Reset on the Bismarck diorama - back to square 2

[White_Wolf]

The Bismarck diorama went from bad to worse, with me making the mistake of continuing along a path that I never really liked. After way too many months of contemplation and procrastination, hoping the issue would just go away by simply swearing at it, I decided to reset things and back to square 2. I want to strip the wooden deck (MK2 aftermarket), which I had stained before, but it went way too dark. That was one issue.
The second issue was the "water" and the whole thing just didn't work out. I tried a lot of spray over the bow, nah, it looked horrible.
These two things led to buy the wooden deck aftermarket only, comes in the right colour, but, of course, I have to remove the old one.

Some work in progress showing all the "water" removed, base covered with aluminium foil again and the bow section clean - all parts removed and cleaned up. Now slowly removing everything from the deck, repainting the black water line, some other minor parts on the hull too. Another mountain to climb, totally self inflicted.

Thanks for watching - btw ... I began building this model back in 2017 .....


Laurence

 

[moon puppy]

That's a bold move, good luck Laurence.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

It happens. Kudos to going through the "fix it" procedure. I know that is really going to be a pain, but as they say no pain, no gain. The good part is that the fixing process you will learn something impressive which will end up being a huge benefit.

 

[paddy]

Oh Wow.....I get where you are coming from, why do we put ourselves through this sort of thing ?

 

[White_Wolf]

Next steps include - fixing various elements attached to the hull, such as the propeller guards, life boats on the deck, chains, ropes. Then correcting some paint issues - after removing the hull from the base as it were, noticed some areas that required corrections.
Had to remove the whole superstructure, which, at the main deck level is made of two massive sections. Would have not been a problem if it wasn't for the rigging. Took me LOTS of time to get it done and don't want to break it. So, had to gently lift both sections (they join where the catapult for the Arados is) and use a flat thingy to put it on.

I don't even want to think yet about how to replace the deck you can see here .... already have a lot of headaches to deal with.

Peeling the old stuff from the main deck is now much easier ...

Using a chisel to do it, works a charm. The glue residue - dish washing liquid and some elbow grease, or some smelly crap that the wife hates.

Thanks for watching and the encouragement.

Laurence

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I don't envy you redoing that deck. I have a couple of 1/200 scale ships and I have seen the wood decks on some builds and it just didn't ever look right to me so I chose to do paint on the Arizona (when I ever get back to it).
I know you will get this all ship shape in no time Laurence.

 

[Rhino]

"Do-Over!" That happens here quite a lot. Have you tried warming the wood deck with a hair dryer? Heat generally aids the separation of adhesives.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Good luck mate - I can't fathom the courage you needed to move forward / backward and redo.....wow. I thought it looked very good but you have to be the one who's happy.

 

[moon puppy]

Holy Cow dude! Sending modeling zen.

 

[White_Wolf]

"Do-Over!" That happens here quite a lot. Have you tried warming the wood deck with a hair dryer? Heat generally aids the separation of adhesives.

I will persist with isopropyl alcohol to get rid of all adhesive residue- works nicely and doesn't smell too bad. I just used a chisel carefully, worked a charm.

 

[White_Wolf]

Good luck mate - I can't fathom the courage you needed to move forward / backward and redo.....wow. I thought it looked very good but you have to be the one who's happy.

Thanks mate, all good. This project started coming close to 8 years ago now. Too long. I hated the idea of using cotton since day 1 but I thought I'd give it a try. Never been happy with the result, the water was also messy, but all this is only my fault. Thanks for the kind words, hope you are doing well down in Vic, been watching silently your builds, magic artistry mate, splendid stuff.

 

[White_Wolf]

Holy Cow dude! Sending modeling zen.

Holy "whole bunch of cows". Thanks MP. Finished peeling off the whole wooden deck, removing every single little piece of plastic or PE on the main deck, trying to preserve them as much as possible. There is a place you can order replacement sprues for this kit, but the one I would have needed is not on offer. Well, if it comes to that, I'll have to scratch some stuff.

 

[White_Wolf]

I don't envy you redoing that deck. I have a couple of 1/200 scale ships and I have seen the wood decks on some builds and it just didn't ever look right to me so I chose to do paint on the Arizona (when I ever get back to it).
I know you will get this all ship shape in no time Laurence.

Thanks Paul. I'll do my best. I like the look of this new deck I bought, it is slightly weathered already. Painted the big red flags bow and stern, Baltic scheme in full, as originally intended. I'll have to give it a matt varnish coat or two, looks too "new", but that's coming soon (I hope).

 

[White_Wolf]

Something interesting in the photo below...

There are two round holes above the waterline, dead center on the stern. Apparently those were to release smoke, to obscure the view of the ship or something. Bit of a strange feature. If you think about it, how easy would have been to have a pin at the bottom of each rudder to keep it in place. Once removed, the whole rudder would have dropped, allowing the ship to move in a straight line, using only the props to steer. Might have helped, but hindsight is always 20-20.

Cheers,

Laurence