RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

The original Bismarck Engineering model still exist and is displayed at the builders office. 1/50 scale.

http://www.bismarck-class.dk/shipmodels ... voss1.html

whilst you are on about guns,and the accuracy of certain weapons as opposed to others....i prefer this myself....i made it out of a big chunk of seasoned English oak,..the barrel measures 40in ...and it is made of oak...with a 49.5mm steel scaffold tube down the centre, the bore is 41.5mm ..which is just perfect for the bucket load of 41mm golf balls that i,ve got....the propellant..can only be purchased around guy fawkes night or christmas ..the limber is also made of oak, and the wheels have steel bands ..just like a real one....the coffee mug...shows you how big this is....it would make a great signal cannon....maybe i should advertise it on here..for a swap...

Earwig, that's a mighty fine cannon.

I know almost nothing about ships' guns of that period so tell us if it's based on the real thing (and what it is).

My dad (who is now in his 80s) built a much smaller gun like this when he was a lad. Still has it. It has the ramrod and everything. The barrel was turned on a lathe and it was made to fire ball bearings (the REAL bb's).

When my brother and I were young he tried to get some gun powder to fire it for us. It was the 70's and the IRA bombings were at their height in and around London. It was not a good time to walk into a gun shop (in Guildford!) and ask for shot gun cartridges without a licence...

Earwig, The link I listed contains many builds in a variety of scales, several excellent Museum quality builders belong and have scratch built 128 scale German warship of the Bismarck Class. I have long been a Navel builder including the Napoleonic Wars era and age of sail.

Your Bismarck is a fine, fine example, the sight may be of some value in your efforts to restore / complete the ship to Historically accurate condition.
There is a new book available titled "BISMARCK PRIDE OF THE GERMAN NAVY" which has received good reviews from the site as well. Might be useful for you. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/index.html
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/shipmodels ... voss1.html
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/shipmodels ... voss2.html
Also the sites detailed photo shoot of the builders model, very helpful for the smalles features of the ship.

Regards
Blake

Hi Blake,
thankyou for the links,..I too have this great love affair of German Warships,..which for me were the best of their time,...this one that i have,..is a very good looking model,..however it is not what i would call a Purists model,...it has some faults,...but..i am not a Purist,and i will lve with the way it looks,....when this model is 20ft from the shore,..it loooks the biz and sails very well,....I will post pics of her when I next take her to the pond,...my other big ship is the Scharnhorst,..same scale,...and she too sails very well,....
now to the cannon,..this particular model is styled on a Culverin...which was a 16/17th century long barreled, small bore cannon,...designed for long range,....i got the idea of making a working wooden cannon,after stumbling upon a site in Texas that makes ornamental wooden cannons,..full sze one,s, ..that are very expensive,but..they don,t fire,...I wanted one that could fire,...the barrel of the one above, started out as a 40in x 6in square piece of seasoned oak,..which was then cut length wise in half,..then both sawn surfaces were planed ..then a router was used to remove a 2in x 1in channel in the middle of both halves,..then a 49.5mm scaffold tube that had been plugged at one end was inserted in the channel, and both halves were glued together,using polyurethane glue,...then afterwards the wood was turned on a 52in lathe,....the carriage,was also made of oak, to a plan that was downloaded from the net,....afterwards,...and it was by chance,i discovered that, an old measure golf ball, was a perfect fit for the scaffold tube,...the internal dia of the tube is 41.5mm ..making the outside thickness 4mm all round,...the golf ball has a dia of 41mm...which made it a perfect fit,

I think that ship is truly beautiful , if that's what you call a weapon of war! Perhaps you can put me right? Somewhere I read that the German navy's Pocket battleships because they were designed as surface raiders and not for mixing it with other fighting ships, the main turrets were linked, so that when the target was in range they all came under a master gunner controller and fired as a linked battery, this was given as the reason why the Graf Spree was so badly damaged by what was considered an inferior force, The lighter Cruiser's attacking her from both sides at once, a tactic to which she had no answer except to try to destroy one cruiser then turn upon the other. If it is true it displays a very short sighted view on naval warfare by the people who commissioned that class of vessel. Someone must know? Oh and in the words of PAINLESS WOLF more pictures please. shaun

After the 1st world War,...at the treaty of Versailles..the Germans were limited to building Battleships up to 10,000 tons,....so...the Germans designed the "Pocket Battleship"....they sacrificed armour for speed,....and created the lone raider,...and the Graf Spee was the first,.....it was never made for a head to head battle with the British warships....i,m of the opinion that had the Germans adopted a different mentality...as to how they deployed their surface ships,...i.e. lots of theirs against lots of ours...then the outcome would have been a lot different....but as it was...they never took torpedo carrying planes into account....

more pics

Nice looking Bismark