Scharnhorst and Gneisenau by Steve Backer

Author:Steve Backer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Naval
ISBN: 9781783830374
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing
Published: 2012-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

This and the Heller Scharnhorst have been the models of choice for those modellers wanting a larger model of Scharnhorst or Gneisenau, until the release of the Dragon Scharnhorst. Still, at less than half of the cost of the Dragon version, the Heller kits are at the lower end of the high price spectrum. As a plus, the models can be easily enhanced by a wide variety of after-market parts designed by various manufacturers for these kits. Originally Heller released separate Scharnhorst and Gneisenau kits but in the latest reincarnation, released by Airfix, it is marketed as Scharnhorst/Gneisenau. The Gneisenau kit has a separate sprue for parts specific to that ship and presumably the Heller Scharnhorst has a similar sprue with parts unique to that ship. The Airfix release may provide both ship-specific sprues but since I have not seen the contents, I cannot be certain. The Heller Gneisenau most closely portrays her appearance from the autumn of 1941 to her arrival in Germany following Operation Cerberus. Throughout her raids in the Atlantic Gneisenau had carried a small hangar, which was one of the differences between her and Scharnhorst. While at Brest a longer hangar was added to Gneisenau late in 1941, with the catapult moved inside the hangar to allow catapulting the aircraft directly from the hangar; consequently there was no catapult on top of the hangar. The Gneisenau sprue includes this longer hangar but is in error by having a catapult on top. The kit only has single 20mm guns, so after-market quad 20mm mounts would have to be added, including one on the crown of ‘B’ turret. Hull lines are clean and a degaussing cable is shown on the hull sides and the scuttles (portholes) are easily opened. Deck detail is unspectacular but competent. A plus is a separate breakwater with support brackets. Superstructure portholes need to be drilled, as unlike the hull scuttles that are drilled most of the way through, the superstructure portholes are flat circles. Navigation wings have solid bulwarks, which could represent canvascovered railing but a better approach would be to remove the bulwarks and replace with photo-etch railing. The kit comes with plastic rails, which may have been hightech in 1980 but is obsolete now: don’t use it and go with brass photo-etch instead. The Heller Gneisenau is still a worthy kit for consideration, as it is large and less than half the price of the 1:350 scale Dragon Scharnhorst.

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