FlyHawk 1/700 Bismarck *Photo Etch done

[Dancona]

Blimey Gisbod that Arado is incredible, its even small by insect standards, how on earth did you do that !!!!

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Gisbod, that Arado is superb. Particularly with the 1/700 scale which is smaller than what I'm used to at 1/600.

 

And Erk, I don't think you have to worry about an Arado with HMS Hood. 😁 Regards, Jeff.

[Gisbod]

Thanks chaps,

 

Not a lot to see really, but just to prove I’m still working on it - another picture.

 

The superstructure is only placed - I’m just playing with it at this stage! 
 

It’s quite complex switching between the two sets of instructions (standard kit and deluxe PE ones). It takes quite a bit of thought and planning to work out what to leave from the standard kit and what to add from the PE (for my simple brain at least…).

 

There are definitely some original parts I’ll use rather than PE everything - the plastic is so beautifully moulded, I can’t really see how it’s improved tbh, I’ll take a pick n’ mix attitude as I go along!

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

ps If you look closely, there’s even a smudge of smoke from the funnel! 😆

Edited June 19, 2021 by Gisbod

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Guy, yeah, I noticed the 'smoke'. I like the camera angle. To me an aerial shot from off the bow or stern shows their lines at their best, usually. Regards, Jeff.

[Gisbod]

Thanks Jeff,

 

Pressing on.. some of the smaller deck guns. Beautifully moulded. The deluxe kit gives the option of making these in PE.. Can you believe 7 parts each! 🥴. I’m giving these a miss as the standard kit part looks awesome and you’d end up with flat barrels. Yes, I know I’m a lightweight.

 

There is however, a small sprue attachment on the minuscule barrels. Very hard to eliminate the point without damaging the said barrel. I managed to break one set and have replaced these with wire. I don’t think it will look any different under a coat of paint.

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gisbod]

Ps just ordered the book ‘Proud Waters’ as recommended on Rob’s Calcutta thread. Looking forward to that. I’m always looking out for naval

book recommendations if anyone has any?

 

Guy

[Exkiwiforces]

2 hours ago, Gisbod said:

Thanks Jeff,

 

Pressing on.. some of the smaller deck guns. Beautifully moulded. The deluxe kit gives the option of making these in PE.. Can you believe 7 parts each! 🥴. I’m giving these a miss as the standard kit part looks awesome and you’d end up with flat barrels. Yes, I know I’m a lightweight.

 

There is however, a small sprue attachment on the minuscule barrels. Very hard to eliminate the point without damaging the said barrel. I managed to break one set and have replaced these with wire. I don’t think it will look any different under a coat of paint.

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah you are not wrong there with Flyhawk’s PE for the twin 37mm guns. I went & use Niko  twin 37mm guns for my Königsberg build. Might have a crack at the PE guns during the 21/22 Wet Season for shits & giggles, & see how I go.

[Gisbod]

Evening,

 

I’ve cracked open the PE, there are 8 medium sized frets! I’m doing as much as I can pre painting - can’t all be done due to the wood decks.

 

Enjoying the build very much 😃

 

 

 

Guy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gisbod]

ps I just stumbled across a company called Vee Models on Facebook.. look very nice 1/700 ships. 
 

Anyone know anything about them?

 

thanks,

 

Guy

 

 

[Gisbod]

Morning all,

 

I got a little carried away on the PE yesterday and have broken the back of it. All performed well, although I do struggle with those insanely thin ones that wrap around the funnel. The contact points are literally microscopic and they never really seem to hold. I’ve tried everything- Klear/ superglues etc. I think the thin CA would be best, but it’s next to impossible to apply without coating everything else at the same time!

 

I'm thinking ahead to the rigging and I see some problems. If you use the kit’s plastic masts, then they tend to bend under any pressure. So the lovely brass ones seem great, but… I am worried about them breaking under light pressure from any elastic thread. I’ve used CA gel to attach cross pieces (you can tell I’m not a navy man!) and again, there’s not a lot of contact for it to be really secure. In hindsight, I could have soldered them, but I’m not an expert and would probably have looked like a huge blob under close up photos! Anyone else had this issue?

 

Sticking with the rigging theme, any pearls of wisdom here? It’s been the weak link in the past and I’d like to improve on this. I start with a decently finished model that I’m pleased with, then end up with it covered in blobs of superglue!

 

Anyway, a few more parts to prepare then I’m not a million miles away from the next stage - painting (I like that bit).

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Guy

 

 

ps the ship isn’t quite as far along as the photos show.. the sub sections are just placed at the moment like a pile of Jenga!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by Gisbod

[mick]

great work on the PE

[robgizlu]

Your PE work is always excellent.

As to masts and cross trees - you can use solder paste with a little solder blow torch for very inconspicous welds but in truth I've always super glued.

As you may have read I make big use of "Bobs Buckles" that work for 1/350, perhaps less so for 1/700?

The Infini 20 dernier or uschi super fine lycra is so thin that I feel it places little strain and is appropriate to this scale.

Ckearly others use stetched sprue to great effect that I've never really tried.

 

It's all looking rather marvellous

Rob

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Guy, that's great detailing. I think a dry fit of assemblies as you've done here is a good idea from time to time. Regards, Jeff.

