Bismarck by Channell - Trumpeter - 1/200 - PLASTIC

[channell]

Thanks for your reply, Channel. I know Tamya products; I found excellent quality but a bit speed in drying.

 

Good work and good model

 

Alex

 

Thanks again! I do like most Tamiya stuff, especially their paints and sandpaper.

[Bozzy62]

Hi Channell,

 

Superb build just about to embark on my journey, Can I ask how did you come by the up scaled drawings I see on the wall behind the Bismarck.

 

Bozzy

[WackoWolf]

The new Fine Scale Modeler has a write up about this kit in this months magazine. Keep the pictures coming.

[channell]

Hi Channell,

 

Superb build just about to embark on my journey, Can I ask how did you come by the up scaled drawings I see on the wall behind the Bismarck.

 

Bozzy

 

They came with the Kagero Bismarck book ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Battleship-Bismarck-Super-Drawings/dp/8361220755/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1379609757&sr=8-2&keywords=kagero+battleship+bismarck )... they are mostly in 1/350 scale except for a couple illustrations. If you are about to "build the beast" this book is a "must have"!

Edited September 19, 2013 by channell

[Bozzy62]

Thanks Channell the book was hard to find but a copy is now on its way.

 

Bozzy

[channell]

I thought I'd add another update; I am getting close to finishing this monster finally after almost a year...

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am now in the process of addind the last details around the ship that I have missed . Gotta say I'm a bit scared of the rigging but this isn't the HMS Victory so I do feel lucky about that!

Edited October 20, 2013 by channell

[WackoWolf]

She is looking Beautiful. Nice detail work. Keep the pictures coming, I am always watching for new updates.

[Kevin]

hello my friend

 

where did you obtain the mesh for the engine inlets on the sea chest, i have been unable to find it in the aber website ( as per the flory) build

 

or is in the deluxe fitting package?

Edited November 3, 2013 by Kevin

[channell]

hello my friend

 

where did you obtain the mesh for the engine inlets on the sea chest, i have been unable to find it in the aber website ( as per the flory) build

 

or is in the deluxe fitting package?

 

Hi Kevin! It's just brass mesh screen that I had laying around my "model dungeon" and cut to fit the intakes. I bought it at a hobby shop years ago... I think it was in the model railroading section.

 

It's not actually accurate and KA didn't provide them; but White Ensign is going to offer some for a fairly reasonable price:

 

https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/p/WEM+1200+Bismarck+Sea+Chest+Intake+Grilles+PE+2017/20033/

[Kevin]

thank you, they look like cut down railings

[Kevin]

Hello my friend

 

I have another ?

 

the square windows on the bridge, have you seen a PE kit fro them, reason for asking is i have seen a photo, on one of the build sites. where he/she had high-lighted all the glazed area in a different shade, but appeared to have a screen/frame around all the squared windows

[channell]

Hello my friend

 

I have another ?

 

the square windows on the bridge, have you seen a PE kit fro them, reason for asking is i have seen a photo, on one of the build sites. where he/she had high-lighted all the glazed area in a different shade, but appeared to have a screen/frame around all the squared windows

 

Hi Kevin!

 

If it's the build I'm thinking of, they came from here: http://www.modellschlachtschiffe.de/shop/product.asp?numRecordPosition=5&P_ID=480

 

But I wouldn't order from this company as there have been multiple complaints on MW about them taking money but never deilvering their product.

[channell]

I'm bringing this project back from the dead if that's OK with y'all. I'm also doing a log on another site but I thought I'd  share my misadventures here too for those who are interested. 😁

 

I've been through a rocky past few years when it comes to scale modeling... I've started several ambitious builds but only finished one (a 1/200 HMS Nelson) and ran into enough frustration/burnout that I ended up boxing up my modeling stuff and walking away for quite some time because of it. 

 

(edit) Here's a couple of pics of my Nelson, just for fun...

 

 

 

 

Anyway, the world spins in circles and me along with it... The bug has bitten again and I've come back refreshed and renewed with an urge to succeed where I failed in the past... and I'm restarting where it pretty much all began for me: superdetailing the Trumpeter 1/200 Bismarck.

 

The original subject of this thread is pretty much trashed... I accidentally dropped it in an icy self-storage parking lot during a move about 5 years back and it's been sitting in a box getting even more broken and loosing parts ever since. Luckily for me, I'm a big spender and bought 2 of these kits back then... the aftermarket has since put out a metric crapton of add-ons for this kit which I've collected a lot of over the years too. 

