Tamiya 1/350 Bismarck recovery and refit project

[drdemented]

hi everyone!

this project has a fairly long story.

back in 2002, while i was still a med student in the philippines, a couple of friends and i, who were stuck there and couldn't go home for christmas, built a 1/350 bismarck. the project took a 4 days and a lot of beers, but it turned out beautifully.

when i left the country in 2006 to return to the states, i stored the ship (along with a 1/350 italian heavy cruiser pola which i later built with my wife) with my in-laws. the ship was still in good structural condition (with very minor damage due to transport via jeepney and bus from my apartment in manila to their house in a nearby province), but had a fairly good layer of dust on it.

a few weeks ago my wife and i returned to the philippines to visit family. my wife suggested that i try to bring both ships back. i had been assured by the airline that they could handle such fragile objects. the models were still in good condition, with caked on dust (see pictures). precautionary packing was done to secure the models in a double box arrangement, with packing and labeling.

we arrived in san francisco thursday evening. both models sustained damage during transport, but fortunately, it appears to be reparable.

damage:
1. all 3 deck sections were separated from the hull
2. tops of masts were cut off
3. bridge radar detached
4. bow anchor detached
5. top of stern flag pole, with flag severed
6. bow flag pole detached
7. 2 deck fixtures on main deck, port side, adjacent to "caesar" turret detached
8. starboard catwalk next to conning tower detached
9. most of antennae rigging lost
10. starboard float plane detached, with 1 float detached
11. caked on dust throughout all surface areas of ship

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now comes the task of repairing and refitting the ship. reattaching the detached parts should not be a problem, including the broken masts. however, there are several issues, and i am hoping that all of you might be able to give input on:

1. dust. unfortunately, as a medical student (especially during those couple of years in which i had 36 hour duties every 3 days), maintenance and upkeep of my models fell by the wayside. as a result, dust accumulated. the dust is of a extremely fine quality, and combined with the humidity, tended to cake onto the ship. in the past, i would use a dry brush to remove some of the more recently accumulated dust. however, "older" dust was more difficult to remove. i have tried using rubbing alcohol and a cotton swab to try to remove the caked on dust. that has had some success. i am wondering what sort of solvent i can use to try to remove the dust, without damaging the ship's paint job.
2. antennae -- all of the rigging was lost, and i don't have any spare plastic lying around in order to stretch sprue. what other materials can i use to re-rig the model?
3. photo etch -- i had always planned to install brass railings at a later date (this project is the first part of a 1/350 battle of denmark strait project

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).
is it vitally imperative to install them now, since the model is in a partially disassembled state, or can this wait for a "phase II" refit?

i would appreciate any input you might have.

thanks,

-- dr demented

[William J]

Good luck with the refit

Bill Keough

[drdemented]

Good luck with the refit

Bill Keough

any advice regarding dealing with the dust and possibly adding photo etch at this late stage?

thanks!

[Sylvain Auger]

I would install the PE railings before regluing everything back together. It would be easier to access all parts of the ship without further damaging adjacent areas.

To remove the dust you might want to try a dust remover for computer keyboards. I wouldn't try those air cannister with PE attached though... it might send all those delicate details flying around!

Cheers

[drdemented]

anyone have suggestions regarding installing blast bags?

[drdemented]

well i've managed to clean up the hull and bow and stern sections of the deck:

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i first used tweezer to remove any large clumps of dust. then used dry cotton buds to remove some of the dust. then i used cotton buds dipped in warm water, followed by warm water with a drop of dishwashing liquid, then one more pass with just warm water. it managed to get most of the dust off, but left a bit of staining (which is just fine, since it left a slight weathered look on the deck.

unfortunately, this technique might not work on the center superstructure section. there are far to many fragile, small fittings (such as spars, aa guns, and antennae) to go in with a cotton swab. not to mention that the dust on that section seems a whole lot thicker and more adherent to the ship.

is there any risk in just dunking the whole thing in warm, soapy water?

[Yevgeniy]

Why not to have a good air-flow from airbrush (without paint of course) over those superstructure parts with simultaneous very light "brooming" by a brushes of varios sizes (00 for AA guns, 01, 02, etc - not big brushes). Airbrush in one hand and brush in the other...It is like archeologists de-dusting their findings. Step-by-step, taking enough of your time over each part, but it gives proper results

I am doing the same before painting things which stood for some time (3-6 months) unpainted after assembly to avoid dust getting under the paint. The result is OK for me.

I though of using vacuum-cleaner - but it is too dangerous for the model - the parts may get into the hose I would never use it.

I would not soak the part with water - the dust can "integrate" into the upper layer of paint making it impossible to delete afterwards. Also some smaller parts can "float" after this soaking.

Airflow+brushing is the method I tried myself. The only damage it can make is on VERY delicate, not properly fixed parts or moving parts: rigging, flag, rotating radars/turrets if you have any unfixed.

I never tried soaking parts so that it is my warning only. Wait for somebody else answer if you want to try soaking.

