Here are the piccies of my Bismarck’s hull and weather deck taped together:
First, the whole hull from below:
Next, the weather deck from above:
now the bow from below (not the best piccy I’ve ever taken):
and the stern:
Finally, the weather deck, right fo’rrad:
and the stern:
As you can see, no significant fit issues at all, especially when you bear in mind that the parts are only taped, not glued, together.
Oh, and use etch for at least the railings, ladders and radars. I’ve yet to see these convincingly represented in injection plastic in scales smaller than 1/144.
In a previous decade I lived about 100km from the Kiel Canal and railed over it about once a month. Just looking at the hull shape brings back memories. Not all of we americans just got our passports…
I believe I have the colors for the hull beneath the waterline. It looks like some British Crimson mixed with some Rust will do the trick. (I’m using MM Enamels) I couldn’t find any sort of “Hull Red” colors anywhere so I am improvising.
I will go Light Grey for the rest of the hull and the superstructior. I just need a suggestion for the tops of the guns. Dark Grey? Dark Gull Grey?
Anyone who has done this before (or even if you haven’t) please feel free to chime in.
Another question, has anyone done a similar kit and used the waterline and/or the camo decals? And if so, how did they look? Should I just skip them and paint them on instead?
The latter gives Humbrol and Floquil equivalents for most of the relevant colours. The kit colour instructions are pretty accurate too, but they give the colours in Revell Germany paints (and mixes therof) so may not be too useful on your side of the Pond.
As to Hull Red, Tamiya do a generic one in their acrylic range (XF9), or you can get the exactly correct shade, Schiffsbodenfarbe III Rot 5in the White Ensign Models Colourcoats range. Notice that if you want the exactly correct colours, they are all available in this range.
I think the striping decals would best be used to make templates for masks, and the black and white stripes to be sprayed. I’d do this before spraying the light grey main hull colour - much simpler than the other way round. I have concerns about how well the decals would settle down over the superstructure and funnel, and don’t really want to have to Future large parts of the model if I can avoid it. OTOH, since the boot-topping is provided as decals, I might use the hull striping.
Chris - thanks for the FYI on the PE, good to know that the Tamiya Bis PE will work with the Revell kit. Thanks for the pics too, glad to see fit is not an issue. Great links too! cheers
here is a link with paint chips for Kriegsmarine colors, including Schiffsbodenfarbe III Rot 5 (Underwater Hull Red) and colourcoats order #s
You may be able to replicate this color starting with MM enamel Insignia red and adding increasing amounts of dark brown:
From a WIP, bottom sub is painted MM enamel Insignia Red, top sub MM enamel Insignia red + dark brown. More “brown” will get you closer to Schiff Rot 5.
Thank you for those links! They are very informative. Now for my pitch . . . I love the WEM Kriegsmarine line of colors. I can’t wait to use them when someone manufactures a 1/350 Prinz Eugen, Admiral Hipper, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Blucher, Leipzig, Nurnberg, Emden, Karlschruhe, et al.
Revell Germany do, of course, already do a 1/350 Emden, but you’d need WEM’s Imperial German Navy range of colours for that. It would be good if Revell Germany were to do kits of the other subjects on your wish-list, Bill, but, sadly, it’s more likely to be Trumpeter [oX)] [}:)][banghead] who would then queer the pitch for anyone else.
I note that the Revell 1/350 Bismarck has open panels in the vicinity of the propeller shafts on the bottom (presumably there are bottom pieces to be glued in here). Can anyone tell my why they didn’t simply cast the bottom in one piece? Is this designed to be ‘motorized’ or RC?
I can’t see any way in which the RoG Bismarck could easily be motorised. the one-piece deck kinda puts paid to that. If you want a motorised Bismarck, the Tamiya kit is a much better starting point, especially as it has a one-piece hull, and is designed for motorization. Early releases were, in fact, motorised.
The outer prop shaft housings on the Bismarck are quite complex shapes, and I imagine that RoG chose to mould them as separate 3-piece items because it’s easier to design accurate tooling that way. It’s interesting to note that the kit’s prop shafts and propellers are designed to turn!
Interesting! I hadn’t thought about that, but if the shafts are meant to turn, perhaps something could be done by an RCer… Maybe use the deck from the Tamiya model, and the hull of the Revell?
I think if you did that, you’d have the worst of both worlds - the two-piece RoG hull, with its seam to clean up and the potential for leakages, and the three-part Tamiya deck, with the (very difficult) joins to disguise.
The RoG props are only designed to turn very slowly, if at all, and I think the mountings would break if you were to attempt to turn the shafts at any speed, such as would happen if you connected them to an electric motor. Far better to use the Tamiya hull which, as noted previously, is designed for the purpose. The lower level of detail on the Tamiya kit is not necessarily a bad thing, because detail is fragile, and easily knocked off from working models -ask any railroad modeller!
So I got the hull painted today. The color looks about right to me. It was my first time painting anything this big so I have a few spots where the paint ran. I am thinking that I should wait a few days for those spots to dry all the way and then hit them with some fine grade sand paper?
I’ll post pics tomorrow night to see what you guys think of the color. There are some spots that have heavier coverage than others so once it is all nice and dry, I will touch it up here and there.
Just wait till you get to the black an white stripes and the white blobs fore and aft. I still need to get to the dark grey camo pattern on mine before I tackle those white blobs. BTW mine is the Bismarks 1/570 scale little brother.
The decals should be OK for the hull stripes, boot-topping, and bow and stern ‘bow waves’, but, although black/ white camo stripes are provided for the superstructure, in practice, I can’t see them settling down over such irregular shapes. Think we’re going to have to paint these on.
