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

[popeye the sailor]

your latest outfit looks great!   the depth and detail is amazing and even though this is a static model,  shows a lot of action.   you've done very well with the model showing these qualities and giving it a life like feel.  an impressive model so far  

[berniew]

Just had to see what you were up to, Danny ;-)

Beautiful build!

[yvesvidal]

Danny,

 

This is incredible. What a work of art. I love the pictures with the plane hanging from the crane. I just cannot believe it is made of paper cards....

 

I have to say it is a frenzy and feast of Bismarcks between your model and the Trumpeter Build Log from Smorebutts.

 

Thank you for allowing us to truly appreciate the beauty of card models. I knew the work of Doris and her classic sailboats but your model is outstanding.

Any chance we can have a picture of you holding the ship? I really would appreciate a human reference next to the model.

 

Thanks

Yves

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks very much Popeye, Bernie (welcome back ) and Yves. Much appreciated. Yves, I'll take a pic of me holding Bismarck a bit later.

 

Construction of the Main Guns begins with the usual inadequate kit-supplied framing, to which I've added a lot of extra card :

 

One of the turrets skinned. I've modified these to swivel as well :

 

There are 12 vents of varying widths that fit to the two higher turret bases. Here are a few pics of there construction :

 

The vents fitted to one of the bases :

 

One of the turrets with the gun barrels fitted :

 

I've made "boots" in a similar fashion to the ones I made for the 150mm guns :

 

Turret "Caesar" temporarily sitting in position on the deck. I've also painted the boots :

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

All up to your usual standard, Danny!

 

John

[popeye the sailor]

too awesome for words Danny.........I am amazed   

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks guys .

 

Well, after all that extra work designing the pieces for the barrel boots ..... I discovered they were on the last Part Sheet WITHOUT PART NUMBERS. So naturally I missed them. They also weren't shown in the (almost) useless construction diagrams .

 

Here's another one of many examples of the lack of thought that went into the design of this kit. The overlapping sections on the needlessly double-thickness parts are so close together that it's very difficult to separate them without distorting or otherwise damaging the pieces. Of course, there was at least 20mm of blank paper between them and surrounding pieces on the sheet. Thank God that I'm nearly finished - I'm really starting to HATE this kit :

 

 

Anyway, rant over .

 

If you've been wondering where I've been for the last few days - here's the answer. Making heaps of small detail parts to finish off the main deck before permanently installing the main guns. A lot of these parts would be more difficult to fit later on :

 

I think these are Water Cannons?

 

The four Anchors. These again were laid out in similar fashion to the parts above - almost touching in fact. They were also single-thickness paper in the kit - I tripled them in thickness prior to cutting them out :

 

Here's a handy tip for picking up parts that are too small and/or fiddly for fingers or even tweezers. Cut an angle on the end of a toothpick, lick it and stick it :

 

I had to roll a lot of small tubes for the Bollards. These were of a diameter where none of my brass or plastic tubing was the right size ID to hold them until the glue dried. I solved the problem by using an undersized piece of PVC tubing, cutting a slot down the length, squeezing it onto the correct size Number Drill and applying heat with my heat gun. The tubing stayed at the right diameter, and making the pieces was a piece of cake :

 

I still have quite a few more small pieces to make, including four more 50mm PE guns, so I'll be back when I have more progress to show.

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Those detail pieces are truly amazing work in card, Danny!

 

John

[cog]

You won't have a virgin deck, with all of that deck furniture. Quite a gathering and very crisp and clean cut.

[Reg]

Great work!!

 

Greg

[ccoyle]

I tend to use the tip of my #11 knife blade to pick up small parts. The tiny little stab mark is imperceptible.

 

Oh, almost forgot to add -- I picked up some EZ-Line (just came in the mail today) and will give it a whirl on my current project.

[BANYAN]

Busy boy indeed Danny; seems you are ready to move onto the next kit

 

Nice work on all that detail; it will look good in-situ.

