channell

Making good progress! 
 
FYI, I've had problems getting paint to stick  on my Trumpy boats in the past... when I did HMS Nelson, the paint came right off with the masking tape after I painted the lower hulls.  You might want to prime the plastic with Tamiya rattlecan or similar stuff rather than airbrush primer to save some heartache. 

If I planted myself in my chair building for 10 hours they would have to bring in a stretcher to get me out! My back would be welded in place! 
 
But the pictures show that when you do it, the results are phenomenal.

I'd take it... the $50 bucks we'd make after 500 hours could finance a bottle of the good stuff for the end-of-build celebration party... 
 
But yeah,  Pontos is my go-to for detail sets. A lot of people on the interwebs seem to like to poo-poo Pontos as their PE is more complicated and difficult than the competition, their instructions tend to have more errors than Microsoft Windows and they routinely promise sets that never get released and/or release sets months after they say they will but there's no beating the end-results. 
 
I also like how Pontos makes a strong effort towards accuracy rather than just trying to add bling as well. There were many detail errors and omissions on the OOTB Trumpy kit bulkheads that I'm working on now for example... all the other detail sets just follow Trumpy's plan but Pontos wipes the bulkheads clean and starts over with details that are true to the actual ship. That's pretty cool in my opinion, even if it's a helluva lot of work. 

Had the day off yesterday and made a 10+ hour straight push on the aft superstructure... got it all cleaned up, primed the plastic and got maybe 60-70% of the PE on.
 

 
I'm hoping I can get this piece done over the coming weekend... guess I'll see how it goes. 

Neat, clean, and professional. The Pontos set adds amazing levels of detail to an otherwise good model without any aftermarket at all. I have yet to find any other photo etch sets that come close to the realism that Pontos provides. You're going to have a lot of hours invested in this model when it's finished.
Doesn't it make you glad we are not getting paid by the hour to build model ships? I'd probably be earning about 10 cents per hour.🙂

Had the day off yesterday and made a 10+ hour straight push on the aft superstructure... got it all cleaned up, primed the plastic and got maybe 60-70% of the PE on.
 

 
I'm hoping I can get this piece done over the coming weekend... guess I'll see how it goes. 

Had the day off yesterday and made a 10+ hour straight push on the aft superstructure... got it all cleaned up, primed the plastic and got maybe 60-70% of the PE on.
 

 
I'm hoping I can get this piece done over the coming weekend... guess I'll see how it goes. 

I love those deck details! Clean, precise and masterfully executed!
 
Thomas

Had the day off yesterday and made a 10+ hour straight push on the aft superstructure... got it all cleaned up, primed the plastic and got maybe 60-70% of the PE on.
 

 
I'm hoping I can get this piece done over the coming weekend... guess I'll see how it goes. 

This is my solution, though I'm gonna have to evict the Admiral from the lower shelves eventually...

Another weekend, another update! 
 
I'm moving along on the aft-half of the superstructure... got the deck installed and everything just about ready for PE:
 
After scraping off the kit details:
 

 
I skeletonized the AA gun platform extensions with a twist drill and a scalpel; in-progress:
 

 
... and how they look after with the PE grates installed:
 

 
The completed deck:
 

 
Before and after of vent stacks below turret "Caesar":
 

 

 
One of the kit errors is having the aft area skylights as standalone units when they should be attached to the superstructure bulkheads; I modified the skylight trunks, drilled them out and mounted them directly to the bulkheads for a more "true to life" look. I had to add styrene backing so the skylights would sit far enough out to cover the holes in the deck. 
 

 

 
Got some very nice PE to dress up this area too, after priming the plastic with Tamiya rattlecan primer. 
 
And just for giggles and kicks, here's Bissy next to her nemesis, the Mighty 'Ood in the same scale:
 

 

 
The myth of Bismarck being the gigantic juggernaut of death that outclassed every other warship in the world is a bit overblown... Hood was a big girl and I'm sure her crew put to sea to chase down Bismarck with all the confidence in the world. The reality of war however is that sometimes you win big and sometimes #$*! happens.

It's humbling and a bit disturbing to remember (again) that such impressive and indeed beautiful ships were ultimately built to do such bloody, ugly jobs and that so many men died on them doing just that.
 
One reason I love scale modeling... it brings the past alive for people like me who are so far removed from the original events like no photograph or paragraphs in a book can. I hope in my builds that I can do justice to the memory of those who were there and who gave their lives in service of their countries. War is such a terrible thing but I'm sure the dead of both ships would have been pleased to know the Nazis are long gone and virtually everyone alive today has never known a world where Germany and the UK weren't friends and allies. 
 
