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German Battleship Tirpitz


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Hi everyone,

this is my first WIP on this site...

I'm already some weeks into this build so no real 'in progress' pictures.

I don't have too much time for modelling so my focus lies on building rather than taking pictures on the go.

But now I found some time and thought I share some pictures.

The kit should be well known, its the 1/350 Tamiya Tirpitz. I got it as a present from friends last year for my birthday and used the time to obtain some goodies for it: the eduard big ed set and a wooden deck from a chinese companie I do not know...

So here we go:

bridge assembly

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upper bridge

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full bridge assembly:

T06.jpg

and with radars

T07.jpg

all radars:

T08.jpg

T09.jpgT10.jpg

 

funnel:

T11.jpgT12.jpg

scratchbuilt interior:

T13.jpg

...aaaaand how little you see when the funnel cap is attached... I don't want to imagine how it looks after painting... At least I know its there! :D

T26.jpg

Now the hangars, first the only WIP I can show:

side hangar before and after PE

T14.jpg

both done:

T15.jpg

big hangar:

T16.jpg

T18.jpg

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Now the big pieces:

T20.jpg

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and everything together so far... looks like theres more brass than plastic :P

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and next the wooden decking...

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there are many issues with that... for example

T25.jpg

1 easy to fix problems where eduard replaced the 'balconies'...

2 Big problem where eduard corrected wrong fittings on the deck... I still have no idea what to do with that... maybe fill in pieces out of sheet to simulate hatches...🤔

3 Huge problem where shields where moved to the correct positions... see also the first picture of the wooden decking aft of the 2nd tower in front of the bridge...

I dont know what to do... as shown on previous pictures eduard provides etched decking but I know my painting skills will never be good enough to stand up to the real wooden decking on the main deck...

Any input is highly appreciated.

Thanks for looking

Konrad

 

 

 

 

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Thanks Stuart!

 

Well I still have no good solution for the wooden deck problem but I carried on regardless.

 

The next installment was the masts.

main mast assembly was a little tricky with that amount of PE...

the kit parts used:

T27.jpg

...and modified

T28.jpg

 

there was an issue with one of the ladders eduard provided... way too short!

luckily I had some spares

T29.jpg

and the finished main mast

T30.jpgT31.jpgT32.jpg

And how it looks in its place

T33.jpgT34.jpg

Next, the forward mast.

Take this...

T35.jpg

...add that...

T36.jpg

T37.jpg

...aand you get a finished mast!

T39.jpgT40.jpg

 

Thats it for the moment.

Next in line will be cranes and small deck fittings and as soon as the brass barrels arrive, the armament.

thanks for watching, any comments welcome

Konrad

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Great work on the superstructure. It's looking real good. As to the deck discrepancies, I have no idea. If you don't mind cutting extra thin strips of masking tape you can mask and paint the deck almost panel by panel. Time intensive to be sure, but if you're not in a rush it's a viable alternative.

Or... Trim what you have (of the wood decking) and use the extra that it was cut out of to fill in any gaps.

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Like you I didn't want to paint a deck area, but after watching some youtube (mainly about painting WW1 aircraft...) I did some practice, then took the plunge. Now I don't know what the fuss was about 😋.

Have a look into it, I find it much easier than getting aftermarket decks to fit.

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On 06/12/2018 at 08:37, Courageous said:

Impressive work on the masts with you your own touches too. Good step-by-step images :yes:.

 

Stuart

 

On 07/12/2018 at 09:05, mick said:

great work

Thank you!

On 07/12/2018 at 07:31, Bigdave22014 said:

Like you I didn't want to paint a deck area, but after watching some youtube (mainly about painting WW1 aircraft...) I did some practice, then took the plunge. Now I don't know what the fuss was about 😋.

Have a look into it, I find it much easier than getting aftermarket decks to fit.

I might give it another try on a test piece but every wooden finish I tried so far looked somehow scrappy... :(

On 07/12/2018 at 02:53, Thom216 said:

Great work on the superstructure. It's looking real good. As to the deck discrepancies, I have no idea. If you don't mind cutting extra thin strips of masking tape you can mask and paint the deck almost panel by panel. Time intensive to be sure, but if you're not in a rush it's a viable alternative.

Or... Trim what you have (of the wood decking) and use the extra that it was cut out of to fill in any gaps.

