The Ship Model Forum

Hello everyone, here I am with a series of images.

I managed to complete all the 150mm calibers and the second battery.
I must say that for the second battery I had a lot of trouble with the plastic bags. They didn't want to go in, not only because of the thickness but also because of the structure.
I had to remove all the color and also cut and sand many parts otherwise they wouldn't go in and even hit the edge of the plastic in the upper part of the turret.
A real mess of work. Last but not least, I lost a barrel.
I mean, let's talk about it! I recovered much smaller pieces on the ground and yet the barrel is literally D-I-S-A-P-P-E-A-R-E-D. I mobilized my wife, all the children to search but nothing doing.
I imposed on my wife that for the next ship there must be a white sheet under the table and chair. We'll see.
In the meantime I wrote to Park from Pontos who wrote to me that I could order individual pieces since I have to order another kit.
Rather than glue the plastic barrel of the basic kit which honestly is much larger, I wait.



Here some pictures



Let's say that I finally fixed the reels, glued the 150mm calibers in the foward part, mounted the anti-aircraft guns and everything else. I added the extra step on the upper part of the secondary battery turrets that is indicated in the manual but is not provided in the kit, nor by the pontos. Bitts and railings along the hull are missing and we should be fine.









I started to get my hands on the backward side





Now I have to put in a very long railing, only that it has to go behind a ladder.





I have to decide what to do. I don't want to break the railing, but I'm pretty sure that if I lift the ladder, even just enough, when I put it back in position the bend angle will break (just two extra moves at the bend point and the very thin PEs will come off)

You could remove the whole PE part with the boat stands on it, they seem not to fit exactly to the superstructure so you could correct two problems in one go. To find the barrel I recommend a good brooming session around the loss area. Also check on the ship itself.

Hello!

I'm sure that the missing barrel still is here with us in this bizarre reality.

Funtastic looking model!
Mikko

Hi Steven, you had a good idea.
I've removed the catwalk with the ladder. The ship support it's hard to remove because is well glued. I think there's the risk to destroy more than the need.



Mifune I think it's gone in another dimension, like the single sock in the washing machine!!!!

I took the opportunity to ask for the brass set since I ordered other kits from Pontos.

Hello everyone, here I am with an update on the situation.
Let's get to the ship.
The good thing is that I'm now starting to think about what's missing. And in fact I'm now starting to count them with one hand!!!


The details of the stern are now complete. The stairs in the various levels towards the stern have also been added.
I'm doing the bars on the sides of the hull. Then I have to add the cables and I'm done.




I added the walkways to the sides of the bridge.
Here too I will now have to add the wiring for opening and closing these.





Now I'm also making the cranes.
I've reached the point where according to the instructions I should erase the part in the middle of the two red lines.
It's not easy at all. If I use cutters I'll definitely deform the plastic at the edges, so I'll have to sand it. It's a really long and not easy thing.



Any advice or experiences?
Thanks

This is easy to do, Eduardo. You either use a micro saw, a cutting disk or a milling tool. That doesn't put pressure on the crane arm.



The Mastertools micro saw, really handy but the tip can break or bend.



The tool I use mostly now. The gap it creates is 0.2 mm wide.



This will not be useful for the entire length.

Thank you Steven, you gave me good advices!!!

TADAAA


Thanks Steven for the advice. It was very useful!!!

Here's a little update. Unfortunately, the work is going slowly, also due to that I found the cranes very difficult to make.
The crane on the right side came out quite well, while with the one on the left side I had a problem with the PE that simulates the cables and therefore appeared less taut than the other one.





The real problem that I noticed when I've assembled them is that the inclination of the arm is wrong, it is too low and does not rest on its base.
I tried to see how with the one on the right (which is better made) would look with the arm resting in its housing correctly. The base of the crane would be crooked, and appears tilted "backwards".



There are two solutions at the moment:
1. I put the crane like the one on the left, therefore along the side of the ship but not too close to the superstructure otherwise there is no space for the vessel immediately below (the easiest and least dangerous option)
2. I try to force the fold of the parts that I circled with the knowledge that I could break everything. Surely the PE along the red line I traced will bend (the most difficult with the risk of losing the crane completely option)
If there were at least 2 cranes made of resin so I can order them and if I break them I replace them.

