The Ship Model Forum

Well it was bound to happen, Im tackling a Scharnhorst. Apparently it is nicknamed Shiny Horse in WoWs community today, which is amusing.

There are plenty of reviews on FH kit, Im sure it is the best effort to date, in full hull. I have just started on the basics, making the hull seams good and adding the deck (not in this pic, but I glued it in - it needs some torpedo mounts to be glued into it before that, so watch that step).


Luckily no 1000 ventilators to add, thank you. My PoW experience scarred me a little bit haha.



Here we go, the camouflages for it will determine the period I build. I think it will be as sunk, 99% sure at least. What Im less sure is how the camouflage paints looked like.



Leon and Asmussen book which is my current reference, seems to lean towards a mix of Norwegian bluish paints and German paints. It implies a blueish bow and tops of turrets and superstructures. Very different to what FH itself suggests.



Same goes for the black line on the bow - was it really black, or just the hull concavity casts such a shaddow there that the spot goes blacker than it is? Im leaning towards not using black there. But that light vermilion bluish white is what Im curious about painting. If anyone has a comment on this, I would appreciate it.


UPDATE: AUGUST 12 2022
Completed model:

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Thanks for the heads-up on the torpedo mounts...sometimes I don’t read instructions
Once i finish up the paint choices for the KGV this is the next model up for me. Hoping some folks chime in on the paint as it seems to be contentious. I have Backer’s book if you ever want an alternative reference.
In terms of the off white color, I chose Citadel’s Corax White for the Tirpitz. You can check out the color in the completed models picture post to see if it’s what you’re looking for.
Chris

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In the shipyard - Trumpeter 1/350 USS Kitty Hawk

I think the off white is a biggest question for me, I dont know but tempted to. Even if very hard to tell it was light blue. I just think of light blue on warship feels bizzare, so cant wrap my head around it. I think all paints were probably some degree of grey, but there were these British ships in northern convoys with blue paint in their camo - so this is totally reasonable Scharnhorst had that blue. Regardless, while good, Leon's book is 10 years old, and in some ways wrong (Tirpitz they think was black and white when it was painted like a tank on starboard side, in green, tan and brown colors).

Beckers book I have, he doesnt have the as sunk camouflage in his book as I dont recall seeing it... He ends with the one in summer, where she had all grey + white ends. That one is not the last one. Strange he omits it, as he has Kostas' ship in his book.

Can you link me the completed picture post you mention on Scharnhorst?

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FWIW - I use Colourcoats "Baltic Hellgruau", which is very, very light. I used that on my 1/350 Tirpitz, and it looks almost white.

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

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Sure thing... http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=308550

The citadel corax white has a definite grey tone to it. All the white you see on my Tirpitz is the corax color.
You remember correct, Becker doesn’t have the last camo. I went thru it this morning to check.

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In the shipyard - Trumpeter 1/350 USS Kitty Hawk

So, I think my goal to build Scharnhorst in same time it took real one is working out well...

I have finally found courage and time to mask the hull and paint it in camouflage.

After lots of back and forth, this is my effort:
- white bow and stern
- black
- medium grey
- dark grey

They are Tamiya boiler plate colors I use for 3 other projects (this is part of a 4 shipped navy Im building, and they should match in a way).

The hull bottom weathering looked great but varnish took it away. I will revisit it later with pigments and some controlled airbrushing.

Still, Im happy with the colors - to my eye it looks somewhat reasonable, if all a bit too clean right now!

Next: upper structures. I will install railings on top of this. I cannot mask the ship well with railings installed, Im pretty sure they will be all bent to hell... But I am aware this is not the best method when it comes to PE and its adhesion. I will pray to strength of White Glue instead...

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So Im now stuck.

Using the latest Scharnhorst book, I dont understand if the highlighted part is white or lighter grey?

What is the consensus?

Turrets are white. The bow is white. Is the structure also white?

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Decided to proceed with white upper parts.

