I have never really done anything like this before on a modelling site, that is offer a review.
I consider myself a builder/painter of moderate skill but there is still a lot that I don't know.
Having said all that, I think I can offer some advice if anyone is interested in buying a kit like this.
It would definitely be a 'fixer-upper'.
The box says "authentic scale model" but this statement is a lie. Mostly. It is authentic inasmuch as it is made of plastic. It is scaled to 350 times smaller than normal, so that's ok. But it is not accurate for the Bismarck class of battleship. Once I realized their model was not correctly molded, I gave myself the green light to paint it pretty much how I pleased. In all I think I added some 27 extra parts and painted some 2D detail to enhance what would otherwise be a fairly basic, boring hull.
This kit could probably be made 'watertight' or 'seaworthy' and turned back into the motorized version and that may explain the overall lack of detail. But for those who are interested, the specific faults I corrected were...
Added 2 anchor cables fwd. 2 stairways fwd. 4 sets of ladders for the "anton" and "bruno" turrets. 2 mattress aerials for the fwd radar/range finders. 6 sets of handrails/railings for the bridge superstructure. 1 misc steampipe for decoration. 1 ladder to upper gun/searchlight platform. built a weather bridge. (poorly). Added wires to the aircraft cranes (suspending one of them over the side). added a hangar door (2d drawing). bored a hole into P/S aft to mount 2 extra 3.7 cm AA guns that came with the kit but had no place on the ship...huh. 2 after stairways. 4 sets of ladders for the "caesar" and "dora" turrets (but ran out parts and had to improvise on my improvisation.) Added a vent cover aft, to plug an embarrassing hole (failed seam in the model itself) Added 1 more mattress aerial to the radar/range finder aft. Added 1 more set of links to the after anchor and slung the rest over the starboard side. Added a center propeller out of a 48 scale airplane prop hub, I just cut the blades off. It's not for any reason other than to fool the eye that there is a 3rd prop mounted. Then painted on a few extra hatches and portholes just to spruce things up a little. And hand painted some swastikas fwd and aft just for measure. At the time of this writing I have not yet attempted to attach any rigging but that remains to be seen.
I think I said before, but it bears repeating here. If you are a stickler for accuracy and you *must have* an accurate battleship model of the 'tirpitz', then do not buy this kit. I only went for it because for a 350 scale ship, they only wanted 40$ for it. Not bad I thought. Now I know better.
I consider myself a builder/painter of moderate skill but there is still a lot that I don't know.
Having said all that, I think I can offer some advice if anyone is interested in buying a kit like this.
It would definitely be a 'fixer-upper'.
The box says "authentic scale model" but this statement is a lie. Mostly. It is authentic inasmuch as it is made of plastic. It is scaled to 350 times smaller than normal, so that's ok. But it is not accurate for the Bismarck class of battleship. Once I realized their model was not correctly molded, I gave myself the green light to paint it pretty much how I pleased. In all I think I added some 27 extra parts and painted some 2D detail to enhance what would otherwise be a fairly basic, boring hull.
This kit could probably be made 'watertight' or 'seaworthy' and turned back into the motorized version and that may explain the overall lack of detail. But for those who are interested, the specific faults I corrected were...
Added 2 anchor cables fwd. 2 stairways fwd. 4 sets of ladders for the "anton" and "bruno" turrets. 2 mattress aerials for the fwd radar/range finders. 6 sets of handrails/railings for the bridge superstructure. 1 misc steampipe for decoration. 1 ladder to upper gun/searchlight platform. built a weather bridge. (poorly). Added wires to the aircraft cranes (suspending one of them over the side). added a hangar door (2d drawing). bored a hole into P/S aft to mount 2 extra 3.7 cm AA guns that came with the kit but had no place on the ship...huh. 2 after stairways. 4 sets of ladders for the "caesar" and "dora" turrets (but ran out parts and had to improvise on my improvisation.) Added a vent cover aft, to plug an embarrassing hole (failed seam in the model itself) Added 1 more mattress aerial to the radar/range finder aft. Added 1 more set of links to the after anchor and slung the rest over the starboard side. Added a center propeller out of a 48 scale airplane prop hub, I just cut the blades off. It's not for any reason other than to fool the eye that there is a 3rd prop mounted. Then painted on a few extra hatches and portholes just to spruce things up a little. And hand painted some swastikas fwd and aft just for measure. At the time of this writing I have not yet attempted to attach any rigging but that remains to be seen.
I think I said before, but it bears repeating here. If you are a stickler for accuracy and you *must have* an accurate battleship model of the 'tirpitz', then do not buy this kit. I only went for it because for a 350 scale ship, they only wanted 40$ for it. Not bad I thought. Now I know better.