rvchima

Color Schemes
I've never built a model where the colors were given exactly.  The Amati instructions specify RAL colors, a German color-matching system. I made up color charts for the hull using paints that I have used. For the grays I painted some samples, scanned them, then averaged the pixels and got the RGB colors using Photoshop. For the reds I used color swatches from the Krylon and Rustoleum web sites. Here's what I found.
 

Upper hull, RAL 7000. I had 4 kinds of gray paint and thought that surely one would work. Wrong. RAL 7000 is fairly light but has a lot of blue in it.
 

Lower  hull, RAL 8012, almost a brick color. I used Rustoleum Colonial Red on my Arleigh Burke, my Prinz Eugen, and even on a couple of stationary steam engines. I used Krylon Satin Brick on my Marie Felling. Ted99 is is using Rustoleum Claret Wine on his Bismarck. It is actually pretty close to RAL 8012.
 
I ended up ordering cans of acrylic spray RAL 7000 and RAL 8012 from LVP Paints. It was fairly expensive and the postage cost more than the paints, but it arrived quickly, sprays perfectly, and looks great.
 

Partially painted with temporary pedestal base.
 

I couldn't tolerate plastic props on a $700 model so I ordered brass Raboesch props from agesofsail.com, two left and one right. The props and rudders are not attached yet.
 

 

Masking for the white dazzle camouflage. Good thing I just had all that practice wrapping Christmas presents.
 

Hull painting completed save for some minor touch up. Back in its cradle for now.

Superstructure  -- 150 hours, 76 days
While waiting for paint to dry I've been building parts of the superstructure. The construction technique is all new to me - complicated plywood frame and some plastic components, all skinned with photo-etched brass. The instructions are excellent and the brass parts are numbered almost sequentially on the sheets, making them easy to find.
 

 

It helps to secure the structure in a vise to keep from breaking off the delicate details. You can only bend a PE piece 3 times before it snaps. (Don't ask how I know.)
 

 

Amazing how the shiny brass is covered with fingerprints after just a few days.
 

Color Schemes
I've never built a model where the colors were given exactly.  The Amati instructions specify RAL colors, a German color-matching system. I made up color charts for the hull using paints that I have used. For the grays I painted some samples, scanned them, then averaged the pixels and got the RGB colors using Photoshop. For the reds I used color swatches from the Krylon and Rustoleum web sites. Here's what I found.
 

Upper hull, RAL 7000. I had 4 kinds of gray paint and thought that surely one would work. Wrong. RAL 7000 is fairly light but has a lot of blue in it.
 

Lower  hull, RAL 8012, almost a brick color. I used Rustoleum Colonial Red on my Arleigh Burke, my Prinz Eugen, and even on a couple of stationary steam engines. I used Krylon Satin Brick on my Marie Felling. Ted99 is is using Rustoleum Claret Wine on his Bismarck. It is actually pretty close to RAL 8012.
 
I ended up ordering cans of acrylic spray RAL 7000 and RAL 8012 from LVP Paints. It was fairly expensive and the postage cost more than the paints, but it arrived quickly, sprays perfectly, and looks great.
 

Partially painted with temporary pedestal base.
 

I couldn't tolerate plastic props on a $700 model so I ordered brass Raboesch props from agesofsail.com, two left and one right. The props and rudders are not attached yet.
 

 

Masking for the white dazzle camouflage. Good thing I just had all that practice wrapping Christmas presents.
 

Hull painting completed save for some minor touch up. Back in its cradle for now.

Superstructure  -- 150 hours, 76 days
While waiting for paint to dry I've been building parts of the superstructure. The construction technique is all new to me - complicated plywood frame and some plastic components, all skinned with photo-etched brass. The instructions are excellent and the brass parts are numbered almost sequentially on the sheets, making them easy to find.
 

 

It helps to secure the structure in a vise to keep from breaking off the delicate details. You can only bend a PE piece 3 times before it snaps. (Don't ask how I know.)
 

 

Amazing how the shiny brass is covered with fingerprints after just a few days.
 

Color Schemes
I've never built a model where the colors were given exactly.  The Amati instructions specify RAL colors, a German color-matching system. I made up color charts for the hull using paints that I have used. For the grays I painted some samples, scanned them, then averaged the pixels and got the RGB colors using Photoshop. For the reds I used color swatches from the Krylon and Rustoleum web sites. Here's what I found.
 

Upper hull, RAL 7000. I had 4 kinds of gray paint and thought that surely one would work. Wrong. RAL 7000 is fairly light but has a lot of blue in it.
 