 

Here's the main plan... I'm still aiming to do Bismarck as she appeared late in 1940 with an emphasis on doing a clean and extremely detailed build.  There were quite a few minor improvements/ completion of elements of the ship and paint scheme changes made to the Bismarck between the fall/winter of 1940 and Operation Rheinübung the following spring and I'll point them out as a go along. I'm expecting a long-term project of a year or so... we'll see how it goes. 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2018 by channell
Added pictures

[channell]

My first job has been to improve the shape of the kit hull to make it look closer to the real thing while still allowing myself some artistic license and not getting too bogged down in making it 100% exact. In the end, aside from simply chasing accuracy in scale I guess it's really all about making the model more "mine" instead of the work of some nameless grunts and a huge injection molding machine. 

 

Here's a smattering of Bismarck hulls to illustrate:

 

 

Top is a 1/100 fiberglass Bismarck hull, middle is my original hull and bottom is the hull I'm gonna use to finish this build.

 

 

I used the plans of the 1/100 version scaled down as a guide to get a fair approximation of the hull shape and built up/shaved down the hull from stem to stern to match the plan profile using reverse cross-sections as a guide. 

 

I also replaced the bow portholes by drilling fresh circles in styrene sheet and inletting them into the hull:

 

 

 

I did this because the kit portholes are warped due to the curvature of the hull and the realities of molding the hull in 1 large piece.

 

I was able to drill and grind the stern portholes from behind to get the same effect:

 

 

I also re-profiled the stern itself as the kit interpretation is too sharp and narrow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by channell

[channell]

... Like I said earlier, I'm going for broke on aftermarket add-ons: 

 

 

Got the complete Pontos advanced set, a KA MK 1 set, all the resin Veteran models DKM sets and a bunch of other random bits + whatever I need/want to salvage from build #1 to work with. 

 

I'm especially excited about the scaledecks wood deck:

 

 

The individual planks are printed onto the wood rather than burnt on with a laser, giving a far more convincing result than before (KA deck left, Pontos deck middle and Scaledecks right)

 

In between bouts of sanding the hull I've also been preparing the first tier of the superstructure for photo-etch heaven... or hell, depending on your standing with the stuff!

 

 

 

I did a couple of PE vents just to make sure I could do them... fiddly stuff but they are gonna look great in the end. 

 

 

 

Finally, did some work on the propshafts/rudders: 

 

 

And some "eye candy" with the messed up superstructure of build #1 to give me hope for the future:

 

 

More to come...

 

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by channell

[cog]

So now I have to follow you on two sites ;)

[vossy]

what is the other site?

 

cheers

 

chris

[cog]

modelwarships.com

[popeye the sailor]

I guess I don't have to ask for pictures from the earlier build.......never liked P.B.   tried 'em and ended up putting all my pictures on memory sticks.....I know where all my pictures are      very interesting porthole reno.   well........if your gonna go off the deep end,  you'll need some witnesses........I'll watch you go down the rabbit hole   

[channell]

Made more progress this weekend... My hull "remodel" took way more work than I thought it would... looking forward to getting the hull painted up and diving into the more fun stuff to do above the waterline.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kevin]

hello my friend nice to see you posting again, lol i have actually finished my build of the Bismarck (although it is the only one i have finished) permission to follow again

[Richmond]

CHANNELL

 

Great build, so clean and neat.

 

For reference there is another fantastic build of the Bismark on the Flory Model site - you do not have to join to see the log.

 

http://www.florymodels.co.uk/trumperter-1200-bismark-file/

 

RICHMOND

 

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by Richmond

[channell]

On 9/6/2018 at 2:11 PM, Kevin said:

hello my friend nice to see you posting again, lol i have actually finished my build of the Bismarck (although it is the only one i have finished) permission to follow again

 

Good to hear from you Kevin! I saw your finished Bismarck... she turned out amazing! Gonna finish one this time, I swear... 

[channell]

On 9/7/2018 at 6:04 AM, Richmond said:

CHANNELL

 

Great build, so clean and neat.

 

For reference there is another fantastic build of the Bismark on the Flory Model site - you do not have to join to see the log.

 

http://www.florymodels.co.uk/trumperter-1200-bismark-file/

 

RICHMOND

 

 

Yeah, I saw that one way back when... pretty impressive work. It's definitely the "Big Bissy" build to beat on the interwebs. 

 

 

 

I'm still putting through endless prep work on my build...

 

 

 

cleanup on the propshafts and bow, from this:

 

 

 

... to this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And more hack-n-slash on the superstructure in preparation for PE: 

 

 

Lots of work that isn't immediately obvious (or quite finished) but it's still necessary in my opinion to get a really great build. 