Yevgeniy

[drdemented]

here is my progress so far:

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what i decided to do was use both paint brushes and cotton swabs to try to brush off the "dust". since the ship had been stored for so long in high humidity conditions, it really wasn't dust anymore, but rather an ash-like "paint". so i tried initially wetting the brushes and swabs with warm water. that worked to some extent. i next tried using warm water, with one drop of detergent. that took off more of the dirt. however that seemed to be most effective when using the cotton swab.

the difficulty is getting the dirt out of very small areas and crevices such as the bridge structures, gun tubs, the funnel, and life boats. the dirt doesn't seems to adhere very well to paint brushes. even those areas that i used cotton swabs on, left somewhat of a dirty look. that would be perfect for an older ship, because it leaves a great weathered look. however, bismarck was still a brand new ship at the time of the battle of denmark strait. what i will probably do is repeat the process several times, getting little by little out each time, until i get the desired effect, and get enough of the accumulated dirt off. hopefully, i don't create further damage in the process (i wrecked the port forward twin AA gun while cleaning it at 1am).

[drdemented]

here's my latest update:

1. it took several months of on and off work, but a managed to get a good deal of the dust off of the ships. this involved several techniques -- using tweezers to remove larger clumps and dust fibers, using a dry paintbrush to remove finer dust (especially in tiny crevices, and cotton buds dipped in warm water (with and without dishwashing detergent) in order to remove the ultra-fine dust. unfortunately, it's the ultrafine stuff that has been problematic, since because it had been stored for so long in the high humidity setting of the philippines, has become one with the original paint job. this has given the deck surfaces and the superstructure a weathered look to it. this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but since the bismarck was supposed to be a relatively new ship on its maiden voyage, i tried to undo as much of the "natural weathering" as possible. right now, this is as good as it's going to get, though from time to time, i have encountered bits of dust which i had not previously seen, and have removed them. repainting is out of the question, since i no longer remember what paint mixture i had used originally ( i do know that it was not the dark sea gray that is specified in the instruction, but rather a mixture of two different grays whose proportions i no longer recall).
2. using ivory colored sculpey modeling clay, i managed to shape blast bags for the main and secondary turrets. molding was done using slightly dirty hands (in order to give the blast bags a slightly worn color) and toothpicks.

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3. i acquired a tom's modelworks photoetch set while at ipms silicon valley last month. i opted for this modest pe set (rather than the very complete gmm set) because it was probably going to be difficult as it is to apply photoetch to an already built model. even with this pe set, i was very selective in what i was going to be able to apply. so far i have added the bridge wings, catapults, FuMO 23 radars, aircraft props and struts, and crane hooks.

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4. cranes were reworked with new cables, using fishing line raided from my wife's jewelry making supplies. the nylon was glued using "crazy glue", then tension was added using heat from an incense stick.

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5. broken off masts were repaired. other broken off parts were reattached. old rigging removed.

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still to be done
1. railings
2. attaching new rigging
3. reattaching middle superstructure section

[drdemented]

project update:
1. reattached middle superstructure section. there was a small gap in the main deck. this was filled with two small pieces of northeastern scale lumber HO 1"x3", which was painted with tamiya deck tan, admixed with a little bit of grey to try match the already existing "dirty" look on the deck.
2. installed whatever railings i could -- the tom's modelworks railing set was decent, but was only enough to cover the main and some of the second deck, plus part of the bridge structure. if i have time and budget, i may attempt to acquire additional railings to cover the aft superstructure and remainder of the bridge. it wasn't too bad considering this was my first ever attempt at using photoetch. but it could always use improvement.
3. installed ladders wherever possible. i only placed a few near the conning tower and on one of the antennaes. ideally, the ladders molded to the kit would have been sanded off and replaced with pe ladders. but since the ship had already been built 6 years ago, i decided not to tamper with it. i will probably add a few more pe ladders where possible.

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Still to be done:
1. add additional pe ladders
2. rigging
3. spray dullcoat and add other finishing touches

any suggestions?

-- dr. demented

[drdemented]

hi everyone!

i've placed the remaining railings that i have available, as well as added rigging. for rigging, i used nylon fishing line and a bit of superglue. tension was added using an incense stick held up to the nylon.

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the original boat booms and propeller guards were never placed, and have since been lost to history. so i constructed new ones from I-pins that my wife uses for jewelry making.

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for now, i will put the project on hold (am due to take my medical board exams very soon). i will probably add additional railings on the superstructure (particularly the aft section), and may add other photoetch parts, such as for the aa guns.

regards,

dr demented

[nick]

It must have been a hard job repairing a damaged ship like yours. It's good that you are confident to repair a model with that level of damage, unlike me!



Nick


*btw, are you of filipino descent? just curious...

[drdemented]

yup, i am pinoy. was born and raised in california, but spent seven years in the philippines as a med student.

i originally built bismarck with a med school buddy and another friend during christmas break (couldn't go home and had nothing better to do). took us 4 days, and 4 san miguel grandes each

i can't say that i was that confident about repairing and restoring the ship. i was just lucky to have been able to bring it with me 7,500 miles back to san francisco in reasonable and repairable condition, and dedicated enough (or crazy enough) to actually take the time and effort to restore it.