The camo is done. Now I need to do few touchups, lighten few areas as Im not happy with how B turret barbette came out (bit too dark), and then it is off to adding all the PE details. Nice to see though it starting to look properly interesting!

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She looks good! That camo is one of the most interesting schemes applied to any warship during the Second World War.

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Maybe that light gray/white is Schnellboot white...it's about 99% white and 1% black. I agree with Mongooses' Citadel Corax White. It would be a great Schnellboot Weiss, but it's an acrylic for painting figures, and meant to be brushed. I'm not confident about airbrushing it.

I did go for slightly darker white as suggested. I think it came out well now. With this bit behind it is time to start adding all these ladders and railings, a task I do not look forward to!

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I think your interpretation looks very good, although personally I have used grey for this scheme everywhere except the bow/stern and the thin wave on the hull. As you say though, your white is a bit "dark" and your light grey is very light, in fact in some of the pictures it's hard to tell the difference. Which is true of the real thing as well!

I agree with Martin this is one of the best looking camouflages on a WWII capital ship. Great work and looking forward to more.

Vlad do you have pics of your Scharnhorst? Would love to see the link.

I decided to spend the few minutes I had today free for tidying up work. Took care of the turret blastbags painting, tidying the edges of the feathered portions of the camo further and even glued the hangar down as I got tired of it flying around and I figure it is time to start committing glue to plastic.

When lack of progress - post more pictures, right?

a view aft


Top down to show off the deck a little better. I went for very muted deck as Im trying to build less "modeler's model" and rather capture the whole thing truer to scale... So the deck appears flattish.




Side view to appreciate all that camouflage work. After fixing the error yesterday on placement of some of the splotches (below B turret and bit back) - Im much happier with it.


I put a "tarp" over aerial markings. Somehow looks nice. Also no need to censor photographs through post editing. NIce.

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I think the reason for the off white in photos is because the background is white so imagine if the ship was really white, then the ship hull would disappear.
All you would see is port holes and anchors
And anything that is not white. In real life white would work because in that part of world it snows.
Good camo plan.

Beautiful I think it looks great. Since the off white is a topic of conversation I’d say it would show different if your backdrop was black, or blue, or green screen super super build. Would love to see a few close ups!

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In the shipyard - Trumpeter 1/350 USS Kitty Hawk

Thank you, indeed with light it changes a lot.

The build has been on bit of a pause as I moved countries this year and having trouble setting up new work studio for now. But I will get there. I really need to find some days and push through actually as NOT that much is to do and I dont need to make a fancy diorama for it.

Thank you for checking in!

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Have not updated the thread for a bit, here is my latest after a productive week.

Assembled 105mm AA, which has been a bit of a bugbear for me due to very fine parts (I did lose a barrel, but luckily had a spare).

Building up the boat cradles and supports has been a challenge and required a lot of finesse, too much for me.

Radars Im not too proud of, they are in my memory with other kits came together much nicer, but here they seem somewhat exaggerated.

I have glued the guns to the deck, while the rest is still dry fitted in these photos, as I plan to keep weathering the hull further, as by now I did the basic weathering before oils go into play. Just few pigements, pencils and overspray in light diluted grey on the lower hull to set the tone.

Nothing like closeups that let me see where I need to remove washes.

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Eyyyy, he's back at it!



Isn't that the truth.

Making me want to dig my copy of this kit out - was thinking of doing the Paderborn scheme....

I really like the way that yours is turning out.

How did you achieve the canvass covered railings around the upper superstructure?

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Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit.
- Consul Marcus Tullius Cicero

Paderborn is super simple! Youll be much faster with it than me!

I I use super thin CA glue to make my railings covered in canvas. Works a treat.

Thanks very much, I also now notice it has one too many radars on the forward structure. Damn wrong instructions, and I didnt even notice it until I saw someone mention it on IG.

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That's a really clever idea. I was thinking of using the window liquid.

Which radar is surplus? I've buried my relevant references.....

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Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit.
- Consul Marcus Tullius Cicero