Bismark Battleship
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The thing is with this approach, is that if you compare the Space Cruiser Yamato to the real battleship, its 100% different. It isn't as easy as just taking a stock ship kit and adding fins to the tail.
The best Bismarck kit by far is the newish Revell Germany kit. But at over $100 do you want to butcher it up? Tamiya and Academy have some motorized pool toy Bismark kits.
The best Bismarck kit by far is the newish Revell Germany kit. But at over $100 do you want to butcher it up? Tamiya and Academy have some motorized pool toy Bismark kits.
The 1/350Academy and Tamiya are decent kits, but they do show their age a bit. I wouldn't call them toys though. They are impressive when built.
Some good reviews here:
http://www.rollmodels.net/nworkbench/onlinebuild/Bismarck/overview.htm
http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/montesbismark.htm
Some good reviews here:
http://www.rollmodels.net/nworkbench/onlinebuild/Bismarck/overview.htm
http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/montesbismark.htm
The Tamiya kit came out close to 40 years ago and the Academy kit is a copy of the Tamiya kit. Both are/were motorized. Until the new Revell kit came out (before those reviews were written) they were the only way to go for a big Bismarck. But with the Revell offering available, there is no reason to buy the old very toylike kits. The Revell kit even has clear parts for the windows on the motor launches.
Sure there is, if you don't want to spend $100! I agree, the revell is a nice kit, its a very nice kit. But not everyone wants to drop $100 on a kit.
I've seen the Bismarck go for $25 on ebay. And if you were going to kitbash it as the original poster stated, why buy $100 kit to bash it up?
I've got a Tamiya in the stash. It's a nice kit, even for 40 years old. Looks pretty impressive when built. Toss in a photo etch set, and it'll look really nice.
Yes, the reviews were likely written before the Revell kit was out, but for years, the tamiya kit was it, some would say a little under detailed (remedied with a photo etch set), but in all that time, I never heard it called toy like (or mentioned in any of those reviews)
I wouldn't call it toy like, the revell box scale Fletcher...now that's toy like.
it was something that as I watched the History channels show and with the Yamato that sits on top of my T.V. the idea of doing something like the Yamato came to me. I would have to see what the hobby show Lancaster has on stock and what the prices are like. it will be at lest a month before I can go. so for now I'll judt do some thinking about the project.
The problem with that idea is, will they have the Bismark in stick when you get there???? Might want to call ahead first and ask if they have it in stock before you make the trip.
In any case it will pay to shop around since the Tamiya Bismark has a US MSRP the same as the Revell kit... The price on the Tamiya 1/350 kits has crept up in the last few years to be between $99 and $150 for the old motorized kits and $200+ for the new ones.
You can get the nice old Tamiya kit on Amazon brand new, free shipping for $70.
The cheapest I've seen the revell online new in the box is $90
If you shop ebay, you can find the Tamiya 2nd hand (but still new, unbuilt in the box) for as low as $25, heck recently a partially built Bismarck, and unbuilt triptiz sold for about $20!
It all depends on what you want. Want the uber detailed, new kit, and $$ is not an issue, go with the revell.
Want to save some money, and get a kit that fits well, builds relatively easily (although not as detailed as the revell), get the Tamiya.
Want to go dirt cheap, and get a kit to bash into some Sci-fi thing....get the academy, or the lindberg!
I'm never one to discredit old kits, there are some real gems out there....just because it may have a "toy like" feature does not mean its junk...or a toy. There are many cases where the older kits are more accurate (although maybe not as detailed) as the newer kits. For example...the trumpeter USS hornet, nicely detailed kit, but the hull is way off. The old revell box scale kit, although less detailed, is much more accurate in hull shape than the newer more detailed standard scale Trumpeter kit.
The revell Bismarck kit is a gem, but the tamiya still holds up reasonably well, and can be picked up for half the cost if you shop around.
it all depends on what you are looking for.
The cheapest I've seen the revell online new in the box is $90
If you shop ebay, you can find the Tamiya 2nd hand (but still new, unbuilt in the box) for as low as $25, heck recently a partially built Bismarck, and unbuilt triptiz sold for about $20!
It all depends on what you want. Want the uber detailed, new kit, and $$ is not an issue, go with the revell.
Want to save some money, and get a kit that fits well, builds relatively easily (although not as detailed as the revell), get the Tamiya.
Want to go dirt cheap, and get a kit to bash into some Sci-fi thing....get the academy, or the lindberg!
I'm never one to discredit old kits, there are some real gems out there....just because it may have a "toy like" feature does not mean its junk...or a toy. There are many cases where the older kits are more accurate (although maybe not as detailed) as the newer kits. For example...the trumpeter USS hornet, nicely detailed kit, but the hull is way off. The old revell box scale kit, although less detailed, is much more accurate in hull shape than the newer more detailed standard scale Trumpeter kit.
The revell Bismarck kit is a gem, but the tamiya still holds up reasonably well, and can be picked up for half the cost if you shop around.
it all depends on what you are looking for.
the last time I was there (2 weeks ago) I had not even had the idea yet, but I did notice one Bismark model on a shelf. as that shore is the only one for Lancaster with the next one down in Palmdale , I have to go to the Lancaster one for anything I have to get and they as a rule have a good stock of models, they are part of a chain of hobby shops. I'll need to call them, but as it will be the first before I ca go, I'll just try to make a few small drawings for the projuct.
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A guy at our recent IPMS Region 4 show in Dayton had done this very thing: see ship to right of photo below.
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that gives me some idea of what I may hat to do, as you can see in the pic I uploaded there's a lot I have ti think about. the one thing that I would have to work on is how to make the same kind of wings that they used on the Yamato.
Your picture is very small, it's hard to tell what you mean. Perhaps you can get it larger like post #13 from paulhelfrich's picture.
My camera that I use to take photos of my models is a canon A620 and after I have to edit them, the size is less than the 500K limit.
as the photo of the ship was taken with me standing a cross the room, and after editing it, I get what you see.
Here is one that might bea tiny bit bigger.let me know if you can see it better.
as the photo of the ship was taken with me standing a cross the room, and after editing it, I get what you see.
Here is one that might bea tiny bit bigger.let me know if you can see it better.
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