by Christoph Mentzel
1/700 DKM heavy cruiser Blücher (HP-model)
The heavy cruiser Blücher was the second ship of the Admiral Hipper class. After completition the ship got a new atlantic bow, a new funnel cap and the enclosed admiralbrigde before she was ready for service in the Kriegsmarine early 1940.
So the ship becomes a part of the Operation "Weserübung".This was the first and last operation the ship ever made. The ship was lost 09.04.1940 at Dröbak (Oslofjord).
Up to now there is only one company which makes all three ships of the Admiral Hipper class in 1/700. HP Models. Two others companies offers the Prinz Eugen in plastic (Tamiya) and in Resin ( Samek). IN my opinion the Samek kit is the best of all!
Unfortuntaley the HP kits are old. These are one of the early kits of that company. I think ten years or older. The best point is that all three kits have the right and differnt hulls of the ships. The bad point is all weapons and smaller parts are useless. The superstructure is o.k but needs a lot of work for more details and rebuilding.
The hull have a problem that the turrets are too close together.
So i have build my kit with a lot of work and new parts.
Weapons:
20.3cm turrets are from Samek, barrels are from NNT, 10.2 a
nd 3.7cm aa guns are from WSW, 20mm guns are from LionRoar.
I also use a Tommodelworks PE set.
The 01 deck over the superstructure are wrong. Admiral Hipper
and Blücher have there a wood planked deck over all instead of the
Prinz Eugen which have only a part with wood.
I have painted my kit with LifeColour 50/51 and yellow turrets deck
for Operation Weserübung.
