Bismarck by Captain Slog – GPM No.182 - 1:200 - CARD - Abandoned

[CaptainSteve]

Slog,

They look really good ... but, I gotta say, it does seem like you've gone to an extreme amount of work just to be able to shoot down mosquitoes !!!

There are sprays for those suckers, nowadays.

[dgbot]

Modelflex by Badger works very nice on phot-etch and you do not have to thin it.  As for the ME paints they have to be thinned down to the consistancy of skim milk.

David B

[rafterrat_2005]

Have you tried Model Masters?

 I have been thinking about trying a Battle Ship of a few my father was on after the 2nd WW. Except I have 2 other builds to do before something else. Kida tribute to my father since he wont be here much longer.

[src]

I have been watching this from my cell phone, now that I see it on a big monitor I am even more impressed.

C'mon! you can animate these, NO PROBLEM. What happened to "Challenge Accepted???"    

Sam

[Captain Slog]

Slog,

They look really good ... but, I gotta say, it does seem like you've gone to an extreme amount of work just to be able to shoot down mosquitoes !!!

There are sprays for those suckers, nowadays.

Hi Steve, surely high velocity explosive projectiles is more fun than spray 

 

 

Modelflex by Badger works very nice on phot-etch and you do not have to thin it.  As for the ME paints they have to be thinned down to the consistancy of skim milk.

David B

Have you tried Model Masters?

 I have been thinking about trying a Battle Ship of a few my father was on after the 2nd WW. Except I have 2 other builds to do before something else. Kida tribute to my father since he wont be here much longer.

Hi David and rafterrat, the Admiralty paints I mention are actually Caldercrafts own Admiralty Paint range.  A very pigment heavy paint which brushes on beautifully but this is the 3^rd time its messed up airbrushing.  The Tamiya acrylics with their own thinners worked great.  I will keep an eye out for other brands of paints you mentioned to try.

 

 

I have been watching this from my cell phone, now that I see it on a big monitor I am even more impressed.

C'mon! you can animate these, NO PROBLEM. What happened to "Challenge Accepted???"    

Sam

Sam it was ‘Challenge’ enough just to glue the tiny parts, never mind make them move 

 

 

Okay I am finally able to get going again after wasting time trying to get my order through to GPM and accepted and after finally getting it sorted had a 13 day wait for the items to arrive from Poland to Australia.

I got another Kit book so got doubles of most parts now.  Also got the laser cut form set.  It comes as 9 sheets of card with all forms pre-cut including hull skeleton, gun turrets , superstructures and more.  These are incredible and for want of better words, laser sharp.  I think I will now use laser cut forms for all card models if they are available.

 

 

Since I am a now a glutton for punishment with photo etch I also got the quad 20mm cannons.  The sheet is enough to make 3 cannons although only need 2 for the Bismarck.  I also believe I don’t need to include the gun shields for these.

 

 

I plan on punching out the portholes and replacing them and the drip lips (?) with photo etch.  I ordered 3 different sizes as there appears to be different sizes on the hull and superstructure and they were only a few bucks each.  I got 1.6mm, 1.8mm and 2mm sizes and each sheet contains 500 portholes.

 

 

Lastly from GPM I got a pool of 0.2mm elastic thread, which is very stretchy and have seen this used for the aerial / antenna wires and also hand rails so thought I would give it a go.  Again only a few bucks for 200metres of the stuff.

 

 

Since I was having difficulties ordering from GPM and getting pretty peeved I went looking around for alternatives and came across another Polish company Orlik, http://www.sklep.orlik-models.pl/ and got a few bits and pieces from them.  I was impressed with their service and they answered all my e-mails to them the next day and was very helpful.

 

Whats a Bismarck without an HMS Hood to fight?

I feel a bit of a fool as I actually thought I was buying the Halinski version and indeed it is Halinski’s with the AH badge and his name on the back cover but when I opened it and went through the pages I realised it was pretty basic and had rather less detail than other examples I have seen.  I think this must be a very early release as after checking on-line the highly detailed Halinski’s have “Military Model” in large gold letters across the top of the front cover.  Oh well, this is far down the track so when the time comes I may get the ‘proper’ Halinski version.  Plenty of time for that.

 

 

I also got some 10metre rolls of brass wire in 0.1mm, 0.15mm, 0.2mm, 0.2mm and 0.3mm since these will be useful for making hand holds, hoops, hand wheels etc , since the smallest local brass size I can find is 0.5mm rod.

 

 

During my stay of absence I found a dedicated card forum and was mesmerised by the detail on the military vehicles and aircraft and unfortunately succumb to my weak will and got a couple of vehicles all from Orlik.  First is the GPM WII M26 Dragon Wagon (1:25 scale) as it is a cool looking shape and has wheels to try and build.

