Bismarck by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - GPM - 1:200 - CARD and PE

[cog]

Thanks Dan

[popeye the sailor]

truly nice work Danny     mistakes are human........how we fix 'em is our redeeming factor     really like the joinery of the antenna.

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks again Popeye.

 

Construction of the Aft 3rd Deck is similar to all the others. The Bulwark in the middle of it took some fun folding :

 

I started fitting it by gluing on the shallow curved central section :

 

To get the tight corners to sit flush I used a couple of heavy brass weights :

 

Supporting the two end sections so they were in line with each other :

 

The bulwark fitted and edge painted :

 

  Danny

[matelot]

Hello Dan,

Nice job on the 4 boats .I'd looked at papermodel kits before and never quite saw how they were supposed to come together.

Really very nice.

In case you're wondering (although you are probably not) how they got the inside boats into the water.

These 2 boats were on rails and they slid forward and out from underneath the signal deck so the crane could pick them up. 

Henry

[Old Collingwood]

Looking superb  so much detail amazing     I too can not speak highly enough of Lifecolor paints,  they are brilliant and last so well without drying out.

 

OC.

[Dan Vadas]

1 hour ago, matelot said:

In case you're wondering (although you are probably not) how they got the inside boats into the water.

Thanks Henry. Yes I was wondering about that, it makes sense . Thank you too OC.

 

  Danny

[amateur]

I guess you already know the  pics  in the German Bundesarchiv.

There was a wide range of pics taken during her fitting out.

(search isn't perfect, so some noise in the resultslist )

 

Jan

Edited January 5, 2018 by amateur

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the tip Jan.

 

I've finished the 3rd deck. The pieces of railing hanging in mid-air will be attached to the structure along-side. Lots of louvres :

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for the Likes guys .

 

A few tips on how I fit PE Railings on a slightly tricky platform. The first pic shows one strip of railing already fitted, and I've drilled and fitted the first post (which is actually the 3rd one from the join). Note that I haven't worried about joining the two strips together yet. The MDF blocks support the loose end roughly to the right height :

 

I fitted the other two stanchions in the straight section before moving to the bend. To shape the bend I use a piece of plastic tube to support the inside of the rail and gradually push the rail in, moving the tubing as I go (the MDF block is taking the place of my finger while I took the pic).

 

I do one stanchion at a time, using the MDF block to hold the stanchion right on the edge of the platform so that I can position it for drilling :

 

The drill I use is one made for drilling PC boards. It's made of tungsten, and is 0.4mm in diameter. Each drill has a plastic collar attached, different colours for each size to make identification easy. When using them without a pin-vise I can use the collar to turn the drill with my fingers. For this job the pin-vise is a better option :

 

Once the hole has been drilled I use a pair of narrow-jawed tweezers to locate the stanchion in the hole :

 

I use a piece of strip wood to determine the height above the deck of the lower rail before applying a droplet of CA glue using a needle with the end of the eye ground off :

 

The finished platform. A PE ladder has been fitted into the gap between the strips of railing :

 

  Danny

 

[amateur]

Times the immense amount of stanchions.

incredibly crisp work Dan!

 

Jan

Edited January 7, 2018 by amateur

[Paul Jarman]

Nice work Danny, and very good tip for doing the railings. Will use that method when required.

Paul

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks again Jan and Paul .

 

When I went to fit the hangar to the 1st deck I discovered a big mistake. Once again the inadequate instructions led me down the garden path. I'd fitted the two centre boats to the racks as per the drawing, but they were a mile out of position. There was no way that the hangar would fit against the deck behind it, as the boats hit the railing. In fact they would have been almost all the way into the range finder on that deck :

 

Nothing else I could do but try and remove the two boats and move them forward the required distance. This wasn't going to be easy, but I managed to cut them both free with almost no damage to either the boats or the racks :

 

A bit of paint, some small modifications to the racks, and all was well . The outer boats are a little too far back as well, but they don't interfere with anything else so I'm not going to push my luck trying to move them :

 

  Danny

[gjdale]

Nice recovery Danny. Some great tips in this build log - as we’ve come to expect from you! 

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for that Grant .

 

I thought it might be time I posted some Progress pics. The fore and aft superstructures haven't been fixed to the main deck yet as I still have work to do on both of them and it's easier off the hull :

 

 

  Danny

[popeye the sailor]

looks amazing Danny.......great progress picts!   

[CDW]

She's going to take a lot of shelf space, Dan. But I am sure you have already planned for that.

[Fernando E]

One word Danny......Unbelievable! 

 

Cheers.......Fernando  

[BANYAN]

Really taking shape now Danny, nice work with plenty of detail.  Appreciate you showing your PE techniques for therails, that will come in handy for a future build (later this year).

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Old Collingwood]

WOW  what an amazing job  looks so realistic,  sorry for keep repeating myself,  you amaze me with what you are doing,   perfection in modeling.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

I've been back 3 times to look at your last post, Danny.  It looks like anything but paper.  My mind is properly boggled.

[ccoyle]

Not bad -- for a GPM product.

[Reg]

Excellent!

 

Greg

[gjdale]

WOW! ......... just, WOW!

[Paul Jarman]

Looking great Danny.

Looking at the top down picture it is hard to believe that you are building a card model. Will have to look into getting one of these myself.

Nice rescue with the boats,

Paul

 

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks for all the comments guys, much appreciated .

 

On 08/01/2018 at 12:08 PM, ccoyle said:

Not bad -- for a GPM product.

I won't be buying another GPM after doing this one Chris. I'm not at all happy with anything in the kit. From now on it'll be Halinski, although the Paper Shipwright Cerberus wasn't too bad - the only problems I had with that one were mostly my lack of experience with Card (it WAS a learning project after all ) and the quality of the printing which was due to my getting it done commercially instead of buying the printed kit from the manufacturer.

 

I've made and fitted the three Aft Rangefinders and the aft radar, along with their support platforms. Construction of these was detailed on the fore units, so I won't repeat myself. All turned out well :

 

 

  Danny

[BANYAN]

She is rapidly taking shape Danny.  You must be able to see the finish line now?  Looks great!

 

cheers

 

Pat

[amateur]

I suspect that there are still loads of tiny detail thingies all around the ship....

 

But serously, if this is the quality you reach from a kit you are not happy with, wewill be utterly blown away when you start a kit you do like

 

Jan

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks Pat and Jan. I estimate another month to the finish Pat . Yep, LOTS of little thingys Jan .

 

There are eight 105mm Guns on Bismarck, slight differences between the ones on the forward superstructure and the aft one. This gun is one of the forward ones. Here are the parts - according to the instructions there are two pieces missing from the laser cut sheet, but nothing too serious. Another example of GPM's sloppiness :

 

The two convoluted parts in the lower-right corner of the pic above are the hoods that go over the rear portion of the barrels, and were the hardest things to make. Naturally I lost one just as I was finishing it and had to cut a new one from some scrap. That was fun ..... NOT ). However it turned out OK - see if you can spot the one I had to cut in the pics below :

 

Some thought had to go into working out which parts to fit first so everything was able to be attached :

 

  Danny

 

[CDW]

That's impressive, that the barrels elevate, too. Gee oh whiz, that's a lot of folding and fiddling for one gun mount. Makes me appreciate molded items all the more once you realize what goes into making them as you are doing here.

[popeye the sailor]

neat that you can flip it over and see the inner workings.......of course, it won't be seen when cemented in place {it will be totally shielded}   amazing work Danny...fortunate that you at the point now where you can scratch make parts.   wonderful job!...even with the movable aspect