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Tirpitz advice for a new model shipbuilder


Planebuilder62

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I would go for the Revell kit as it's probably the best of the 1:350 scale examples. Don't buy the Academy kit, unless you're a complete masochist.

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The Revell and Tamiya are both good. Revell is more "detailed" but said detail includes things like plastic handrailing you're not going to want to use.

The Tamiya Tirpitz for sure, and I *think* (someone correct me if wrong) Revell are based on Bismark toolings. Bismarck had ventilators on the Bruno turret barbette whilst Tirpitz didn't. Unfortunately all wooden decks I'm aware of are tooled to fit the erroneous kits so if you plan on correcting the error, you'll need to cut out some planks around the barbette and replace with scrap wood from the sheet. Or live with the error.

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You can get specific wooden decks and etch for the Revell kit, but the biggest problem would be actually getting hold of the kit. I which case I would go for the Tamiya kit for which Hunter and Mk1 Design both do wooden decks, Eduard do etch and Master do barrels.

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  • 1 year later...

I've just got the Tamiya 78015 Tirpitz 1/350 kit. :D

I'm looking at the comments re. errors as its based on Bismark, can anyone highlight the differences please? I once found a video of a build to put this right but just cannot find it again!

The next thing I need advice on is the paint ref for the lower hull 'dull red' TS33, and for the deck TS68 'wooden deck tan'. Has anyone got the paint colour X refs? Don't want to pay £10 for a can of spray when I've got hundreds of tubs of paint from 5 makers, and 3 airbrushes.... Would go for a deck timber kit, again any recommendations?

Thanks in advance, this is a great site for us 'born again' model makers  :D

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14 hours ago, mikey builder said:

Looking at the WEM deck kit, for £24, I assume this is supplied 'finished' and just needs applying to the standard deck?

 

HI Mikey,

 

If it's the Pontos deck you mean (putting price and your question together) then yes, it comes laser cut on a plastic backing sheet to pull away. The deck itself is finished and need only be applied to the model. A big advantage of them is that you can prepaint turret barbettes and moulded-on deck furniture that you will keep quickly and easily with no care for being neat. Simply do this before applying the deck and you will have perfect demarcation between wooden deck and painted 'metal' parts.

 

One thing I do when using them is to give the deck washes various tones to subdue and grey the appearance slightly. It's a personal preference.

 

The other thing I do is run beads of medium CA glue on the kit deck, not going too near where the edges of the wooden deck will be (including holes cut out) immediately before applying it. The first one I did I just relied on the self adhesive glue which is ok, but my house and modelling room in particular has a lot of glass and is prone to big temperature swings. The first model was prone to lifting in places - the rest have been fine since.

 

 

A few tips if you do use a wooden deck (any brand):

 

1) use a scalpel to pick out all the laser cut holes before separating from the backing sheet. Get it to the point where the only wood left is what will be permanently applied to the model. The glue is quite tenacious so you will have it stuck to your hands if you separate it from the backing sheet before you're 100% ready to stick

 

2) Remove degrees of freedom by choosing a high feature (e.g. the tallest turret barbette) and locating the deck over that feature first. That then constrains longitudinal and lateral movement. All you have left to do is to rotate the deck in the yaw plane until some feature near the end of the deck also lines up and you're in position. Then start to lower it down that first high feature and start to rub the deck down from the middle working outboard to ensure no air bubbles are trapped.

 

 

 

 

Infact, I did this couple of years ago. It's the Pontos Models deck for HMS Repulse in the video. Exactly the same sort of product as you seem to be considering for Tirpitz. Apologies for the somewhat naff video! It was a camera phone held by Gill whilst I babbled inanely about decks after getting lots of similar questions! On looking back, it has admirably failed to capture the planking detail on the deck. Must have been too much glare or something!

 

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There are two really good websites which have loads of info on both Bismarck & Tirpitz. One is called KBismarck.com and the other is bismarck-class.dk. I think you might find them helpful and interesting. HTH  :cheers:

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I bought a few wooden decks for various 1/350 ships from here :-

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/dawngrocerystore/Flyhawk-1-350-Photo-Etching-/_i.html?_nkw=Tirpitz+1%2F350&submit=Search&_fsub=3658553018&_sid=992550418

 

pretty with quick delivery considering there from China. I have used them yet but look pretty decent.

 

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