 

To try my hand at doing tracks I picked the Orlik Mazur D-350 (1:25 scale) as the other forum has a great looking example of this. I also got the laser cut forms for this.

 

 

So I will probably do the vehicles when needing a break from the Bismarck.  I was going to post some photos of the card vehicle books but decided against it in a ship build log.

 

Next up will be to build the Bismarck hull using the laser cut forums.  These are going to be so much quicker and accurate as opposed to my gluing and cutting out by hand the first set of forms.

 

Cheers

Slog

[CaptainSteve]

But ... but, Slog ... what about the Prince Of Wales ??

What about the Prinz Eugen ??

 

Nah. Sounds like you've built up a nice little stash of models that will keep you (and us) entertained for quite some time to come.

[ccoyle]

Hood is indeed one of Halinski's early releases.  The really top-shelf stuff we now take for granted from Halinski started rolling off the presses around 2002.

[Captain Slog]

Hi Steve, I like your thinking    But think I might go HMS Lion and SMS Seydlitz for The Battle of Dogger Bank and Jutland recreation    I doubt I will live long enough to do all these. That’s the beauty of card models, compared to wood and plastic kits they are so much cheaper so can build up a stash pretty quickly.

 

Hi Chris, thanks for the additional info that clears up my confusion.  I really want to do the later release as the detail straight from the ‘book’ is incredible.  Remember Martanek’s multiple builds, one of them was the later release Hood.  I will probably give the Hood shown above away free to a good home to anyone in Australia who wants to give it a go.

 

I’ve been sitting pouring over the laser cut forms and they are so nice it’s a shame to use them! Hopefully some progress to show next weekend.

 

Cheers

Slog

[src]

Sam it was ‘Challenge’ enough just to glue the tiny parts, never mind make them move 

I know what you mean, many years ago when PE parts were just coming out I bought an F16 and an afterburner PE kit. WAY beyond my skills and experience. I never did finish it. I think now with a site like this for aircraft I could do it but then in my early 20's when I had no clue about metal parts? No way.

 

Enjoying folloing along

 

sam

[hexnut]

So I will probably do the vehicles when needing a break from the Bismarck.  I was going to post some photos of the card vehicle books but decided against it in a ship build log.

There is a thread in the "Shore Leave" section titled: "What else do you model besides ships?" http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4423-what-else-do-you-model-besides-ships/

A bunch of us would love to see what other great things you can do with paper and brass...

[42rocker]

Looking forward to seeing the next stages. Great photo etch work.

 

Later Tim

[barnol2461]

Hi Captain,

I have just purchased the Bismarck 1:200 scale with all the upgrades from the people you told me about and now I have the long wait for it to come. That will give me time to get the Mississippi finished and get a lot further with the rigging on the Hms Endeavour. I really want to get these two out of the way before I start this one. I am going to keep an eye on how you are doing yours so that I know what to do. Good luck with it Captain.

 

Barry A 

[Captain Slog]

I know what you mean, many years ago when PE parts were just coming out I bought an F16 and an afterburner PE kit. WAY beyond my skills and experience. I never did finish it. I think now with a site like this for aircraft I could do it but then in my early 20's when I had no clue about metal parts? No way.

 

Enjoying folloing along

 

sam

Hi Sam, having very little modelling past experience I had no idea that PE even existed until only a few years ago and am continually amazed by what is available now.  It’s awesome stuff and certainly sharpens up models.

 

 

There is a thread in the "Shore Leave" section titled: "What else do you model besides ships?" http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/4423-what-else-do-you-model-besides-ships/

A bunch of us would love to see what other great things you can do with paper and brass...

Hi Bob, I’ve included a link in my signature to my card artillery tractor (Mazur D-350) log.  If you want to see some incredible card detail, check out the Halinski Sherman firefly (by romanmodel) with a fully detailed interior etc.  To give you an idea of detail each track link of the Mazur has 7 parts and need 81 links per side.  The Halinski firefly has 27 parts per link alone!  I will post something in the thread you mentioned once I progress a bit more.  Have only done a couple of trial track links to see how they go together so far.

 

 

Looking forward to seeing the next stages. Great photo etch work.

 

Later Tim

Hi Tim, thanks for dropping by and the likes!

 

 

Hi Captain,

I have just purchased the Bismarck 1:200 scale with all the upgrades from the people you told me about and now I have the long wait for it to come. That will give me time to get the Mississippi finished and get a lot further with the rigging on the Hms Endeavour. I really want to get these two out of the way before I start this one. I am going to keep an eye on how you are doing yours so that I know what to do. Good luck with it Captain.

