A decent rendition of Bismarck

ChuckO

Beautiful job! I would make mention of great work on the cable system of the cranes, the rudder indicator box, and the barrel cleaning tubes. Just one item though, it looks as if the flag on the main is reversed, still "he" is lovely.

Yankee Clipper

That is exceptional work.  I'm always impressed by quality work with the PE railings, etc.  How are you able to make them look like they come straight out of the deck the way the do.  Would love to hear your technique for attching the PE.  Very clean.

Dave 

  Hi, glad you all like it. To answer the questions, I'm pretty sure the flag is on the right way though if it isn't I will certainly take the correction under advisement. The cross on the flag goes to the upper corner nearest the pole I thought?

  This isTamiya 350th, done in ModelMaster acrylics with Badger 150 airbrush. Photo etch is mostly WEM but with a little GMM and Tom's thrown in the mix. Also several scratchbuilt details. The base is homemade from dimensional oak from the local hardware store.

  On the rails? The only secret is to very carefully prebend all corners and radii. I hate when the pe manufacturers attach the rail to a platform with a curve on it and expect you to form it around the platform while attached. I always cut those free and form them seperately, straight edges on those are ok. I'll spend a couple hours on one peice if I don't like it. once I'm satisfied with the bend just put a tiny drop of white glue at one point and position it into place. Once tacked into place run a bead of cyanoacrylate along the base and then paint the bottom rung of the rail to blend it into the surface you attached it to.

Thanks for sharing that information.  I ordered GMM's publication on photoetching for ships. 

I just spent a few minutes staring at your photos.  How do you get such a clean line between the vertical surfaces and the deck.  Are you finishing each level before attaching it to the finished model.  If so how do you attach without effecting the paint from the deck your attaching it to? 

Thanks for sharing.

Dave

weebles wrote:

How do you get such a clean line between the vertical surfaces and the deck.  Are you finishing each level before attaching it to the finished model.

This is in fact how I do it, everything that can be is assembled complete and finished before attaching to the model. Just keep your glue tight, you don't want anything squishing out of the joint.

    In the cases where you have to paint the deck and bulwarks together I usually paint the vertical surface first and then mask it to spray the deck, after masking a very light coat of clear along the edge of the tape will make sure nothing leaks. Not necessary though if you spray your deck color very lightly at first so as not to have a large puddle of wet paint to seep under the tape.  

Kindly explain how you believe you "totally botched" the main deck, which looks OK to me.

The more I look at your photos the more I like this effort.

Wow, impressive job.  Botched? No way.  Ive been wanting to build the Bismarck for awhile...just a little intimidated by the detailing effort.  Someday soon ill pay-up and dive in.

                 -graham
 

Great tip on the clear coat for sealing.  I'll try that. 

With respect to gluing the structures to the deck.  Are you gluing from the underside and inside the cabins along the joints or do you have another method.  What type of glue are you using?

Thanks for putting up with all my questions!

Dave

An outstanding job there . I see I'm going to have my hands full when I start on my Bismark. Three questions if you don't mind answering some?

1. I have all the WEM PE sets for her, is that not enough? You mentioned having to use some more by GMM and Tom Modelworks?
2. Did you used a Swasika decal for the bow/stern decks?
3. The rigging is truly a work of art, what did you use to do it...hair?

Thank you!

Scott

  Wow so many questions!

Um, let's see. I considered the deck botched from what I was attempting, I sprayed the deck color first and then tried to streak in some variation in the planks by hand but it did not work well when I went to blend it so I ended up painting it over, then I tried doing a wash which was another abysmal failure so I ended up painting it again. Ended up with about three more layers of paint than wanted and nearly wiped out the plank engraving all together. On Tirpitz I will do the more tedious method of actually masking the individual planks in four different colors and blending them alla the "Rusty White" method that worked so well on my Mikasa.

   The WEM sets are more than adequate, I used some GMM parts on the antiaircraft fixtures, som Tom's stuff on some landings, none really necessary, no one would ever really notice.

   The Swastikas are frome a 48th scale decal set and are a little undersized, go for 32nd if you can find them.

 The rigging is real dupont lycra, nearly impossible to find. I have about enough for five more ships and am not sure if I can get more. Dupont sold the lycra line to another company and I've been having a hard time locating a distributor.

As for gluing the subbassemblies I just use the testors modelmaster in the black square bottle. It binds very nicely right through acrylic paint.  Don't use too much, keep it to the inside of the bulwarks and place straight down without sliding and you'll be fine.

   I think that's everybody?
 

Hi Chuck!

Thanks for the tips I do appreciate it, will see if I can find some of that lycra out here, it sure looks good on your ship.

Scott

A beautiful job.

I finished my Bismarck a couple months ago....prior to getting on here. Since I've been on here, I've begun to think I did a misjustice to mine. PE is really needed. Same goes for the King George V. I'm putting the final deck paint touches on the Big E. All three have no PE.

Seeing what beautiful works of art you and others do makes me want to build them again. Oooooo...expensive.  

Chuck, very nice ship. I'm impressed. Have you seen this line:

http://www.bobeshobbyhouse.com/ezl.html

Ed

Super duper job!  And thanks for the great pics..

 Paul

Beautiful job, nice clean build. The photo etched parts look spectacular. Very crisp model.

Thanks for sharing, keep it up.

David

Chuck,

I like it! I think that you are too critical of yourself on this build. What aftermarket parts were used or did you build it straight out of the box? What is the scale and who is the manufacturer? I just finished my first build, the 1:400 RMS Titanic. I learned a lot from it and I can honestly say that I will get better at this as I build more.

A43, this thread is 7 years old, and the poster has not shown any activity on here in 6 years. If you get an answer from him it will be quite surprising.

I am truly impressed! You did a wonderful job detailing Tamiya's plain bulkheads.

Bill

The missing modeller must be meticulously masking many miniature deck planks on the Tirpitz.

Looking forward to his return!

Well , just my luck, new question old thread. Oh well since its alive I'll ask anyway.... when doing PE does one start from bottom up or top down? My guess would be top down and inside out but its always welcome to have another opinion or two. Great model by the way, my fleet consists of Tirpitz, Missouri    (1991 ) and Admiral Lazarev, also Big E  modern island. Some day I'll have PE for them all.

I work from the center out... Less chance of damaging the work already done.

If you Google, Lycra thread rigging, on the internet there seems to be all sorts of sources for the stuff. I think I will try to get some for the next model I build.

Amphib

Thx stik kinda what I thought but no harm in asking.

Build up and out.