KM Gneisenau

The Tamiya kit of the German battlecruiser Gneisenau has been around since the early 1970s but still scrubs up quite well. This ship and her sister Scharnhorst were wicked in the early part of the war, terrorising convoys and sinking the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her two escorts. Gneisenau was badly damaged in an air attack while she was in harbour and was eventually scuttled at the entrance to Gydnia harbour in response to the approaching Soviets.

The Gneisenau is modelled during its participation in the invasion of Norway in 1940. I didn't install the second catapult above the third turret, and the turret tops were painted yellow. I obtained swastika decals and markings for the Arado floatplane.  The hull and superstructure are hand painted with Lifecolor acrylic paints, the deck is sprayed in Tamiya Wood Deck Tan and I used Mig washes on the superstructure and decks. Finished with a spray of matt varnish. Thanks for looking.











Here it is parked next to the May MOM!!!

That's really nice and tidy, and seems like a nice kit to build.

You always do great worj Chris but I think you outdid yourself with this one. It's absolutley super!!!

Excellent work.Looks great in the water.

Beautiful job on the ship and the water effect also is incredible.

Chris, is the Scharnhorst anything like a Grabenhorst ?


  

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

Sam wrote:Chris, is the Scharnhorst anything like a Grabenhorst ?


  

I had to look that up on on wiki to find out what Grabenhorst was. I thought it might have been a sausage LOL.

Top shelf all round- model & the water both.

Cheers,

Chris

webby wrote:Top shelf all round- model & the water both.

Cheers,

Chris

Thanks Chris!

Great work, Chris. Was the photo with the other ships taken before the dio, or is the ship removable from the dio. The group shot looks like a calm port scene.

RetiredMike wrote:Great work, Chris.  Was the photo with the other ships taken before the dio, or is the ship removable from the dio.  The group shot looks like a calm port scene.

Thanks Mike. The group shot is a picture of my German ships on a glass display shelf, the Tamiya paint jar is there to give it scale. The photo does look like still water, didn't occur to me at the time. The water display base is one of a few that I use to take photos.

Great work Chris   

Question, What and how did you make the dio with for the water ??

Have some aircraft carriers to make and would like to make a dio for them like that.

Thanks guys for your kind words.

John, the water is made using medium gel, artists paints and varnish which you can get from an art supply store. I will write a tutorial very soon with some pictures. I will send you a message when I post it.

Outstanding build sir ............... a beautiful replica of a proud survivor of the "Channel Dash" .............. exceptional work   

Nice work coyote, you did really well especially with that horrible (in the kit) combined rear deck.
As always there is a grain of salt: The painting scheme you've chosen doesn't match with the period represented by the kit. Unfortunately Tamiya decided to show ship as it was in mid of 1939, that was not most interesting period in ships history and also painting was not much decorative then ;) (almost full gray). Even worse the kit is inconsistent with itself because there shouldn't be a swastica on front deck in that period.
Main differences against operation "Nordmark" (as your painting) are a mid-sized hangar (shorter then long one added for operation "Cerberus") removed before operation "Nordmark" and an open admirals bridge also rebuild before 1940.

I also don't like way you've mounted front lifeboats - I guess they were moved overboard only when needed, but when cruising they hang over the deck.