channell

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Kevin- I am using the KA Models Mk1 superset and Eduard PE; there are plently of duplicates but they do compliment each other fairly well; the Eduard set contains many details KA missed and vice-versa.

Foremast- I am airbrushing the superstructure with Model Master "Lichtrgrau" acryl and steel decks with Tamiya medium grey. The hull above the waterline is rattlecan Model master "Navy agressor grey" and below is Tamiya Guards Red (I think).

I have still been puttering along with her; I got the docking wings on along with may other details (with plenty more to go!)

I also am about 2/3rds through building all the AA guns:

It's a great kit, brings back memories for me as I built 2 of them as a teenager. Someday I'd like to go "all out" on one, especially now that you can get photoetch details and 1 piece wooden decks for that kit.

Hey guys,

 

So the wife just bought a $900 sewing machine which means I have my own $900 to spend on my hobby...

You could buy another sewing machine for yourself and learn how to make pretty dresses.

OR you could type in CALDERCRAFT HMS VICTORY KIT at your favorite online model store and then your credit card #

Thanks everyone! For the record I am using both the KA Models Mk1 set and Eduard Central Section PE. This model just begs for extra detail beyond the box and I still haven't put it all on yet!

you can always spray it again with glosscote!

Personally, if it was me I would have dullcoated the gold anyway. Shiny looks pretty on small pieces, but taken as a whole on a plastic scale model ship the end result is almost inevitably a fake "toyish" look. The dullcoted gold looks more "natural" to my eyes.

My 2 cents anyway.

I've made quite a bit of progress since I posted last... sorry about mafiabucket blocking my older pics but It seems I'm just too damn popular these days. Please, no autographs.

Anyway, here's where I am now:

I never get tired of seeing great Heller Victory builds! Great work!

I built an Academy? Titanic maybe 20 years ago; I used very thin gauge (straight) wire for the rigging and guywires on the funnels... the kind you can buy at the hobby store. It is much easier and gives a better result than the crappy kit line.

They just came out with a 1/200 scale version. Hopefully soon there will also be detail sets for her. I have 2 1/192 scale kits and I have most of the add on detail sets, still a few more things to get and then I will have everything I need. I have all the 40 quard guns and the 20mm guns plus all the barrels for the main and the 5" guns plus rails, ports holes and doors and ladders. Someday in a year or two I will have all that is needed to start her.

Yep, I've got the new "Big Mo" one on preorder and plan to take it on next year. I'm maybe 80% finished on my 1/200 Bismarck with aftermarket goodies; the big battleships are HUGE projects though...

If you want to use the money you saved on more stuff for the model, Scale Decks does a wooden deck set for this kit which looks great and saves LOTS of work trying to get rid of the deck seams.

Pontos does the absolute best Iowa class sets, but I think their stuff is intended for the 1/350 Tamiya kits. I've got the Tamiya 1/350 New Jersey and Pontos modern Iowa sets sitting in the stash waiting to be built myself.

I don't think anyone will be able to tell the difference between IJN and KMD railings/stanchions, and they would be slightly oversized but probably not too much to be particularly noticable. Stanchions and wire are are incredibly fiddly at that scale though; I'd go with PE railings if it was me.

If you are wanting to get a really accurate and crazy detailed Missouri, you may want to consider upgrading to a 1/350 scale kit as there is a literal mountain of aftermarket accessories for them.

Best of luck on your build!

Here's some more pics:

Progress update:

Instead of doing this the smart way and focusing on specific areas start to finish and/or following the instructions,  my Bismarck is "growing" rather organically across the entire ship. Every week it's sprouting new parts, paint and modifications all over the superstructure, depending on what part I feel like working on that day... and damn there are a lot of little parts to put on this thing!

I had troubles getting the black "baseboard" to look good; I finally resorted to (hopefully) permanent black pinstriping tape. Thankfully I finished the last porthole replacement yesterday and cut out the windows of the admiral's bridge, which means I am finally done with my modifications and the hard part is over!

Until next time...

Here's some more pics from a bit earlier:

Here's a quick update, sorry I haven't been quite so dedicated in keeping this thread going:

The standard kit has around 1700 parts but that's just not enough so I at least doubled that with aftermarket photo etch! At least the "groundwork" is pretty much done; most of what's left is attaching all the brass "fiddly bits" and painting.

