Bismarck by Jeff 59 - Trumpeter - 1/200 - PLASTIC

[Jeff59]

My solution to hull profile was splitting hull and forcing apart and building up outer profiles with styrene stock then dressing down the plastic till close to required shape, then when happy use thin styrene sheet to wrap on the outside of hull using liquid cement gradually forming around hull, then it’s down to filling and sanding, when satisfied  it’s back to lightly engraving hull detailing back onto hull, yip, this is going to take a while 👀 on a lighter note the degaussing strip on outside of hull, 1mm half round styrene strip fitted around hull, straight out of packet, perfect , what a doddle 😂

[Jeff59]

Another little solution for hull profile was this 5mm screwed rod and nuts with pipe to use as jacking system then glue in place when happy, think this shall help me as well, as it progresses, that’s me for now thanks, got a lot to be getting on with 😵‍💫👍

Edited March 31 by Jeff59

[yvesvidal]

Your efforts remind me of what some modelers have done for the Trumpeter Titanic hull. It is massive but should pay off, in the end.

 

Yves

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, a lot of work there!  I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to put that kind of effort into fixing the hull on mine, but am impressed by your dedication to improve the accuracy! 

[madtatt]

Extreme what you show us here, Jeff.
It's a crazy amount of work that you're putting into the hull alone, but I'm convinced it will pay off and result in the most historically correct Bismarck model. 👍

[Jeff59]

5 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Your efforts remind me of what some modelers have done for the Trumpeter Titanic hull. It is massive but should pay off, in the end.

 

Yves

Thanks Yves, you’re right, a ton of work, but l suppose the way lm looking at it, between the hull, deck and the first two deck structures this amounts to about half the model so know it’s going to take a while, don’t think l will get board though, shall enjoy the challenge 👍 thanks for your input 🤛

[Jeff59]

5 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Wow, a lot of work there!  I'm not sure I'm going to be willing to put that kind of effort into fixing the hull on mine, but am impressed by your dedication to improve the accuracy! 

Thanks Mike, think just marking of the hull for the plating would make a big difference if you’re up for that 👍 Thanks for looking in 🤛

[Jeff59]

8 hours ago, madtatt said:

Extreme what you show us here, Jeff.
It's a crazy amount of work that you're putting into the hull alone, but I'm convinced it will pay off and result in the most historically correct Bismarck model. 👍

Thanks Jolle, extreme ? no more than what you did with your own Bismarck model and indeed on your own Mikasa build, incidentally on that, you were puzzling over the coal scuttles in boat deck, might have some left in my second set if that could help you? Anyhow am kind of committed to this now, am sure it will make a difference, the positive side is if it works or looks good it might make manufacturers pause before putting out a hull that’s not correct on Tirpitz, l hope so cause l don’t want to do this twice 👀 🤛 Thanks for having a look 👍

Edited January 15 by Jeff59

[Jeff59]

Hello again guys, know it’s been a little while since my last posting on this build so happy to at last reached a point off progress. Try to get this in right order. Decided to split the hull even more towards stern to help with easing it apart, you need all the flex you can get to allow for increasing the hull line on the horizontal plane, think l have increased the width of hull slightly over 4mm at some points on the aft part of hull. Doesn’t sound a lot but with this and filling out the hull profile some points as much as 5mm it actually makes a nice difference to the look of the hull, certainly got rid of the long run of on the keel, on the point of the keel l had tapered it down on either side like on drawings in Seffans book , only to stumble across a photo off Tirpitz lying upside down being scraped in 1948 so changed my mind and made it full width again, makes more sense this way with construction and displacement in mind. Put some photos up to showing this.

[Jeff59]

Filling out the hull between the stern keel and the outer port and starboard shaft housings is probably the hardest part of fixing the hull, theirs no quick or easy way here, you just have to build up the hull with strips of styrene and contour it till you think you’re happy, takes ages, am just about there now, shall be less difficult after this part, at least that’s what lm telling myself 😂 got some more thin styrene sheet grafted onto hull, can see it starting to change now, some more photos now.

[Jeff59]

One photo there is another person’s building and their fix on said problem of hull, this just shows how far out the hull actually is. Incidentally the small holes in the thin skin are me fixing air bubbles that have formed where liquid cement hasn’t quite caught the skin, just add a bit more cement through these holes and then fill and sand 👍 Also decided possibly to motorise propellers so have used 2mm brass rod for shafts and have purchased suitable bearings, shall put them in and take photo.

[Jeff59]

That’ll be me for a bit, next post shall hope to have aft hull completed 👍 thanks for looking 🤛

[madtatt]

It's amazing how much effort you're putting in.

But it will look fantastic when it's finished. 👍

[yvesvidal]

Yes, this is a very serious surgery for such a large hull.

 

Yves

[Jeff59]

On 3/20/2025 at 2:02 PM, madtatt said:

It's amazing how much effort you're putting in.

But it will look fantastic when it's finished. 👍

Thanks Jolle , l hope it turns out okay and shows the lovely lines of what is possibly the best looking hull ever  made for a warship, that’s just my opinion though, we all have our favourites. 🤛

Edited March 29 by Jeff59

[Jeff59]

On 3/20/2025 at 3:41 PM, yvesvidal said:

Yes, this is a very serious surgery for such a large hull.

