Book Review: Battleship Bismarck, Garzke, Dulin, Jurens

When this weighty tome arrived I was tremendously excited. Around about A4 portrait size - as tall, roughly, but slightly wider - this handsome hardback, just shy of 500 pages, looks terrific. I'm gradually growing ever more fascinated with war at sea, with a special focus on WWII and the Napoleonic era, i.e. in conjunction with my other main areas of mini-military modelmaking and figure collecting.

My very small WWII naval collection is slowly growing: I have models of Bismarck and a U-Boat, several films, such as Sink The Bismarck, Battle of theAriver Plate, Das Boot, etc, and a number of books, ranging from general histories such as Jonathan Dimbleby's War in the Atlantic, through to more specific titles, such as this handsome new one from Seaforth.

It's interesting to note the involvement of film-maker James Cameron, of Titanic and Avatar fame [1]. His interest in nautical and naval subjects is longstanding: he filmed Bellard's discivery of the Bismarck wreck for National Geographic, and then some years later explored the wreck himself. His research, drawing and many images from this latter expedition are a part of this new work.

Anyway, on to the meat of the issue: the book itself. Well, first off I started this review whilst only part way through the book - at the time of first penning this segment I was at the point where Bismarck, Prinz Eugen and several other vessels are embarking on Operation Rheinübung, heading for the northern Atlantic to engage in commerce raiding.

So far the book has been heavily weighted towards a textual rendering of the history of the Bismarck. And much more besides. The plus side of this is a great deal of detail, not just about the Bismarck, but about naval warfare in WWI, post-/inter-War developments, the Kriegsmarine at large, and even the Royal Navy and beyond. The down side of this is that it can be heavy going, especially when information is repeated.

I estimate that the text could fairly easily have been judiciously trimmed by somewhere around 10-25%, without losing any detail. This would in turn free up more space for more/better pictures. There are lots of photos, many of them of the 1:50 Blohm and Voss shipbuilders' model of Bismarck. But there could - indeed, I think should - have been more from, for example, the Bundesarchiv. 

For example, whilst the text goes into great detail about the building and modifications made (both to Bismarck and many other vessels, British and German), there are very few corresponding images of the building or maintenance of Bismarck. It would also have been nice to have had more use made of builder's plans, of the type that appear in the 'from original drawings' series that Seaforth gave published.

Having made these critical observations, this book remains a fantastic resource, and a beautiful object, clearly the work of men who are both passionate about and deeply knowledgeable on this very interesting subject. I've also now more or less finished reading the vast bulk of the text - and it is, like Bismarck herself, a vast bulk of text! - admittedly skimming through certain parts; probably around 10% of the text was either speed read, or skipped altogether.

With the keel laid down in '36, the incomplete hull launched in '39, and being officially commission in 1940, Bismarck's genesis was far lengthier than her active operational life. This latter, comprising the sole effort of Operation Rheinübung was to last just eight days! So, just over a week of active service, to be followed by nearing eighty years on the seabed. It's an amazing, exciting and tragic tale.

This book has helped deepen my interest in WWII naval history. And as a result of reading it I've subsequently watched several superb documentaries on the subject, ranging from Cameron's film of Ballard's discovery of the wreck (perhaps the best of the docs on the subject I've seen so far?), to Cameron's own exploration of the wreck. It's also caused me to re-watch several movies in WWII at sea, including both Battle of River Plate and Sink The Bismarck. And I'm hoping to find the time to build my Bismarck model over the summer as well. So it's not just been an informative and stimulating read in itself, but has also been the ctatlust for further activity.

For my Amazon review I gave it the full fuve stars, as they font give the option to award half-stars. But here on my own blog I can do half-increments, and have therefore scored this magnificent boom four and a half balkenkreuz. I dock the half star for a variety of reasons, the major ones being that there could and should have been more photographs, in particular of the building of Bismarck. There should also have been more technical/plan type illustrations. And some hardheaded textual editing, removing repeated material in particular, could've created space for this extra visual material.

But this is a stunning book, chock-full of a staggering degree of information, including a good deal of info on and testimony from survivors and adversaries. Not quite the total and thorough history of its subject that I'd anticipated, in receiving it, but nonetheless an exhaustively thorough analysis within its own more limited and largely technical terms of reference. And definitely recommended to those interested in such subjects.

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NOTES:

[1] I've seen the former, but not the latter.

200th Post!!! Airfix 1:72 Blohm & Voss BV 141

I've been holding off my 200th post for a while now, on account of never finishing anything, and having mostly posted war film reviews of late. I wanted to post something figure or model related, and - if possible - I wanted it to be something I'd actually seen through to completion.

Some time ago now - back before yule 2016-17 - and I have no idea why, but, seemingly totally out of the blue, I suddenly remembered and wanted to build the Airfix Blohm and Voss BV141. The brainwave came to me at a happy moment, just when a friend had asked what I'd like for my birthday.

So I suggested this oddity. I ended up ordering it on eBay myself, and my buddy just slipped me the cash. But that was more than fine: either way, I now have the model. Thanks Patrick. You're a pal!

During my research into the plane itself, in an effort to perhaps find useful detail of the cockpit/nacelle interior (on account of this Airfix model being a little deficient in that quarter), I stumbled upon a thread that ultimately lead me to discover - oh the joys of the interconnected web - my childhood hero Tintin, dressed as a Russian soldier, and pictured with a BV 141. Bonkers! The above pic is in fact part of a series of postcards, all of which you can see here, produced as part of the Studio Hergé mission to educate.

