1/200 Bismarck May 1941 by trumpeter

[Perth_shipyard]

Hey Nigel.

Ok to answer your main questions. No the whole hull wasn't repainted. They only covered up the stripes and yes the dark grey patches fore and aft were also covered up. The rest of the hull was left as is leaving the false waves on both sides of the bow.

Crushing through the Baltic wouldn't leave much her with much weathering or wear and yes with only 9 days in the Atlantic the superstructure wouldn't be covered in rust as I've seen some modelers do. The main weathering on the ship above water would be salt spray. Even the sea breeze is full of sea salt, so this would crystallise in areas most in contact with the sea. It doesn't mean though making the model look like its in the middle of a European winter and been in a snow storm

There was a great and obvious oil stain on her starboard quarter from a gasket breaking during refueling in Norway. You can clearly see this in the picture of her still with the stripes on the hull. We know it wasn't cleaned off later as its still very apparent in photos of her from PE in the Denmark strait. Given this knowledge, her hull would have had a dirty appearance while the superstructure would have been reasonably clean. I'll be focusing on areas of the steel decks and the vents for exhaust as these areas only require days for signs of wear and year to be evident. As she anchored a number of times while in the Baltic - I don't know which anchor- there would be some scrapes and possible start of rust on the hull below and near them. I'll add a little weathering to both just for fun. Also any scuttles along the hull where water came out would show signs of grime. Little things like this would be more appropriate for her.

It also all comes down to what you find aesthetically pleasing. Which brings me to my issue of the white stubs on the boot topping... I hate them! Hahaha everytime I look at them I want to get rid of them.

[Olaf Held]

They just painted out the stripes and (as far as I know) nothing in between. On wreck footage you can clearly see that the grey paint covering the b/w stripes appears fresher and less faded than the same colour between the stripes. To go further, I even wouldn't depict b/w stripes shining through as seen on many, many models. I would paint the hull in colour X, weather the hull, and THEN apply overpainted stripes (again in colour X), if it makes any sense.

@ Anton ~ What I'm missing on your boot-topping is the remainings of the black stripes. User *tms* postet a link to a youtube channel with lots of wreck footage. Maybe you can find out what they did or didn't with each pair of stripes.

If you want to weather the underwater hull, well I just would paint it the colour of your choice and then fade it down with the finest sanding paper you have (well, you would need a lighter coloured undercoat). I believe that the holy grail of RAL 8013 faded very quickly due to abrasive action.

Happy painting ~ Olaf!

[NigelR32]

I am modelling the Bismarck as she would have looked on May 25th 1941, so I guess I should replicate the hole in her Bow, with all the oil streaking back...???

[Perth_shipyard]

I am modelling the Bismarck as she would have looked on May 25th 1941, so I guess I should replicate the hole in her Bow, with all the oil streaking back...???

Hahaha looks like it

[Perth_shipyard]

I think I'm going to have to depict her with the hull camouflage in Norway, or possibly upset some by repainting the boot topping and just leaving the false wave.

[NigelR32]

I think I'm going to have to depict her with the hull camouflage in Norway, or possibly upset some by repainting the boot topping and just leaving the false wave.

I actually think those stripe remains left on your BT will grow on you. They will become a point of conversation for onlookers and will break up the overall grey and red of the hull. You'll also have a model that looks like a battleship and not a Zebra!!

You could always dull them down because they would have had a good coating of oil from the aforementioned damage to her Bow.

[Olaf Held]

You could always dull them down because they would have had a good coating of oil from the aforementioned damage to her Bow.

Not quite. The damage to the bow by means of the entry and exit holes was restricted to the hull above the water line. There was no oil in the compartments at the deck level of the damaged areas.

Oil was leaking out from the hit midships.

Happy oil-smearing ~ Olaf!

[NigelR32]

You could always dull them down because they would have had a good coating of oil from the aforementioned damage to her Bow.

Not quite. The damage to the bow by means of the entry and exit holes was restricted to the hull above the water line. There was no oil in the compartments at the deck level of the damaged areas.

Oil was leaking out from the hit midships.

Happy oil-smearing ~ Olaf!

Olaf,

I am aware there would be no oil at deck level, no matter how many times she was hit. However, I have watched a few documentaries on the story of the beautiful Bismarck, and it is always mentioned that she took a hit from POW in her Bow, puncturing an oil tank and letting in 20000 tons of water. This fuel oil was pouring out of her starboard Bow. This oil was bound to have clung to the surface where Antons annoying white marks are, on the Boot Topping.