Lower  hull, RAL 8012, almost a brick color. I used Rustoleum Colonial Red on my Arleigh Burke, my Prinz Eugen, and even on a couple of stationary steam engines. I used Krylon Satin Brick on my Marie Felling. Ted99 is is using Rustoleum Claret Wine on his Bismarck. It is actually pretty close to RAL 8012.
 
I ended up ordering cans of acrylic spray RAL 7000 and RAL 8012 from LVP Paints. It was fairly expensive and the postage cost more than the paints, but it arrived quickly, sprays perfectly, and looks great.
 

Partially painted with temporary pedestal base.
 

I couldn't tolerate plastic props on a $700 model so I ordered brass Raboesch props from agesofsail.com, two left and one right. The props and rudders are not attached yet.
 

 

Masking for the white dazzle camouflage. Good thing I just had all that practice wrapping Christmas presents.
 

Hull painting completed save for some minor touch up. Back in its cradle for now.

Superstructure  -- 150 hours, 76 days
While waiting for paint to dry I've been building parts of the superstructure. The construction technique is all new to me - complicated plywood frame and some plastic components, all skinned with photo-etched brass. The instructions are excellent and the brass parts are numbered almost sequentially on the sheets, making them easy to find.
 

 

It helps to secure the structure in a vise to keep from breaking off the delicate details. You can only bend a PE piece 3 times before it snaps. (Don't ask how I know.)
 

 

Amazing how the shiny brass is covered with fingerprints after just a few days.
 

Color Schemes
I've never built a model where the colors were given exactly.  The Amati instructions specify RAL colors, a German color-matching system. I made up color charts for the hull using paints that I have used. For the grays I painted some samples, scanned them, then averaged the pixels and got the RGB colors using Photoshop. For the reds I used color swatches from the Krylon and Rustoleum web sites. Here's what I found.
 

Upper hull, RAL 7000. I had 4 kinds of gray paint and thought that surely one would work. Wrong. RAL 7000 is fairly light but has a lot of blue in it.
 

Lower  hull, RAL 8012, almost a brick color. I used Rustoleum Colonial Red on my Arleigh Burke, my Prinz Eugen, and even on a couple of stationary steam engines. I used Krylon Satin Brick on my Marie Felling. Ted99 is is using Rustoleum Claret Wine on his Bismarck. It is actually pretty close to RAL 8012.
 
I ended up ordering cans of acrylic spray RAL 7000 and RAL 8012 from LVP Paints. It was fairly expensive and the postage cost more than the paints, but it arrived quickly, sprays perfectly, and looks great.
 

Partially painted with temporary pedestal base.
 

I couldn't tolerate plastic props on a $700 model so I ordered brass Raboesch props from agesofsail.com, two left and one right. The props and rudders are not attached yet.
 

 

Masking for the white dazzle camouflage. Good thing I just had all that practice wrapping Christmas presents.
 

Hull painting completed save for some minor touch up. Back in its cradle for now.

Working ahead on superstructure, as I've waited for suitable outside weather for hull painting.  Didn't know I would need watch-maker skills assembling PE brass.  Work to date.  Tried easy PE parts to gain skills.  At present, I plan to leave the assembled PE brass unpainted.  I think I'd rather look at the PE "in the raw" than have a fully painted mode.  To that end, I've been priming and paining any wood that will not be covered with PE brass either grey or black, as determined by the manual pictures.  I'm leaving the plastic parts unpainted, where suitable.  I may paint the stack after gluing together the two halves, if it looks like I will want to fill the seam, but that will be the base for all the PE detail parts that get attached to the stack that will stay brass.  If I persist in this plan, I'll do an overall spray of clear matte paint over the whole model for durability and consistent sheen.  Where there are large plastic parts in the superstructure that attach to wood, I've been using epoxy, rather than CA.  It offers a longer working time to get the position just right and I just trust it more than my skills attaching large pieces of plastic to the wood understructure.
 
A note to other builders:  When you assemble the many pieces of laser-cut ply to fabricate the superstructure pieces, be very careful to get all of the ply pieces fully seated in their respective notches.  I found it better to do just a few pieces at a time and allow them to cure before going on to attach more pieces to ensure that each part is firmly in it's slot/niche.  The reason for this will become evident as you start attaching the plastic and PE pieces and discover that you left a 1mm gap in a place where a piece of plastic or PE brass attaches.  Since I'm using PVA glue for the wooden parts, this has added time to the assembly process. "Tain't a hobby if you hurry".

