Airfix 1/600 Bismarck (vintage and it shows it!)

[Phil Lewis]

One can forgive the old Airfix 1/600 scale Bismarck it's inaccuracies as it was produced in a day when all that remained were mostly sea level grainy pictures and remote subs were way off in the future.

It's still rather pants though.

Would this stop me from building it? If you think that you don't know me vewy well

Had this kit in the stash for some years bringing it out from time to time only to put it back as it required too much work.

Well, a few weeks back, having been signed off work, I took it back down and began to tinker.

The following is the product of two or three weeks of therapeutic plastic adjusting.

The box art

 

Some of the parts tree

 

Hull halves and main deck assembled

 

filled and sanded

 

Portholes opened aft

 

and forward

 

Nasty, clunky moulded steps in the wrong place

 

Marked positions for some of the superstructure surface detail

 

Underside strakes added using Mr Dissolved putty masked with tamiya tape.

 

Hatches and portholes added to lower superstructure

 

Turrets re-detailed removing the ranging wings deepening them and moving them to slightly lower down the sides of the turrets. Blanked off ranging wings on A turret.

Also added rivet detail using small wheel riveting tool

Also tried adding the ladder detail on the sides although it's just a pair of lines each side of each turret so far.

 

And how they used to look

 

More superstructure added with mahoosive gaps filled as best as possible

 

And added porthole detail

 

Turret Barbettes look a little bland

 

A little more busy

 

And forward turret barbettes

 

Weird and fictitious teardrop shaped anchor guides filled

 

And chain guide detail added

 

Just going for a reasonable impression rather than millimetre perfect detail

 

And that's it for now

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Floaty Phil the cough captain

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2020 by Phil Lewis
Re-shared images from Flickr

[Seahawk]

If I was going there, I wouldn't start from here.  But I admire your pluck, sir.

[Jockster]

You are a brave man sir, but I admire your style and what you have done!

[Martian]

Nice work with some pretty unpromising raw material!

 

Martian

[BerndM]

Thats a lot of good detail work on this old kit.

[The Spadgent]

Ooh a boat! Nice start. I'll enjoy this.

 

jont.

[Gremlin56]

This model brings back memories, a very brave choice of build

[Bangor Lad]

Accuracy and an easy build weren't really a priority when all you wanted was to get it built as quickly as possible so you could recreate 'Sink the Bismarck!' on the living room floor!

Watching with interest.

Cheers

[GrantGoodale]

There is a lot of good model building in those older kits. Dollars (or pounds) per hour of model building - they can't be beat.

 

[TheBaron]

Gussying this one up looks to be an enjoyable task Phil. It only seems yesterday I was dripping Humbrol glue all over one of these as a youth. I couldn't recollect if Airfix actually gave you the Arado floatplane but I've just spied it on the runners there in your photo. This build exudes happiness, have a great time with it.

Tony

[Phil Lewis]

Wow! it's really been over 2 years since I did anything on this?

Well, I have picked it up again recently and got busy again... here's a teaser

 

Yep. There's etch.

I'll post more soon.

 

Phil

Edited June 30, 2019 by Phil Lewis

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Phil, you're braver than me. When I first opened the kit I was very disappointed with it and didn't even try it. I've since cannibalised it for parts. This was quite a few years ago. So carry on, and show me what I could have done.😀  Regards, Jeff.

[surfsup]

This was the first major Kit I built as a kid so it is bringing back some fond memories. Watching how you are updating her will be fun to watch.....Cheers mark

[Phil Lewis]

I don't know about brave Jeff, more obstinate and blindly determined.

I know this will never be truly accurate as there are significant and insurmountable shape issues which I shall make absolutely no attempt to correct.

However, when I start a kit, I am always determined to make the best of it so, with this in mind I obtained a photo-etch set for it from White Ensign models when at the IPMS model world show at Telford.

 

 

Hangar doors added

 

And also chopped out the AA mount floors as the kit had them moulded as platforms instead of walled enclosures.

Aft

And forward

Plus the etch for the bridge 'wings'

 

'Before' picture in insert

 

Etch added to the funnel

 

Added etch platform to funnel

 

Fire directors cleaned up and one missing end replaced with a scratch item

and etch radar grids added... looking a lot better

 

Etch catapult and aircraft handling tracks added

 

I then turned my attention to the (distinctly NOT ROUND) main guns, making them actually round and drilling out the ends.

I also added a little more detail to the turrets including the director covers and an attempt at the small, sliding port covers on the front face of the turrets.

 

And that's it for now.

More insanity to come... polishing a  for fun 

 

Phil the mad

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Phil Lewis
spelling

[The Spadgent]

Blimey! Hya Phil. Two years 😳 I needs some boat action. 🤩😃👌. 

 

Johnny.

 

edit. Wowza!!! I spoke too soon. I see your boat action. 😀🤗

Edited September 17, 2019 by The Spadgent

[Courageous]

9 hours ago, Phil Lewis said:

However, when I start a kit, I am always determined to make the best of it so

A good mindset to take, matches my own.

 

S

[Terry1954]

Not seen one of these for many years. I think I built mine when I was about 8. I seem to recall the painting on the box top was a shade of green? 

 

You really are showing what can be done to these fine old kits. This one should be a good one.

 

Terry

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Phil, Back when I bought my kit all my builds were done OOB. I'd never heard of styrene strips etc and PE stood for Physical Education, a not so fond memory from school. What you are doing is certainly giving life to the old guy (I read once that Hitler insisted the ship be referred to in the masculine sense - 'He', not 'She'). Regards, Jeff.

[bbudde]

Yep I'm in here for that also. Built this one years agofrom the box It looked (ehm) a bit clumsy. Great start on that. I would shorten or exchange the main gun barrels.  Too thick and  long or the hull too schort? Mhh, I don't really know, but they spoiled the look on the bow. Cheers

[TallBlondJohn]

10 hours ago, bbudde said:

Yep I'm in here for that also. Built this one years agofrom the box It looked (ehm) a bit clumsy. Great start on that. I would shorten or exchange the main gun barrels.  Too thick and  long or the hull too schort? Mhh, I don't really know, but they spoiled the look on the bow. Cheers

 

The hulls too short IIRC, in addition to all the many other shortcomings. But all is forgiven for that lovely box - the Tirpitz's was even better.

Nice build so far in God's own ship scale - 1/600 is so easy to work with, sadly it's history.

[bbudde]

You mean this one, I guess:

Against this one:

Yep, the only right scale for ship modelling. Sadly enough for all these thingies, that could have desired my heart nowadays. But always the wrong scale. Cheers

 

Edited July 2, 2019 by bbudde
God's scale

[Chewbacca]

I'm impressed with this.  I love taking the old clunky Airfix 1/600s from the 1960s and turning them into something half decent but to date Bismarck is the only one that has defeated me.  The mouldings were just so bad I couldn't face it so I take my hat off to you Sir.

[Phil Lewis]

I noticed that Photobucket finally pulled the trigger so I've re-uploaded the original pics from Flickr now. Hope you can all see them again.

Edited March 20, 2020 by Phil Lewis

[TallBlondJohn]

Thanks for the photo work, hope the build is still going

[The Spadgent]

Hey hey! How’s it going? Pics working A ok. 🤩🙌