[Perth_shipyard]

Ok so I've watched the James Cameron Bismarck dive and have a mountain of new information. In regards to the oil Nigel.... Well it's washed off now over the years

With the stripes they are clear as day on the boot topping and you can't see the black and white stripes coming through the refreshed grey paint. What you see is fresher and slightly darker grey paint over where the black and white stripes where on the hull. This is very clear. This is on two different areas of the ship also, so with the see through stripes on models... It looks as though what people where seeing on the ship, rather than the stripes coming through the new paint, was just the solid grey of the new paint. Happy with this and it makes life so much easier. This repainting of the stripes also does come down about 1/5th of the way down the boottopping part of the black and white stripe. I will be keeping the paint there now by the way. My annoying brain can't go past historical accuracy.

So atleast one thing solved.

Oh and finally a clear shot of the door for the bridge! It's a solid door without a pothole.

[Perth_shipyard]

Oh Olaf, I haven't added the black portion of the stripes yet.

[Perth_shipyard]

I forgot to say that with one of the photos of the stripes. There's a shell hole smack bang in the middle of the black and white stripes. From the damage the shell caused the top coat of grey is splintered around the shell hole revealing the black and white paint behind it.

[Kape12]

here you go:
http://www.kbismarck.com/drawings.html

[Perth_shipyard]

photo's of Bismarck's wreck

[NigelR32]

That,s a great piece of film Anton,

There is some more recent film on a video on Youtube called "Nazi Supership", it's in HD.

There is an even later film which i can't seem to find now. They went down in a sub and nearly got caught up in a piece of the wreck which turned out to be the hull section ripped off during the slide. In this film they investigate the torn hull and ascertain that the Germans actually scuttled the ship.

Any ideas??

[Perth_shipyard]

That,s a great piece of film Anton,

There is some more recent film on a video on Youtube called "Nazi Supership", it's in HD.

There is an even later film which i can't seem to find now. They went down in a sub and nearly got caught up in a piece of the wreck which turned out to be the hull section ripped off during the slide. In this film they investigate the torn hull and ascertain that the Germans actually scuttled the ship.

Any ideas??

yeah I've seen nazi supership a couple years ago on nat geo, a great vid.

[NigelR32]

I think the pics you have put up are from the latest James Cameron Vid I'm talking about??

In the first picture you refer to the back of the bridge, isn't that the conning tower??

I have circled two areas of what looks like they're repainted. What's that all about then??

[Perth_shipyard]

The conning tower is the armoured structure on top of the bridge one if the radars sits on top. The bridge and the bridge shelter deck(the bit with the square windows on the forward superstructure) is below that.

The paint you see isn't new paint. Firstly the white looking paint is the actual light grey o the superstructure. As she lies in pitch black darkness, the spotlights used to illuminate the ship basically overexposed the colour- a certain modeler on the Bismarck class website mistakenly painted white on the bridge of his model which in actual fact is just grey. The dark part behind the bridge shelter deck below the conning tower is the black stripe coming through as the cover paint has obviously worn and washed away. The yellowish paint is the primer underneath the grey, you will notice a box like outline where a deck box was mounted to the dck and backed onto the conning tower. The darker area on the back of where the bridge shelter deck juts out, perhaps was black from the time of the camo. You have to keep in mind the bridge structure was ablaze when she went down so a lot of the newer paint would have most likely peeled off if not damaged all together as on the port side.

*just a quick addition - the Dark paint showing the black stripe looks actually to be damaged new paint over the actual black paint. Possible fire damage. You am see the black underlying that darkened area.

[Perth_shipyard]

here you go:
http://www.kbismarck.com/drawings.html

Unfortunately you should never trust an artists depiction and rather the pictures of the ship itself.

[NigelR32]

Anton, I know what the conning tower is, and you've shown a picture of it stating you can clearly see the door to the rear of the bridge.

The door to the rear of the bridge is at the bottom right of the picture. The door I can "clearly" see is on the side of the conning tower.

If I can offer some advice, please mark what you're refering to on the pics. Just last week, there was a discussion going on here about some ropes and ladders around an antennae, I, for one didn't have a clue what you were talking about??

I am new to all this Ship modelling stuff, and am not up to speed with terminology on the component parts of a Battleship...yet. I'm sure I'm not the only one??

[Perth_shipyard]

Ok you have two red circles, one is the conning tower. The second red circle is above the bridge shelter deck- this is the enclosed bridge. The bridge itself is the open part of the deck in front of this structure. Under that red circle where the bridge juts out from the rest of the superstructure is the door leading ino the bridge. It doesn't have a porthole in it as it just a solid door. You can make out the outline of this door which faces aft.