This looks like the dab hand of Roy Cross.

In the end, I wound up buying a Valiant Wings title on this 'airframe', as some aeronautical buffs call 'em. Chock full of more detail than any sane modeller ought to need, this enabled me to detail the cockpit to my own satisfaction. I added a cushioned mat for the rear gunner, ammunition cases stacked in dispensers (three of these), a seat on rails for the 'spotter', and sundry other little details.

Scratch-building cockpit interior detail is fun!

I'm pleased; the cockpit no longer looks woefully bare.

RLM 02 cockpit interior base-coat.

And the interior more or less done.

I was agonising over the complex greenhouse of glass, and how to mask it. Ultimately I bought an Eduard masking set from a local online model shop. I also bought some isopropyl alcohol and some Humbrol 'Clear', to clean and shine the cockpit 'glass'. Once this was done, I glued it all in place with wood glue, applied with a cocktail stick.

Prepping the 'glass'.

Which does look pretty transparent. Result.

PVA'd in position.

Oops... unnecessary surgery.

Having done this, I realised I'd made a major balls up, and glued the cockpit nacelle to the left, rather than the right of the engine and fuselage. What's more, I'd butchered the model to do so, in a right huff, thinking it was a design fault in the kit! Sheesh... what an eedjut I can be! Prising it apart and regluing has resulted in a Frankenstein's monster.

Damn... nascelles in the wrong positions...

... required prising apart...

... and re-gluing. Which knocked off all the glass.

I probably should've done a whole load of Milliput filling and filing, some rescribing, and then thought about adding some rivets where I'd worn them away. And then it would simply be a case of finishing construction and getting the paint and decals on. Hmmm!? In the end I did try to do some filling and filing, both with Milliput and some kind of liquid cement/filler stuff. The latter always seems to come out unmixed; all clear medium, and very little 'cement'.

I continued to accumulate error upon error: knocking off, misaligning and having to re-clean/treat the cockpit glass; not neatening up filler sufficiently, or adding it to all the places that needed it; not smoothing away all ejector pin marks, or mould lines; forgetting to add the tail strut (and then breaking it when I belatedly got around to putting it in place!). Hey-ho... this odd warbird has become a project I just need and want to finish, whatever the final state!

Looking nice in wide view...

Close up? Bogger!

I did all this work some while back. A considerable lull then ensued, as more work on home and garden took precedence...

Finally returning to the model, in late August, I base-coated the plane in an automotive grey primer, and started airbrushing the body colours. Before I could do this I had to totally strip and clean my airbrush. Most annoying! It looks like the days of my becoming an airbrush ninja remain a long ways down the road.

As if to underline this point. Once the airbrush was cleaned and back to functioning (it still isn't quite right; I can't do fine lines with it any more... what've I done!?), whilst doing the undercarriage pale blue, some of the Vallejo paint spattered, in largish globules, at the end of one wing - see above - which I tried to blow flat with the airbrush after cleaning it out.

Oooh... I do like the splinter camo' scheme!

I then discovered that despite having several billion Vallejo acrylics, I didn't have the two shades of green needed for the splinter camo'. So it was off to Creative Models in Chatteris for more paints. They're great; really they're an online operation. But they don't seem to mind folk popping in and buying over their counter either. Which suits me. They're even closer than the Ely model shop.

Getting the splinter camo' onto the model felt great, except that I didn't get the razor sharp demarcations I was hoping for from the masking. Still, touched up by hand, and with the landing gear added, I feel she's looking alright.

Masking for the rumpfband.

I saw an example of this aircraft online with one of those bands on the rear fuselage, in yellow. Not sure what they were called, or what they signified, I googled something apt, and learned they're called rumpfband, and that a yellow one signifies Ostfront. Well, I think they look super-cool, and I decided to add one. Yet again my airbrushing and masking skills proved to be rather 'lustlaquer'. After having to wipe off the first attempt, and spray some grey primer on, my second attempt, after some touching up, looks tolerable.

A coat of gloss varnish is applied, prior to decals.

Adding the decals proved to be quite troublesome. The Airfix transfers supplied with the kit are, frankly, pants. The balkenkreuz are the issue, as they have white areas along some of the edges where they shouldn't. And getting them to follow the contours under the wings, where they sit exactly over some protuberances was also a real headache: I tried three different types of decal fixing solution, none of which quite had the desired effect.

And then I found that some of the characters on the underside of the wings needed to be placed over the bomb release racks. I had to laboriously cut letters K and G up, so as to apply them around said bombs racks. And then I had to touch up the white bits of the balkenkreuz. And in this era of P.C. bowdlerisation, there are no swastikas for the tailplane. I found some in another aeroplane kit. Too big, but never mind.

Decal surgery.

All decals are now in situ.

Hard work, but worth it.

There's still more to do, in terms of detailing via painting. After that I'll do a second gloss coat to seal the decals in place; then it's weathering and a final matt coat. After all of that, it'll be time to remove the masking for the canopy glazing... and then, she's done!

I've decided to post this build now anyway, despite not quite having finished yet, just so as to get a post up after so long without anything new. I've got a week away with the mrs, starting tomorrow, and when I get back, the new term starts. But I'm determined to have this finished ASAP, at which point I'll either update this post, or do a pt. II!