Trumpeter 1/200 Bismarck Build [COMPLETED BUILD]

Jim Lauser

Jim Lauser

Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Messages
296
Points
83

Location
salt lake city, ut
Hi everyone.
This is my first posting to the SOS forum.
A little bit of history. I have been building models for a while, for my HO train set, but got interested in quality ship modeling a few years ago, after I retired. My first wooden model, just to see how it felt, was the Blue Shadow. I liked the result and moved on to the Wasa. I was happy with that, and then tried my hand at the Santisima Trinidad. Comparing my work to the museum quality of Donnies build, it comes in favorably in 2nd place. I did one thing different with the Santisima build in that I rigged the ship backwards, ie, I tied all the rigging lines to the belaying pins, etc. before pulling them up to their ultimate tie off point. Since I had found that tieing off to the belaying pins was a pain in the ... as the rigging progressed, doing it backwards eliminated that problem.
About a year ago, I saw the Trumpeter Bismarck in one of the catalogs I get. It has been a long time since I worked with a plastic model, but the ship caught my eye and I bought it, along with the detail kit that was optional. I had no idea of what I was in for. Working with 1/200 scale photo etched parts is an exercise in patience and working with tweezers and magnifying glasses. But I have patience and got it done. Right now the ship is almost finished, I have a few details to add, but I will start posting pics for those of you who will appreciate the detail and effort.
I have attached a picture of the box cover to give you an idea of it's size, the hull is 50" long.
Jim
 
This is a pic of one of the forward superstructure pieces. The quality of the Trumpeter castings was superb. There was very very little flash to remove. However, many of the small details on the castings, like the porthole covers and the life preservers had to be removed, to be replaced by brass photo etched pieces. This removal was accomplished prior to any painting, as I decided to leave the brass unpainted. While this is historically totally inaccurate, I reasoned that it made no sense to me to remove the plastic, replace it with the brass, and then paint over it, the extra details in the brass would be lost. So I followed this method throughout the entire build.A020@96sos.JPG
 
Next came the painting. Another investment in a compressor and an airbrush. And then a number of practice sessions to get comfortable with airbrushing. All pf the pieces that were going to painted were first primed with a grey primer. I then applied a line of black paint, which I then covered with a strip of masking tape, where the water line would be.
D001@96sos.JPG
 
The camouflage stripes on the hull and superstructers had to be masked for a white stripe and then a black stripe. This pic shows the typical masking needed

D007@96sos.JPG.
 
If you look hard enough at my fingertip, you will see one of the ladder rungs that were placed on the hull and at various places on the superstructures. Tweezers and magnifying glasses required

.E003@96sos.JPG
 
This is the base I will mount the ship on. After looking at various mounting methods, pedestals, etc., I decided to mount it on blocks like it would be in dry dock.M005@96sos.jpg
 
Next, the main deck needed to be installed. As supplied, the main deck is 1 piece, also 50" long. Before installing this piece, the wooden planking had to be installed. The planking consists of 3 pieces of laser cut and detailed wood. The pic shows 2 of the 3 pieces installed. The decking comes with an adhesive backing and is only 0.3mm thick

F002@96sos.JPG
 
With the main deck mounted, the next thing is to paint the swastikas (aircraft identification markers) on the bow and stern. The following 4 pics show the process.

G001@96sos.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top