Ships of the German Flag GB 2020

I have the hull sealed up and almost ready for the tower.

That's gonna be a beautiful looking sub!

TheMongoose

That's gonna be a beautiful looking sub!

 

Measure 6 times, cut once!

after looking at this for awhile i realized my sharpie lines weren't meeting up at the bow. Decided to backtrack, sand the bottom of the hull flat and THEN mark the cut lines out. Worked out great, definitely worth the time. A little sanding with the dremel and it sits water level right down the middle of the boot stripe  to me!

So Happy Brthday !!! Boy this is looking very interesting indeed.  

plasticjunkie

I have the hull sealed up and almost ready for the tower.

 

PJ,

Those holes cleaned up right nice. It really does look great. Did you place anything inside to block a see through or it the model small enough that it’s a moot point.

Steve

TheMongoose

Measure 6 times, cut once!

after looking at this for awhile i realized my sharpie lines weren't meeting up at the bow. Decided to backtrack, sand the bottom of the hull flat and THEN mark the cut lines out. Worked out great, definitely worth the time. A little sanding with the dremel and it sits water level right down the middle of the boot stripe  to me!

 

 

This is really looking cool Mongoose. And a very Happy Birthday big guy!

Steve

docidle

 

 

plasticjunkie

I have the hull sealed up and almost ready for the tower.

 

 

 

 

PJ,

Those holes cleaned up right nice. It really does look great. Did you place anything inside to block a see through or it the model small enough that it’s a moot point.

Steve

 

Thanks Steve. Yes I did  add something but forgot to mention and photograph the card stock I glued on the keel going up just under the deck to block that empty look. I painted the interior and the center card sheet black.

The initial primer is on. Everything here is just set in place.

Any suggestions on how to deal with the 4 deck joints? On the main deck Tamiya used raised lines to simulate decking. Everywhere else I've been able to eliminate the joints so would like to do that on these as well.

My two bits.

Do the best you can.

when you splice pieces together with a piece of plastic on the underside, leaving space at the end for the edge of the hull; be sure to make the tops flush. The pieces may well be different thicknesses.

That alone may be enough. 

If not, mask an area as best you can considering the raised detail no morevthan 1/16" wide or so.

carefully try filling crack with a little Tamita Gray diluted in Tamiya liquid cement.

sick of fighting autocorrect with the Tamit's word!

Tight construction followed with super minimal repair should work well.

Bill

Continuing with the torpedo tubes, I started small by attaching PE to the lids first. Not a big deal but a step forward.

Steve

Next I marked off the size of the hole needed to be drilled. Then again starting small and working up to a point where I needed to measure again. It's always easier to take away tthan trying to replace plastic that you've removed...

To make sure that I had the angles right and to further hone the openings, I started drilling small holes on the exterior portions of the tubes which are kit parts.

As you can see, I was making small holes and then digging out portions. You can also see that I made a mistake and drilled way to close to the edge and had to fill in with Perfect Plastic Putty. Measure twice, cuss once or more...

And so on to this point.

Getting closer to where I want to be. I had to file at an angle so that the torpedo tubes would allign.

Then dry fitting to see how much more I needed to remove from the hull.

Now to dry fit all the components to see how they fit together. The PE is for the facing around the exterior tubes.

Note that the opening is completely round.

Everything lines up and now I need to clean up the openings to make them smoother.

Next up will be surgery on two of the smoke gererators stands and then onto the bridge and more major surgery.

Mongoose,

I can't add anymore to Bill's(GMorrison) advice. As much as I'm not a fan of wood decks from various firms (there's no 3D effect) I also am a realist when it comes to multiple sectioned decks and sometimes only a wood deck will do. Unfortunetely, I think you're too far along to be able to fit a deck on with all the deck furniture in place.

Otherwise, your Tirpitz looks awesome.

Steve 

docidle wow does that look good! love the build up photos as well. I k how complicated that is, a perfectly round tube to complex geometry. Well done!

Hi guys.

Sorry, I have been working long hours in a attempt to correct a serious misscalculation in my federal income tax withholdings, and I will be working more to save for the inevitable payment to come the first of next year.

Chris and PJ, I attempted to answer you guys yesterday but my phone locked up while trying to send 

So now that I'm at my copmputer I'll try to catch up.

Chris, you first. I agree with Bill, do your best, it can be done but with much work. I don't know why Tamiya did that instead of just giving a solid deck. As far as the stacks, I usually drill out holes and stick in coffee stir staws of diffrent sizes to add intrest. They aren't accurate but add some intrest. She's coming along great.

PJ, great job on the limber holes  That's going to make it awesome.

Docidle, Nice job, beautiful work. I really wasn't seeing it until the last couple of pictures. Once you got the door on I see what you were talking about. Sorry, I'm quite a bit scatter brained lately.

Did I miss anybody? Sorry if I did and you had a question I missed. Luckly Bill is in here and can answer some of them, thanks Bill!

So, during all this extra work I'm doing, including passing my Real Estate exam, sitting at open houses, working at HP and driving for Grubhub in the evening (actually really good money) I will be able to purchase the Pontos set for the Revell Bismarck. It's a supper nice set.

modelcrazy

Hi guys.

...

So, during all this extra work I'm doing, including passing my Real Estate exam, sitting at open houses, working at HP and driving for Grubhub in the evening (actually really good money) I will be able to purchase the Pontos set for the Revell Bismarck. It's a supper nice set.

