DKMS Bismarck

The biggest battleship ever to be built in Europe, the Bismarck (named after the German Kaiser Otto Fürst. von Bismarck) is undoubtedly one of the most famous sea-going vessels of the 20th century, despite her short-lived career. Packed with an astounding array of 8 guns, aptly named Anton, Bruno, Caesar and Dora from front to rear, she first saw action on the 24th May 1941 when the British ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Hood tried to stop her from sailing into the Atlantic via the Denmark Strait. After a short battle the HMS Hood was sunk, and the HMS Prince of Wales limped back to port. However, the Royal Navy gave chase and despite eluding contact for 3 days, the Bismarck was spotted on the 26th while enroute for repairs in Brest (France), which signalled the beginning of the end. After a fierce battle, she sank to her final resting place at 10.39am the following morning, with the loss of all but 115 of her crew.

Although severely crippled by a Swordfish torpedo and heavy shelling from the enemy ships, subsequent inspection of the hull proves that she was indeed scuttled by her own crew (as initially claimed by surviving crewmembers) rather than on any direct action of the Royal Navy. Today, the Bismarck rests some 15,700ft (4,785m) below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Brest. In total the British used 65 ships (in)directly in the fight against the mighty Bismarck.

Two halves

Posted on March 18, 2022 by Niek Nijsen

A long silence, that’s all you’ve had from me over the last year on this project. Yes, I’m still working on this model as it’s my “main project” at the moment. Having said that, it’s also the one that’s causing me the most issues and delays. Hence the silence as I’ve been trying to sort out the problems and come up with ideas to make it work. So, I can finally say I think I’ve got it figured out and am ready to present you with another update on the Bismarck!

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My longest model to date

Posted on September 15, 2020 by Niek Nijsen

With the completion of the Horten, it was time to start a new project. With plenty of kits in my stash to choose from, I went with the Bismarck as she’s been in my collection the longest and I wanted to do something other than another plane. It’s been a long time since I worked on my last ship (the U-96 model back in 2014) so it should prove to be an interesting ride.

Straight away I had all of these ideas floating in my head on how to display the finished model. There’s the option of doing it the “standard” way by placing it on top of a wooden base with some studs as if it’s floating above it. You can present it “at sea” by making a seascape for it using various materials (which results in only “half” a vessel being displayed). Or you can go the other extreme way, which is obviously the one I went for. The latter requires you to cut the hull in half (length wise) twice, in which I’ll sandwich a piece of acrylic to act as the sea surface. That way you can still see the whole vessel both above and below the water line. That being said, it also requires the most amount of work to achieve. And boy did it prove to be a lot of work…

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