1/200 Trumpeter Bismarck 1940 Redux

[europapete]

Hi Jason, looking at your Hood pic's earlier, that is exactly what I was thinking for my Hood. Regards, Pete in RI

[europapete]

OOPS! just re-read the whole thread. I should have said "Thanks Bill!" But this will be saved as reference if I ever get a Bismark. Excellent work Jason, well done. Regards, Pete in RI

[Channell]

Jason back in the saddle!

Great to see you back.

Cheers, Jabb

Time to celebrate! Bring out the wine and the funny hats!

NEIN! In zee Kriegsmarine ve drink J�germeister and wear only zee most serious of hats!

Thanks all, looking forward to making some progress on this monster.

[Channell]

Still putting along : https://youtu.be/Y_xCiPpDL8w

[Channell]

Some more progress:



I've decided to build the superstructure rather than following the instruction manual and working on the forward/aft decks as I think it will reduce my chances of damaging stuff, as well as give me more motivation to move forward. I'm currently bouncing back and forth between the aft upper superstructure piece and the main control tower above the bridge:





I replaced the kit portholes with smaller (and actually round) ones to better match the real ship and am getting the various pieces of the superstructure ready for PE.





I'm disappointed with the Scaledecks deck... I expected it to not fit quite right as that's been the case with the rest of the deck but it's also printed wrong, making it appear a bit lopsided. I mitigated the bad fit by lining it with styrene strips (also par for the build) and am just gonna have to live with the lopsidedness; hopefully once the deck fittings are all installed it won't be too noticeable.



Anyway, making progress and almost ready to dive back into photoetch madness!

[Strategos Augustus]

It's looking great! Glad to see you back at it.

[Channell]

It's looking great! Glad to see you back at it.

Thanks... good to hear from you.

I make no promises but I do wanna finish this one someday so I better get working on the beast and make some progress. A long ways to go yet but I think I'm at least past the halfway mark on this build.

[europapete]

Good to see you back Jason, she's looking good. Regards Pete in RI

[Channell]

Thanks europapete!

Another small update; I've been working on the aft upper superstructure:









The decks are all installed and masked, holes drilled for the bar steps and PE is getting slathered liberally across the bulkheads.

On the top aft deck section I decided to go with metal rather than wood planking as from what I can tell metal is the most accurate. Of course the Kriegsmarine parked a couple of land-based flak guns there but for the timeframe of my build they didn't seem to have been installed yet so I won't have 'em on my build.

Until next time!

[Channell]

Making more progress... this time the upper rear superstructure gets it's bulkhead PE finished and final paint:



I've almost survived the vents; only two more to go on the funnel. Here's the scariest one on the kit:



I'm sure some of you guys are laughing in 1/700 scale but the vents were a real challenge for me to get together. Otherwise, it was pretty much the same procedure as the lower superstructure; I first hit the lower part of the superstructure with grey-black paint, then masked off the bottoms of everything with 1 mm tape, then painted the bulkheads with white primer first, then the final color.

And here's where I am now:









Still some touch-up to do (there always is with my work ); next I'm going to tackle the funnel and forward hangars as well as move forward on the main control tower. After I finish the main superstructure pieces, I will go back and add all the guns, ladders/rails and various details that are still missing from the superstructure.

[Jabberwock]

One word -

Sharp!

Cheers, Jabb

[Ronald47]

Jason, just finished reading trough your fine build. I was a while not here on the forum and surprised about your Bismarck build. It's a very good motivator for us to build ours

Keep on going, I'm with you

[Channell]

Hey everyone! I've restarted work on this project; figured it was time. The nice thing about scale modeling historic subjects is they never expire!

I've moved to a new place with a new hobby room, much sunnier than the basement fake log cabin:



To get myself booted back up I decided to tackle the flak guns over the weekend; I'm replacing the kit guns with Veteran Models stuff and each one is naturally a model kit of it's own.