 

You've got to tell me about this! So I've been working hard to stay focussed on just building the Tirpitz out of the box and essentially using it to get ready for my Revell Bismalrk build. That one I want to knock outta da' park. I've just sarted looking at what's available for it. I bought the AK Interactice Modeling Straight Ahead book and plan to walk through it in detail. Let me in on your thoughts for aftermarket as well please!

Prepping for paint! Check out the camo scheme...

Chris, take a look at the Pontos set for it, it's massive! I like AM sets very much, they really make a subject stand out but do add quite a bit to the build time.

The camo looks intense. I saw a drawing where the starboard side and deck had the camo and the port side, next to the cliff, was clean.

modelcrazy

Chris, take a look at the Pontos set for it, it's massive! I like AM sets very much, they really make a subject stand out but do add quite a bit to the build time.

The camo looks intense. I saw a drawing where the starboard side and deck had the camo and the port side, next to the cliff, was clean.

 

yep, that's the one I'm doing :-)

last time I looked at the clock it was 10:15. Guess it got away from me as it's after 1. Took longer than normal to mock this up. My current plan is to mask the white gray, paint the 2 different browns, then do the all over green by using what I've cut out in browns as the masks. Tomorrow though , or today I guess lol

TheMongoose,

That is quite a camo pattern but it will look awesome when completed. 

As for laying the colors wouldn't you want to lay the green before the brown, darker over lighter?  Or are you hand painting each section?

Marcus

TheMongoose

 

 

modelcrazy

Hi guys.

...

So, during all this extra work I'm doing, including passing my Real Estate exam, sitting at open houses, working at HP and driving for Grubhub in the evening (actually really good money) I will be able to purchase the Pontos set for the Revell Bismarck. It's a supper nice set.

 

 

 

 

You've got to tell me about this! So I've been working hard to stay focussed on just building the Tirpitz out of the box and essentially using it to get ready for my Revell Bismalrk build. That one I want to knock outta da' park. I've just sarted looking at what's available for it. I bought the AK Interactice Modeling Straight Ahead book and plan to walk through it in detail. Let me in on your thoughts for aftermarket as well please!

 

I have a Lion Roar set for my Revell Bismarck. Like the Pontos one its huge. But i think the Pontos set comes with wood deck (Steve, correct me if i am wrong) i just went for the Artwox deck. I have repleaced all the AA guns with resin ones from vetren models. Still thinking about replaceing the ammo lockers, searchlights and a few other bits.

Great job on those torpedo tubes Steve, very nicely done.

Marcus McBean

TheMongoose,

That is quite a camo pattern but it will look awesome when completed. 

As for laying the colors wouldn't you want to lay the green before the brown, darker over lighter?  Or are you hand painting each section?

Marcus  

Hmmmm, gotta think about that. I'm going to airbrush each section. One color won't go over the next so no worries about coverage. My thinking, all be it possibly flawed lol, is that green overspray would show strongly on the lighter brown but the lighter brown maynot show as much on the dark green making it easier to touch up. Short of that logic I hadn't come up with a specific order of spraying. Any advice from past experience would definitely be welcome :-)

Man that is one puzzle of a camp scheme but will look fantastic and unusual.

Thanks for the motivation guys 

doing some practice today. Started with the stack, small and easily rotated to get paint everywhere. You may be wondering why i primed in the white-grey color. 2 reasons actually, it's close to the color needed for the camo and it may allow me to modulate these light colors better. Instead of adding white to lighten the color I'm trying to put more or less coverage in an area. See what you think of these pics?

the white-grey is misted with grimey black(think tamiya smoke). It appears too brite yet i think. Maybe a little more, or maybe wait and do a little heavier weathering on those areas, what do you think?

Here's my 1st shot at the camo. Up close I can see there will be some blending between colors needed. Using MM enamels so there is a possibility of thinning it and doing a little brush work. You guys have any experience with this? Could use some suggestions to get rid of the thin white lines left between colors in a few spots. Maybe I just need to air brush those next time I have the color out? Any experience on what works best?

Oh my! That looks amazing

plasticjunkie

Oh my! That looks amazing

 

Finally got going on the Graf Spee. Having a little problem with the P.E. set because sometimes it's hard deciphering the drawings and matching the two sets of instructions, and then trying to find the correct metal piece on the fret.  Last night I spent a half hour going over everything with a magnifier lens and still didn't fint the piece I needed.

One thing I did notice with this kit and the deck set, the kit showed wood, so I started looking for a wood piece and started thinking it might have been left out, but the particular part I needed was actually metal.  who knew?  In another case I may have been shorted a couple ladders and some vents, but I'll keep looking and building other sections.  Hopefully they will show up later.

Ikar01, I didn't look back at past posts, is it kit PE or aftermarket? 

Tonight's entertainment for me is a modeling puzzle - 50 pieces with no straight edge pieces now where to start?

Moving right along  The forrest green is looking pretty good. I'm trying to match my background trees on the railroad tunnel mountain and the more muted colors in the original color photograph instead of the brighter green in the rendering that I'm using for the pattern. 

one nice thing is that according to the German Camo book I picked up — German Naval Camouflage, 1942–1945 by John Asmussen, “Lack of proper aerial photo documentation has made it impossible to make a top view illustration.”