Even though I keep building 'em, I've been a somewhat vocal critic of Trumpeter 1/200 kits as they come "out of the box"... they are basically like Trumpy's 1/350 kits blown up to 1/200 so they tend to take any small accuracy issues and multiply 'em. LOTS of details that are OK to be missing in smaller scale end up being glaring omissions in a larger scales too, such as the center anchor hawsepipe (completely omitted on the standard kit). This means lots of extra work and additions if you want to end up with anything better than a bathtub toy. 

 

Still, I think it's fun to rework these monsters into something really cool... don't know for sure if I've just been sucking up too much sanding dust but I feel like the shape of my modified hull helps my version of the kit take a large step away from "toy" and towards realism, which makes all the work worth it. 

Edited September 9, 2018 by channell

[popeye the sailor]

WOW!  you got that hull look'in especially nice   

[channell]

Hey all, made some more progress... 

 

I ran into a bunch of issues with the Scaledecks wooden deck; turns out it doesn't fit particularly well.

 

First off, I noticed the width between the deck and the hull edges was gonna be very off; I thought I might have sanded the sides of the hull too much but now I wonder if the deck itself wasn't the problem. 

 

 

Both the bow and stern decks didn't fit properly either; the cutouts in the wood deck didn't quite match the corresponding moldings on the plastic deck. 

 

 

This pic shows how far off all the stern cutouts are; turret Dora and the molded deck fittings closest to it it fit OK but the further aft you go, the worse the discrepancy got...

 

I have 3 unused decks for this kit but I really wanted to get the look of individual planks that the Scaledecks offering provided, even though it was by far the worst fitting of my options. 

 

Anyway, I decided it would be best to jump ahead and get the deck installed before painting the hull so I could try to even out the edges of the hull and integrate the wooden deck better. 

 

First I painted the barbettes, stairways ect in the final upper hull colors (Model Master Acryl Lichtgrau with Vallejo grey-black "baseboards"). I airbrushed the grey-black bases first, then masked them off and painted the light grey. Then I went to work getting the deck down...

 

I had to patch the front of the deck in a couple of places and extend the "metal" of the prow to get everything looking good...

 

 

 

 

Unlike other wooden decks I've used, this one leaves it up to the builder to integrate the separate pieces together...

 

 

 

On the stern where fit was the worst I had two choices; split the deck into multiple pieces and assemble it piecemeal or shave it flat and rebuild the deck fittings... I chose the latter:

 

 

 

 

Somehow it all came together and other than a fairly lousy fit on the barbettes of the aft most secondary guns it turned out all right. I think I might add some kind of "molding" around the barbettes to cover the gaps for that issue. 

 

And for fun, here's the newly "decked out" hull next to Bissy #1;  there is a BIG difference between this PITA of a deck and your standard "stick on" wood deck in my opinion, worth the effort though I think it should have fit better for what it costs. Buyer beware. 

 

From here I can seal the deck, even out the "gutters" around the perimeter of the main deck and then mask it all off easily before painting the hull. Until next time! 

Edited September 23, 2018 by channell

[Kevin]

lovely work, love the scalemates deck, perhaps they have got the scale right, and just proving how much more the trumpeter hull out out of scale

[channell]

6 hours ago, Kevin said:

lovely work, love the scalemates deck, perhaps they have got the scale right, and just proving how much more the trumpeter hull out out of scale

 

Thanks Kevin... trying to put my all into this one and I appreciate the encouragement! 

 

Scaledecks advertises the deck as being specifically intended to fit the Trumpy kit so I'm thinking either they just messed up or the decks are really prone to shrinkage. I live in a dry area with very little humidity so it happens... but if the deck shrank, it did so perfectly even and with no warping.

 

Oh well, at least it's still usable!  

[RGL]

Glad you’re back. I love the deck, but for some reason my last deck was ever so slightly uneven as well whehich makes it difficult when you drill the stanchion holes. If I can suggest, Eduard 1/350 German railing stanchions are actually 1/200, are perfect for you build AND have real chain (ish). They would be perfect for this build. Trust me on the scale I measured it. 

 

Greg 

[channell]

1 hour ago, RGL said:

Glad you’re back. I love the deck, but for some reason my last deck was ever so slightly uneven as well whehich makes it difficult when you drill the stanchion holes. If I can suggest, Eduard 1/350 German railing stanchions are actually 1/200, are perfect for you build AND have real chain (ish). They would be perfect for this build. Trust me on the scale I measured it. 

 

Greg 

 

Good to be back and building again! 

 

The Pontos advanced set also includes stanchions... Just the thought of 'em induces terror and panic in me though! Call me a wimp but I'll probably just stick with the regular (Pontos) railings on this build.  

 

Bismarck's rails had an extra bracing pole every other stanchion; I was thinking I could cut those off the individual stanchions and add them to the PE rails for effect; it's on my list of things to experiment with anyway.