[Gisbod]

4 hours ago, robgizlu said:

 

As to masts and cross trees - you can use solder paste with a little solder blow torch for very inconspicous welds but in truth I've always super glued.

As you may have read I make big use of "Bobs Buckles" that work for 1/350, perhaps less so for 1/700?

The Infini 20 dernier or uschi super fine lycra is so thin that I feel it places little strain and is appropriate to this scale.

Ckearly others use stetched sprue to great effect that I've never really tried.

 

 

Rob

 

 

Thanks Rob, yep, I guess I’ll have to experiment. I did see a thread on the excellent 1/350 old Russian warship (green lower hull, can’t remember the name) with the stretched sprue rigging. Hard to believe that’s possible really! 
 

I think 1/700 is just too small a scale for eyelets. They would look huge. And there’s so much rigging to rig!

 

Thanks Jeff & Mick for looking in..

 

Guy

[Gisbod]

Hi,

 

I thought I’d done the PE but I kept finding bits I’d missed! 
 

 

 

Here’s the Bedlam that is my workbench mid PE…

 

 

 

 

And finally, ready to start painting! 
 

 

 

 

 

Guy

 

[beefy66]

Very neat and tidy PE work Guy but tiny.  

 

Stay Safe

beefy

[Adm Lord De Univers]

Hi Guy, I use some gorilla ca, which comes with a brush, for rigging and 1/700 pe figures. Took some getting used to (few initials blobs) but now got it down to a fine-ish art (brush needs to be almost empty), only problem is that it can be difficult to get into tight gaps. Matt varnish afterwards will hide the v thin layer of shine.

 

I have similar issues with rigging plastic masts and dont trust myself to solder nor trust super glued masts. In the past (when using platic) I used to do one line, then rig 180° from that etc to balance out tension. Rob's suggestion above is what I use now, really fine thread barely puts any tension on parts. Stretched sprue could be another option but I can't get evenly sized strands.

 

David

[Gisbod]

Thanks David,

 

Yes, it’s all a bit tricky regarding rigging and masts in 1/700, I’d really love to master the rigging on this one. Sprue may well be the way to go for any parts that tension on threatens.. I’ll have to do some experiments.

 

Thanks very much for the instructional link to rigging with sprue. Much to ponder on!

 

Guy

[Gisbod]

As per usual, I’m getting carried away again. I find myself looking at 1/200ish kits. Probably just a flight of fancy at the moment, but you never know!

 

Are there any definitive kits? Detail sets? Decks? If you had to build one large model and extras what would it be? If I’m being honest, the Trumpeter ones don’t look any more detailed than FlyHawk in 1/700 scale. That’s probably not so much a reflection on Trumpeter, just how good FlyHawk is.

 

I realise they’re pretty expensive, but I am coming up for retirement and it would be enormous fun! That said, I can always auction it off and get my my money back 😆

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

 

Guy

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

26 minutes ago, Gisbod said:

That said, I can always auction it off and get my my money back

Crikey Guy, be careful what you print. If my wife saw this she might decide to auction ME off and get HER money back. 😁 Although in my case she'd probably be lucky to cover the auction costs. 😁

Only joking. Seriously, she's very supportive of my hobby.

 

And continuing seriously, from what I've seen you do with Bismarck above I've no doubt you'd do a very good job of it. Regards, Jeff.

[Iceman 29]

The Bismarck Trumpeter 1:200 is an excellent model with the different upgrade kits.

It is quite long to assemble, for mine I'm up to 4000 pieces I think.

 

The most beautiful model I've seen is this one, extremely faithful to the original: 

 

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=246667  

 

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/dkm/Bismarck-200-sg/index.htm

 

[Gisbod]

1 hour ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Crikey Guy, be careful what you print. If my wife saw this she might decide to auction ME off and get HER money back. 😁 Although in my case she'd probably be lucky to cover the auction costs. 😁

Only joking. Seriously, she's very supportive of my hobby.

 

And continuing seriously, from what I've seen you do with Bismarck above I've no doubt you'd do a very good job of it. Regards, Jeff.

Ha!

 

Are you sure you’d get the auction costs back Jeff? They’re pretty expensive these days 😆

 

Doesn’t have to be Bismarck, in fact I’d love something RN and a bit different - like HMS Exeter.

 

Are Trumpeter the only show in town? 

[Gisbod]

4 minutes ago, Iceman 29 said:

The Bismarck Trumpeter 1:200 is an excellent model with the different upgrade kits.

It is quite long to assemble, for mine I'm up to 4000 pieces I think.

 

The most beautiful model I've seen is this one, extremely faithful to the original: 

 

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=246667  

 

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/dkm/Bismarck-200-sg/index.htm

 

Ah thanks Pascal, will have a detailed look at that.

 

I wouldn’t have anywhere to keep it, just hope a museum might take it or eBay!

 

Guy

[Adm Lord De Univers]

I'm pretty sure I've seen photos of some fella who built a motorised Graf Spee big enough to fit in. Make it bigger and you got yourself a house boat for summer cruising with the whole family...

 

David

[ArnoldAmbrose]

And with those guns fitted, real or not, who's going to hijack your mooring while you're out cruising? 😁 (Except somebody with more or bigger guns fitted). Regards, Jeff.