channell

This thread isn't dead yet... despite going since 2013 without a finished Bissy to show for it.  😅
 
I've noticed I tend to do the most work on my ships from September to January so maybe I'll make some good progress in the next few months... then again, who knows? I'm not gonna try to force it, just take my time and let the build take it's course. This is a hobby after all!
 
Anyway, some new progress to report; I assembled the aircraft catapults and did a bunch of small touch-up work. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
I'm generally leaning towards abandoning the instruction order (which would have me working on the forward/aft decks) and working on the lower levels of the superstructure and upwards from there. Anyway, I'll post more progress when I have more to show!  
 

Major progress on the hull: the paint, or at least the first phase.
 
As indicated before, I decided to go with Humbrol acrylic paints for the hull. These paints are getting a very bad rap on the Web and in the forums, because they are a far departure from the Tamiya and Vallejo paints. They are very thick, almost gooey in their appearance and require a significant amount of thinner to airbrush them. The good part is that they have the right color, that is very hard to find anywhere else. In retrospect, I should have used the enamel paints from Humbrol but decided to stay "green" as most as possible.
 
The paints were ordered from Europe as they are not yet easy to find in the USA.
 
The top of the hull requires the Matt 64 from Humbrol, which is one of the closest color to the Hellbrau used by the German.

The bottom of the hull has been determined by a few Expert European modelers to be the following mixture: 
Two cans of Humbrol Matt 96, plus one can of Humbrol Matt 33 and one can of Humbrol Matt Black Green 40.

Now, for the thinner, Humbrol recommend of course their own thinner. The problem is that it cannot be shipped to the USA. Therefore, I tried different mixtures before committing to the paint on the model: 
 
- Water....runs too much and makes the paint translucent almost. It would require a lot of layers which is not the easiest thing to do on such big hull.
- Tamiya thinner..... Worked alright, but somehow, my airbrush clogged a lot. I suspect that the Tamiya thinner was not strong enough  to thin the clumps of that very thick paint.
- 70% alcohol ..... I suspect that this was too much alcohol and the paint was dry before hitting the surface.
 
After searching the various foreign forums, I finally found the ideal thinner: Vodka! Yes, Vodka is 40% alcohol and mostly water. Some people are claiming that it works very well after a glass or two....
Not wanting to run to the local ABC store, I fortunately had a left over of 50% isopropyl alcohol and decided to use it. With about 35 PSI of pressure on my Paasche, the paint sprayed very well and did not cause many runs. Needless, to say, you need a very large bottle under your airbrush to contain 4 cans of paints and the equivalent in volume, of Vodka.
 
The top portion of the hull was done first: 



A lot of masking has to take place: 

And finally: 





Now, I need to learn the skills of weathering and rust.... The Deck will be painted last, as it still needs a lot of work and details.
 
Yves
 
 
 

A couple more pictures of the recently completed module, in the hull: 

And an overall view: 

Yves

Finally, the Officer Quarter is almost finished. I was starting to run out of steam on this one....
The roof is the only part that needs to be glued but I wanted to leave it open so that I could show you the interior. I made two mistakes on this module, despite some improvements: One cabinet is not in the right location, but that was necessitated to allow the viewer to see more easily inside. The second one was by drilling a hole in the sonar equipment and destroying the micro-LED located inside. So, the Sonar screen no longer lites. I could not fix it....too many part to un-glue.....
 
First, a recall of what the compartment should look like: 

The following is what is provided in the kit:

As you can see, there is a lot of empty space and an oversized table in the middle of nowhere. Overall, it is quite a departure from the original blue-print. Therefore, using the extra parts I have, I decided to pimp up this compartment a little bit. Here are a few pictures of the construction phases: 
 
Radio compartment. As you may remember, because of my way of building that section, I have to allow the floor to slide between the two bulkheads. Therefore nothing close to the bulkheads can be assembled.

Sonar compartment with the sonar screen (no longer working).

Radio equipment. Micro-LED behind the large dial.  Basically, the part is grind to open completely the screen, a clear piece of acrylic is glued and the decal is placed on top. The same was done on the sonar screen, with an unfortunate mishap.
 
And now some views of the almost finished section: 
  
The captain quarter still needs to be detailed below: 




Captain Quarter completed:

On the bed, two big binders published by the Kriegsmarine secret service, describing the characteristics and appearances of most known enemy ships. On his desk, the booklet containing the Enigma machine codes. The Captain had the only bunk with a curtain for some privacy. The location of his cabin was also across the hallway from the Radio and Sonar officers, for immediate response and actions.
 
More views of the finished module: 





A piece of square styrene has been placed beneath the main floor to give it a more realistic look. I just cannot stand these flat floor provided by Trumpeter: they look so fake and unrealistic.
 
I will be placing the roof soon, connecting all the electrical wires and call it a day, for that long and complicated module. Our next efforts will most likely be centered around the main hull, for a change.
 
