Silverstone 2

Yes, know what you mean regarding the interior colour. I used MM interior buff for the KT build. But unfortunately MM is enamel but very good colour match. I'm making a move away from airbrushing enamels. Vallejo Root Braun surface primer looks to be good for the primer colour used on Panzers. But trying to find a suitable acrylic counterpart for the Interior Buff (ivory)??? I'm open for suggestions on any ideas too. Here are examples of the MM Root Braun & Interior Buff on my KT.....which come out satin which is very useful also.

Looking good so far on the JT build! Just been looking through the box today as i couldn't resist:-) All looks very good to me and surprisingly quite different to the KT build after the Engine and Transmission are done. The warping on the large parts: Hull top and bottom is very evident indeed though. Definitely some clamping is required with gentle heat treatment. I can see this on the front Glacis-plate edges (3 photos up) when the hull halves are pushed together. Definitely some inward bowing on the bottom halve. Are you going to make the top hull removable?

More...... Good time for another dry fit, just to see how the Bismarck is starting to look now: Secondary armament Broadside Action:

Bit of an Update: The Bismarck is 95% finished now, after 10 weeks of work. Main deck railings with Life rings and the Arado + Small boats still to finish, To start.... Main deck No Gaps thanks to horizontal deck level! Anchor Pulleys The markings.....Paint masked carefully with good old Tamiya tape, I used Nato Black for this. Weathering: The Anchors and chains:

Great start on the JT Julian. I will be very interested to see how this build progresses and what alterations you undertake. How is the fit between upper & lower halves of the main hull. The KT needed clamping and a bit of hair dryer to reduce the mould warping. But I found this method works, little by little heat treatment. Looking at at the front shot of the your JT lower hull, it seems inevitable that it will need the same, unless the halves are bonded together? phil

Any News from Dragon on this much anticipated AT-AT?

Lighting the Star destroyer is extremely difficult to get right, or I should say realistic. Even the large scale 1/1700 version need the vey smallest of fibre optics. If you not careful as the Japnese modeller has illustrated you end up getting a model that looks like a toy....Not good. Even the Randy Cooper version that I have looks better left alone as a static model. The fibre optic versions that have been attempted, all have been photoshopped after, to tone down the unrealistic lighting. guess it's all down to personal preference in the end phil

Santa has been a bit obvious this year:-) A build for the new year....

Added Deck reinforcement yesterday. This will make the deck horizontal and remove any sagging (warping) due to lack of support. A few builds have left the sprue trees interconnecting the hull at these points. Guess that would help the shape but not entirely. This way when the first story buildings go down on the deck, there is no gaps as mentioned earlier in this thread. Horizontal decks.....

Well Spotted! Indeed, Cant seem to find any Kriegsmarine figures in 1/200. Apart from the PE style, which look odd.

Some updates on the rest of the sub assembly builds: Aircraft coming along, I bought a 1/200 Ju-88 that was used for naval bombing to go with the Bismarck. Nice scale comparison. 1/35 King Tiger in the background. Arados: Decided to do a dry fit whilst the Bismarck is on her stand. Wanted to get an idea of how much more there is to do.....A Lot still! 1/200 Sailor:

Before anyone asks, this is our spare room bed not the one we sleep in!

Time to see how my stand mount will look: Hull ready, You can see just how big this 1/200 Bismarck really is. Behind is the Randy Cooper 1/1700 Star destroyer which is 100cm long for comparison. There is a scale factor of 1:8.5 between the two models. So to bring into the same scale would be amusing:-) either the reduce the bismarck down to just 14.5cm in length. Or Build an 8.5m (29') long Star destroyer. In height alone the Bridge top would be over 8' from the floor. On the stand:

Had some time to complete some more of the railing detail......what a nightmare PE bending really is! I've never done so much and it's very difficult trying to persuade metal to bend round corners and get the right profiles. But here goes: Before: After:

Thank you for all your kind comments. I will be updating this build over the weekend....hopefully. Phil

No this is the Randy Cooper 1/1700 version. the Anigrand kit is half the size in plan area format in comparison, and even smaller still in displacement. I think the Anigrand ISD is 1/2226, detail is a no where close, almost too basic. the Randy cooper version here is 100cm in length. The biggest ISD available, the detail is superb and can't be done justice unless looked at by the naked eye. Very Expensive resin kit and even rarer than the Anigrand version. In fact it's the most expensive kit I've ever built, regarding both time and initial expense. Phil

I built this Resin leviathan back in March last year. Took several months to build and pushed the limits of modelling abilities and patience. I finally got round to weathering (a few cotton buds later) and detail painting this enormous Imperial Destroyer: 38" x 24" x 12" (BIG) 10kgs Blockade runner & MF:

The Superstructure, PONTO decks and railing detail is now under way too.... I am really enjoying building Trumpeters amazing Bismarck offering, I thought their 1/16 King Tiger could not be beaten!, the Aftermarket additions really do bring it to life. I could have painted the decks but i was curious to try MK.1 & Pontos for their offerings too. The MK1 metal barrels are nice but certainly not a must. The Kits 380mm / 150mm and smaller guns are very good mouldings and would look great out of the box. They even have drilled out muzzles too. The Metal versions just makes clean-up a lot easier. The Wooden decks are very nicely done and an ease to use too. Saves a lot of bench time. But again trumpeter's deck detail is superb! so an airbrush will bring very good results there too. Infact i've seen a lot of people painting their own decks with some very convincing results. The Structural railings although fiddly and very time consuming are a must IMHO. Blast bags for the Main armament and 150mm are also a nice addition. I'm not a fan of PE as it's extremely time consuming and very nerve racking!!! I have never done so much PE work in all my time of modelling but it's results are paying off. More updates to follow......

Next, could not wait to see how successful the PONTOS wooden deck was going to be?!? Getting carried away...... a test fit to get an idea of how this is beginning to turn out: Starting to look like a Battleship: After the next couple of days the Markings were sprayed on the Front and Aft decks:

I used cut out drawn on A4 for masks to create the side camo for the Hull: Worked pretty well:

The Large oak base has now had it's final stand-offs mounted. I chose to use aluminium shafts with internal Plastic spacers (collars). The Aluminium shafts have been carefully rubbed down to remove any imperfections and blemishes in the cutting process. The whole shaft is attached through the centre with a long M6 bolt (countersunk underneath the base) The are then crowned with large M6 Neoprene Washers. The Idea behind the washers is to hold the bolts and provide a soft membrane between the supports and the delicate Bismarck hull: More painting progress:

The beginnings of the superstructures: Most sub assemblies are dry fit, for easy dismantling required due to detail painting: more hull camo painting:

The Painting begins: Tamiya Nato Black for the Waterline, works well as it's not meant to be black but a very dark grey according to the history of the Kriegsmarine marking and painting. Some tidy up on the hull seems, required! Pre shading has come out quite well, not easy to see in the poor light unfortunately

The Finished hull construction: The proposed stand mount on a 1500mm x 250mm x 20mm oak board: Just resting on the prototype stand mounts:

The Update: Further build progress: These gaps will need careful attention, some horizontal deck support to eliminate any sagging! gues some people leave the sprue trees in for support. Something vertical from the hull bottom could be best. Stand mount adapters: The M6 Insert - Epoxy bonded into oak blocks