The Big One... Trumpeter 1/200 Bismarck 1940 build

[Perth_shipyard]

Hopefully the wreck gets left alone, unlike the Titanic. I doubt we'll see Leo and Kate in an insanely popular movie so that will probably help. Somebody needs to make James Cameron go back there and clean up all his fiber optic lines though; I think I saw a couple of them on the 3D history videos.

unfortunately... for $47500 you can have a cabin onboard a research vessel and a seat in a russian submersible and dive on the Bismarck wreck. $7500 for just a cabin on the ship...

[BobaFettSlave_1]

I'm not sure about pales in comparison.... Extra doors would be nice to allow the modeller to open some up but apart from some items missing, which is always missed...

I mean no insult to the KA kit, what it has is great, but the price I just cant justify for what its still missing, which is a absolute ton when compared to the Lionroar 1/350 PE kit. Its just the added fact that the LionRoar 1/350 kit included all new superstructure support beams and bracing, vents for the hanger, elements for the cranes, all the little details for the Open bridge and Captains Bridge, none of which the KA kit has included with it.

Hopefully the wreck gets left alone, unlike the Titanic. I doubt we'll see Leo and Kate in an insanely popular movie so that will probably help. Somebody needs to make James Cameron go back there and clean up all his fiber optic lines though; I think I saw a couple of them on the 3D history videos.

unfortunately... for $47500 you can have a cabin onboard a research vessel and a seat in a russian submersible and dive on the Bismarck wreck. $7500 for just a cabin on the ship...

I myself have no problem with "Look but don't touch" dives. As a wreck diver (Scuba), I love visiting ship wrecks for the value they have historically. Where they cross the line IMO is when they're landing the subs on the wrecks, placing memorial plaques (no offence meant here, I just view it as pollution), and in the James Cameron instance, causing damage to the wrecks or leaving garbage (fiber optic lines) all over the wreck.

[Plastic Habit]

In the vid you can see that the wiring conduit is a little off the superstructure sides. Here I have a practice prototype using .001 sheet brass for the conduit clamps and stretched sprue for the conduit. Ill need to trim the brass closer to the hole so it is not so far off the stucture side. Not sure if Im going to go for it as I will have to make thousands of brass clamps.

[BobaFettSlave_1]

Oh BTW Channell,
Ive been meaning to ask what size and where you got the planking for your Bismarck. I've never hand planked a ship before and have no idea where to start with the ordering process.

From looking over photos of Bismarck in various books, It looks as if we need at least 2 different sized planks (not including boarder planking or grating). There's the main size like you see on the main deck all the way up to the Lower mast deck and then starting with the extreme rear of the Lower mast deck (where it indents for the range finders on each side) it switches to much finer/thinner planks which continue up through the Admirals Bridge deck, skipping the searchlight platform and continuing on the upper most deck. I have a few photos to illustrate what I mean if this is a little confusing.

Dana

[Channell]

Oh BTW Channell,
Ive been meaning to ask what size and where you got the planking for your Bismarck. I've never hand planked a ship before and have no idea where to start with the ordering process.

From looking over photos of Bismarck in various books, It looks as if we need at least 2 different sized planks (not including boarder planking or grating). There's the main size like you see on the main deck all the way up to the Lower mast deck and then starting with the extreme rear of the Lower mast deck (where it indents for the range finders on each side) it switches to much finer/thinner planks which continue up through the Admirals Bridge deck, skipping the searchlight platform and continuing on the upper most deck. I have a few photos to illustrate what I mean if this is a little confusing.

Dana

It's gonna be brain-frazzling enough to hand plank the deck so I'm keeping it simple and am planning to go with 1 size for all the the planks + something slightly wider for boxing out the deck fittings and edges. The main deck planks are micro-sized enough at this scale! I am going to try for the inletted square joints around the edges like the real ship had too.

It would seem the platform above the Admiral's bridge used slats (kinda like a Gato sub) but I'm not sure if I'm gonna try for that effect or not yet.

This is what I'm gonna use for the planking:

http://www.midwestproducts.com/store/pr ... umber.aspx

I bought 1 package of the same strips at my local hobby store and after messing around with some of them I'm pretty sure they will fit the bill.

They are really close in size to the molded planks (minus the caulking) on the kit. For the caulking I'm gonna try using a soft lead pencil on one edge before gluing it down; I've seen some really great work done this way on wooden ships though I've never tried it myself.

It will be only my second wooden deck job; my first one was a Artesina Latina wooden Cutty Sark kit that I gave up on after finishing the deck several years ago.

