most photos of her fjord anchorages. Again, I used Tamiya masking tape to create the strips..

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Test fitted. My searchlights didn't care to look and smile at the camera.. :heh:
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Next, the vertical strips..
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Just some fun funnel shots of before and after detailing..
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My brother, Aop, did some progress as well:
Bolts created by dots of scotch glue...works really well and easy, but keeping them the same size is tricky.
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Eduard's metal decks were painted with Tamiya colors to replicate Pontos deck color...a very light coat of brown-ish orange will give a better finish.
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But overall, it is very close..
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It is very, very hot over here in Thailand!
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...phewww.... :mad_1: :mad_2:
Actually, the figure wasn't so realistic. The car just cooked itself in the sunlight and pretended it was that hot! Max temperature recorded was 40 degrees Celsius, in 1979...

I'll try to post more progress soon :big_grin:

Cheers,

Aur

Author:  Aop Aur [ Sun Jun 05, 2016 2:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Hello all :wave_1: :wave_1:
My brother and I were very busy with our piano works early this year, so not much time for modeling was left. Now we have more time (auditions finished), so we made more progresses. The funnel is 95% completed, some weathering and addition of two more AA guns will add the 5%.

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The port and starboard sides aircraft hangars are also completed (I intended to make the port hangar's door open, but the PE piece was a breakfast for the carpet monster this morning, so I'll need to purchase another Eduard set for this, as there are already many other parts missing and damaged: railings swept away, etc.)

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Anton and Bruno are also completed and weathered (will see if they need more, or less.) Bruno is solely hand painted.
The railing atop the Bruno is slightly modified to match Kagero Tirpitz 3D model by Stefan Draminski (thanks to his wonderful model, we now have the best reference available.)

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Stefan's:

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Eduard's railings (17, 18):

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Got to say Pontos deck is rather yellow!! Lighting's fault, actually...but anyway they will be darkened and heavily weathered. Also the oil spots the British air raids spilled over got to be painted as well. Suggestions or tips for this?

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Move on to the forward superstructure, most of the railings are lost, so that's another thing a new Eduard set will take care of, but ordering it wouldn't be soon...the credit card problem is preventing many modeling developments :doh_1: :doh_1:
Fotoe:

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Here's everything dry fitted.

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And here is a transportation boat (Verkehrsboote.) Slightly weathered. The PE propeller was flat, so Aur bent it in accordance to the real photo of Bismarck. The result is rather satisfying, at least for us:):)

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Torpedo tubes. Unpainted.

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Main mast. The upper section of this telescopic mast can be lowered down to hide the ship's silhouette from enemy aircrafts. It was kept mostly down when the ship was in Norwegian waters. Aur used some pin scraps and bits to modify the mast as lowered as well as drilling it to put in the upper part, but not the whole piece!!:

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Finally, the overall view (unfortunately the mast is too tired to stand on its own leg, so it is not in the pics :big_grin: .) The underwater antifouling red was redone using airbrush and handbrushing, in case I want to also consider displaying it as full hull. The horizontal railings are bent to create chain railing effect as well.

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Thanks for looking in and enjoy warship modeling!!

Aop & Aur.

Author:  medicmike [ Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Looking real good! :thumbs_up_1:

Author:  MarOnca [ Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

my apologies to all for polluting the thread of this great Tirpitz project with two pics from mine, but we could look at it as what not to do? :big_grin: I just yesterday, following the link from the Seaplane query, to this Tirpitz thread, learned of the request from AA, for photos of mine, best I have. Just redid my hobby room, requiring me to move this vessel to the other end of the house, and seems sometimes things break in handling, since fixed, but makes me hesitant to want to move it again.

PE from Tom Modelworks and really spruced it up with ladders, radar units, and upper-deck rails(clunky main-deck rails are from the kit). this is the Heller 1/400 kit mentioned earlier in this thread.

