Bismarck (1/600); which kit is best?

stukaman · Bismarck (1/600); which kit is best?

I'm thinking of buying/making the Bismarck, either Airfix 1/600 or Revell 1/570.
Which kit would you buy?

viperstickbomb

i've only built airfix ones and they are complete disasters the hull parts dont fit if they do the deck doesnt fit most of the superstructure doesnt fit in fact you could say the entire kit doesnt fit together

if i ever get up and by another bismark it would probably be a revell one although i'd check to see if it's not made of there dreaded green plastic

Flash Flash

I built the 1/570 of Revell and its really good. Everything fits easy and its easy to paint

. Oh and viperstickbomb mine was moulded in a grey plastic

Digs

I've never built the Revell one and it's 30-odd years since I built the Airfix one (!) but the reviews here...

http://www.quuxuum.org/rajens_list/rajen.html#AirfixBismarck

...give a very definite verdict in favour of the Revell one.

Sadly.

Paul

Beaufighter

The Airfix Bismarck is salvageable, I reckon, but the hull needs work (not beamy enough and not needle-nosed enough) and the layout of the stuff on the weather deck is such that you are best off replacing with Evergreen sheet planking. You can then move the upper deck parts around and get, I think a reasonable representation.

There is a website dedicated to Bismarck on which there are nice profile and plan drawings of the ship, which print out in 1/240 scale. Print them at 40% of full size, and you get a 1/600 version, to use as reference for locations etc.

The hull is the biggest issue really - it seems to have been a compromise betwen accuracy versus practicality in the bath!

Brews

If you want 1:600 then you only have one choice. 1:570 is not 1:600.

The Airfix Bismarck is definitely salvageable, but it will take a lot of work. I don't think that the Revell item is perfect either, by the way (not having read the reviews linked above).

I can add that one of my works-in-progress is an Airfix 1:1200 Bismarck, which is scaled down from the 1:600 model. Slice and dice ... move things around, bit of scratchbuilding ... it's coming along. Not a project for the faint-hearted.

Richard Humm

Warspite · Bismark Rev or Airfix

It was one of the first kits I built some 43 yrs ago so I'm determined that when I attempt to build an accurate model in the near future for reasons I not clearly sure of, the Airfix kit will form the base.
I have the revell kit in store and will combining its hull and some of its fittings with the Airfix kit. I have some accurate plans from my extensive library photocopied to 1.600 to use as a guide. I will use the 5.9" turrets from the Revell to convert to a more accurate shape. I have some really excellent 4.1" AA replacements which I purchased from an Australian called Richard Petrie who also sent me a prototype Mk11 which was used on the Tirpitz which was a fantastic piece of casting but I then lost touch with and despite all my efforts remains allusive. If you are out there Richard or any one knows him please get in contact.

orionv

Hi all,to obtein a very accurate airfix bismark the quantity of work is very important.A lot of parts of the airfix Bismark are wrong in shape. You can see my airfix building to have a good example of the work in this forum if you want. Amitiés Rémy

peebeep

Beaufighter

If you were going to be really precise about things, then you would bin most of the Airfix 1/600 kit except some of the upper deck tiers and perhaps some of the boats. The main turrets are about right, kinda, as is the first deck up from the weather deck, and you can use things like the funnel and sections of the above-waterline hull. But the barbettes and most of the deck gear are in the wrong places, and a lot of what's engraved on it either shouldn't be there or should be somewhere else. The armour belt is also well off.

The submerged area around the rudders and screws is particularly, er, imaginative.

I have one in the stash which I waterlined and then something distracted me. A full hull model would be challenging, but you can make something of what there is above the hull.

stukaman

Thanks for the replies.

I had a feeling the Revell might be the better of the 2 kits..... was hoping Airfix would prove me wrong.

Commodore Rob

Personally i would go for the 1/350 scale:)

I am building Tamiya Tirpitz in that scale at the momement and although it needs some work its fun.

kitkiddie

Here is what SMLL has to say about the Bismarck & Tirpitz kits

"Airfix Tirpitz (DKM BB) [1/600] (WW2) Full Hull

Series 4, 1967; No of parts: 170+2; Guns elevate: yes; 1 aircraft included.

Detail: low - Appearance: bad.

POOR. This is the Bismarck model with two torpedo-tubes added, no other changes
------------------------------------------------------------------
Airfix Bismarck (DKM BB) [1/600] {4204} (WW2) Full Hull

Series 4, 1962; No of parts: 170; Guns elevate: yes; 1 aircraft included.

Detail is low. Appearance: bad.

POOR. This is a real challenge for the one who wants to correct details. The armour belt is too low, the water line is too low, all decks are wrongly shaped, the deck details are missing. The 38 cm turrets are wrongly placed, terrible anchors & rudders and so on. Still a quite impressive kit when you are a kid and don't care about such details"
-----------------------------------------

Keiron

BAC

DavidH

The last time that I tried an Airfix 1/600th Bismarck, I tried a wreck diorama based on the pictures in Ballard's book from the early 90's. Burying a lot of the hull in the seabed and taking off a lot of the details seemed a good way to hide some of the problems. It was coming along quite nicely, but sadly never got finished.

kitkiddie

It's still a ropey kit no matter how well it goes together or how well you build it.

This one is the JE-J of Airfix's ship range and should be gracefully retired!

Revell's 1/350 scale version shows how it should be done these days. It also shows that the market cannot have too many Bismarcks!

Perhaps Hornby might like to go for a revamp and give us a 1/600 Bismarck we can be proud of.

Keiron

DJBlackburn

One kit that many modelers are unaware of--well, actually TWO kits, one is Bismarck the other is Tirpitz but they are basically the same contents under two different box covers--is the 1977 vintage Monogram kit.

Like the Revell kit, it is not precisely 1:600 scale but is quite close, the numbers actually crunching to indicate a true scale of around 1:619. Its biggest advantage over the Airfix and Revell kits however, is its accuracy of hull lines, particularly at the bow. It is much closer to "anatomically correct" than either of its near-scale counterparts.

As with most styrene-injection kit models, it does not stand up equally well in all areas, falling short most noticeably in grossly overscale moulded deck planking, and certain armament parts are not quite to proper dimension and shape.

In my opinion though, the accurate hull lines trump these lesser concerns. Keeping in mind the kit's late-1970s pedigree, it cannot compare to the excellent DML Premium Edition or Revell's new 1:350 kit, but then again these are significantly different scales that diehard 1:600 devotées like me won't accede to.

The kit's slight underscaling is moderately difficult but not impossible to "adjust", with judicious placement of plasticard and knowing where to add length and width increases. I have generally found it easier to "fill out" an undersize kit than to shrink an oversize one, especially with respect to the hull form.

The hull, incidentally, is mostly a one-piece affair. Except for the separate forefoot/bulbous bow, the entire hull is moulded in reasonably thick and good quality styrene as one homogenous part. This has definite advantages when lengthening of the hull is undertaken ( to "pull" it out to 251m scale length) but of course, is problematic for adding width.

Without going into great detail, suffice it to say the hull can be effectively widened without having to kipper it along its axis, and a new upperdeck constructed from cardstock with a V-groove overlay of Evergreen N-scale car siding.

For those willing to tolerate a bit of incontinuity of scale, the kit can be built straight from the box with only minor added corrective work. At 1:619, it is less off-scale than the Revell kit (which isn't actually 1:570 in several areas, anyway) and is much better proportioned all-round than either that kit or its Airfix counterpart.

These Monogram kits are still available rather frequently on the used kit market and from eBay, sometimes at very attractive prices.

Bismarck (1/600); which kit is best?

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