 

Yves

😂 did think when l cut the bottom out, what have l done, but now fingers crossed, hope it’s going to work out, shall plod on with it, am sure it will look nice in the end 🤞Thanks Yves 🤛

[Jeff59]

High guys, hope you’re modelling is going faster than mine just now, l said would have more time for modelling since retirement but Jaqueline has also just retired so l will take that assumption back, l now have a full time Boss keeping me busy 😂 Haven’t been able to achieve much for weeks now, as l said before summer months frees up lots of home jobs, am sure you all know what l mean. Really looking forward to getting started on Bismarck again or is it looking forward to getting the chores done ? Either way, don’t give up on me, be back on her soon. Hope you’ve got all your chores done and are enjoying modelling 🤛

[Jeff59]

Hi guys, hope everyone is in good health and enjoying their modelling 👍 Hurray Summers over, back to the modelling, have to say this hulls taking me ages for what’s done, wasn’t till l looked back at my post, realised it’s quite a lot of work. Have completed the hull profile on aft section, which is the worst part for sure, just filling and dressing and filling and dressing till l think am happy, so it’s not far away, not much difference in the challenge just further down the road as they say, will put some photos up to show progress, l hope 🤞

Edited Wednesday at 05:00 PM by Jeff59

[Jeff59]

Have also been purchasing bits and bobs for her further down the road. This company sells quite a selection that l’m sure some of you will find helpful distefano 3dprint.com  think a browse through this site would make a few interested. In process of purchasing some parts for Bismarck just now but have purchased these parts already 

[Jeff59]

The anchors are an improvement on kit ones definitely, also noticed the area surrounding the stern anchor on the kit hull has too much clearance around the anchor, should be a lot neater fit than this, so in process of filling this in a bit. Oh and there’s a part there that is for the bow of my Yamato model, which is 1/96  so 8ft+ in length been in my garage for about 20 years 🙄 finally found a source for detailing it all up, for a small fortune though, this should cheer Jaqueline up 👀 also did a little more profiling on A frames and housings for propellers.

Edited Wednesday at 05:06 PM by Jeff59

[Jeff59]

Put another few photos up of hull being worked on

[Jeff59]

Has all been a slow process of picking through this a bit at a time, shall still need more time spent on it before try a little primer on it to highlight issues, there’s bound to be a few. Whilst doing that, think l will start making hull profiles for forward hull. This has got to be less problematic 🤞 that’ll be me for a year till next post, bad joke 🫣

[Winnie]

No jokes, just WOW... I'd have thrown the kit in the garbage!!

 

I won an HMS Hood in a raffle, with a Pontos set, and the previous owner had started with some shoddy work, but I can recover, I think... But not to the length you're going!

 

Amazing work!

[Jeff59]

Here’s some photos showing where she was to start with, the end result isn’t perfect but it’s much closer, hope if a Tirpitz comes out in 1/200 scale the hull is good 🤞

[Jeff59]

Really just happy to be past this part 👍

[madtatt]

I'm so glad things are moving forward with your Bismarck project. 💪

This is going to be an amazing project in your hands.

[Jeff59]

On 11/12/2025 at 6:24 PM, Winnie said:

No jokes, just WOW... I'd have thrown the kit in the garbage!!

 

I won an HMS Hood in a raffle, with a Pontos set, and the previous owner had started with some shoddy work, but I can recover, I think... But not to the length you're going!

 

Amazing work!

Thanks Winnie, appreciated. Funny thing, l also have this in collection to build, think l will have to made immortal to complete my collection 😂 Am sure you will bring this back to life, Hoods a nice looking warship for me. 🤛

[Jeff59]

9 hours ago, madtatt said:

I'm so glad things are moving forward with your Bismarck project. 💪

This is going to be an amazing project in your hands.

So am l Jolle, especially since this part is mostly past, great to be moving on to a different task well same but different if you know what l mean. Have managed to purchase and am in process of purchasing more Veteran models sets for her, should try the distefano.com site, sure you’ll find this another good source for future products, some of the 3D print is not up to scratch and other bits are definitely worth a shot, don’t think anyone is going to improve on Micromaster though, its in the name, master 🤛 will need a little help from you with where you purchased the anchor chains for your Bismarck build, they look like a definite for me. 👍 thanks again Herby just kidding Jolle. 😂

[madtatt]

I understand exactly what you mean, Jeff.

Now comes the fun part.

It's great that you managed to get some veteran parts. I'm also familiar with Distefano's website and, funnily enough, I was browsing it yesterday. I could imagine ordering one or two parts from there as well. Nevertheless, nothing beats the master, as you so aptly put it. Unfortunately, Micro Master has a very limited product selection. By the way, they now also have printed anchor chains. I bought my chains here, though:

 

WWII War Ships Anchor Chain

 

They are quite good and much cheaper than Micro Master. However, they have a rather long delivery time because they come from China.

[Nirvana]

Oh my, that is a severe undertaking of semi scratch build Bismarck.
And yes, the areas you have pointed out are definitely in need of adjustments.
But at the end the satisfaction knowing what you put into the accruements will surely pay off.