Battleship Enthusiast

[WW2Battleships]

Hi All

Just new to this board, I am a huge fan of WW2 era battleships and have built many plastic models of Ships / Planes and Tanks over the years and looking to expand into the scratch build world (Well scratch build may be subjective on these forums as I will be using both my 3D printer and CNC machine to help with the build, I know die hard Scratch Builders may say this is not Scratch Building).

My Favorite ship like lots of others is the Bismarck and she will be my first Scratch Build and I am still trying to decide to go decent size 1:200 or go crazy and build a 1:100 monster.

Finding plans of this ship isnt easy or cheap, Hans Gally doesn't seem to have a contactable email address, Nick Fox no longer exists that I can find, Harhaus plans are expensive and not as accurate from what I can tell, and I am not quite sure of the quality of the plans from the DSM Museum.

Any advice on plans would be great.

Also if I am going to build in either 1:200 or 1:100 what is the preferred wood and thickness of the ribs ect, was thinking 12mm Birch Plywood at 1:100 but that may be overkill.

Cheers

DJ

[WW2Battleships]

Hi David

Thanks for the reply.

Never thought about balsa wood as I didn't think it would be strong enough for structural work.

5 mm ply for ribs, will look into it as 12mm can get a bit expensive.

WB

[WW2Battleships]

Hi David

Yeah 2.51 meters in length, it's a beast.

I am planning to clad it in 2mm - 3mm of balsa wood then a 1mm layer of fibreglass, well that's what I have read and seems to be a good choice.

DJ

[Fliger747]

Instead of balsa you might consider basswood since weight isn't a real consideration, or cedar if you have wood shop equipment available. For a 1:200 nominal scale a light fiberglass cloth such as used by the model airplane folks is fine.

Have fun!