The Ship Model Forum

Please keep documenting all the changes needed to the hull. I'm waiting on either Artwox or WEM to release their detail sets before I get started.

Looks like there's quite a few company's that make wooden decks like for the Arizona, which ones are the best?

Slow progress but progress nevertheless...

I'm in the process of drilling out and/or fixing portholes. By the looks of it, there isn't a single porthole, door or window on the entire kit that doesn't need to be cut out!









The bow portholes are proving to be an extra special mess. I enlarged the porthole openings slightly because they looked too small on the model when compared to historic photos and to make it a bit easier to fix the many warped porthole moldings. Unfortunately the kit holes were still too large in the bow as they were molded at a 90 degree angle to hull instead of following the contour of the hull like they should.

I drilled them out at the appropriate angle and patched the sides (mostly along the top) with putty while the drill bit was in the porthole, then pulled it out, leaving a perfectly round hole that I sanded down to match the contour of the hull.




I also started drilling out the attachment points for the metal bar ladders up the sides of the stern; I managed to break my bit a bit early in the process though.

How are you planning to redo the "Eyebrows" on the port holes? That's about the only thing keeping me from doing this to mine..

BobaFettSlave_1 wrote:How are you planning to redo the "Eyebrows" on the port holes? That's about the only thing keeping me from doing this to mine..

my first choice would be PE; I'm hoping they'll be part of one of the aftermarket PE sets in the works.

If not, I'll use wire. It's fairly easy to do; just wrap thin wire around something round that is the right size and cut the wire on both sides to get lots of equally sized half-circles.

I plan to replace the "eybrows" on the stern and probably on the superstructure too. The molded-on versions are just too faint and some of them are incomplete even.

Channell wrote:

BobaFettSlave_1 wrote:How are you planning to redo the "Eyebrows" on the port holes? That's about the only thing keeping me from doing this to mine..

my first choice would be PE; I'm hoping they'll be part of one of the aftermarket PE sets in the works.

If not, I'll use wire. It's fairly easy to do; just wrap thin wire around something round that is the right size and cut the wire on both sides to get lots of equally sized half-circles.

I plan to replace the "eybrows" on the stern and probably on the superstructure too. The molded-on versions are just too faint and some of them are incomplete even.

Cardmodel manufacturer GPM from Poland makes PE portholes with eyebrows in many sizes.

Just bought this kit. Please keep the build log going.

Thanks,

Ed/Rhode Island

Guest wrote:Just bought this kit. Please keep the build log going.

Thanks,

Ed/Rhode Island

Fear not, the show will go on!

I'm still wrestling with portholes; I am unhappy with how the portholes on the hull look. They look too much like holes burrowed into thick plastic and not enough like portholes. I also want to add clear "glass" to them.

My attempts to thin them out from behind have been unsuccessful; I can't grind them thin enough without melting and/or distorting them and get a flat enough surface to add the porthole glass from behind.

To solve this problem I have begun cutting out holes in the hull where the portholes are and inletting a small square of thin styrene sheet with a porthole cut in it over the hole. After that I'll putty and sand the exterior smooth. So far I have the starboard bow portholes in.

It's a huge amount of work but I'm keeping this weekend clear just to work on the Bissy. I'll post some progress pics then!

Did you see this link to a complete PE set as well wood deck? Looks very promising.

http://www.ka-models.com/index.php?rout ... uct_id=541

I'm glad your paving the way on this vital part of construction.

Ed

Channell wrote:

Guest wrote:Just bought this kit. Please keep the build log going.

Thanks,

Ed/Rhode Island

Fear not, the show will go on!

I'm still wrestling with portholes; I am unhappy with how the portholes on the hull look. They look too much like holes burrowed into thick plastic and not enough like portholes. I also want to add clear "glass" to them.

My attempts to thin them out from behind have been unsuccessful; I can't grind them thin enough without melting and/or distorting them and get a flat enough surface to add the porthole glass from behind.

To solve this problem I have begun cutting out holes in the hull where the portholes are and inletting a small square of thin styrene sheet with a porthole cut in it over the hole. After that I'll putty and sand the exterior smooth. So far I have the starboard bow portholes in.

It's a huge amount of work but I'm keeping this weekend clear just to work on the Bissy. I'll post some progress pics then!

The way I remove material like that is to take a sharp knife, something a little meatier than a hobby knife, and scrape the edge of the blade back and forth from behind the port holes to shave the material away. Its time consuming, but it works very well.

There's no easy way to do it, is there Boba?

