Bismarck deck details

[patemm]

Hello everyone,
I've just started building Revell's excellent 1/350 scale Bismarck,which seems to have quite detailed painting instructions, but there are one or two areas that I'm not quite sure about, so wondered if anyone can help?
Firstly, the forward deck area of the bridge and deck above show a kind of "grating" which looks to be dark grey on the photos I have seen, but I've also seen photos of very well - made models that would appear to be a kind of wood colour, so which one is correct? Secondly, the kit instructions have the outer barrel sections of turrets "Bruno" and "Caesar" in light grey. I would be interested to know if anyone can shed any light on these questions, and also possibly where Revell got their information from.
I accept that it might not be possible to build the "Definitive" Bismarck, given all the sources that are available, but I'd like to build the ship in as accurate a scheme as possible, so perhaps some friendly person on this forum might be able to help [Please]?

[paulcadogan]

Hello Patemm,

I'm afraid I can't help with the deck issue, but I might be able to shed some light on the gun barrels.

The gun barrels of Bruno and Caesar were painted to match the colour of the turret tops on Anton and Dora. The tops of the turrets were painted for air recogniton depending on the ship's location. There is a thread in the General Discussion section where this is covered.

Now, based on those discussions, it appears that the turret tops (horizontal section) were yellow inthe Baltic, then painted over in dark grey in Norway and during the run to the Denmark Strait (dark grey) and then re-painted yellow on the approach to France. When the turret tops were yellow, the ends of the gun barrels od B & C that would project over the tops of A & D were also painted yellow. In B&W photographs these would appear light grey. When the tops were dark grey, the superimposed barrels were the same.

See the photo at Gdynia below with yellow barrels:



Here's a photo in Norway with dark grey barrels.



So how you paint your model depends on what particular point in time you want to represent. Take your pick and above all, satisfy yourself! Have fun!

Paul

[patemm]

Thanks for the info, Paul. I think I've decided on the scheme I shall use, and I will post some photos when I [eventually] finish the model.

[rivnut]

Hi, most of the deck areas of the ships that were open to the elements (and where the crew might be expected to spend a lot of time on there feet) were lined with wooden gratings. Usually teak. That would include open bridges etc. Often the interior bridge was lined with the gratings, allowing free water to pool a bit and keep everyones feet dry as possible.

Kevin

[rtwpsom2]

I have seen a a couple photos of Gneisenau, one taken on her commissioning day when hitler was visiting and another later on when she was in service. The first one shows wood decking strips with very wide gaps in between on the bridge deck, while the second one shows the wood grating Rivnut just mentioned. I have a feeling from these that the gratings were placed over the decking strips on capital ship in order for the water to be channeled into drains. Does this sound right? Or were the decking strips merely temporary for until the grates could be delivered?

[The_Ships_Cat]

Hi there. The only thing I can add to this thread is not to get bogged down by details. You might find that there is just too much to do on a ship of that scale. I was doing great at first with mine, I got her at the IPMS Nats on Telford 2008 and gave myself a month to complete her...2009 and she's now in this condition...





I did get bogged down and once bitten etc. So all I can say is you only have to please yourself and if it looks like the Bismarck to you then it is and at the end of the day it is only a bit of plastic and metal.
I just used my trusty Tamiya deck tan and let it streak itself and mixed up my own cellulose spray for the greys, naturally she is only partially painted with a base coat. So in conclusion use your own judgement and what seems to you to be grey go ahead and if you think it might be deck tan then same. After all we are mostly using photograhic interpretation and most if not all have never seen the Bismarck in real life so it's all down to indivduals.
Good luck.
regards,
Fiona.

[hammy]

Hi, most of the deck areas of the ships that were open to the elements (and where the crew might be expected to spend a lot of time on there feet) were lined with wooden gratings. Usually teak. That would include open bridges etc. Often the interior bridge was lined with the gratings, allowing free water to pool a bit and keep everyones feet dry as possible.

Kevin

The gratings were Hardwood , usually Teak , which when weathered goes a pale grey . For modelling purposes I'd use a variant light grey of something you are using elsewhere on the model , because you dont want to buy a potfull for a brushfull .

The purpose of the Gratings is to keep feet out of any rain and spray , but more importantly to stop leather clad feet from chilling through on the steel deckplates as both the footwear and the steel conduct heat away from you .

[Olaf]

Hi all ~ There are several deck surfaces on KM ships, not only Bismarck, and they varied in colour. The main deck and maybe parts of the first superstructure deck (level 01 in US terms) normally was planked with teak. Then, you have the bare steel deck, painted in a dark grey matching RAL 7016 (btw, the same shade that was used for the boot topping). Then, taken Bismarck as an example, you had CRATED and SLATTED wooden panels on the RAL 7016 steel deck. The crated could be found on the open bridges and are said to have been brown in colour (when new and not yet faded, I think Revell's #80 or Humbrol's #62 (Leather) can be fairly good representations). The slatted panels are said to have been in a beige-ish colour, such as Revell's #314 or Humbrol's #71). The slatted panels were besides the Admiral's Bridge (maybe around the smaller rangefinders), on the foretop gallery and maybe some other places, can't remember them all now.

At least, these are the colours I used on my 1/700 PG model, please have a look here, the overall snap half-way down the page.

http://marinewerft.foren-city.de/topic,101,90,-tamiya-1-700-prinz-eugen-update-25-09-09.html

The main deck and parts of the 01 deck in teak, open bridge area in brown crated panels (from the wonderful Flyhawk PE set), the roof of the structure behind the fwd armored conning tower has received the colour for the slatted covers (beige), as well as the small Flak platform on the front of the conning tower and the deck of the foretop gallery. Note the difference between the beige and the 'teak' of the main deck.

Please note that on Bismarck the deck arrangement was different ...

Happy painting ~ Olaf!