The trimming and filling in thing looks like the route I might try although the offcuts do not have the decking cut into it. Maybe reproduce the pattern with a hard pencil?

 

Next steps:

 

I built the cranes and had the chance to use my dremel as an improvised lathe. The eduard set included a pulley with a 2D Stand (or wathever it is). that just didn't look wright so I turned a toothpick into a 3D version of that thing.

T41.jpg

and all in place:

T42.jpgT43.jpg

not sure wether to use all the PE parts for the crane jibs so I postpone this part.

Moving on to armament!

first the torpedo tubes before and after the brass treatment

T44.jpg

and a scenic view also showing the masts in place

T47.jpg

T48.jpg

 

 

 the Postman brought me something!

YEAY!!!

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I might have bitten up more than I can chew with the 20mm AA...

but time will tell.

For now I started with the big guns.

You can clearly see the age of the kit with all undersides just open... had to fix that

T51.jpg

just for comparison

T52.jpg

and the complete turret

T53.jpgT54.jpg

 and all four done:

T55.jpg

Thats it for now...

Only so many things to still complete before I can finally get to priming and painting...:(

Thanks for watching, all kind of comments welcome

Konrad

 

 

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18 hours ago, Sofusthecat said:

Hi Konrad

 

Well done so far. What will you be using for the blast bags betwwen the main guns and the turrets?

 

Regards Toby

Asking the real questions here...

honestly I have no idea. I guess I could sculpt them using Green stuff or something similar but that would take me the option of displaying the ship in different situations... 

Does anyone know a way to produce moveable blastbags in 1:350?

 

Konrad

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time for another small update!

 

the last week was really busy but I could spare a couple hours here and there to continue this build.

After the main armament comes the secondary...

T59.jpg

It was... tedious.

I used masking tape as a guide for correct length

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and as usual: some shots with the turrets in place

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cable reels next... not finished

there are 4 diffent sizes of cable reels, this is the biggest one

the spacers where turned from evergreen rod

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with my last ship builds I made the experience that doing all this tedious small pieces in the end, when the ship itself is already done, is a real mojo killer so I tried to do some of it in between.

 

I also prepaired the hull and decks for primer

quite a few layers of putty where necessary to get the shaft funnels flush.

the A-brackets did not align properly so I had to adjust the height with sheet plastic... and then I managed to break them while sanding... twice but now its ok.

also drilled the portholes.

T56.jpg
T57.jpg
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Thanks for watching, any comments welcome

Oh and before I forget HAPPY HOLIDAYS🎅

Konrad

 

 

 

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Last Update before Christmas

 

I started the 105mm Guns...

T67.jpg

the replacement barrels look awesome but are tiny... had to photograph them through a magnifiying glass

T68.jpg
T69.jpg

the P/E was a little tricky but - as the comparison with the pure kit part shows - well worth the effort

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and like always I couldn't resist seeing it in place with its big brothers...

T73.jpg

Now I only have to make 7 more of them...😅

 

Merry Christmas to all of you!

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Usually the Bismarck is the most popular German battleship, and his less famous sister is rare on forums. I am glad to see this ship here with so excellent PE works as well. 

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Very nice PE work indeed.

I gave it some thought over the holidays and I think I might have come up with a solution for the movable blast bag. Haven't tested it, but it just might work.

Basically you want to cast it in rubber, but there's a bit more to it than that.

First off you need to produce a master blast bag for the mould. Sculpt it at about half way elevation so the material can flex either way.

Then make a mould from a material that will not react chemically with the  rubber. Blue Stuff might do the trick and is fairly easy to work with.

Next step is to make the bag itself. There's a brand of silicone rubber that you can brush on (not the two part stuff for resin casting moulds) which reacts and dries in air. I believe it is normally used for plaster casts. Brush a thin layer on the inside of your mould and leave it to dry. You might want to do a couple of layers for increased strength. But once dry you SHOULD have a hollow blast bag that you can draw over your gunbarrel like  the real deal.

The final problem is of course painting, as you will need to use a flexible paint that doesn't crack when the rubber stretches.

Over time the silicone rubber will dry out and crack, but depending a bit on conditions it might take 5-10 years before that happens.

