Bismarck, HMV, 1:250

[drg]

Port side upper edge fitted:



Next will be glueing the lower edges to the hull waterline.

[Joe711]

Very precise work!
I admire the meticulousness with which you build.
I see every detail very thoughtful.

Regards, Joe

[drg]

Originally Posted by Joe711

Very precise work!
I admire the meticulousness with which you build.
I see every detail very thoughtful.

Regards, Joe

Thanks very much Joe.

Whenever I try to take short cuts, they never work, and I always see the mistakes.

Since I’ve yet to find glue that is both strong, transparent, and gives a few minutes’ of working time, I check, double-check and check again that there’s nothing more I can do to get the best result I can before brushing on the PVA. At least the stuff I use can be re-dissolvable in water, there is sometimes a second chance, but not with hull pieces the size of this beast.

It takes 10x more time than hoping for the best, but that’s the way I like to build.

Cheers!

[RdK]

Hi there!

Glad you did not give up on the model after the wet glue mishap. Back in Germany I used UHU for paper works. Here in Finland I use CA-gel, but it hardens within few seconds, sometime maybe half a minute, depends on the humidity (it uses humidity from the air to polymerize).

I like your v-shaped cutting technique! It certainly makes a difference! Also the patience put in before glueing any part in its final place certainly pays off! I used to be (and still sometimes am) myself very quick to glue things together only to realize that something was wrong or forgotten...

Great job so far! Keep up the clean work!

Rgds,
Radek

[drg]

Thanks Radek. I used Uhu on the second attempt at the hull/deck joints and it worked very well - I guess it doesn’t soak in to the paper (thus avoiding wrinkling). The issue I have with it, is that it’s very stringy, and fairly thick. I can’t deal with it on anything but very large pieces.

[RdK]

Yes,

Thick glue is not easy to handle on tiny small objects. Did you see Mike's tool to apply small amounts of glue on tiny pieces in his Neptune build?

Here's a link to the post with the tool.

And here's the page with the entry in the thread.

Mike metions to use it only with the white glue but it has a similar viscosity to the UHU, so maybe it works with UHU as well?

Rgds,
Radek

[Royaloakmin]

Glue sticks can work well to do big lay surfaces like decks.

[drg]

Thanks guys. I think UHU for large areas, PVA for smaller stuff, but just accept there's a certain skill to get things right?

[drg]

Continuing with the hull sides which are by far the most difficult bits of paper modelling I’ve done so far. Not only do the camo chevrons have to line up, but they are obviously attached to the bow and stern pieces which must align with various anchor cut-outs:



…and deck cranks. Add into that that the long strips are subtly curved, and must be joined invisibly to get an acceptable result, it’s no wonder several attempts were needed - each one eating into the length of paper I’m working with:





There’s only one ideal position for each piece, so if the adjustments go too far, an entirely new spare piece needs splicing in:



The black upper edge of the waterline didn’t line up on that repair, so I used my son’s drawing pens to add a bit in:



I found Vallejo paint can be mixed to a very good match, and after touching in any white bits, the results aren’t too bad:



The other complication with these sides is that they have a return along the top, which forms the upper ledge of the armour belt. These aren’t perfectly straight, so I came up with taping the strips to make them temporarily straight, which made scoring much easier:



So after multiple goes at temporarily taping all the bits into place, I got a decent result. This is the front half:



The back half is now done, and the plan is to fit the bow and stern sections in isolation, then make the final mid point splice along a camo line, so that the inevitable cutting error can be more easily disguised.

[Tapcho]

Herculean effort by you with the hull. And you keep such high standard with it too. With model that long it must be extra difficult to forsee all implications of your actions along the whole lenght of the structure. I know I have problems to follow both stren and bow simultaneously and my hull is only 30 cm long. :D
When you get to superstructure you get to model clear individual subassemblies and it gets more pleasant, right? Never the less superb work so far.

Tappi