Bismarck by ted99 - FINISHED - Amati - 1:200

[hof00]

1 hour ago, ted99 said:

I'm finished.  Railings completed and all the little do dads done.  The railing for the other side was easier than the first, having had the experience.  Pictures of the completed ship attached.  I'm happy with my decision to keep the brass natural.  It's a showcase of my modeling skills (such as they are)--not something attempting to be a museum scale model.

 

I've decided my future projects.  At first I was going to do the major Battleships:  Bismarck, Yamato and Missouri.  But, thinking about it, I've added Enterprise CV-6--the ship type that obsoleted the battleship.  All in 1:200 scale.  Have to go to all-plastic for this, though.  The wooden hull for Bismarck wasn't all that difficult and I really don't need to do that again (nor would my shoulder want to do all that sanding, again).  I now have all 3 future kits (Nichimo and Trumpeter) in hand, and the super detail PE sets that go with them.  Next up is the Nichimo Yamato.  I have not found any build logs for this ship on this site, so it's going to be all virgin territory for me.  So, for any other future builders, I will do a build log.  I'm thinking that I will actually paint the future models since all the superstructure is plastic, not wood and brass like Amati's Bismarck.

 

I'll see if I can figure out how to log this build as "completed" later.

Very nice indeed!!

To achieve what you have done is certainly a testament to your skills, great individualism!!

 

(I'm still not finished my Bismarck; I'm having trouble with Rigging due to Rotator Cuff not properly healed, (I don't wish to break anything on the ship....), so will try to enlist some assistance from my partners son in the near future.)

 

Looking forward to you Yamato build.

 

Cheers and Regards,

 

Harry.

[mtaylor]

Looks great, Ted.   The next builds sound great also.   As for finishing this log.... simply goto the first post and click the 3 dots (upper right) then hit "edit".  Just add "FINISHED" to the title after your name and before the "Amati".  Just make sure the dashes are there to separate things a bit.  If there's problems, contact a moderator.

[rvchima]

Ted,

Congratulations on a beautiful piece of work! I love your gold-plated Bismarck. It looks great and certainly shows off your work more than a painted model would. Please message me when you start your next build log co I can follow along.

Rod

[stuglo]

On 11/3/2021 at 8:21 PM, ted99 said:

Rod--In reading your build log I saw a comment on the cost of this kit.  My experience with the top-end wooden kits is that the Brit sources are the cheapest plus "in-stock" and the US sources the most expensive and "special order only".  No import duties and preferential air shipping rates have always been a winner.

 

I am building this as display-only, so I've decided to glue down the deck.  Just reached the point of gluing the deck and it's the moment of truth for decisions made earlier.  I mentioned I really had trouble figuring out the instructions for the armor belt "step" and did a true step at the stern (repeating the picture of this).  At the bow, I did a smooth transition as the proper treatment was not evident from the notches cut in the tops of the bulkheads.  All became perfectly clear when I started fitting the decks.  I wish I had trial fitted the decks earlier, because the proper treatment would have been obvious.  The "step" treatment I did at the Aft end is correct and should be repeated at the Bow between bulkheads 13 and 14.  There will be a slight delay as I go back and correct for this mistake.  One of the photos shows the doubling I am doing behind the planking between 13 and 14 to give me room to cut out the correct step.

 

Some of my photos show a relatively thick nail head protruding above the plank surface as I was doing the two rows of planking above the armor belt.  I correctly judged that the sanding in this restricted area would be much easier without nail heads.  As I mentioned earlier, Amati doesn't provide enough nails to put one in every plank and every bulkhead, so I used some left over from previous builds.  These were slightly shorter and slightly thicker than the Amati nails.  I drill a pilot hole for every nail and it turned out that if I used a slightly undersized pilot hole, a partially driven thicker nail held the plank firmly against the bulkhead as the glue dried.  If I had it to again, I would have used this technique for all the planks.  The nails are very easy to pull out after the glue dries.  I think this works because the hull profile, combined with the planking layout shown in the instructions doesn't require much force to hold a plank to a bulkhead.  I'm not sure if this would work with the Amati nails as they are the thinnest I have ever seen.  At most, I would only use the Amati nails driven fully at the ends of planks as this is the place needing the most holding power.  I found that a #65 drill was optimum size for maximum grip on the Amati nails.  It turned out I preferred to use a slightly larger drill, but only drilled to 3/4 of the nail length.  The Amati nails are so thin that it's very easy to bend one if the pilot hole is undersized.  Using a pilot hole just a hair larger than the nail, but less than full length of the nail allowed easy placement of the nail in the hole and the final 1/4 of the length gripped firmly in the ply bulkhead.  As I said, given what I now know, I would use slightly larger nails partially driven till the glue dries, and then pull them out.

 

Bow picture shows the most complex area for sanding

 

 

I see you have fixed the 1st planking before the decks. Is this in the plans because mine says to complete the planking after the decks are fitted? Your way seems easier and better.

[Azzoun]

I'll be curious on watching your Nichimo build, I have that kit but recently replaced it with the new Trumpeter Yamato.....  so.. deciding if I want to sell the Nichimo.

 

[ted99]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:31 AM, stuglo said:

I see you have fixed the 1st planking before the decks. Is this in the plans because mine says to complete the planking after the decks are fitted? Your way seems easier and better.

Sorry to be so late in responding--busy with Yamato.  My instruction book says do the first layer of planking before the deck.

[ted99]

On 2/7/2023 at 9:29 AM, Azzoun said:

I'll be curious on watching your Nichimo build, I have that kit but recently replaced it with the new Trumpeter Yamato.....  so.. deciding if I want to sell the Nichimo.

 

Sell the Nichimo.  I notice that the prices in eBay are coming down--probably because of the availability of the Trumpeter kit.  I'd value the Nichimo kit at about half of the Trumpeter/MRC kit.