If you don't mind plastic the Zvedza  1/72 "Black Swan" kit is the reboxed offical "Black Pearl" kit with a different figurehead:

http://www.amazon.com/Zvezda-Models-Pirate-Ship-Black/dp/B006FX95MK

I've got one in my cache and it is a very nice, high quality kit.

Not just wow but holy freaking %#@! wow! I just walked through the thread and I've never seen anything like it!

Off topic but shooting flintlock longrifles is my second favorite hobby.

There is nothing like the smell of burning black powder in the morning! And yes, they are deadly accurate... just as good as any modern firearm at a couple hundred yards (though you can't shoot as far, of course ).

My latest piece of work invoved starting to rebuild the superstructure on the maindeck after I had previously sanded off all the molded detail and replaced the portholes:

... and starting to add all the "fiddly bits" to the funnel:

And just when everyone thought I couldn't possibly be having any more fun I found myself sinning again :

To Trumpter, your most loyal and spend-crazy customer. Please give me a 1/200 USS Missouri as well... soon, but not TOO soon!

...orginally I planned to hand-plank the deck with tiny wood strips but luckily I briefly returned to a state of sanity and bought a detail set that had a great deck already:

I don't usually like "stick-on" decks but this one was really not that bad! It's high quality and the larger scale helps mitigate the negative aspects of such a deck:

Next I painted the hull:

Trumpeter gave absolutely no indication of where to put the waterline on the boat so I gave it my best guess while looking at historic pics. I scribed a waterline around the hull by placing it weighed down on a large smooth surface, taping a fine pen to an upside down cup (and shimmed to height) and runing a line around the hull. As you can see, it's wrong on the stern even though it was right at the bow. To make it work I warped the black boot top to match the correct height on the bow and stern; thanks to the size of the thing you just can't tell by looking at it!

I also started on a hefty oak base to display the beast:

I added a strip of thin styrene along the top of the the hull to replicate the 45 degree angle of the top of the armor belt (and raise the edges to match the level of an additional wood deck)

After that I got to work on the main and secondary guns.

The various rails are included with the kit and really make the guns look great... not fun to put on though!

My solution to the porthole issue was to descend into porthole hell for a couple of months.

I replaced all but 1 or 2 of portholes on the hull and superstructure by drilling out a "perfect porthole" into very thin styrene card and inletting them into the hull and carefully blending them into the surrounding material:

Anyway, it was too much work and a serious PITA to get them all straight and clean but it was ultimately worth it:

On the hull I replaced the porthole eyebrows and added the bar steps with very thin copper wire. Later on I got the KA Models Mk1 detail set which has all that and more already included as PE.

Ok, here's a quickie reboot of my Bismarck thread as requested:

At the moment this is jut about the biggest, scariest (in more ways than one!) chunk of plastic that you can pick off the shelf at your local Rob-E-shop.  Here's the hull next to a 1/350 Tirpiz (Bismarck's sister-ship):

The kit is fairly impressive "out of the box" but it has it's problems. The first thing that worried me about the kit was the sorry shape of the porthole molds. Trumpeter molded all the portholes straight on the broadside angle and also molded the major superstruture pieces whole, rather like lego blocks

This means that every porthole on the hull that is not directly broadside is warped. For example:

There are plenty of curves on this ship... which means a awful lot of portholes to fix.

The hull is also extremely thick plastic... great for strength and stability but after drilling out the portholes it made them look like little round cave openings instead of ports. This was my first attempt to fix the warped portholes with putty and drilling; it did't turn out the way I wanted.

Also, it turns out the hull shape is wrong below the waterline and has too much of a "banana" shape to it which makes painting a waterline and boot top a bit challenging as it is not marked off with scribing or raised lines like most plastic ship models.

More to come...

Channell,

 

I'd say "go for it"..    Many of tall ship guys like the work being done on the resin/plastic ships.  I know I'm one of them.   As for picture limitations, I think it's either 5 or 10 to the post.  This had to be reset downwards as the forum software is capable of allowing practically an unlimited amount of photos per post.

 

 

And  I hope you'll reopen your Bismarck log, even if it's just an "executive summary" (pictures only  ) to get caught up to date.

Maybe I'm just the opposite... I absolutely love to look at all things wooden and "Age of Sail" but I prefer to actually build "Steel Navy" stuff.

Anyway, MW has been having their own technical problems of late so it's a bit tempting to  "jump ship" and spend more time over here.