Last thing
I opened the box of the figures!!!

Good work on the cranes. The model is coming along quite nicely.

Hello everyone, a little update.
The ship in its structure is almost complete.

I'm finishing the last railings along the hull. I've almost reached the bow. I'll definitely be able to post the complete photos next week.
In the meantime I'll show you some details, because we've reached that point.




Crew chapter.
I divided the men according to rank



For the officers it's simple. Black uniform, black cap and off you go. The buttons and ribbons will be difficult to replicate.


t's for the rest of the crew that I'm having trouble finding the right uniform.

The most accredited one seems to be this one on the left side with two possible uniforms.


But about the mid rank between sailors and officers? I didn't find anything.
Advices?

Hi everybody, here an update.

As for the ship itself, it's finished!
In the meaning I don't have to add any more components to the ship.
For the extra parts miss: the boats on the sides of the funnel, the Arado with the wings spread out and the rigging.

Then there are also various options that can be added or not.
For example, there are the small paravane-laying cranes.

The kit includes 4 cranes, two at the bow and two at the stern. I was thinking of putting only 2 at the stern (those in the pictures are only placed but not glued because I wanted to ask you for an advice: one at the stern and one at the bow? all at the stern? both at the bow?) because they are objects that are not fixed even in reality and mounted when necessary.

Let'go with the pictures

Stunning work Edo!

But about the mid rank between sailors and officers? I didn't find anything.
Advices?

About Kriegsmarine NCOs' service uniforms there's a nice wikipedia page and an equally nice pair of pages at Uboat.net covering the subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_ ... egsmarine#.
https://uboat.net/men/uniforms/unipuo.htm
https://uboat.net/men/uniforms/unimum.h ... %20jacket.
In particular: senior petty officers' uniforms resembled the officers' and junior petty officers uniforms resembled those of the enlisted men.

"Chief petty officers wore a uniform very similar to the officer jacket, but with shoulder epaulets instead of sleeve stripes to denote rank"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_ ... bootes.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniforms_ ... _Hafen.jpg

"For standard everyday wear on-board naval vessels, enlisted sailors wore a frock coat with limited medals and badges (typically only war badges and high combat awards) as well as a simple system of collar tabs to denote between regular seaman and petty officers (Maat). In heavy weather, a thick overcoat was also worn."

In this scale the NCOs would be very difficult to spot anyway, given the similarities between officers/senior NCO's and junior petty officers/enlisted men uniforms. So not a big problem, you got a wide degree of freedom . My advice is to "suggest" the presence of a senior rank/NCO through small vignettes along the ship decks in which the petty officers can stand out somehow.

Very interesting topic anyways, thanks for bringing it out

Looking forward to see the model completed, just a few steps left !

Hi SGI, thanks for the help and the links.
Very useful.

I'm realizing figures are very difficult to paint. If I wanna put on the ship I have to paint only the basic details discarding the small details because I'm not able or I don't have the right instruments to do them.

For the yellow bottons of the officers I've tried to use a toothpick with a very thin pick, but the colour didn't remain on the right place or it was larger than the button.
By the way a disaster. So the decision to do the basic:
uniform without details, pink of the face and hands and black shoes.
No more

Hello everyone, I'm close to the end.

Figures are placed. Rigging almost done.

Now I'm taking a look at the flags





Obviously the nazi symbol misses.

how to do on the flag?

Printing on paper and gluing on it? I think it's horrible!
Drawing on it with pen and ruler? Uhm... I don't think so!

So any other suggestion??

Thanks a lot

There are aftermarket flags that can be purchased that have the swastika.

Just Google 1/350 Bismarck Flags and you will find them.

SteveO

You can use the Revell brand lettering on the decal paper to create the swastikas. It has some useful capitals E and L. Maybe you have some more Revell decals to complete all flags.

Wow that's a good idea!! Thanks!

Really nice work - the model looks great!

Hi guys, the ship has left the dock!!
You can see it on the completed model section!

Link to completed model here: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=404354