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Author:  Aop Aur [ Fri Jun 10, 2016 10:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

medicmike wrote:
Looking real good! :thumbs_up_1:
Thanks! :big_grin:

@MarOnca, Don't worry! Your model looks nice considering it is an inaccurate and old kit. I think it would look just splendid if you build a 1/350 scale of either Tamiya or Revell (I would recommend Revell, but since Tamiya can still look WAY better than the older kits for kids!) I would still say that if you pull off those deck rails and replace them with PE, it would turn out much nicer.

Well our Tirpitz is still progressing. My brother Aur is currently scratch-building the port crane arm (Tirpitz starboard crane was either removed or lost.) And it is very good that you redo your hobby room! Also keep the table clean too! Ours always get messed up and only a square foot is left for us to work! Now it is cleared and we are trying our best to keep it from being really messy (modelling stuffs are alive, so they wander everywhere!)

Anyway thank you so much for looking in and following my build!

Aop.

Author:  Aop Aur [ Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:52 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Speaking of bad kits, here is the 1/800 Academy Bismarck I mentioned earlier in the thread...

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With the giant dog!

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We made up a camouflage and add the seabase for her. It doesn't look very bad, but the inaccuracies can be seen very clearly...hull, superstructure, turrets, the lot.. The lower hull is unusable...thus the diorama.
It's not finished, but we'll try to get it done, adding some more pieces and the missing bow wake, as well as glueing things together.

Tirpitz progress coming soon.

Cheers!

Aop

Author:  Aur [ Sun Jul 24, 2016 10:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Hello all,

This thread is lacking progress again. We are currently busy preparing for our piano concert, so we have to practise a lot. But actually, this build was put to a temporary halt, due to heavy loss of Eduard PE. When we have the chance to purchase another set, we'll continue making progress again. But anyway we did make something over the past few weeks.

We discovered yet another mistake Tamiya made - the screws. Kit manufacturers usually switch the screws, right handed to left-handed, and vice versa. This can be simply switched back. This time Tamiya included two right handed screws and one left handed, instead of the correct two left, one right...unfixable. Plus, the instruction is a complete mess! It indicates the left handed one be put on the center shaft and the other two right handed on each side. :Mad_6: Luckily, we have another kit that serves as spare parts (after realising how many errors there are, and how much nicer Revell kit is). The two left handed screws, one from each kit, will be placed on the left and centre shafts, and one of the two right hands on the right shaft.

Incorrect arrangement:

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Corrected:

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As Eduard did not include it in the set, the night speed indicator on the main mast was scratch-built using leftover PE and its sprue.

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The model is depicted as of July - November 1944, by which time the previous paint scheme K (March - July) swastika was painted over with light grey of scheme L. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/paint_schemes/paint_tirpitz_1944.html And we guess the paint should be weathered and chipped quite a bit at the time of the sinking, so the swastika has to be painted before being covered with faded, weathered and chipping paint.
Tirpitz carried out her last exercises at sea in July - August, so the spray on the bow might do some effect, but we really don't know for sure. A little bit of swastika appearing from spot to spot, roughly revealing its form is what we are expecting. Some advice on how much, and in what manner the paint on the swastika would weather would be very appreciated. It is just an interesting symbol that is common to german ships and would be historically accurate, so we'd like to have it on the model, nothing political.
Here are some photos of the painting process. John Asmussen's drawings helped us a lot in locating it. Lots of masking and touch ups!
John's drawing printed on adhesive paper:

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Tamiya XF-2 flat white painted:

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The result; one can guess how effective sticker paper is at masking!:

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Lots of touch ups were neccessary, and the most difficult is getting the thing to look like a perfect circle. It's not, obviously, but is much better, considering it's hand painted, after a bad masking:

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Swastika mask made of Tamiya masking tape, with black over:

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Much better than the paper thing. Very few touch-ups were needed. Final result:

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The doubling wood decks on the bow affect the shape quite a bit, so next time we'll paint the plastic deck, but not Tamiya's raised planking ones, though.

This is how the ship looks like, main parts dryfitted, on the shelf, waiting the day to proceed construction:

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Still have lots of things to improve, but it's just a learning build anyway. Comments, critiques, and advice are welcome! :big_grin: :big_grin:

Aop & Aur

Author:  robertmelvin [ Tue Jul 26, 2016 8:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Congratulations on some fantastic work. You and your brother have done a magnificent job. Excellent work on the swastika, by the way. Looks better than a factory decal. If this is a learning build for you, give yourself an "A+". Can't wait to see more.