I have no idea if this actually works, but I would be very interested to see the results if it does :)
 

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On 31/12/2018 at 11:00, Kris B said:

Usually the Bismarck is the most popular German battleship, and his less famous sister is rare on forums. I am glad to see this ship here with so excellent PE works as well. 

Well, thanks for saying my PE work is excellent (not so sure if I‘d agree).

Tirpitz has a quite interresting story even though she never had a real battle. Like Nukes nowadays she was just a constant threat. And the story how she was attacked by mini subs is truely amazing.

On 01/01/2019 at 17:01, Thom216 said:

Nice stuff! And I just noticed that the rails are integral with the PE deck. Should make that part a lot easier.

Thanks. In my opinion that is making it harder rather than easier. It is a real pain to handle and I already knocked off two of them... or maybe it‘s just me being too clumsy😅

On 01/01/2019 at 18:53, Sal82 said:

Very nice PE work indeed.

I gave it some thought over the holidays and I think I might have come up with a solution for the movable blast bag. Haven't tested it, but it just might work.

Thanks for your suggestion but I have to say casting is way beyond my skills and posibilities.

I might give up on the moveable guns ideal and was looking around the net for solid blastbags. The only ones I managed to find where on shapeways but it was a complete set of 3d printed turrets including the barrels and way too expensive just for the blastbags... and using the printed turrets would cause a lot of work getting the aluminium barrels of the kit turrets and onto the printed ones... maybe I just have to make my own with tissue and PVA glue.

 

I have a sad anouncement to make:

 

this build is currently on hold!

 

reason is: I am in my last year of college (I’m soon to be a ship’s engineer) and the finals are coming closer. There‘s not much time for modelling and what time I can spare I really want to enjoy. Therefore I started a new project that is a lot simpler and doesn‘t require that much head scratching. It‘s a cold war era russian missile destroyer so if anyone is interrested in seeing it I might start a wip but not so much in detail as this one here.

a soon as my head is free again (mid february) the Tirpitz will continue!

oh and belated happy new year to everyone😉

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Sad to not see this build for a while but your exams will have to come first so will look forward to seeing your return later in the year and good luck with the finals. 👍🏻

 

beefy 

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Good luck with your exams, annoying when reality gets in the way of model making!  Have really enjoyed your build thus far (have old revell Bismarck in stash) and you are very skilled so yes please to starting a new thread!  Wishing you and your family a peaceful New Year!😊

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Lovely detail work and an impressing patience to do it right.

I see there were quite a few modifications done to the Tirpitz over the years after her completion, that differed her from Bismarck.

the only little thing that seems a bit off scale is the patterns on the tear drop flooring plates and the perforated plates.

But if they were on scale the patterns would hardly be visible as the round holes in a perforated plates is about 1 cm in full size and the tear drop patterns are about an inch long :) 

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Thanks for all the kind words and all the luck you wish me ( I will definitely need all of it)

3 hours ago, Jered said:

Looking fantastic! I'm really enjoying this build. What tools are you using for the photoetch? 

 

IMG-4980.jpg

Here you can see every tool I use for my P/E work:

CA glue (liquid and gel depending on the aplication)

A sharp No 11 on a wooden surface to cut the parts from the fret

some fine tweezers (the one that clamps is very important if you need a 3rd hand)

A bending tool

a 30W soldering iron with the tip from a 15W soldering iron (smaller tip is better)

and some low temperature solder

 

I have to admit that I only solder bigger parts where its harder to f*** it up 😅

and I am not very good with the P/E (in my opinion at least). I often loose parts to the carpet monster even though I don't have a carpet...

 

Hope this helps

 

3 hours ago, Fizgig said:

Good luck with your exams, annoying when reality gets in the way of model making!  Have really enjoyed your build thus far (have old revell Bismarck in stash) and you are very skilled so yes please to starting a new thread!

As you wish I'll post some pictures of the russian ship soon.

 

10 minutes ago, Nils said:

Lovely detail work and an impressing patience to do it right.

I see there were quite a few modifications done to the Tirpitz over the years after her completion, that differed her from Bismarck.

the only little thing that seems a bit off scale is the patterns on the tear drop flooring plates and the perforated plates.

But if they were on scale the patterns would hardly be visible as the round holes in a perforated plates is about 1 cm in full size and the tear drop patterns are about an inch long :) 

There are a few compromises you have to do regarding scale... but the overall look will be okay I guess

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