 

Barry A 

Hi Barry, that’s fantastic news.  I hope you will start a build log so we can progress and learn along together as I won’t be much further on than you by the time your package full of goodies arrives.  Let me know when it arrives and I will PM you a translation of the instructions from Polish to English.  There is only a page and a half of A4 instructions but gives some info in the steps.  There are a few funny bits where it didn’t translate very well but you’ll get the idea. The majority of the build is following the schematics.  Did you manage to repair your Mississippi?

 

 

Did I mention how much I love the laser cut forms?  What initially took a few hours to glue the templates to card, cut out; trim to shape and fit to each now took 15 minutes to pop out of sheets and push fit.  From the 4 longitudinal sections and 21 ribs of the lower hull only 1 rib needs to be fitted.

 

These are just trial fitted, I will go through and glue them into place next.  

 

In my opinion there is a design flaw as shown in the picture below.  To join two longitudinal sections the joint has been located at a transverse rib/bulkhead.  I think it would have been far better to move the joint off of the bulkhead so a piece of scrap could have been glued across the both sides, bridging and strengthening the joint.  Small point as once the horizontal intermediate deck is fitted it won’t move but still very flexible and weak until that is done.

 

 

Cheers

Slog

[gjdale]

Looks like you're having way too much fun there Slog! Those laser cut bulkheads look like the duck's guts - very nice indeed.

[Captain Slog]

Hi Grant, yeah the forms are so much quicker and easier, not to mention cleaner!

 

 

The longitudinal “keel” comes in 4 lengths, which I glued in all the bulkheads too, leaving off the ones covering the joints.  I wondered how to hold these whilst I slid the bulkheads down over the joint.

 

Turns out it was relatively straightforward.  I use ordinary woodworkers PVA so just ran a bead down the join and then pressed the butts together for a few seconds and smoothing the sides with my fingers to ensure the edges were flush.

 

 

After leaving the joint alone for 15 – 20 minutes the bond was strong enough to glue up and slide the bulkhead down into place.  To strengthen the butt joint I glued some scrap balsa wood into the 4 corners.

 

 

The lower hull ribs all glued into place and finished.  The photo gives an idea of length. 

 

 

Next up is the upper hull which is a little more complicated as it has an intermediate deck and differing widths to account for the armoured belt of the hull.

 

 

Here are the upper intermediate decks that slot horizontally into the upper bulkheads.  These also have tabs to glue on, set back from the edge so the upper skins are recessed at the armour belt.

 

 

The upper hull ‘keel’ and bulkheads all glued into place.  All of the upper hull components slotted together straight off with no tweeking.  Overall length according to the cover of the book is 1250mm (shade over 49”)

 

 

Cheers

Slog

[WackoWolf]

Man your are having way to much fun with this. I am glad everything is sliding in nice and easy for you. Please keep posting the pictures. I have the "USS Missouri" from GPM in 1/200 and someday down the line I will start, but I will be using it as a guide for the Sterling kit I have of her in 1/192 wood. I got most of the PE kits and all of the guns to make her in the 1945 version. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[dgbot]

Incredible work so far.  It looks like you picked a humdigger to work on.

David B

[src]

Wow! She's gonna be a big girl! Do you have room in your bathtub for her? 

Really enjoying watching this come together, its the first card model I have followed from the start.

Sam

[Captain Slog]

Hi All,

 

Hi Joe, the Missouri would build into one fine ship, look forward to seeing it one day.

 

Thanks David, it's certainly going to test my patience.

 

Hi Sam, its definitely got some presence.  The Admiral got a shock in the morning when it suddenly appeared on top of the computer desk hutch

 

 

Continuing on, the middle deck which separates the upper and lower hulls comes in three parts.  After careful measuring and using a 600mm steel rule to line everything up I joined the 3 parts using big squares of card cut-offs to bridge the joins.

 

I also placed cut-offs down one side of the centre ‘Keel’ to have a firm edge to hold against when it was time to attach the hull halves.  During glue up I pressed the keel against these cut-offs and stuck down more sandwiching the keel. At I couple of spots I did both sides of the keel and bulkhead. This kept the hull positioned both centrally and longitudinally for gluing.

 

 

When it came time to glue up both halves I placed the horizontal deck upside down on the kitchen counter (and applied more guide scraps) and glued the lower hull down to the deck using PVA glue.  The handy thing about working in the kitchen is I raided the cupboard for tins and jars of soups, sauces etc and used these to weigh down the hull.

 

Once this was left for a hour or so I flipped it over and repeated for the upper deck.

 

Underside of finished hull

 

Topside of finished hull

 

 

Looking down the spine of the hull it is pretty straight(ish), there a few bulkheads slightly to one side or the other but this was my fault due to rushing to get it all positioned before the glue started to go off.