 

I'd say the thicker too, though it does seem to be a bit stiff to sag in-scale in the samples. Maybe you could soften the string up or tease it a bit to look right when the guns get tied up for real? 

This is my solution, though I'm gonna have to evict the Admiral from the lower shelves eventually...

I'd say the thicker too, though it does seem to be a bit stiff to sag in-scale in the samples. Maybe you could soften the string up or tease it a bit to look right when the guns get tied up for real? 

This is my solution, though I'm gonna have to evict the Admiral from the lower shelves eventually...

This is my solution, though I'm gonna have to evict the Admiral from the lower shelves eventually...

Thanks!
There is an insane amount of PE on this build, more than I've ever attempted before but it seems to be going well so far. I've honestly been having a good time working on Bissy over these past few months, guess that's what matters most! 
 
My Hood build has been on ice for a couple years now and is an equally monster project as the Bismarck but I got bogged down on the build and just wasn't "feeling it" at the time. I figured it was better to wait until the "right time" came to pick it up again... and it will, just like my "Bismarck Madness" came back after a few years. 
 
These superdetailed 1/200 warships are not easy projects to see through to the end... hopefully I'm getting old and mature enough now to actually get a few of 'em finished instead  of just flitting around between overly ambitious and overwhelming projects...
 
 

This is my solution, though I'm gonna have to evict the Admiral from the lower shelves eventually...

Thanks!
There is an insane amount of PE on this build, more than I've ever attempted before but it seems to be going well so far. I've honestly been having a good time working on Bissy over these past few months, guess that's what matters most! 
 
My Hood build has been on ice for a couple years now and is an equally monster project as the Bismarck but I got bogged down on the build and just wasn't "feeling it" at the time. I figured it was better to wait until the "right time" came to pick it up again... and it will, just like my "Bismarck Madness" came back after a few years. 
 
These superdetailed 1/200 warships are not easy projects to see through to the end... hopefully I'm getting old and mature enough now to actually get a few of 'em finished instead  of just flitting around between overly ambitious and overwhelming projects...
 
 

This is my solution, though I'm gonna have to evict the Admiral from the lower shelves eventually...

Thanks!
There is an insane amount of PE on this build, more than I've ever attempted before but it seems to be going well so far. I've honestly been having a good time working on Bissy over these past few months, guess that's what matters most! 
 
My Hood build has been on ice for a couple years now and is an equally monster project as the Bismarck but I got bogged down on the build and just wasn't "feeling it" at the time. I figured it was better to wait until the "right time" came to pick it up again... and it will, just like my "Bismarck Madness" came back after a few years. 
 
These superdetailed 1/200 warships are not easy projects to see through to the end... hopefully I'm getting old and mature enough now to actually get a few of 'em finished instead  of just flitting around between overly ambitious and overwhelming projects...
 
 

Another weekend, another update! 
 
I'm moving along on the aft-half of the superstructure... got the deck installed and everything just about ready for PE:
 
After scraping off the kit details:
 

 
I skeletonized the AA gun platform extensions with a twist drill and a scalpel; in-progress:
 

 
... and how they look after with the PE grates installed:
 

 
The completed deck:
 

 
Before and after of vent stacks below turret "Caesar":
 

 

 
One of the kit errors is having the aft area skylights as standalone units when they should be attached to the superstructure bulkheads; I modified the skylight trunks, drilled them out and mounted them directly to the bulkheads for a more "true to life" look. I had to add styrene backing so the skylights would sit far enough out to cover the holes in the deck. 
 

 

 
Got some very nice PE to dress up this area too, after priming the plastic with Tamiya rattlecan primer. 
 
And just for giggles and kicks, here's Bissy next to her nemesis, the Mighty 'Ood in the same scale:
 

 

 
The myth of Bismarck being the gigantic juggernaut of death that outclassed every other warship in the world is a bit overblown... Hood was a big girl and I'm sure her crew put to sea to chase down Bismarck with all the confidence in the world. The reality of war however is that sometimes you win big and sometimes #$*! happens.

It's humbling and a bit disturbing to remember (again) that such impressive and indeed beautiful ships were ultimately built to do such bloody, ugly jobs and that so many men died on them doing just that.
 
One reason I love scale modeling... it brings the past alive for people like me who are so far removed from the original events like no photograph or paragraphs in a book can. I hope in my builds that I can do justice to the memory of those who were there and who gave their lives in service of their countries. War is such a terrible thing but I'm sure the dead of both ships would have been pleased to know the Nazis are long gone and virtually everyone alive today has never known a world where Germany and the UK weren't friends and allies. 
 
 

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. 

I'm not saying much but I'm still following along with great interest, Jason. Truly an inspirational job so far; I just love how clean, sharp and exact everything is. 

Man, so much going on there detail-wise... I love it!