vossy

Time to tackle the Bismarck.  I'll start with a version of the traditional "what's in the box?"
 
You can see the finished model on the box as well as two very detailed instruction books with color pictures.  Example of detail page shown. 
 
The hull and deck are wood, but much of the superstructure is built from plastic parts -- I've shown a sample of how they are packaged (in individual clear plastic envelopes).  There probably isn't another material that would be feasible.  The box says that there are "2,266 photoetched parts" -- so this will take a while.  I don't know if that count includes the plastic parts and it's just sloppy box legend drafting, but there are a lot of plastic parts.
 
The usual things are in the kit:  wood strip, photo-etched brass, and laser-cut sheets.  Those, interestingly, appear to be made of plywood (I haven't pulled any out of the box yet).  That's a shift from other Amati models in the Victory series that I have built that used MDF for the hull and frames.
 
This will also be the longest model I have built at 132 cm.
 
Regards,
David

Thanks, Bob.  I've really enjoyed your "USCG Insider" comments.
 
Next one up, when I get motivated, will be the Amati Bismarck.
 
Regards,
David

Completed!
 
Last step was to build the little Naiad boat that goes into the rear launch well.  Some pics here of that.
 
A full set of completion photos is in the Completed Kit Built Gallery.
 
Regards,
David

Lots more done.
 
Finished the railings on the main deck and cabin deck. Applied all of the decals, which really spiffs up the ship Applied black striping at the waterline.  
Now what remains is the little Zodiac boat that fits into the rear well -- and that will be it.
 
Regards,
David

Hi, I would suggest starting with something like the Amati Santa Maria. It has all the elements of larger, complex ships but being such an early vessel (15th century), those elements are not as daunting as a Victory, San Felipe, Wasa etc. 
 
With the Santa Maria you will still have to double plank. But being an older ship the shape is far easier to obtain. Tricky bits on Victory like the bluff bow and stern area are not required on a vessel like Santa Maria.
 
With SM you still have to apply channels, plates and ratlines so you can get a great guide as to how to go about that before tackling more complex models. Rigging is more than substantial enough for a beginner and you can add sails if you wish.
 
Also as an added bonus, Santa Maria, whilst being one of history's most famous ships also lends itself to many interpretations as there are no known drawings or plans of the actual vessel. So you can add extra deck details etc. as long as they are from the period who is to say you are wrong?
 
But my final observance would be this: Santa Maria is the most awesome vessel that ever sailed! Just build it. You know you want to! 

Hi, I would suggest starting with something like the Amati Santa Maria. It has all the elements of larger, complex ships but being such an early vessel (15th century), those elements are not as daunting as a Victory, San Felipe, Wasa etc. 
 
With the Santa Maria you will still have to double plank. But being an older ship the shape is far easier to obtain. Tricky bits on Victory like the bluff bow and stern area are not required on a vessel like Santa Maria.
 
With SM you still have to apply channels, plates and ratlines so you can get a great guide as to how to go about that before tackling more complex models. Rigging is more than substantial enough for a beginner and you can add sails if you wish.
 
Also as an added bonus, Santa Maria, whilst being one of history's most famous ships also lends itself to many interpretations as there are no known drawings or plans of the actual vessel. So you can add extra deck details etc. as long as they are from the period who is to say you are wrong?
 
But my final observance would be this: Santa Maria is the most awesome vessel that ever sailed! Just build it. You know you want to! 

Chris
Look in the articles data base here at MSW and study the paper written by noted ship model builder and author David Antscherl.   https://thenrg.org/resources/Documents/articles/APrimerOnPlanking.pdf
Also, the four part video series by Chuck Passaro gives information on equally effective yet different technique.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCWooJ1o3cM is a link for part 1.   
Allan

This is the place to be my friend.  Lots of great  info on planking in the MSW data base.  welcome aboard!!    

The nice laser burned stem and stern are a nice feature of the kit, thanks Billing Boats!   The bow and stern planks are the same in the kit, but for the two stern pieces, the dragon head in the part must be turned into a tail via your carving work!  Below I show some photos of the actual ship.  The dragon head is of-course at the prow and the tail at the stern.  Here are my parts and installation:





 

Dobry wieczor, przyaciele,
 
Carved out some time (ha ha pardon the pun) to carve the tiller tonight.  I have set myself the goal of finishing this model this year, and I even have a place for it, so between now and December I must finish it.  Had fun making and fitting the tiller tonight while listening to Rachmaninoff 2.
 
The tilller-to-rudder connection is a through pinned mortise/tenon.




 
 

FINISHED!  My 2 year one month build is finally done.
 
The last step was building the cutter and mounting it on the rear quarter davits.  Pictures of that here, plus one full view of the ship.
 
A set of completion pictures with different views of the model is posted in the gallery of kit-built models.
 
Thanks to all of you who came along for the ride -- I appreciated the support.
 
Regards,
David

I have built the largest of the four small boats that come with the kit -- the launch.  Took me about a week.  The boat is double-planked, and even though it's small, the planks are small too so it takes some time.
 
