Man Cave Modeler presents. . .

Bismarck Class Battleships


This page & the tirpitz still under construction

The Ships
DKM Bismarck & DKM Tirpitz

 


DKM Bismarck

Considering the short but spectaular career of this ship, there are relatively few paint schemes to choose from, so I decided to go for the full baltic stripes and the dark turret tops but I failed miserably masking off the conning tower so I stuck with the Hull stripes .

 

DKM Tirpitz

Tirpitz on the other hand had a much longer career (although with little combat action) with numerous camouflage schemes while based in Norway. I decided to go with the Early 1943 splinter camouflage with the Orange turret tops just to add a little color.

 
This will be an interesting project for me, I will be building both ships simultaneously and displaying them together on the same base.
The kits are both from Dragon, and I was fortunate enough to get the last two WEM photo etch sets from my local hobby shop along with brass barrels Master Model and brass masts sets from Fly Hawk

Now comes the research, and the first stop for anyone modeling the Kriegsmarine should be http://www.bismarck-class.dk and John Asmussen's camouflage schemes


Next Stop was the Bundesarchiv (bild 193) where there are many great shots of the class for those who like to enhance the detail in their ships

Build Notes & Photos
Hull Painting
Tirpitz
The small scale makes painting Tirpitz' 42/43 splinter pattern difficult, I started with the White at the bow and stern, followed by the light blue-grey and dark blue-gray 		Bismarck
Pretty straight forward, Schwarzgrau bow and stern followed by medium gray hull. I've masked off the false bow and stern waves and the baltic recognition stripes, and will decide later if I'm going to paint them on the superstructure as well as the hull or do I paint them over so they show faintly underneath the topcoat

Bismarck's Turrets,
(the barrels were straightened before they were painted)

 

Products used in the construction

Dragon Models
7125   Sink The Bismarck May 1941
7081   Battleship Tirpitz Premium Edition

White Ensign Models
Bismark/Tirpits photo etch set

Master Models
Bismark/Tirpits Gun Barrel Sets

Flyhawk
Metal Mast sets for each ship

Photoetch sets for doors, hatches and reels from Tom's Modelworks and White Ensign Models

Research materials,
Battleships of the Bismarck Class, Gerhardt Koop
Kreigsmarine, Robert C Stern
And of course... The Internet

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Last Updated September 1, 2017