After assembly and ready for paint:



After paint and sat temporarily in place:





then off for safe keeping until it's time to install them permanently:



I also finished up the little deck area behind Turret B and installed the guns I build earlier in the thread:



Feels good to drag Bissy out and get her going together again! Thanks for looking!

[Goodwood]

Well well well, look what the cat dragged in! What's shakin', Jason?

[Channell]

Well well well, look what the cat dragged in! What's shakin', Jason?

Hey Sean!

You guys still building model ships here or what?

[Iceman 29]

Nice and long job!

Some pictures of Bismarck here:

https://www.historyphotos.org/galleries ... lection-01

[Channell]

Nice and long job!

Some pictures of Bismarck here:

https://www.historyphotos.org/galleries ... lection-01

Thanks! I was wondering what had happened to all the pics in Bundersarchiv and there they are! Will use!

I've decided to focus on the Admiral's bridge tower next... thought I'd go over the basic structural modifications I'm making. This will be a focal point of the finished model so I'm taking extra care and dedication here:








From the bottom layer to the top:

The bottom oval layer got it's portholes replaced so they would be thin and round; the portholes on this layer and above are smaller than the hull ports and don't have exterior shields according to my sources

The next layer up is the Admiral's bridge; I ground the windows thin from the inside to open them up. My sources say only the area of the deck just behind the exterior doors should be wood planks; the rest will be "metal" painted dark grey. I went ahead and permanently installed the wood portion of the deck because it ripped on me as I was trimming it around the back of the tower column.

As the kit planked the whole deck, that means I have to smooth out the parts that should be metal so I filled in the molded planks with putty. I also added tiny strips of styrene where the solid rail meets up to the back of the Admiral's bridge as they did not quite meet up otherwise and should be connected.

The next level up is the forward gun/spotlight platform; the kit molded both sides of the platform "wings" the same but in reality one side was extended in the back and looked a little lopsided. I cut off the back on that side and grafted an extension using the plans from the Anatomy of The Ship, Bismarck book... I have an e-copy but it's been my best reference for this project so far.

On the tower itself, all the portholes have been replaced like on the first layer too.

Finally on the top platform, I went ahead and installed the very last piece of the Scaledecks... um, deck. True to form it gave me some fitment trouble; I had to leave a bubble of it bunched up but the last piece of the armor tower covers it so it's all good. I also thinned out the crossbars on the openings of the back of the platform to reduce the toy-like look of the piece as it was originally molded. The last triangulat piece of superstructure will get the window slits opened up and the little wedge-shaped thingamobobs on the roof replaced with Veteran Models resin pieces. I will have a radar assembly on top too; it would have just been installed in the timeframe I am modeling Bissy.

Thanks all!

[steinerman]

Jason! My Ol' Buddy! Good to see you again! And, it's good to see you're still part of the "200" club!! I was gone from here for about a year, but I decided to come back and bore you with my never-ending supply of BS.

Your Bissy looks great! Slow going, but it's going to be a real show-stopper when you finish it. And you ARE going to finish it, if I have to come over and give you a swift kick in the ass!

Glad you're back, Jason!

[Channell]

Hey there Larry! Good to hear from ya! Yeah, I'm slower than slow but I'm gonna keep pecking away at this one, eventually I'll get there.

This week I focused on the Admiral's Bridge superstructure and am making progress. I'm building it in three major sections to facilitate painting the black "baseboard" and every piece is getting mods:







Can't get enough of the detail on the big Flak guns...



I also build the rest of these nightmare AA guns and cleaned up/painted the ammo chests, which was a full day's work by itself:





Work goes on!

[BB62vet]

Jason,

Excellent work, as usual!!! The model is really impressive!!! I also think that Trumpeter put a lot more effort into the Bismarck kit than they did the MISSOUI kit - at least, it appears that there is a much higher level of detail in the parts and so forth. Adding your fine expertise is really making for a super model!

Hank