by Sgt. Ryan Labieniec, USMC
1/350 DKM Bismarck (Tamiya)
Not my best work, but here she is!
This is my Tamiya Bismarck, it was the last ship needed for my 1/350 WW 2 battleship collection. That being said, I think it is the worst of the Tamiya battleship kits in this scale, details are almost non existant, and the fit of the deck pieces is terrible. I used Model Master and Polyscale acrylics, and the Gold Medal Models Bismarck/Tirpitz set, which as always is a great set and a pleasure to work with and brings much needed details to this kit.
This build was plagued by disaster, first off, after I had installed all of the brass surface details, I Primed the kit with a coat of Tamiya surface primer, which turned out to be defective and filled in alll of the detail on the deck. Luckily the center piece where all of the brass portholes had been installed took the least damage of the 3 deck pieces, and I was able to salvage the center piece. I had to order replacement decks from Tamiya for the bow and stern sections.
Next disaster came when I attempted to paint on the black and white stripes on the superstructure. I masked and painted and covered and tried again 6 different times and each time I was unhappy with the result, I just could not get tye stripes to stay consistant on the various levels of the superstructure. As a Marine, I do not give up or retreat, but I myst say that this camo scheme kicked my A**. So in the end I decided a modified version of her camo scheme would look better than something I saw as an eyesore every time I looked at her.
All I have left to do is add the anchor chain, I ran out on my Yamato and forgot to get more, but I guess I will put this one to bed for now, maybe I'll try to do a better job on Revell's Bismarck once I finish my Nimitz.