Aeronaut vs. Amati
About a year and a half ago I completed a 1/200 scale model of the Prinz Eugen light cruiser  by Aeronaut. They also make a 1/200 model of the Bismarck and several other German WWII ships. Now I am working on Amati's 1/200 model of the Bismarck and I thought it might be interesting to make a quick comparison between the manufacturers.
 

The Amati hull is built up plank on bulkhead, with some photo-etched (PE) brass pieces. It took over 100 hours to get to this much done. It would be challenging to install RC.
 

The Aeronaut hull is molded plastic. It took a few hours to get this much done and would be perfect for RC. I have seen the Aeronaut Bismarck kit for sale without all the accessories relatively cheap. I wonder if the Amati model would fit on the Aeronaut hull?
 

The Aeronaut Prinz Eugen superstructure is made of thick blocks with thin decks. Some eyelet portholes get added later. There is no PE included with the kit but I bought a PE kit made by Pontos for a 1/200 plastic Bismarck kit and used a lot of doors and other details on my model.
 

I am just getting started on the Amati Bismarck superstructure. This little section has about 30 pieces in it. It will get wrapped in PE later. I feel like it is unnecessarily complicated. Thick blocks would work just fine.
 
The Amati kit costs about 1.5 times what the Aeronaut kit did, but it will make up into a much nicer model.

Beautiful work Ted! Too bad about the matte white. It's always the paint that causes trouble.
 
Rod

Harry,
It seems that the Hachette model has plywood pieces at the bow and stern drilled for Rivet porthole thingies. You omitted the plywood but installed the rivets.  Is that correct?
 
The Amati model has PE brass pieces that fit over the plywood, but no rivets. I got the PE pieces reversed so the tiny raised detail for the portholes doesn't show. I am getting ready to paint the hull, saw your rivets, and wondered if I missed something.
Rod

Harry,
It seems that the Hachette model has plywood pieces at the bow and stern drilled for Rivet porthole thingies. You omitted the plywood but installed the rivets.  Is that correct?
 
The Amati model has PE brass pieces that fit over the plywood, but no rivets. I got the PE pieces reversed so the tiny raised detail for the portholes doesn't show. I am getting ready to paint the hull, saw your rivets, and wondered if I missed something.
Rod

Harry,
It seems that the Hachette model has plywood pieces at the bow and stern drilled for Rivet porthole thingies. You omitted the plywood but installed the rivets.  Is that correct?
 
The Amati model has PE brass pieces that fit over the plywood, but no rivets. I got the PE pieces reversed so the tiny raised detail for the portholes doesn't show. I am getting ready to paint the hull, saw your rivets, and wondered if I missed something.
Rod

Harry,
It seems that the Hachette model has plywood pieces at the bow and stern drilled for Rivet porthole thingies. You omitted the plywood but installed the rivets.  Is that correct?
 
The Amati model has PE brass pieces that fit over the plywood, but no rivets. I got the PE pieces reversed so the tiny raised detail for the portholes doesn't show. I am getting ready to paint the hull, saw your rivets, and wondered if I missed something.
Rod

Aeronaut vs. Amati
About a year and a half ago I completed a 1/200 scale model of the Prinz Eugen light cruiser  by Aeronaut. They also make a 1/200 model of the Bismarck and several other German WWII ships. Now I am working on Amati's 1/200 model of the Bismarck and I thought it might be interesting to make a quick comparison between the manufacturers.
 

The Amati hull is built up plank on bulkhead, with some photo-etched (PE) brass pieces. It took over 100 hours to get to this much done. It would be challenging to install RC.
 

The Aeronaut hull is molded plastic. It took a few hours to get this much done and would be perfect for RC. I have seen the Aeronaut Bismarck kit for sale without all the accessories relatively cheap. I wonder if the Amati model would fit on the Aeronaut hull?
 

The Aeronaut Prinz Eugen superstructure is made of thick blocks with thin decks. Some eyelet portholes get added later. There is no PE included with the kit but I bought a PE kit made by Pontos for a 1/200 plastic Bismarck kit and used a lot of doors and other details on my model.
 

I am just getting started on the Amati Bismarck superstructure. This little section has about 30 pieces in it. It will get wrapped in PE later. I feel like it is unnecessarily complicated. Thick blocks would work just fine.
 
The Amati kit costs about 1.5 times what the Aeronaut kit did, but it will make up into a much nicer model.

Beautiful work Ted! Too bad about the matte white. It's always the paint that causes trouble.
 