It might get ugly... but hopefully I don't have to resort to "Plan B" and get a laser-cut deck. Laser-cut decks look great from a certain distance but are grainy and rough up close; the goal here is to end up with a true-to-scale glass smooth wooden deck.

Gotta agree with you on "no touch" shipwreck exploration too. It would be a shame to never see them, but it's a bigger shame to litter them up. Ballard's 1 plaque on the stern of the Titanic was a nice touch but they might as well post billboards on the wreck now, it's got so many signs left on it.

James Cameron's expeditions kind of pisses me off; It was honestly interesting to see deep inside the Titanic but there was no good reason to go inside the Bismarck and although he claims his damn robotic fiber optic lines are biodegradable, you could say the same thing about the ships themselves. They'll disintegrate... in another century or two.

[Channell]

In the vid you can see that the wiring conduit is a little off the superstructure sides. Here I have a practice prototype using .001 sheet brass for the conduit clamps and stretched sprue for the conduit. Ill need to trim the brass closer to the hole so it is not so far off the stucture side. Not sure if Im going to go for it as I will have to make thousands of brass clamps.

That looks painful!

I wonder if it would be possible to recreate the clamps with tiny daubs of white glue over stretched sprue or maybe very thin fishing line glued to the bulkheads...

[Perth_shipyard]

for the edge of the planking channel, rather than pencil, use a black artline marker. Only mark one side though and not both otherwise the caulking will be too over powering. This is how I caulk my wooden models, both hull and decks. I'll attach a pic of one my frigate's still in progress.

[stuckrudder]

NigelR32

apols, I am a first time poster and haven't figured out

a) how to that reply thing with a quote in a box

b) how to reduce my photo file size to attach them

but.....

i think that wall inside the conning tower door may be an inner door, I have a really good photo of it, and quite a few other detailed wreck shots

[NigelR32]

Hey Stuckrudder, great name there!!!

Posting pics is easy...

Look down when you're writing a post, and you'll see a box called "Upload Attachment".

Click "browse" and you'll be taken to your computer documents. Click on the pic you want to upload, then click on the "Add the file" tab.

We all look forward to seeing your wreck pics, but you should really post them in the "calling all ship fans" Bismarck/Tirpitz section. This thread is for Channel to show us all his build.

[Perth_shipyard]

Thought you'd find this pic handy

[NigelR32]

I dont know about anyone else Anton, but that picture, for me, is one of the best as far as "giving the modeller some work to do before he gets his PE set" goes !!

The grate covering the centre Hawse hole, doe it come with the Ka set?

[Perth_shipyard]

Hahaha yes it is.

The grating does an is a slightly better fit than the kit one.

[Plastic Habit]

Another question about the stem anchor grating Perth.

When you say "better fit" do you mean size/shape or better historically. I noticed in the archive pic that the perforations in the grating has three rows of holes before the radius. The normal kit PE has one. Wondering if KA has better detail with the three holes.
Might be one more reason to send off for the KA detail set. Thanks.

[Perth_shipyard]

Better historically. The aft grating does in fact have 3 perforations before the arc of the radius. The actually hole for the chain has to be opened abit at the back (where the chain comes out and makes its way to the capstan) to fit but yeah they're both more accurate.

[stuckrudder]

Figured out how to re-size my images small enough to post them. Thought you guys would be interested in these....

Also, sorry to sound dumb, but can someone explain how to do the reply thing that create's the box with "so and so wrote" with a response?

[Perth_shipyard]

Figured out how to re-size my images small enough to post them. Thought you guys would be interested in these....

Also, sorry to sound dumb, but can someone explain how to do the reply thing that create's the box with "so and so wrote" with a response?

at the bottom of the post, there's a white box that says quote. Click on that and you're right to go.

[NigelR32]

Figured out how to re-size my images small enough to post them. Thought you guys would be interested in these....

Also, sorry to sound dumb, but can someone explain how to do the reply thing that create's the box with "so and so wrote" with a response?

at the bottom of the post, there's a white box that says quote. Click on that and you're right to go.

My Quote button is at the top right corner of the post??

[stuckrudder]

Figured out how to re-size my images small enough to post them. Thought you guys would be interested in these....

Also, sorry to sound dumb, but can someone explain how to do the reply thing that create's the box with "so and so wrote" with a response?

at the bottom of the post, there's a white box that says quote. Click on that and you're right to go.

Thanks!

[Perth_shipyard]

mines the bottom right of each post. The edit icon is next to it on my posts.

[Timmy C]

Location of the quote/edit buttons differ depending on your board style. You can change it via User Control Panel -> Board Preferences. Don't use Prosilver, as it is currently broken due to a bug.