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Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:57 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
Hi guys!

Today I went to the house of one remarkable man that is part of this very forum. His contact name is Kapitän Hans and he joined this very month.

A former merchant captain of 100,000 ton tankers and innovative businness man he now lives in peacefull town of Grecia, Costa Rica. And today he show me what I never believed I would ever see in my country:

1. A 1:200 Yamato. Beautiful model of the most powerfull Battleship ever built. But when you turn your head to see what else Hans have at display then this superb model became small. He have a...

2. A 1:100 Von Der Tan. Indefatigable nemesis in awesome detail. Photo etch part done by himself, RC controlled. It was one sight! But when you think that´s all he shows you a 90% completed behemoth:

3. A 1:100 Bismarck (2.51 meters long). 77 RC functions. An awesome sight! 180 light bulbs in her interior shows you the bridge, the hangars; the rotating fire directors, the turrets (all of them)rotating whilst smokle spurs out of the stack. I have never seen such detail. Even the ship clock is displayed with the hour when Bismarck sent it´s last message to Germany.

The link for giving a "just" a glance to this Bismarck is the following:

http://forum-marinearchiv.de/smf/index. ... 372.0.html

But those are just photos. The true lover of these ships must see them and, as I, touch them. I highly recommend to specialized model makers to visit the link and contact Hans.

Very best regards,

Karl

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:54 am
by Bgile
Well, I followed the link but I can't read German and didn't see any photos. :(

It sounds wonderful!

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:22 pm
by José M. Rico
Steve, I think you have to be registered in that forum in order to see the photos.

I will be posting some that Karl send to me.

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Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:25 pm
by José M. Rico
Bismarck 1/100

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Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:27 pm
by José M. Rico
Von der Tan 1/100

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Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:43 pm
by Bgile
Thank you so much, Jose! Those are simply awe inspiring. I hope they end up in a big museum some day.

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:57 pm
by Kapitän Hans
Hi Karl

Thank you for the nice write up.

unfortunately the link does not show the pictures, I must talk to the German Forum administrator.

pictures are only shown to registered members I don't know why.
For those who are really intersted send me a private message with your e-mail address and I will send you pictures.

Will talk to our administrator to open up the link.

By the way the model of the Bismarck consists of 36 000 parts, all details I made myself .
The basic construction is a kit from a very small model company in Germany. (approx. 3000 Euros)
The kit is very comprehensive with only minor flaws.
The owner does not speak English, but if you are intersted I can help you.

best regards

Kapitän Hans

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:01 am
by RF
There are some very nice photos of these two ships here, thanks for posting them.

Looking at Von Der Tann, the unusual turret arrangement really does look bizarre. Centre line is a lot better and it is surprising that the designers of these WW1 ships didn't see this earlier.
Another aspect of these class of ships were that some of them were not stationed in German colonial waters, as another oddity was that Germany had a big navy, substantial colonial empire but very little naval power based in its colonies. Von Spee would have been in a much stronger position if he had Von Der Tann in company with Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The Battle of the Falklands would have been more interesting if Invincible and Inflexible had these three ships to contend with....

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 5:39 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
RF:

About the odd arragement of turrets I made that same comment to Hans. I imagine that at those times they were testing many things. About the colonial presence yes, it´s odd but not ilogical. Germany had their fleet ready almost on time for WWI and were expecting Der Tag, so, why dispersion of power if it would be needed as a whole unit soon?

Best regards.

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:47 pm
by lwd
How much of a support struture did Germany have in it's colonies. That's one of the things that's often overlooked for the British was their world wide logistics capability of the time. I'm not sure that GErmany had much in the way of coaling stations or reserves in the colonies. This would not only make it hard to support them there if they didn't have the range to make it home once a war started it could be a bit worse than embarassing.

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:07 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
Well, lwd, the British had their empire for a couple of centuries, at least, so they had plenty of time to build such a structure. Germany became an unified nation until 1871 (after kicking some Versallian butts around). So, in reality the Germans did accomplish incredible feats in just some 43 years, having into account that when the Empire was born they didn´t had any possesion.
Anyway, it wasn´t the Germans that ones that attempted to seize Gallipoli...

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:54 pm
by lwd
My point was if you design your ships with the North Sea in mind stationing them in the Pacfic may be a problem. A good North Sea design simply won't have the range to be all that usefull in the Pacific especially if you don't have a decent network of coaling stations. As you say Britain had the time, wealth, and incentive to do so. Germany's colonies were for the most part after thoughts (even if the Kaiser was big on them). The way your reply was worded I took it as implying that my reply was critical of the German efforts. Far from being critical in this regard there designs and dispositons seam very reasonable.

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:18 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
OK. Point taken.

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 8:20 pm
by Karl Heidenreich
lwd:

As a matter of fact the Germans had all their WWI ships running on coal instead of oil. Obviously from the lack of supply they expected when hostilities were broken. Thinking about it that was the reason Spee went to the bottom of the sea with his ships: he was looking for coal.

Best regards

Re: Awesome 1:100 Bismarck & Von der Tan model

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 11:20 pm
by Legend
:clap: I must say the detail on those is absolutely amazing!!! One can only imagine the hours spent on that...