Rod

Harry,
 
It's exciting to see what lays ahead for me!
 
In late Nov. & early Dec. of 2019 my wife and I took a cruise down the east coast of New Zealand. Such a beautiful country - we just loved everything about it. The closest we got to you in Manaia was Wellington. The cruise continued around the south island to Tasmania, Melbourne, and Sydney. I really wanted to see the Endeavour replica in Sydney Harbor, but it was on a cruise around New Zealand for the 250th anniversary of Cook's voyage. I think we missed it by a couple of days in two different ports. Did you get to see it then?
 
Rod

Harry,
 
It's exciting to see what lays ahead for me!
 
In late Nov. & early Dec. of 2019 my wife and I took a cruise down the east coast of New Zealand. Such a beautiful country - we just loved everything about it. The closest we got to you in Manaia was Wellington. The cruise continued around the south island to Tasmania, Melbourne, and Sydney. I really wanted to see the Endeavour replica in Sydney Harbor, but it was on a cruise around New Zealand for the 250th anniversary of Cook's voyage. I think we missed it by a couple of days in two different ports. Did you get to see it then?
 
Rod

Beautiful work Ted! Too bad about the matte white. It's always the paint that causes trouble.
 
Rod

Harry,
 
It's exciting to see what lays ahead for me!
 
In late Nov. & early Dec. of 2019 my wife and I took a cruise down the east coast of New Zealand. Such a beautiful country - we just loved everything about it. The closest we got to you in Manaia was Wellington. The cruise continued around the south island to Tasmania, Melbourne, and Sydney. I really wanted to see the Endeavour replica in Sydney Harbor, but it was on a cruise around New Zealand for the 250th anniversary of Cook's voyage. I think we missed it by a couple of days in two different ports. Did you get to see it then?
 
Rod

Aeronaut vs. Amati
About a year and a half ago I completed a 1/200 scale model of the Prinz Eugen light cruiser  by Aeronaut. They also make a 1/200 model of the Bismarck and several other German WWII ships. Now I am working on Amati's 1/200 model of the Bismarck and I thought it might be interesting to make a quick comparison between the manufacturers.
 

The Amati hull is built up plank on bulkhead, with some photo-etched (PE) brass pieces. It took over 100 hours to get to this much done. It would be challenging to install RC.
 

The Aeronaut hull is molded plastic. It took a few hours to get this much done and would be perfect for RC. I have seen the Aeronaut Bismarck kit for sale without all the accessories relatively cheap. I wonder if the Amati model would fit on the Aeronaut hull?
 

The Aeronaut Prinz Eugen superstructure is made of thick blocks with thin decks. Some eyelet portholes get added later. There is no PE included with the kit but I bought a PE kit made by Pontos for a 1/200 plastic Bismarck kit and used a lot of doors and other details on my model.
 

I am just getting started on the Amati Bismarck superstructure. This little section has about 30 pieces in it. It will get wrapped in PE later. I feel like it is unnecessarily complicated. Thick blocks would work just fine.
 
The Amati kit costs about 1.5 times what the Aeronaut kit did, but it will make up into a much nicer model.

Beautiful work Ted! Too bad about the matte white. It's always the paint that causes trouble.
 
Rod

Hi All,
Spent the majority of the weekend working on the secondary Turrets, there are six of these, two differ slightly.
Sheathed the fist four, they came out better than I was hoping for. (I must be learning or something....)
I have two left for tomorrow morning.
 
(Apologies also for no pictures of the Hull build but there are two other builds going at this time also.) Mine followed the same build sequence.) 
 
Placed Main Turrets on the Deck to see what it will look like one day.... 🙂
 
Anyway, that's me for the mo.
 
Cheers....HOF.
 
Photos: 
 
 

I spent three hours hand sanding the prop shaft fairings so that they conformed with the "as-built" hull.  No filler necessary after gluing them on.  I'll wait until all the hull work is complete and superstructure is ready for attachment before I put the shafts, struts, props and rudders on.  All are conformed to the hull so it's just a glue job.  All those parts look very fragile so I'll leave them off for now.

Got some 70-80 deg weather last few days, but more wind than was optimum; but I went ahead and painted (with the can closer to the model than desired).  Results shown.  I used the technique described by Mark Taylor to avoid leakage under the tape and it worked a charm.  Used some Badger matte clear polymer paint and had zero seepage under the masking tale--many thanks, Mark!  I need to go back and do some touch-up from earlier painting where I did not use Mark's technique--mostly the Tamiya matte white.