Calling all Bismarck and Tirpitz fans

[Timmy C]

Dave, this may help you some:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennant_nu ... nt_numbers
Also refer to the sections above for what the letters represent and history, etc.
It does not list what battleships would have, and I've not found what letter was used for HMS Vanguard, if any.

[navydavesof]

Dave, this may help you some:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennant_nu ... nt_numbers
Also refer to the sections above for what the letters represent and history, etc.
It does not list what battleships would have, and I've not found what letter was used for HMS Vanguard, if any.

Awesome. I am sure you all know that the next class of German Frigate, F125, are to be greater than 7,200 tones and are to be "optimized for long expeditionary peacemaking/peacekeeping missions". That is soooo cool. "optimized for...peacemaking...missions". So, so awesome. "You will get along!" Apparently the ships are to be so heavy that they border on destroyer, but they're still being called Frigates.

That answers my question, guys. Thank you. This Scharnhorst project is going to be a destroyer, maybe a cruiser. In fact D121 or C124 sound good.

[Olaf Held]

I don't know if you have followed the Bismarck Tirpitz Replacement thread of not, but I am drawing up a fictional modern Scharnhorst. How are names chosen for German ships? I saw Rommel in your last post, so I may have answered my own question, but is there much credence paid to potentially "offensive" names of WWII ships such as Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prince Eugen, etc.?

The names of the three DDGs represented the three armed forces Marine, Heer and Luftwaffe (Navy, Army and Air Force).

Oh, not to forget, the German Navy took over a couple of British Hunt III and Black Swan (?) frigates and named them Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Scheer, Hipper, ... maybe there were others, seven in total if I remember correctly (I'm too young, this was way before my time in the Navy (93 to 05, I'm now 36). Do a google image search for the German term "Schulfregatte" ...

Best ~ Olaf!

[navydavesof]

Wow. Turret top color....I guess it is all in the details, huh?

[Olaf Held]

Hi Bob ~ As I understood it, there was a radio message from the Admiralty to Tovey, informing him that Bismarck had the turret tops painted yellow. Then there was Mr. Maus, and a third source I can't remember off-hand, maybe a pilot. Of course, to all of them the 'dark-grey-guys' can provide a suitable contradicting response. First thing is, that this radio message came in as the final battle had already started. It could be that the Admiralty did not rely on eye-witness but on what they knew from previous German naval operations under Luftwaffe air cover (for all who wondered why Tovey at the scene received this information "second-hand" from the green table) - or maybe they did it to avoid a second Sheffield incident? To Mr. Maus they say, why one earth was he the only one out of the survivors who had seen the yellow? To them, Maus is eye-witness of too many things, and nobody knows about the circumstances under which he gave his testimony. When the yellow paint was washed away due to heavy seas, then even a large ship like the Bismarck is rolling and listing heavily - which then makes even painting the main turret tops a dangerous job. The third pro yellow, which I can't remember, must have come from one of the pilots.

Survivor's testimony ~ I can't speak for all of the few that are still with us today, but I talked to one recently, he's in his early nineties, mixing up events from the first and the final battle, and he couldn't remember and said ... "The main guns were not my business!" (laughing). I asked about the colour of the turret tops at the beginning of the operation, and he couldn't remember as well. Btw, it's VERY difficult to ask questions without giving an answer with the question.

Good idea to have a go at the pilots. Not only at them, but also at German Luftwaffe documents. If you paint your ships colourful for air-recognition purposes, you should let your friends from the air know... there must have been some secret documents telling them that for this or that operation the own naval forces can easily be identified by ...

The problem is finding those documents (if they survived). Many of them have been returned to Germany, but I think most of them are still in American, British, French, Canadian and Russian archives.

Happy searching ~ Olaf!

[Mike Coleman]

I did a search on catapults and nothing about this came up and in skimming over the pages of discussion here I did not find an answer so I hope I am not asking something that has been asked before. In looking at photos of Ar-196 catapult launches it always looks like the launch is starting from amidships. So my question is did the Bismarck and Tirpitz have a single catapult or was it actually two catapults end to end with one launching to port and the other to starboard? Is the latter the reason that the cats were extended for launch?