 

cheers

 

Pat

[popeye the sailor]

coulda fooled me Danny...you hate it bad enough to do such great job?   conflict of logic......the community will never know     very nice work  

[amateur]

Yeah, pics from this build will be convincing evidence that it is a great kit

 

Jan

Edited March 2, 2018 by amateur

[Mirabell61]

Amazingly precise and beautiful work in card Danny,

will your future modeling preference be with card relating to your masterly skills and techniques ?

 

Nils

[popeye the sailor]

I think he's in it for the long haul.........but I think some "wood envy" is starting to creep in      

[yvesvidal]

2 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

I think he's in it for the long haul.........but I think some "wood envy" is starting to creep in      

Not sure...I think he may be back to Plastic models...before long. 

For certain, doing ships in cards is a form of art which is rare and precious.

 

Yves

[Dan Vadas]

5 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

I think he's in it for the long haul.........but I think some "wood envy" is starting to creep in      

Correct Popeye (for the time being at least ). Here's my next model - another Card one from Halinski. HMS Hood :

 

 

3 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Not sure...I think he may be back to Plastic models...before long. 

For certain, doing ships in cards is a form of art which is rare and precious.

 

Yves

I'm not really interested in building a plastic model Yves, too much painting involved. I really don't like painting any more than is necessary.

 

Moving right along. There are only two Davits supplied in the kit, so that's all that is going on. Quite difficult to cut out without distortion, but I managed it :

 

There are also 7 Paravanes. These are a lot smaller than the ones on Amatsukaze, so there isn't as much detail. Also no PE for them :

 

Making to nose cones for them looked impossible at first - they are tiny. They turned out to be surprisingly easy, once I de-laminated the card into about 1/3 thickness. I used my pointed taper tool :

 

Ready to mount, after I make the support brackets from 0.2mm wire. The overly dark Pitt Pen touch-up will fade to a lighter grey in time :

 

  Danny

 

[Jim Lad]

Great stuff, Danny!

 

John

[maaaslo]

Nice progress Danny.

where are you going to get the Hood from? You have some place in mind already?

[Dan Vadas]

Thanks John .

1 hour ago, maaaslo said:

Nice progress Danny.

where are you going to get the Hood from? You have some place in mind already?

Pav, I've already ordered it from Halinski and paid for it. I was expecting it to be delivered yesterday. Hopefully it'll arrive early next week because I only have a couple of day's work left on this one .

 

  Danny

[popeye the sailor]

jeeze,  with all the sub assemblies you've made,  the progress is going to burst at the seams!  definitely would be cool to snap a picture before you added all the parts,  and then one after      the  Hood is going to be an awesome model....can I select a seat now ?   

 

the color on the paravanes.......I hardly noticed it.  it will disappear in all the detail  and reduce it'self to mere weathering!

[Dan Vadas]

20 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

definitely would be cool to snap a picture before you added all the parts,  and then one after

Yep, I was going to do that .

 

20 hours ago, popeye the sailor said:

the color on the paravanes.......I hardly noticed it.  it will disappear in all the detail  and reduce it'self to mere weathering!

That's what usually happens Popeye . It always starts out rather dark, and fades after a day or so as it dries properly.

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The last "major" pieces before I fit all the small details to the main deck, the four 20mm single guns :

 

Here are a couple of pics of the main deck before I start fitting the details. The main turrets will be fitted after this work is completed, then on to the main deck railings :

 

With the end in sight a welcome delivery came today :

 

  Danny

[cog]

Hmmm, another challenge, you don't like the easy stuff now, do you!

[BANYAN]

I fell a diorama coming on Danny?

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Dan Vadas]

1 minute ago, BANYAN said:

I feel a diorama coming on Danny?

cheers Pat

Pat, I'd need to build a new room on the house just for that - these models are rather BIG .

 

  Danny

[Dan Vadas]

Most of the smaller main deck details are now fitted. The rest will be done after the main deck railing is installed. The main guns are also permanently mounted :

 

The Wash Deflectors took a while to fit, with all the very small support braces taking the longest :

 

  Danny

[Jim Lad]

Amazing what you can do with pieces of thick paper! 

 

That's really beautiful work, Danny!

 

John

[BANYAN]

Very nicely executed detail Danny.  This  model is so well done that at first glance you would never know it is card.

 

cheers

 

Pat