Calling all Kriegsmarine Light Cruiser fans

[Antonio Bonomi]

Hello everybody,

for the interested modelers of Kriegsmarine light cruisers of the Leipzig and K�nigsberg classes plus Emden:

- Emden, K�nigsberg, Karlsruhe. K�ln, Leipzig and N�rnberg.

Bye Antonio

[Seasick]

I have the Samek 1/700 Leipzig in my collection. Its an older build and rather clean looking with sparse detail.

Does anyone make the K-class in 1/700? The arrangement of the aft 15cm is really odd looking and didn't prove satisfactory in service, as I seem to recall.

[Redbandit]

Hey folks

I see that this thread is far too small in comparison to the all the other threads, these ships deserve better!!

I was wondering if any of these light cruisers are avaliable in plastic/resin kits in 1/350 ?

I know that plans exists for Leipzig and Karlsruhe, but am not a seasoned scratchbuilder, even less in 1/350.

If anybody has a clue, i would be overjoyed to hear about it

[Seasick]

The Samek 1/700 DKM CL Leipzig is in the foreground and the 10+ year later USS Miami CL-89 is in the background.



It was the second resin kit I had ever built and I didn't even attempt to add much detail.

[Mike W]

I have the Samek 1/700 Leipzig in my collection. Its an older build and rather clean looking with sparse detail.

Does anyone make the K-class in 1/700? The arrangement of the aft 15cm is really odd looking and didn't prove satisfactory in service, as I seem to recall.

I have a 1/700 Samek Konigsberg - the kit represents it as built. I'm sure WSW do Karlsruhe and HP Models might do all 3.

thanks
Mike

[Mike W]

This is a bit of a long shot but did Leipzig have wooden decks?

The Samek kit does not depict the planking and I know that Konigsberg did not have wooden decks but other cruisers did. I suspect Samek might have got this wrong, unless anyone knows better.

thanks
Mike

[MartinJQuinn]

Was the main armament carried by the Emden the same as that carried by the Kriegsmarine destroyers?

[MartinJQuinn]

Thanks David. I should have been more specific - I meant the type and caliber of gun, not the number.

I have an HP Emden in the stash that I've been puttering around with while stuff on the Z-17 dries. I noticed that the main armament is depicted as a solid gunhouse, and not open in the back. If the gun houses on the DDs were the same, I was thiking of pirating them from a one of the new 700 scale German DD's and mounting them on Emden.

[Terry Pottle]

A good German book about the Light Cruisers has been published in english
Details about the ships are good, camouflage is also given

German Light Cruisers of World War II (Paperback)
By Gerhard Koop, Klaus- Peter Schmolke
Seaforth Publishing
Pages: 223
ISBN: 9781848321946
Published: 22nd July 2014

Photos in the German edition show them to have wooden decks.

Also Okretow Wojennych:
22 & 23 - Koenigsberg, Joeln & Karlsruhe
41 - Leipzig

Good plans/photos, but probably difficult to find

[MartinJQuinn]

Barnes and Noble shows it as a pre-order, being released this month.

[steviecee]

for Emden fans for sale on evil bay no I'm not the seller
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Foto-Kriegsschi ... 486c5734dd

[MartinJQuinn]

Going back to the main armament question, I looked it up:

Emden had 5.9 inch guns

The Zerst�rer 1936A "Narvik" and Zerst�rer 1936A (Mob) classes had 5.9 inch guns. The Zerst�rer 1936B went back to 5 inch guns that the earlier classes had.

Looking at photos, the gun houses look similar, enough so that I could probably pirate the guns from the Trumpeter 1936A kits and use them. Of course, I'd have to buy two kits and use up the all guns...kind of an expensive way to upgrade!

[GazzaS]

These guns are apples and oranges, really.

If you're doing an early Emden, you could steal the secondary from a German capital of WWI. The shield and mount would be like those on Brummer and Bremse. There is an example in Scotland.
It is approx. 18 inches shorter than the Zerstorer gun. Also, it is stepped differently. Waaayyy differently. The breeches are different as well. A slender cylinder with horizontal wedge vs. a huge square breech with a vertical sliding wedge.

For the refitted version you could use the single mounts from either Spee or Scharnhorst. This weapon is approx. 40 inches longer than the Zerstorer gun. This barrel is readily available in brass.

Hope this is helpful. Might save you buying some zerstorers.

[MartinJQuinn]

That's good to know, thanks. The guns that come with the HP kit are solid blobs, so even the Zerstorer guns would look probably look "better", but this is an even better option:

For the refitted version you could use the single mounts from either Spee or Scharnhorst. This weapon is approx. 40 inches longer than the Zerstorer gun. This barrel is readily available in brass.

Emden (which is the late war version, BTW) is on the back burner (again), so I can think on this for awhile.

[steviecee]

Some pictures of the Koln are for sale on E-bay. they might be of interest since Flyhawk has said they they will put out a Koln. I have no relationship with the seller tho I have bought from him
http://www.ebay.com/sch/koelsch333/m.ht ... _PrefLoc=2

[MartinJQuinn]

In between other projects, I've been puttering around with the HP 1944 Emden again. I am looking for drawings, or photos, of the area circled on the kit instructions. I'm trying to figure out what this structure actually looked like. Most of what I've found online is pre-war, and not close up. I bought the Koop and Schmolke book, but it doesn't have much late war information.

I found this CAD drawing of Emden online (it is one of 7), but they are for some sort of game, so I have no idea if they are accurate...even if they are pretty.

Overall, the HP kit is rather dreadful, but I'd like to finish it, rather than step on it.

[MartinJQuinn]

check this link tho it says 1925, the drawings supposedly is 1944-45.
http://dreadnoughtproject.org/plans/KM_Emden_1925/

Awesome. Thanks David.

[Haijun watcher]

I am surprised that the new 1/700 Flyhawk Konigsberg has not been mentioned on this thread, considering it was mentioned in at least two other threads.

Perhaps the moderator could please modify the first post of this thread to list the Flyhawk kit as well?

Scalemates Review: Flyhawk Konigsberg kit

Also, does anyone know how much work it would take to modify a Flyhawk Konigsberg into her second sister ship Karlsruhe? Both escorted the same invasion convoy during the invasion of Norway in 1940.

[PaulC]

I think that would be a bit of work for her WW2 fit.. She underwent reconstruction in 1938-39:

20 May 1938 - 01 July 1939: Reconstruction at the Kriegsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven. Bulges added and beam increased. New cranes and funnel caps. A tripod mainmast is also attached to the second funnel.

https://www.kbismarck.com/karlsruhe.html

Photo and basic line drawings there.

[maxim]

There is a 1/700 kit of Karlsruhe by WSW (and HP Models), which show her after the conversion. The K�nigsberg kit is not useful for Karlsruhe except of some small parts (guns, boats etc.). The hull would have to modified, the superstructures, the funnels, the masts - even the deck planking is missing.