by Kieran Griffith
1/384 DKM Bismarck Wreck (Lindberg)
After finding out how inaccurate the Lindberg Bismarck was, I decided to build it as the sunken wreck at the bottom of the ocean as surveyed by Ballard in 1989. The wreck was in suprisingly good condition considering it was 50% deeper then the Titanic, and had been underwater for nearly half a century. The teak deck was still mostly intact and the nazi emblems were just visible at the bow and stern. On sinking the Bismarck had rolled over underwater and the four turrets, held in place by thier own weight, slipped out. The ship then rolled upright and landed on the slope of an underwater mountain causing a massive avalanche, then slid through the mud for a considerable distance.
The kit was easy and fun to build. I used the artist's rendition of the wreck that appeared in the November 1989 Issue of National Geographic as my main reference. After cutting off the bow, I cut the ship down to about the waterlne. I contstructed the damaged parts using some sheet styrene card damaged it with an electric drill, x-acto blades and pliars. I then consructed the main battery wells using plastic pipe. After that I mounted it on a wooden base imbedded in a layer of paper mache to represent the muddy sea-bed. To give it a muddy, rotted away look I painted it with a thick layer of grey Galvenizing Primer. Then I painted in the bow and stern emblems using Finnish air force roundels from the spare decals bag, and painted white and black spots on the sea surface. Finally from a distance of about a meter I sprayed the whole model a coat of light grey/green until the details I had painted in were barely visible. The whole model has the height of a relief painting and I decided to hang it on my wall. It would seem like a bit too much of a waste to build the Bismarck wreck out of the Tamiya 1/350 Kit but the Lindberg kit is ideal for this purpose.