I took a few liberties vs. the instructions:
I used 1 x 4 maple for the flooring vs. the .5 x 3 walnut that was called for.  My original reason was a concern about having enough .05 x 3 strips to do all four boats, but as time passed that became moot (see below).  Actually, I kind of like the contrast.  
I bypassed the winch, which in the pictures of the boat makes it look kind of messy to my eye, so I just left it off.  I'm all for visual appeal vs. historical accuracy.  
The instructions call for the gunwale to be yellow, but I used red to give some "snap" to the look of the launch.  
I left out the oars, which didn't paint well, and the rudder piece, which is supposed to be stored in the boat when not in use -- and I just didn't want to junk it up.  
Pulling back to the boats overall -- I have decided to just build one more, the cutter.  It's a perfect size to fit on the rear davits, and I want to hang a boat off those davits on the "display" side.  In addition, if you build the launch, barge and pinnace, when you mount them on the skid beams side by side, you obscure all the nice detail below.  I kind of like the look of just one boat on the skid beams, so I mounted the launch, finished positioning the hoists, and that's what you see here.
 
Regards,
David

Something of a milestone here.  I haven't finished the project yet, but I have finished all of the work on the ship itself (except for adjusting the davits).  What remains is building the four small boats.  I started this ship in June, 2021 -- so at 2 years one month (and not yet quite finished) this is my longest build.
 
Pictures below show the stern and main mast lanterns.
 
I also got the ship off of the temporary cradle and onto brass mounting columns.  But it's a really HEAVY ship, and had too much lateral sway, so I added two small wood columns under the hull and now it's solid as a rock.  A couple of pictures below showing that.
 
Regards,
David
 
 

Anchors Aweigh!  
 
Regards,
David

Something odd in my kit.  When I went to get the anchor stocks -- 8 needed -- there were only 7 in the wood sheet.  There isn't an eighth anywhere.
 
The parts book says 8.  But curiously, there is no drawing of that wood sheet in the book.  If you look below, you will see a finished sheet with even sides and only 7 stock halves.  Really, really odd.
 
So I had to make one, which I did out of a scrap piece of the 5mm walnut sheet, sanded down to 4mm thick and then shaped.  I have since sanded the mounted stocks you see below, and now have painted them black (no picture here of that), and you can't tell which one has the handmade stock.  So all's well that ends well -- but really odd with that finished sheet and missing one stock.
 
Regards,
David
 

Finished rigging the bowsprit guy lines.  The red arrow shows them running up in parallel from the beakhead to the spritsail yard, and then diverging to different points on the sprit.
 
The manual wants you to use a single thread for both sides of the black line, which requires you to seize a block into the attached line near the beakhead, and which would make precise alignment difficult (or impossible for me).  So I started at the beakhead end with one line per side, got the blocks lined up (with a slight slant to the stern to match the direction of the guys), and then attached them to the appropriate points on the sprit.  Not sure why the manual doesn't do it that way.
 
OK, getting close now.  What's left for the main ship is the anchors and the lanterns.  Then I will build the small boats.
 
Regards,
David
 

Quarter davits done.  A few comments on these:
 
I have not yet fixed the running end of the lifts, and that's because I won't know how far out I want them to swing until I build the boats and decide which ones I want to hang on the davits.  The plastic clip you see provides some mild tension on the lift for now.  
I left them natural walnut (vs. painting black) to provide some interest and make them more visible.  They have not been varnished yet, because when I do that I will probably cause the hinges to seize, so again I need to wait until I have the angle set and the boats hung.  So they look a little rough right now.  
There will be block & tackle for the boats -- I'll add that when I hang them.
 
Regards,
David

Fore and main cluelines, tacks and sheets done.
 
Some of these go through holes in the hull and are anchored below the skids.  It's super difficult to do that last, when you are trying to tension the lines.  So I started there, got them anchored, and then rigged back to the eyebolts on the exterior of the hull -- and it's easy to tension there.  Three points of tension have to be balanced at the same time.
 
Regards,
David

Your racing through it now David. It looks awesome. Well done. I like the flag addition too.
 
Chris
 

Driver boom built, mounted and rigged.  Also the jackstaff for the ensign.
 
Regarding the ensign:  there are no flags supplied with this model, and I thought a small ensign would be a nice addition.  So I researched British ensigns of that period, and found a good picture that I could download.  I then used Photoshop to resize it, and also to do a "flip horizontal" on the image so that the backside would come out properly.
 
Looks nice on the model.
 
You may notice that the lanterns aren't on.  I held off on that to avoid pranging them, but now that the boom sort of "protects" that area, I can add them at any time.
 
Regards,
David

Finished building, mounting and rigging the Driver Gaff.  One of these pics shows the gaff better, and the other one shows the rigging bettter.
 
One comment:  the instructions say to rig both the mizzen top yard and the mizzen topgallant yard braces before rigging the vang.  I did the top yard brace because the angles put some downward pull on the gaff, but the topgallant brace would pull up.  So after the top yard brace I rigged the vang, which puts nice downward pull on the gaff and also helps to align it side to side.  Then the topgallant brace and I could put some tension on it because the vang anchored the gaff down.  Just a small note for those who might be building a step or two behind me.
 
Regards,
David

Braces now done.  Next step is the boom and gaff, which look semi-complex to build and to rig.
 
Regards,
David

The lifts, sheets, buntlines and cluelines are now done on all 3 masts and the bowsprit.  Pictures attached.
 
Next step is braces.  It moves along more quickly once you get to the "real" rigging stage.
 
Regards,
David

Main mast yard lifts, sheets, buntlines and clewlines done.
 
Regards,
David

Finished the foremast yard lifts and sheets (plus "bunt" and "clew" lines, whatever those are).
 
I used flash in the dark with no white background so the rigging would show up.
 
Regards,
David