[rtwpsom2]

There were two catapults, mounted back to back just below deck level. They had to be extended to operate. When not in use they were protected by metal covers that fit over the top of them and were roughly flush with the deck.

[Mike Coleman]

Rob,
Thank you very much.
Mike

[orionv]

Hello all
Just a little question...
Does the Tirpiz 's Arado have a camo or not???

Thank a lot .
Amiti� R�my

[Olaf Held]

Good question. It is believed that every Arado had a camouflage pattern, not limited to certain ships.

The colours were:

RLM-65 light blue (for the underside of the fuselage, wings and floats)
RLM-72 green
RLM-73 green

(an image search helps to get an impression about those colours)

The two greens were dark and quite similar to each other, they often appear as one colour in b/w photos. It is believed that the cammo pattern was almost identical on those Arados.


Happy painting ~ Olaf!

[orionv]

Thank a lot mister Olaf

[navydavesof]

Hey guys! I am really curious about this turret top color exchange you were having. From the sounds of it, if the turrets were painted yellow, the only paint on the tops to have survived the heavy seas would have been that on the 15" turrets, correct? If this really was the case, how would you represent the yellow paint that might have washed off the other turret/mount tops? Would you use a bit of a wash to leave the hint of the yellow on tops of the color underneath the yellow?

Thanks, guys!

[Charlestonguy]

Ok just got back from my deployment and while gone ordered the Lion Roar 1/350 set for the Revell kit. After I got home I opened the box to find a nice selection of PE and a VERY large instruction sheet.
Some items I noted were not covered while others have me going back to my Anatomy of Battleship book looking for the proper location.
My question is, have any here used this set and could you please give some tips?

Thanks

[Fishcakes]

Hi there. I'm back on the slipway ready to take the plunge after my summer of Airliners and cars.
I'm just in the middle of continuing my Revell 1/350th Bismarck and wanted to know at what point was the stern anchor removed?
I have Googled for the answer and get so many conflicting things, so I thought might as well put an answer here so anyone else Googling can find the answer easily. Sounds a plan yeah?

I'm doing her round about 23/24th May when she had her Baltic stripes removed.
Many thanks in advance,
Fishcakes.

[Olaf Held]

I never heard that the stern anchor had been removed. The stem anchor, yes, but not the stern one.

Do show photos of your build ...

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

[Fishcakes]

I never heard that the stern anchor had been removed. The stem anchor, yes, but not the stern one.

Do show photos of your build ...

Happy modelling ~ Olaf!

Hi Olaf. I can't remember where I heard that. I always knew the Stem anchor was removed as for the Stern. Hmmm. I'll try and find where I read it. maybe that was just a printing error? A lot of my naval books are old and subsequently new material has been found.
I'd love to post a pic of her when completed though I'm not in the class of everyone else here.
Thanks for the answer.
Fiona.

[Fishcakes]

Okay, so I nearly have my 350th Revell Bismarck done. I can't be asked to do the Tirpitz in this scale and I'm doing a few 700th anyhow so I was wondering following on about the two ships having different hull sizes etc are there enough differences between the Revell 700th ones or should I go for Trumpeter or Dragon or suchlike?
Thanks,
Fiona.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,


@ Fishcakes,

there are so many wrong things about Bismarck flying around, but this one about the stern anchor is new to me as well.

I can guarantee you that the stern anchor was absolutely on her place on Bismarck during Op. Rheinubung and reached the bottom of the Atlantic ocean with her on May 27th, 1941.

Only the bow center forward anchor was removed on Gdynia before Op. Rheinubung started, so all prints, 3D reconstructions and drawings showing her still there during Op. Rheinubung are wrong.

Bye Antonio

[darcy]

"Only the bow center forward anchor was removed on Gdynia before Op. Rheinubung started, so all prints, 3D reconstructions and drawings showing her still there during Op. Rheinubung are wrong."

Are there any photographs which prove this?


Darcy

[amiers]

Yes. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/bismarck/g ... hein3.html