madtatt

Hello dear forum community. Today I just want to share a small step. The reason: Micro Master’s boats look absolutely fantastic when painted, and I don’t want to keep that from you. So here are the two of them, piggybacking. A nice duo. When painted you can see all the fine details. The extra expense was definitely worth it.

I did a little research in my archives and came across this picture of the Bismarck’s tenders amidships. I then placed the rescue boat on its cradles and positioned it in the pinnace. Liked it.

Good idea, Chris. However, there's still a small boat on cradles in the pinnace.

Thank you, Mike. Yes, that's true. I had the Northstar figures for my Bismarck, which were already good. But the ION ones are even better. A new little update. Continuing with the preparations for the next internal structures. The MK set also clearly wins the race for the chimney stacks over the Pontos set. The brass sleeves look excellent. Here too, Pontos had no improvement to offer for the original component. I’m amazed at how well the MK set is performing. The extra expense was definitely worth it for me. The fourth cradle for the pinnace has also been adapted and installed. And so the boat can take its place. Which brings me to my next dilemma. Micro Master’s boats look so incredibly good that I’m considering leaving the boat cover off. 🤔

It's amazing how much effort you're putting in. But it will look fantastic when it's finished. 👍

Hello Jeff. That's how I always work on boats, always from the inside out. It served me well on the Bismarck, too. I'll take a slightly different approach to the funnel rigging and use deck eyes on the boat deck. I don't know the technical term in English, but they look like this. And by the way, your build report is my standard reference when building my Mikasa.😉 Let’s move on to the support structures that connect the boat deck and the internal superstructure. I soldered these to ensure maximum strength for these delicate T-beams. After testing it, everything seems to be fine. Only this connection needs to be slightly adjusted. It’s only provided by Pontos; it’s simply missing from the original kit, and it would create a large gap. Therefore, there’s no offset for it in the model, and the length of the component needs to be exactly right to ensure proper attachment. New sailors have taken up their duties. Get to work with them immediately. Spread nicely on the deck. Provisions have to go into the belly of the ship and the first sailors have to scrub the deck under the supervision of an officer. A sailor climbs the ladder to search for the missing funnel. Afterwards, I opened the dry dock again to see how it all looked through the gun ports. I think it looks very lively.

On to the next construction phase. The plan is to breathe a little life into the deck in the form of a crew. And this is where the next 3D print comes into play. This time I’m using the figures from ION Model, which I won in a competition with my Bismarck. After an initial inspection, the quality is excellent. Then I started looking for photos showing IJN sailors in their uniforms, like the following image: Wow, much easier to paint than the DKM guys. I had a few leftover Kriegsmarine sailors and wanted to use them to save on figures. The first ones were supposed to go behind the gun ports, where they’re almost invisible. So I shaved his head and punched out flat caps from styrene. A small dot of superglue on the top hair, and the Japanese sailor is complete. Painted and ready to go on deck. To the cannon sailors, ahrrrrg… Fire free… And so the lid can go on. And the deck portside Aged and found to be good You don’t see much of the figures, but that’s how it’s supposed to be. The hint of the sailors at work below deck adds depth to the whole thing.

Another litle update. To protect my model from further harm, I wrapped it up nicely. This should protect it pretty well from any carelessness on my part. 🙄

After a long break, I'm finally getting back to work. Thanks to Jeff's tip, I've been thinking about the deck being too high and how to deal with it. I also created the remaining 12-pounders. And since it's very monotonous, it took quite a while. They stand beautifully in rows. And again, Jeff, you're not annoying at all. I'm very grateful for your advice, as it helps me avoid such annoying mistakes. What would be the point of a model building forum if you couldn't build on the experiences of others? And so I simply shortened the carriage of the eight guns that go below deck. Let’s move on to the next conversion. Again, I liked the MK set better than the one from Pontos. Since I will be showing all the gun port covers open, I thought the rope shown was very nice. What I changed are the hinges. Since they fold down when open, I simply replaced them with a narrow piece of profile. This is what it looks like for me. I used a slightly lighter grey to accentuate it. And attached to the gun ports. These are the first external structures. Since it is inevitable that the gun barrels will stick out here, I wanted to have them attached already. And so the eight 12 pounders could take their place. A few boxes are still missing. And so I am quite happy with the position of the guns. Now they urgently need the protection of my sheet pile wall. After applying the clear varnish, I will screw it to the dry dock . I am curious to see if I will tear it down again before the construction is finished. 😵‍💫

Thank you all very much. I'm glad that you wish me luck and that makes me a winner already. Great community here.. 👏

Hello, dear model building friends. After almost a year, I’m opening my Falcon thread again. I want to give it a new try and take part in Germany’s largest plastic model show, “The Euro Model Expo”. As you may remember, I was unable to do this last year due to my wife’s serious illness. But she is now doing very well again and she wants me to finally enter the competition with my model. And so I started to dismantle the diorama into its individual parts and carefully pack them into transport boxes. The Falcon itself is a tight box in the truest sense of the word. The base plate does not cause any problems at all as it has a large, smooth surface, the floor is level, and therefore the foam does not slip. You had to be careful with the large top part. It’s damn heavy. But I carefully hoisted it into the box and packed it safely with all the foam for transport. And so it can start at the end of the month. EME here we come….

Absolutely not Jeff. I'm happy about any hint you can give me. I think that the purpose of a forum is to pass on the experiences that have arisen during such a construction.

Extreme what you show us here, Jeff. It's a crazy amount of work that you're putting into the hull alone, but I'm convinced it will pay off and result in the most historically correct Bismarck model. 👍

Hello Jeff. That's very kind of you. Respect that you bought an extra Pontos set for it. I just thought I was crazy enough to work with two sets. Nice to find a like-minded person here. But I'm afraid that despite everything there wouldn't be enough coal hatches. There are 22 on the main deck and another 14 on the outer deck. So basically you can only have eight hatches. But that's not a bad thing because I still have plan B. There are still hatches from my KA set, but they are much smaller. And since I followed your build report closely Jeff, I don't use the Pontos guns for the 3 pounders. I also have them as a 3D print from Micro Master. And so I can use the bottom flange of the gun. In conjunction with the too small KA component, a formidable coal hatch is created. I'm really happy with that. And by the way, I put the deck together loosely. Fits perfectly even before sanding and looks really great.

That's right Jeff. But the journey is the destination, right?! 😅 We continue amidships with the deck above the casemates. I put the guns aside to concentrate on the next Pontos puzzle. The deck is covered with two large brass pieces, which look fantastic and greatly improve the deck. So far so good. Above you can see various small parts that are missing from the deck. In addition, the first sailors will take their positions in places that would be difficult for me to reach later. But to the new mystery of Pontus. It’s about the coal hatches. I have already distributed 22 of them on the main deck. You have number 495. As you may notice, these hatches can also be seen on the deck above. Only here they have the number 5xx. However, this number does not exist on the Pontos boards. This time too I checked all the circuit boards several times. But I can only find the hatches with the number 495, which of course I installed completely. Maybe someone who has already installed the Pontos set can give me a tip. I’m at a loss. Of course I already have plan B, but I don’t want to carry it out until none of you can solve this puzzle for me.