channell

Great video, nice to catch up Jason

good to see your progress......look'in really good  

well.......what you did get to looks super!  I tried doing a gun like that since I have the Hood PE.......first one junk..........two more to go    hope you see yourself finding more time soon.

Glad to see you back on Bismarck. This is by far my favorite ship.
 
Yves

Excellent historical build, love the wooden deck and your attention to details. 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

... and some more progress:
 

 
I'm jumping back and forth between the main control tower and the aft upper superstructure; on the tower I replaced the portholes with smaller ones (to better match the real ship) and and am working on getting the pieces ready for PE:
 

 

 
On the aft superstructure I finished cleanup and got the deck installed:
 
Unfortunately like the rest of this deck, fit sucks and the deck was printed wrong, leaving it a little lopsided and the edges a mess:
 

 

 
There's nothing I can do about the bad printing but (like the rest of the deck) I mitigated the poor fit by lining the deck with styrene strip. 
 

 
 
 
I'm glad to be almost done with Scaledecks... such a cool idea but it was poorly executed and in hindsight I probably should have got my money back or asked for a replacement that wasn't messed up. Anyway, other than the little top layer, this piece is ready for photo etch. 
 
 

...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:
 

 

 

 

 

 

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...

Hi again everyone... did a quick youtube vid with some more progress:
 
 
Moving at a glacial pace but still moving! I ended up repainting the bridge section as it appeared to be off on color compared to the rest of the superstructure and the black "baseboard" paint was a bit sloppier than I liked; I also had to repaint the "wooden" grates on the deck around and above the bridge as I could not get the colors to match between the two (I only painted the lower grating at first). Don't know if I was stiffed a PE fret or somehow lost it but it turns out I don't have the fret that has the upper grate and most of the hose reels so I substituted in the grate from the Eduard set that I still had from my first build. Luckily I have hose reels from the KA set so I don't need to chase down a replacement fret. 
 
Anyway, I'm expecting more free time to come into my life over the next few months and am trying to get myself psyched to make some good progress. 

Hi again everyone... did a quick youtube vid with some more progress:
 
 
Moving at a glacial pace but still moving! I ended up repainting the bridge section as it appeared to be off on color compared to the rest of the superstructure and the black "baseboard" paint was a bit sloppier than I liked; I also had to repaint the "wooden" grates on the deck around and above the bridge as I could not get the colors to match between the two (I only painted the lower grating at first). Don't know if I was stiffed a PE fret or somehow lost it but it turns out I don't have the fret that has the upper grate and most of the hose reels so I substituted in the grate from the Eduard set that I still had from my first build. Luckily I have hose reels from the KA set so I don't need to chase down a replacement fret. 
 
Anyway, I'm expecting more free time to come into my life over the next few months and am trying to get myself psyched to make some good progress. 

Hi again everyone... did a quick youtube vid with some more progress:
 
 
Moving at a glacial pace but still moving! I ended up repainting the bridge section as it appeared to be off on color compared to the rest of the superstructure and the black "baseboard" paint was a bit sloppier than I liked; I also had to repaint the "wooden" grates on the deck around and above the bridge as I could not get the colors to match between the two (I only painted the lower grating at first). Don't know if I was stiffed a PE fret or somehow lost it but it turns out I don't have the fret that has the upper grate and most of the hose reels so I substituted in the grate from the Eduard set that I still had from my first build. Luckily I have hose reels from the KA set so I don't need to chase down a replacement fret. 
 
Anyway, I'm expecting more free time to come into my life over the next few months and am trying to get myself psyched to make some good progress. 

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!  
 

Hi again everyone... did a quick youtube vid with some more progress:
 
 
Moving at a glacial pace but still moving! I ended up repainting the bridge section as it appeared to be off on color compared to the rest of the superstructure and the black "baseboard" paint was a bit sloppier than I liked; I also had to repaint the "wooden" grates on the deck around and above the bridge as I could not get the colors to match between the two (I only painted the lower grating at first). Don't know if I was stiffed a PE fret or somehow lost it but it turns out I don't have the fret that has the upper grate and most of the hose reels so I substituted in the grate from the Eduard set that I still had from my first build. Luckily I have hose reels from the KA set so I don't need to chase down a replacement fret. 
 
Anyway, I'm expecting more free time to come into my life over the next few months and am trying to get myself psyched to make some good progress. 

Hi again everyone... did a quick youtube vid with some more progress:
 
 
Moving at a glacial pace but still moving! I ended up repainting the bridge section as it appeared to be off on color compared to the rest of the superstructure and the black "baseboard" paint was a bit sloppier than I liked; I also had to repaint the "wooden" grates on the deck around and above the bridge as I could not get the colors to match between the two (I only painted the lower grating at first). Don't know if I was stiffed a PE fret or somehow lost it but it turns out I don't have the fret that has the upper grate and most of the hose reels so I substituted in the grate from the Eduard set that I still had from my first build. Luckily I have hose reels from the KA set so I don't need to chase down a replacement fret. 
 
Anyway, I'm expecting more free time to come into my life over the next few months and am trying to get myself psyched to make some good progress. 

Hi again everyone... did a quick youtube vid with some more progress:
 
 
Moving at a glacial pace but still moving! I ended up repainting the bridge section as it appeared to be off on color compared to the rest of the superstructure and the black "baseboard" paint was a bit sloppier than I liked; I also had to repaint the "wooden" grates on the deck around and above the bridge as I could not get the colors to match between the two (I only painted the lower grating at first). Don't know if I was stiffed a PE fret or somehow lost it but it turns out I don't have the fret that has the upper grate and most of the hose reels so I substituted in the grate from the Eduard set that I still had from my first build. Luckily I have hose reels from the KA set so I don't need to chase down a replacement fret. 
 
Anyway, I'm expecting more free time to come into my life over the next few months and am trying to get myself psyched to make some good progress.