Bob

Author:  Aop Aur [ Wed Jul 27, 2016 2:54 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

robertmelvin wrote:
Congratulations on some fantastic work. You and your brother have done a magnificent job. Excellent work on the swastika, by the way. Looks better than a factory decal. If this is a learning build for you, give yourself an "A+". Can't wait to see more.

Bob

Thanks very much for the kind words! We really, really appreciate them! Yes it is a learning build and we are (just) 14! :big_grin: It is one of our two first 'formal' ship models. The other one is the HMS PoW, but that one didn't really get 'formal' :big_grin: It was damaged in a trip, and although only slightly, I decided to salvage its parts for the planned (at the time) proposed Lion battleship 1938 scratch-build project, mainly because the Pontos PE on it was damaged (you know what it's like to see some PE pieces damaged beyond repair.) That Pontos set is also going to be contributed in our Lion build as well.

We will try to post more progress later. We are working more on the Lion as of now, until maybe when the new Eduard set is ordered and arrive or some difficulties on the Lion show up. :heh:
:thumbs_up_1:
Aop & Aur

Author:  Aop Aur [ Wed Jul 27, 2016 6:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

...did something wrong editing my brother's account post.

Author:  Froggy84 [ Fri Jul 29, 2016 7:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Hi Aop & Aur,
I agree with Bob, congratulations on a wonderful job. You are both very talented and seeing your two builds has also encouraged me to keep working on mine. I stalled for a while but I hope to post my ship soon.
Good luck with the models and best wishes with your piano work.
Regards,
Phil

Author:  Aop Aur [ Fri Jul 29, 2016 9:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Froggy84 wrote:
Hi Aop & Aur,
I agree with Bob, congratulations on a wonderful job. You are both very talented and seeing your two builds has also encouraged me to keep working on mine. I stalled for a while but I hope to post my ship soon.
Good luck with the models and best wishes with your piano work.
Regards,
Phil

Thank you very much for your very kind comment! It really means a lot to us! I hope you post your ship progress and photos soon as well!

As said, our concert was over, but we are going to the venue again (a place with five 9 ft concert grand pianos! :cool_1: ) to re-record our performances, as the camera ran out of memory on the concert day. When this is done, we will post some Youtube links for some of you here that may like Classical music.... :big_grin: :thumbs_up_1:

Thanks to everyone following and commenting on our builds!
:thanks: :worship_1:
Aop & Aur

Author:  Aop Aur [ Fri Aug 05, 2016 6:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Just won a new Eduard set bid and placed order! Once this set arrives, we will be continuing, and hopefully finishing this build. Then onto the diorama... :heh: thoughts and advice as well as critiques are very welcome.

Aop

Author:  Aur [ Tue Aug 16, 2016 3:24 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Hello all! :wave_1:

We were working on the HMS Lion as this project was being on hold, but then thought we should continue getting the Tirpitz done first. The Eduard set is still on its way to our place, so while waiting, we decided to work on the seabase and diorama. First of all, we will depict the ship as she was in Håkøya, Tromsø. The ship was located close to the shore, but not enough for a typical sized base (like those depicting her Faettenfjord and Altafjord). We are going with a rather large sea base that includes the ship (of course), a bit of the shore, some piers, and the entire torpedo netting! Here's a map made by the great Bismarck/Tirpitz guru Antonio Bonomi:
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It's 1/350 scale, so here is what we are preparing. This is Antonio's map and everything inside the square drawn will be included. From the map, the ship was positioned about 24.5 degrees from the shore. I wouldn't mind if this is correct or not, as it is just a diorama. And this Japanese Queen is not accurate anyway (!)... But I would assume Antonio got it very close, if not exact :smallsmile: :
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So...that is about 120cm × 120cm in 1/350 scale:
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Aop used Mini hobby Tirpitz kit's waterline plate to draw and cut the hole for the ship, but miserably, even though it is a copy of the Tamiya, the hull shape is completely different! (even at the atlantic bow..I wonder how they made it..) Huge gaps there! Maybe filling with foam or expanding foam will do the job. We don't really want to permanently mount the ship on the water, but there could be problems with putting in and off, along with an unrealistic gap at the waterline. So we'll simply put her there, and let the water hold. The Tirpitz hull pictured here is from another Tamiya kit I have.
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We had to talk to our mom if she's OK with the size of the seabase...seriously :heh: :heh: :big_grin:
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As said, we are going to use Chris Flodberg's water techniques for this one. I must thank him very much for sharing his exquisite and cost-effective techniques! :thumbs_up_1: We may consider adding some vehicles on the island as well. If you look at the area in the square, there is a portion of the road. It sure is going to be really fun! At least for the two of us!