Yves
 
 
 
 
 
 

The rudders have been glued: 

I really like the color and texture of that big hull: 

Yves

Working away on the foremast. However, not too happy with bow/arc on forestay preventer - any ideas how to fix?
 

Significant moment.  Aggie has been transferred to the rigging out table and onto a 'lazy susan'.  In reality a little work bench I have that is slightly higher than my normal worktop and a revolving board I stole from our kitchen.
 
Lower masts are installed and I've started on the standing rigging.
 

I've been away from the forum for a while now.  Lots on with life getting in the way of modelling!  Now back working on Aggie.  That's the boats finished and have started on masts. Boats not attached yet, will do once bulk of rigging completed.
 

 

Finally after a year's work the hull is finished.  Ship's boats next and then onto the masts!  I'm not planning to fix the figurehead in place until the bowsprit is in.
 

Quietly working away.  Poop deck installed and top deck completed but I'm going to change the 'safety' rails around the top deck stairwells and use Sandecott's design instead.  They look too flimsy to me.
 
Also I've stolen my wife's spare hairdryer (not shown) to keep the finished part of the model clean after sanding /fitting new parts.  I hope she doesn't find out until I'm finished with it.
 

Going well - top deck in.
 
 

..then disaster
 

snapped my working light...arghh!
 
All stop until replacement arrives......
 
 

This thread isn't dead yet... despite going since 2013 without a finished Bissy to show for it.  😅
 
I've noticed I tend to do the most work on my ships from September to January so maybe I'll make some good progress in the next few months... then again, who knows? I'm not gonna try to force it, just take my time and let the build take it's course. This is a hobby after all!
 
Anyway, some new progress to report; I assembled the aircraft catapults and did a bunch of small touch-up work. 
 

 

 

 

 

 
I'm generally leaning towards abandoning the instruction order (which would have me working on the forward/aft decks) and working on the lower levels of the superstructure and upwards from there. Anyway, I'll post more progress when I have more to show!  
 

good morning everyone
 
rebuilt the tower last night
 
soldering is getting better






 
compared to the last one

Not much time in my world for the Bismarck lately  but slow progress is still being made:
 

 

 
I was going to use the conning tower off my old kit but I ended up reworking the new one instead... I want to show the the conning tower with the thick "bank vault" doors open and they just didn't work out all that well on the old one. I also got the PE and paint on the bridge and next layer up as I work my toward the top of the forward superstructure "wedding cake" 
 
Since I had the airbrush out also I hit the couple of the Veteran Models AA guns I had previously built... these things are the definition of detail insanity! 
 

 

good evening everyone
 
not much more i can do to the main deck for the time being, i will need to do some/lots of hull work before that will be put into position, at least for now it has something to sit on
so its back to the bridge
 
Bridge rework
not so much re-work, but i bought a new set, i had to as the last one was never going to be presentable, however the bits will be kept for another project i have in mind
 
although not perfect, i am much happier with the outcome, 
the radar tower is at present from the old set, as the replacement has to be remade, all in all a recovery, for me anyway
 

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.

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:
 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks guys! 
 
Got the front half of the superstructure all decorated and painted, minus some touch-up, weathering and some other bits like railings and guns that are best done later on:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Starting get places now... only have to do the same on the other half of the superstructure and I can finally cross out step #3 in the instruction booklet. 

Inspirational stuff, keep up the impressive work! 

Not much time in my world for the Bismarck lately  but slow progress is still being made:
 

 

 
I was going to use the conning tower off my old kit but I ended up reworking the new one instead... I want to show the the conning tower with the thick "bank vault" doors open and they just didn't work out all that well on the old one. I also got the PE and paint on the bridge and next layer up as I work my toward the top of the forward superstructure "wedding cake" 
 
Since I had the airbrush out also I hit the couple of the Veteran Models AA guns I had previously built... these things are the definition of detail insanity! 
 

 

Not much time in my world for the Bismarck lately  but slow progress is still being made:
 

 

 
I was going to use the conning tower off my old kit but I ended up reworking the new one instead... I want to show the the conning tower with the thick "bank vault" doors open and they just didn't work out all that well on the old one. I also got the PE and paint on the bridge and next layer up as I work my toward the top of the forward superstructure "wedding cake" 
 
Since I had the airbrush out also I hit the couple of the Veteran Models AA guns I had previously built... these things are the definition of detail insanity! 
 

 

Inspirational stuff, keep up the impressive work! 

Not much time in my world for the Bismarck lately  but slow progress is still being made:
 

 

 
I was going to use the conning tower off my old kit but I ended up reworking the new one instead... I want to show the the conning tower with the thick "bank vault" doors open and they just didn't work out all that well on the old one. I also got the PE and paint on the bridge and next layer up as I work my toward the top of the forward superstructure "wedding cake" 
 
Since I had the airbrush out also I hit the couple of the Veteran Models AA guns I had previously built... these things are the definition of detail insanity!