Tamiya 1/350th Bismarck

[Ferrets Bueller]

Felt like a change from armour so thought i would try something ive never done before.

The first ship model for me so though i would star off with a lengendary WW2 battleship.

I was expecting alot more in the box for some reason (there are only 8 ish sprues iin the box) but what is in there is good quality from a kit i believe was first made in the 1970's. The kit can even be made motorised if thats soomething you wish to do.

I started off with a good read of the typical well laid out tamiya instrustions and set to work.

I primed the deck and when it was dry i then sprayed a couple of coats of vallejo model air wood.

Next step priming the deck guns, the gun barrels were sprayed in vallejo german grey and the gun housing in dark sea grey

The guns were then glued into their movable psoditions on the deck, i should have pianted the sea grey above the deck around the guns before i glued them in place but i can still get to them so it should cause much trouble.

 

[Fenlander]

Oooo, a speed build Bismarck!!!!! I would love to have a go at a Tamiya one, I have a Hasagawa Japanese aircraft carrier that I started and left off, must get back to it soon....

 

[AlanG]

I just saw this kit in my LMS and liked the box art. Looking good so far

 

[Ferrets Bueller]

Made some progress over the last week, all the superstructure (is that right on a ship?) is complete with just the boats and planes to spray, then on to the front section of the deck then the hull.

 

[Ferrets Bueller]

God its like a ghost town on here lately.

Well some more progress on the mighty ship launches and lifeboats are pinted up, still got the aircraft to piant and attach and then the rear section of the deck needs its small bits and bobs painting in meduim sea grey (vallejo) then i have loads of snagging jobs to do as well as the dreaded rigging.

Got the hull done today bar the props and a matt coat, decided to not have the "waves" fornt and rear (for now anyway) very happy with the way the hull came out as it was a pig to do manly beause of all the masking.

The hull without the camo scheme.

And with the camo, you can see the time difference (by the photo time stamp) and i only had a 45 min break in between.

Nearly finished anyway.......

 

[Ian M]

I agree its been a bit quiet of late, but you must remember its Christmas so folk are either stuffed, drunk, down the ER or playing with their new toys!!!

Nice looking Bissy you got yourself there, When are you starting on the rigging!?!?!?

LOL

Ian M

 

[Richy C]

Looking very very nice Paul , I`ve got the same model to build early in the new year , your masking and paint work looks very sharp and clean mate its the one area I`m not looking forward to , although I will be adding PE and other bits is there any advice/tips good or bad about the kit you could share etc etc it would be much appreciated mate

smashing build will be watching with much interest

Richy

 

[Lancasterb1]

Very Nice Paul, what are you going to use for the rigging? When I built the Tirpitz, I used thin brass wire, the post is on here somewhere, LOL!

Andy

 

[Ferrets Bueller]

Hi guys, the rigging im not sure whether to use wire or get some thin fishing line, i will decide soon eneough lol.

Hmm tips for the build, take your time on the superstructure ensureing everything is straight when you glue it, and if using other paints than tamiya make sure you double check the conversion charts as i was using vallejo some of the codes gave too dark a colour.

 

[Richy C]

Cheers mate , will be using vallejo air myself , was going to use vallejo hull red then a choice of dark sea grey - medium sea grey and light grey - white and black , I`ve got Jap and English instructions but they don`t give X or XF colours just dark medium and light grey black and white colours to be used , with the scale to colour ratio I think I`m gonna go with med grey light grey and black grey for the black and take it from there , on a serious note are you gonna try the rigging , to be honest it looks a nightmare , had not looked that far until it was mentioned by Ian and Andy , another area I`m not looking forward to

Cheers Paul

Richy

Richy

 

[Ferrets Bueller]

Yeah im defo gona do the rigging as well as the swastikas too. Model air wise i used Meduim sea grey for the main grey, dark sea grey for the gun tops, #57 black and #1 white and i mixed a little #3 red with #40 burnt umber for the hull and i just went by the box drawing to mix the colour.

 

[Richy C]

cheers Paul , you`ve done a smashing job mate the colours look very good are you gonna continue the camo over the conning tower and guns or leaving it as it is ,also have you got the swastiksa`s yet if so what size are you using - planning to do the same myself and have just ordered them today along with some other stuff , after a bit of research bismarck was just grey to start with , but thats far to bland ,

if it helps I`ve just ordered the swastika decals (not sure if they fit but you get quite a few different sizes on a sheet) from modelflags.com they also do kriegsmarine mini cotton flags I`ve just ordered AAA and AA sizes which covers all big the WW2 1/350 German battle ships , not expensive either

not sure if you wan`t to go to that detail but thought I would share my finds with you seeing you are making and I will be making the same kit

what I will say this kit is huge , the HMS Prince of Wales is now on my list to get

Richy

 

[Ferrets Bueller]

Hi richy im gonna leave the camo as it is as that looks a right nightmare to continue the camo up on the towers. I will have to have look at the swastikas and flags as the paper flags you get withh the kit are not great.

I also tried a piece of cotton as rigging and on the cranes to see what i think about its thickness.

It was a very nice kit to put together, but im glad its done as it seemed to take ages. It has also taken pride of place right above my modeling workspace.

Ived got a 1:350 german uboat that im about to start so they will look good side by side.

 

[Bunkerbarge]

Lovely job of a great kit. It is accepted that the Bismarck was in exactly this colour scheme at a point during Operation Rheinebung when the disruptive camoflage had been painted out on the superstructure but not on the hull.

One thing that should be added however is the white area at the fore and aft part of the hull which was supposed to simulate a wake and make the ship look shorter. It would be worth adding the white as it is so distinctive and it was there when the disruptive pattern was on the hull and the dark grey hull extreems.

 

[Ferrets Bueller]

Lovely job of a great kit. It is accepted that the Bismarck was in exactly this colour scheme at a point during Operation Rheinebung when the disruptive camoflage had been painted out on the superstructure but not on the hull.One thing that should be added however is the white area at the fore and aft part of the hull which was supposed to simulate a wake and make the ship look shorter. It would be worth adding the white as it is so distinctive and it was there when the disruptive pattern was on the hull and the dark grey hull extreems.

Yeah i know about the waves (i think i did out that i wasnt sure about adding them) and i can easily enouugh add them as the main centre super structure is still removable, i will have a look today.

I would have liked to have the full camo scheme on the tower etc but i just thought how the hell am i going to mask that, besides i think i do prefer the more subtle look of this scheme.

Thanks again