 

 

There is the very slightist twist to the leading edge of the bow.  This is in part to the narrow cross section of the first few bulkheads.  Once you go back 4 or 5 they are wider and support more on the centredeck so resist twisting.  I can get rid of the twist when I come to shape the bow.

 

 

Well the hull frame is more or less complete and as usual being the first time doing this lots of lessons learned and a few ideas to improve the assembly the next time I do a card hull.  Still have the strips of tabs set back from the edge to do.

 

First thing was the amount of gluing surface with the full length of the keel plus all the bulkheads meant that I was working pretty quick during glue up so the PVA didn’t start to skin up.  This caused 1 or 2 little alignment issues.  In future depending on the hull configuration I think I would try locating and gluing the centre keel down first then do the bulkheads.

 

Moving on, apparently only need to fair up and then stick some card strips on to the edges then ‘skin up’ with the hull sections.  This I think would be very difficult to get right, so I am going to get some balsa and bulk up the bulkheads and put in longitudinal stringers before fairing the hull.  Will probably fully fill in the bow and stern with balsa so I can get the correct shapes sanded.

 

Cheers

Slog

Edited April 21, 2014 by Captain Slog

[WackoWolf]

You are off to an excellent start. I agree that it would be a good idea to add strength to the hull, a little more work but it way pay off in a big way. Please keep the pictures coming and Thank you for sharing this with us.

[gjdale]

Those last two shots from head on are pretty impressive Slog. Beautiful lines to this beast. Nice job so far.

[dgbot]

Nice work Slog I am learning for my model.

David B

[barnol2461]

Hi Capt,

I am impressed with your workmanship.

Am sure that it is going to be a spectacular ship when finished. I have a lot to learn.

Can you tell me please where you were able to purchase the etched sheets that you have. I have the first three but not the others.

I have a question to anyone who reads this, does the 1/200 Bismarck, Trumpeter kit, does the wooden decking and etched sheets compatible with Bismarck card kit as I have been told that they are supposed to be. I don't want to purchase something that is not compatible. Advice from modellers greatly appreciated. 

 

Keep up the excellent work Capt.

 

Barry

[Captain Slog]

You are off to an excellent start. I agree that it would be a good idea to add strength to the hull, a little more work but it way pay off in a big way. Please keep the pictures coming and Thank you for sharing this with us.

Thanks Joe,  I purchased some sheets of Balsa, but been to lazy to go out to the shed to do the cutting and shaping and have neglected the build a bit for the card vehicle I am working.

 

Those last two shots from head on are pretty impressive Slog. Beautiful lines to this beast. Nice job so far.

Thanks Grant, I agree the hull shapes of these are very nice.

 

Nice work Slog I am learning for my model.

David B

Looking forward to your next build David.  I think you should try a commercial kit as seeing the nice work you have done with normal printer paper I can only imagine how nice you would turn out a model on thicker 'bristol' paper the commercial models come on.

 

Hi Capt,

I am impressed with your workmanship.

Am sure that it is going to be a spectacular ship when finished. I have a lot to learn.

Can you tell me please where you were able to purchase the etched sheets that you have. I have the first three but not the others.

I have a question to anyone who reads this, does the 1/200 Bismarck, Trumpeter kit, does the wooden decking and etched sheets compatible with Bismarck card kit as I have been told that they are supposed to be. I don't want to purchase something that is not compatible. Advice from modellers greatly appreciated. 

 

Keep up the excellent work Capt.

 

Barry

Hi Barry, thanks.  I have sent you a PM about the rest of the GPM photo etch I have.

 

I was tempted to get either the Pontos or MK2 set for the Bismarck as they provide so much more photo etch details than the meager GPM stuff but the cost put me off.   I was heading more to the Pontos set as even the jack staff for the flags have tiny little swastika's on top of the mast.  I never thought of using the wood deck though which if it worked would look nice. 

 

Cheers

Slog 

[Paul0367]

Wow some beautiful brass fittings for a beautiful iconic ship

[rowand]

Hi Slog, that's an impressive model and your work is equally impressive. I'm looking forward to watching your Bismarck build progress.

 

Cheers,

 

Rowan D.

[dgbot]

Thanks for the compliment. When I finish the model I am working on I plan on taking on the Maine by the firm in Germany. I do not remember there name and the moment but I believe I have learned enough to do it without any mistakes. There are all lot of parts and it was a care package from the clubs back in Chicago.

David B

[ccoyle]

David,

 

HMV is the firm you are thinking of.

[WackoWolf]

Do you have a link for "HMV" can't find anything on Google for it.

[gjdale]

Joe,

 

If you search for "HMV card models" you should get plenty of hits. Here's one:

 

http://www.kartonmodellbau.de/en_GB