Well, this is a work in progress (how convenient that it's in the "works in progress" thread ) but here is my "final solution" (no pun intended, Hitler can go $&#! himself) to my self-imposed porthole dilemma:


(yea I know the porthole on the right is crooked; it didn't stay that way for long after I took the pic )





And where I finished tonight, in the process of making all those odd squares disappear:





Yep, I am grinding out each porthole and inletting a square piece of the thinnest styrene sheet I could find in my cache with a pre-drilled perfect porthole in every one. I'm almost finished with the bow and have another couple days work on the stern.

Now my portholes finally look like portholes... and without compromising the strength of the hull too much. I know I could have just stuck with holes, perhaps ground out some in the back but my goal with this build is to keep the ship looking real even when inspecting it very closely. My Arizona looks great from a distance but the illusion breaks down when you really start looking close and and don't want the Bismarck to be that way too.

I picked up some tiny copper thread which will work great for replacing the "eyebrows" and doing the metal steps on the stern as well. I found wire Nirvana at Hobby Lobby in the beads and necklaces aisle...every size I could ever want and for 1/4 the price of what my local model shop wants for the stuff!

After I paint and weather the hull (but before I put the deck on) I will put a small piece of clear styrene behind each porthole... the effect will be "special".

Guest wrote:Did you see this link to a complete PE set as well wood deck? Looks very promising.

http://www.ka-models.com/index.php?rout ... uct_id=541

I'm glad your paving the way on this vital part of construction.

Ed

I did! It's a bit pricey but it is tempting...

Here's a couple more pics of the bow cleaned up with the new portholes. There is still a bit more cleanup to do:

Wow! Those did come out very nice. Now you got me wanting to do this, lol. So you drilled/dremmeled out the old portholes nd then you did what? It looks like you made a recess for the styrene square to sit in.

Dana

Channell,
Do you have that warm fuzzy feeling now?

BobaFettSlave_1 wrote:Wow! Those did come out very nice. Now you got me wanting to do this, lol. So you drilled/dremmeled out the old portholes nd then you did what? It looks like you made a recess for the styrene square to sit in.

Dana

First I cut a porthole in a thin styrene sheet, the cut out a small square around it. I center the square over the original porthole and mark out it's outline. Then I dremmel out the center taking care to leave some material around the edges and inlet it by hand with a square Xacto blade to match the square piece I cut out and get it exactly even with the surrounding hull.

The I repeat ad nauseum, taking care to keep my porthole lines straight. After that, putty and carefully sand, also taking care to not destroy the porthole openings while doing so.

I just finished the port side of the stern tonight; I also used the same technique to replace the areas where the metal steps will be put in as I found it nearly impossible to drill through the hard, thick plastic of the hull with the ungodly small drill size I need to do the job without breaking the bit.

And Cody... I haven't had enough to drink yet but I'm going to a Christmas party tonight so I'll work on getting that warm fuzzy feeling... for real!

Update on the portholes... every porthole on the hull has been replaced:









Despite my best efforts I see at least a couple portholes ended up slightly crooked; that's one "nice" thing about macro photography because I could swear they were straight looking at them in person. Oh well, back to work...

That is crazy awesome!!

Nothing too exciting this time, but work goes on with the Bismarck.

The real Bismarck hull has a roughly 45 Degree angle running along the top of the hull for the armor belt but this detail is completely absent from the kit.



To get it on my model I added strips of .020 X .030 piece of styrene along the rim of the hull and filed it down at an angle:





After the deck is permanently attached I will ad a vertical strip of either styrene or brass behind it, then leave a space for the "gutter" which rims the deck and start on the REAL madness:



The strip raises the hull just enough to match the eventual level of the deck without making the whole thing look wrong.

Before that I have another problem to solve first, the porthole "eyebrows"

This is the best I could do with wire superglued above the portholes:





Unfortunately it looked like crap, so scraped them off and will try again with putty and tape like I use to weld lines. If that fails I might have to wait for aftermarket PE after all.

Finally, I started making guns:





These are the secondary guns with the Trumpeter "detail up" brass barrels. I added the ladder step rungs with the smallest wire I could find and while they still look big, they'll be OK. Fellow Bismarck builders might want to take note; there are 4 turret shells with such steps but the model only uses 2. I spent a couple hours today adding rungs to turrets I'm not gonna use; I guess it was good practice at least!

Until next time!

looking good so far! I can't wait till you start playing with your 'toothpicks'.

(maybe if you add some mascara to those eyebrows???)