1/350 Tamiya DKM Tirpitz Build.

[Froggy84]

Hi Aur,
Good work on fixing the bow, it looks so much better now.
I guess you guys are going to be so busy now that the Eduard set has arrived
Good luck!
Regards,
Phil

[Aur]

Hi Aur,
Good work on fixing the bow, it looks so much better now.
I guess you guys are going to be so busy now that the Eduard set has arrived
Good luck!
Regards,
Phil

Thanks Phil! At least some people might not recognize that it is a Tamiya kit! (What else, then?) Now work on the Lion is halted for a while, maybe until the 3D printed parts arrive...
Good luck with your build(s) as well!
Aur

[Aur]

We've been busy with concerts and daily works, so we didn't have time to do any update. It has been 2 months since the new Eduard set arrived, but not so much progress was made. Anyway this is a big update from many weeks' progress, so hope you enjoy the pics.

Started off with the Admiral's bridge, I attempted to cut the windows hollow when the roof was already glued, and it ended a mess. Started again using a new part from another spare kit, I cut before attaching the pieces together. The nasty seam appears, as on every other models, so after some filling and sanding it looked acceptable...but certainly not the best. There's no 3rd spare kit, so... Some days of sanding (during concert week), and then I moved on to detailing. Tamiya's simple 3-metre rangefinders were attached inside Eduard's PE, which is probably incorrect in shape, but I'm not interested in fixing. Ship vessels handrails replaced Eduard's solid shields aft of the directors. I didn't notice that Pontos supplied wooden deck for the area, but it was better to just paint. Then after realising the big error of the tower (?), Pontos deck won't fit anyway. Planking was hand-drawn with a pen.








The error was the Bismarck-shape structure.



For Bismarck, it should actually be only half, on the starboard, merging with a shorter rectangular structure on port side. Tirpitz had asymetrical one, according to (very low resolution) Gally plans from the internet. I cut the piece off and extended the curved wall as well as trimming the incorrect 'footprint'.






The 'cabin':







Almost 3 weeks ago, we had a small trip to the beach with the family, and didn't forget to take the Tirpitz there! Fragile parts were mounted in a box, and we made sure nothing will get damaged...



..and all went well.

I bought Flyhawk 3.7 cm SK C/30 Flak sets, as Tamiya ones were crap and Eduard didn't provide any. I was unsure of my ability to assemble them, but the first one turned out not too bad.




Aur

[Aur]

Aop modified the main hangar using the (blurry) Gally plan with a little help from Kagero 3D model video.


The small piece with vent details was carved into that:


The admiral checking in..




Practising time!



Then a week ago, we made a diorama for our mom's birthday. Still not finished.



And...how things look like as of now.





The searchlight platform railing was modified to taper outwards, as another difference of the two sisters in many places.






Main hangar, still incomplete. The hangar door details were made using stretched sprue.





Signal bridge.



Upper superstructure.



The foretop platform will need to be modified or scratch-built.




Eduard's 2 cm SK C/38 Flak. The guns were detached before positioning to maintain a correct axis for elevated ones. Not as good as Flyhawk, but much better than Tamiya anyway.






A pic from one of the concerts. The 10ft Fazioli was huge!



Cheers,
Aur

[robn1]

Looking forward to seeing this build progress....

re. piano pic.....you guys are real artists...

[Aur]

Thanks, Rob!
Looking forward to your Tirpitz project as well!


Aur

[Aur]

Hello all

It's been unbelievably 5 months since we last posted! We have not made much progress since then, as a result of getting busy with practising and the tiring incomplete process of university admission.
Anyway, something got done during the leftover time, and I'll start with the 3D printed screws first.
https://www.shapeways.com/product/E2H86 ... -screw-set
They were designed in 1/200 by a designer going by the name lonenwalze, before I requested him a rescaled 1/350 version, uploaded on my shop above. They were printed in Frosted Extreme Detail plastic, so the surface is quite smooth, although sanding is necessary in some areas. We are very happy with how they look, and in this scale I can safely say there is no better.

These are photos of the product out-of-box:




After treatment in warm soapy water:




A coat of Tamiya primer:



Then some sanding of various grids, with such great care it took a whole week to complete!





Another coat of Tamiya TS-6 Matt Black:



Here's the final picture after Tamiya X-33 Bronze airbrushing.



Notice the changing background; that's because these are considered small "mobile" projects that I carry with most of the time, even when going outside! Nice bit of modelling when the time is limited.
Last work will be a coat of X-12 Gold Leaf, leaving some tiny areas in bronze. Whethering will be done after that.

Hopefully I'll be able to make more progress and post tomorrow.

Cheers,

Aur

[medicmike]

She is looking fantastic and those screws are great Glad to see you are finding time to get back at it. Looking forward to more updates

[Joe Simon]

Boy the screws look great! You have done a great job overall!

[Aur]

Thanks for the nice compliments, guys!
We found ourselves some pretty nice hours of modelling yesterday as we were dropped at a parents' friend's condo room with a nice view of Bangkok metropolitan area.



Progress with the screws continues, with a light coat of X-12 Gold Leaf:



X-11 Chrome Silver is used to make scratches and worn out effect:



Next, the same X-33 Bronze was carefully drybrushed to replicate slight cavitation damage:



Brushing slight orange and green tints for rust effect finished the job:



Dryfitted:




This is my first try at painting screws, so hope they look good enough.
I'll post more later...it's morning modelling hour in a very long time, so we'll have to make it worth!

Cheers!

Aur

[ModelMonkey]

Brilliant!

[GewoonWouter]

Nice work on the Tirpitz guys!

[ozpirate]

Any updates?

Mick
Tumut Australia