Schlachtschiff ,,Bismarck”
by Jos Visser
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Scale 1/350
Kit: REVELL
kit no. 05040
Revell has issued November 2007
a brand new kit in 1/350 scale of the famous German Bismarck. Was it worth
the wait?
This Quick Look hopes to give you
some information on this kit.
As noted on
this page, TAMIYA has a Bismarck kit in the same scale issued way back
in 1979 (ACADEMY has copied this kit as well).
Unfortunately these kits were not
very good, so Revell saw an opportunity to provide us ship modellers with
a brand new kit, that was announced earlier during 2007.
Starting with the box top, this is a very good painting although the scene with the Prinz Eugen sailing along the Bismarck is probably not realistic.
The Revell kit is what we got used to the latest years, with nice parts well packed in a bit large sturdy box. There are about 650 parts in this kit with almost no flash and no sink marks. There is also a display stand in the kit.
The kit has been made with the less experienced modeller in mind and making the kit very reasonable priced. You will find for example typical "Heller style" solid railings, and replacing those with etched metal railings is in fact really needed to get a much better result. The Revell kit solution keeps the overall kit costs low however.
Revell provides a hull with two
big halves wand the advantage here is that there is very good detail on
these sides. The grills and eyebrowes are there, also at the rear and front
of the model. Eyebrowes are often forgotten by many kit manufacturers,
and those on this kit are well done. Some of the windows are a bit too
oval however.
The ship's deck is very well detailled,
slightly curved and very good deck wood patterns. It is in one piece! The
hatches and anchor details are also very good. The Arado seaplanes have
transparant canopies, but the raised detail on these small planes are a
bit thick. You can set them in an opened or closed hangar.
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The kit instructions have some minor errors. (download instructions from Revell site; PDF file [37MB])
The Arado seaplane sits very high
as suggested in STEP 78; the double guns at STEP 75 and 80 should in fact
not be drawn there. And only Revell colours are indicated.
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The provided decal sheet is nice with a Bismarck Baltic scheme provided. The swastikas are as usual not provided and the kit would benefit when using some air brushing to color it.
There are also some options in the kit such as flak 37 mm guns as used in "Ost See" sea trial voyages, or leaving out the rear anchor as typical in Atlantic operations. The command post areas are well detailed and the armament aiming devices are good. The small boats are fine with small transparant parts, but strangely enough you don't get windows for the main bridge area.
Search lights, cranes and 10,5 cm flaks ( in 2 different versions) look all reasonable as well. The 30 and 15 cm guns look also OK with round barrels, but the blastbags are missing however. The anchor chains are the unusable as well as the railing and FuMo Matrasse. Replacing these with etched metal is really needed.
Looking at the usual Revell instructions you will see that not all parts are needed and even in the sprues you get some extra parts. This suggests that the kit has been designed to be used also for a future "Tirpitz" ship kit. The main change would than be a new sprue for a different second main deck.
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Views courtesy Revell website.
To summarize:
our wait has not been for nothing
and this new kit is very welcome indeed as it is much better than the old
Tamiya kit. And it is well priced as I bought it for about 70 EURO, so
well worth the money. And the kit provides a good start with many opportunities
for super detaillers. Now... what about the suggested Tirpitz.......
Look here to see what can be done with a ship model in this scale...