Incredible work Michael!! Fantastic detail popping all over this!!

And the guns painted, weathered and mounted on the deck .... :















And some pictures of the ship as it looks like at the moment ...
















Next steps.... the search lights.... then all the small ships ....

Cheers

Michael

Michael,

Incredible work. The single mounts look pretty cool. Overall just incredible.

Dave

Fantastic work Michael, just absolutely incredible. I simply can't stop looking at your pictures....

Stunning!!

Cheers,

Jan

The Detail keeps on popping up everywhere. Truly incredible.....Cheers mark

Outstanding Michael,

The light AA are like little jewels.

In place they look so good.

Great build.

Cheers.

Si

*** UPDATE ***

Next step... the small boats. The hull from the trumpeter kit is the only part which is used. All the other parts are made of photoetched parts from the pontos kit ....

The first two ...





Cheers

Micha

Here again, just fantastic work. It's just great to see how you are paying attention to every detail, be it on the big ship or on it's small boats.

Just great!!

Cheers,

Jan

*** UPDATE ***

All the small boats….. the hull is from the trumpeter kit…. All the rest is made of Pontos PE-parts…. Next step – painting (primer in black, then hull in grey, lower part in black, upper part in brown), then weathering, details, and glasses for the windows….










And the first of the Arados 196. The hull and the wings are resin parts from CMK which have much better surface details. The cockpit is milled out and the cockpit, made of pe-parts by Pontos installed. The floats, the en gine and the propeller are plastic parts. The cockpit will receive a frame with glasses later …..









Cheers

Michael

The launches look fantastic Michael! As does the wingy!! Keep it coming!!

Working on the paint of the boats now ....

The boats and the Arado look splendid Michael,

Loads of detail.

looking forward to seeing them painted.

Si

Impressive build Michael, looks fantastic

*** UPDATE ***







(Still missing the weathering on the canvas)



Now the boats are glued on their positions. Once dry I will add some tape, cutted in thin stripes which hold the boats in their places....














The searchlights.... clear parts, painted in silver from their outside, then black primer, then grey painted. A weathering is still missing, following these days...





Cheers
Micha

*** UPDATE ***

The Arado 196. I will add two airplanes visible on the Bismarck. One witl folded wings, half way out of the hangar, the second one with stretched wings on the catapult. The folded one is consisting of hull and wings by CMK, resin parts. The cockpit is cut open and etched parts of Pontos installed, also the rest of the airplane received several etched parts.
The second one is consisting of the Trumpeter body and wings, also with cockpit and other parts by Pontos.

For the one on the catapult I built the wageon with brass and etched parts by Pontos. The one with folded wings will receive two small "wagons" to roll it out of the hangar.

















Next step - black primer, then painting of the airplanes ...

Cheers
Micha

Wow Michael,

those are again excellent updates - I missed your last one, sorry...

I absolutely love your pictures of the ship with your boats installed and your fantastic details...just amazing work!

And Arados with PE cockpits - just stunning. And all is coming together as one great model. Fantastic work!

Cheers,
Jan

Very delicate work on the boats and the Arados.

Great build

Si

*** UPDATE ***

The two airplanes type Arado 196, which will be displayed on the deck of the Bismarck are finished now. The painting started with a layer of black primer, followed by airbrush painting in light blue for the downside, then a dark green for the upper side. The dark grey color is brush painted as well as the light green in the cockpits, which also received dark brown seats, black details. The propellers are black with silver dry brushing and a red nose. Two red dots at the swimmers and some light beige color at the folded wings complete the painting.
A layer of black oil color washing shows the wonderful details of the small airplanes, then the markings follow (dry decals) followed by a layer of matt clear coat. The cockpit frame is consisting of three etched parts, painted and glued on the cockpit. The Arado with the folded wings received an open cockpit. Finally, the frame receives some “glasses” made of Micro Crystal Clear.














Next Stepp… we start the rigging!
Before adding all details on the main deck I will make the full rigging. The center part of the Bismarck is mostly done, so it would be much more easy to make the rigging now before adding all the stuff on the main deck, which would be in the way if doing the rigging later.

Firstly I started with the most thrilling step…. The antennas with the small triangles… 8 pieces…. Pontos is providing these triangles as etched parts which are very (!!) helpful. I thought about rigging these before gluing to the masts, but decided to start in a different way. I glued all the triangles to the masts in their later positions. First added a cord to specify the correct angle and direction, then built a big holder with Lego Technic which will hold the triangles in their correct position till the super glue is fix…. Works perfect so far.
The rigging will follow next with EZ Line.







Cheers
Michael

Michael,

once and again fantastic work that leaves me almost speechless - if I would not know your Arados are i 1/200 scale I would not believe it...you could do a build log for them alone on the wings-things site

Cool idea with Lego Technik - I used to have lots of that for myself, but sold it years ago - never imagined it could come in handy with my modeling hobby.

Looking forward to see your rigging - the Pontos parts look kind of fragile anyway...really curious to see how you attach the EZ-line to them...

Fantastic work, I love it!!

Cheers,
Jan

The Arados look great Michael,

Love the jig for the rigging.

Si

Micheal,

What everyone else said, just amazing work. From the big to the small items everything looks amazing.

Really like the ingenuity of the jig, gives me some ideas when it comes to rigging my ships.

Look forward to seeing more.

Dave

Some more beautiful work Michael! Nice idea with the jig! Bring on that rigging!

I have got to get some of that Lego! I use the regular Lego for all sorts of jigs but that stuff opens up whole new possibilities. Thanks for sharing it!

*** UPDATE ***

The rigging is mostly done. I used EZ-Line in two different sizes. I worked with plans of the Kagero book "Bismarck in 3D", as well with further pictures of this book, some original photos of Bismarck and Tirpitz, some photos of other models, and so on. I know that it is not fully complete, it will not be 100% correct.























Next steps... doing the detailing of the main deck. Anchors. Boats. Railings. Flags. ...

But for now.... now I want to wish you and your familiys a MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS. Enjoy the holiday season with your loved family! Also thank you very much for your interest in watching this project!

Cheers
Michael

The rigging is a real spiders web, and I have that to do in 1/350th.

Great job Michael, really enjoying this build thread.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and looking forward to seeing more progress on the new year.

All the best

Si