by Marty Shay
1/570 DKM Scharnhorst (Revell)
The Scharnhorst class ships, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were IMHO two of the sexiest looking ships ever built. John Asmussen has put together what is perhaps THE definitive website on the history of these ships:
http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/index.html
Commonly referred to as “Battlecruisers” they were actually a new concept in warship design. Toppan refers to them as “Light Battleships”. Arguably they were intended primarily as commerce raiders, able to outrun anything they couldn’t outfight. Designed under treaty limitations they were built with high velocity 11” guns. In service and aggressively handled they gave the British Fleet a number of serious headaches early in the war.
Both ships proved able to absorb damage and racked up an impressive combat record. The drawback to the design was that they were bow heavy, very wet ships and they experienced problems in heavy seas. In 1939 an “Atlantic” clipper bow was added which was not entirely successful.
What many people do not know is that Germany had plans to rebuild these ships replacing the 11” armament with 15” turrets similar to those seen in the Bismarck class. WWII came earlier than the German Navy had expected and the planned rebuild did not happen. Gneisenau was heavily damaged by repeated British air attacks and rebuilding started in 1942 but was never completed. Her guns were removed for use as coastal artillery (some still exist!) and the hulk was eventually used as a blockship.
As designed the rebuild would have included replacing the 3 triple 11” turrets with 3 twin 15” turrets, extending the forward hull by 10 meters, changes to the secondary armament and additional anti-aircraft armament.
In researching the model I came across several inconsistencies in the references. My estimate of the added weights came out heavier than the design value and would have required a 15 meter hull extension. I compromised between the two values for a 12 meter hull extension which would bring it to 812LF and roughly 41,000 tons. After I started the model Lawrence (“Lozza 1981”) came up with a reference documenting 814LF so the compromise value isn’t too far off. There are several variations of the secondary layout, I chose the “42a” scheme because it emphasized a stronger AA armament. The bow stretch resulted in a slight “wasp waist” at the “A” turret and a slight bulge below the waterline forward of “A” turret which is supported by some of the drawings but not by others. I chose to leave it in but reduced it. The Camo scheme is based on a photograph of the Gneisenau in Trondheim Fjord during “Operation Juno” June 1940.
The model is a kitbash of the Revell 1/570th scale Scharnhorst kit with many added parts from the Revell 1/570th scale Bismarck kit. The hull extension is made from Balsa, textured Evergreen plastic card and aligned with plastic dowels. Some fittings were added from the parts box. Total cost was $26 for the two kits. The base Scharnhorst kit is decent and built up nicely.
I would like to thank Richard Worth (“Tiornu”), Peter Klein (“SMSWiesbaden”), Bobby Weymouth (“H-44”), MJ Burmaster, Stefano , Werner Stunkel, Lawrence(“Lozza 1981”), Vlad Cimpan, Captain Morgan, and John Ray for some very constructive input and research during the project. Gerry Radice contributed some parts from his parts box. Special thanks to CW for the composite pictures. Other people were very helpful both on the Model Warships forum and on the Warship Projects forum. Thank you all for your time and advice.
You can view more pictures on my website