Pics of the hull will follow soon. I've done a bit at the bow, improving something that was done about 2 years ago when I was 12! I might be able to dig some photos taken back then. :cool_1:

Cheers!
Aur

Author:  Aur [ Sat Aug 20, 2016 12:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

Here is an update on the bow.
Almost 2 years ago, I was fixing the tip of the bow that was accidentally broken by my brother. I don't know what I was thinking at that moment, but I had an unusually strange idea of putting heated plastic sprues right onto the bow to roughly form the missing shape (!?!!?!!) :heh: It was terribly difficult to sand (burnt plastic gets really hard, and turns into almost unusable crap) and can very easily break. I had to sand it for almost a week, and glue the keep-breaking-off piece several times. The almost acceptable (!) bow tip stayed there til now.
Some shots of the badly fixed bow:

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Note the rough surface and also the Bismarck style curve.

Several days ago, I happen to think of getting the bow done by making the stem anchor hawse. One thought came immediately into my mind, that this mess doesn't deserve anything. Plus, I already know most of the differences between Bis and Pitz, so I decided to modify the bow before making the hole. First off, I measure the other untouched hull I have, and it was a little bit too short, but okay, for the Bismarck (Tamiya hulls are all same), so obviously undersized for the Tirpitz, whose length was 3.1 m longer (according to John's website). I didn't want to change much, since I have no detailed plans, nor does the kit deserve. Just a simple correction for a more straight bow.

Styrene cut from printed John Asmussen drawings, attached to the hull:

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Milliput applied roughly:

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Some more sanding and it should look better.

Cheers,
Aur

Author:  Aur [ Sun Aug 21, 2016 5:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

:wave_1:
So continuing on the bow...

Another pic from last night:
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It was way too rough for a shapable putty, but I was rushing to bed. At least I made sure there's enough for later sanding. :heh:
Rough sanding with a file and coarse sandpaper:

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Then fine sanding. I always use water during all sanding process (with any type of sandpaper!) to minimize dust..milliput is much easier to sand with water, too, in my opinion.

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After some time searching for a good bow shot of Tirpitz, I found many pics of her fjord anchorages on worldwarphotos.info, with many close-ups...
http://www.worldwarphotos.info/wp-content/gallery/germany/kriegsmarine/tirpitz/battleship_Tirpitz_Norway.jpg
Using John Asmussen's drawings, I located the hole and drilled:
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At least the stupid solid heated plastic helped forming the hawse pipe. :heh:

After shaping...
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...and painted:

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And...finally..a comparison with another Tamiya hull:

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The shape is not exact, as no plans were used (in the end the styrene piece attached was too small, and was only used to hold the putty. Comparison with John's drawing by eyes was all), but should be "Tirpitz" enough and hopefully better than before. At least, the bow is sharper, straighter, and smoother. Some small cracks will be fixed later.
The spare anchor was detached from the ship at the time she was in Kåfjord, so there's just the hawse.

So now that I am done with the bow, I will probably be working on the diorama, until the Eduard set arrives. Lots of 3D designing for the Lion right now.

Thanks for looking in :big_grin:
Aur

Author:  Aop Aur [ Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: 1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

The new Eduard set finally arrived! We were excited that this set is brass and not metal like the previous one.
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Now back to the bench! :cool_1:

Aop

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