The Ship Model Forum

I don't recall sharing this one here but it was a project a year ago which was good fun to make and explore the less often depicted look of the ship.

The dummy turret and funnel were photographed early December 1941, which made her look from afar as a British cruiser (if you squint really hard?...).

Didn't the forward superstructure have black vertical stripes painted at the corners to make it look like a tripod mast, at a distance?
BTW, great job!

Very cool. Very unique version of Graf Spee, which you don't often see.

drasticplastic wrote:Didn't the forward superstructure have black vertical stripes painted at the corners to make it look like a tripod mast, at a distance?
BTW, great job!

It did, but not when it carried this extra funnel/turret. The source is Leon & Asmussen + few photos. If they're wront, Im wrong.

Think the captain had a lot of fun changing up the appearance of HIS ship many times and we really wont ever know exact appearance and can use tertiary evidence, few photos, etc, like most of those things.

Now that's an original subject! Well done!

Great model! I specially like the way you made the dummy turret and funnel!

Do you found a photo how the "turret" looked from above?

marijn van gils wrote:Now that's an original subject! Well done!

Thank you Marijn!

maxim wrote:Great model! I specially like the way you made the dummy turret and funnel!

Do you found a photo how the "turret" looked from above?

Thank you! Only known drawings from the side - and I just figured it was covering up things , but of course it would also have been some open air situation (now that I think about it - may be it made more sense). So an artistic license. I just assumed that they made something super flimsy and easy to take down so it should not look like a permanent structure. May be building a little "box" around the bridge area is a bit more permanent, hard to figure. If anyone knows Im happy to incorporate this into another build some day.

Like the fake funnel I believe it was just constructed from lumber and canvass, like a stage prop, with the "gun barrels" also made of wood and supported by a stand on Anton turret's roof. "Bruno turret" was only meant to be visible from sea-level and was most likely open on top.

drasticplastic wrote:Like the fake funnel I believe it was just constructed from lumber and canvass, like a stage prop, with the "gun barrels" also made of wood and supported by a stand on Anton turret's roof. "Bruno turret" was only meant to be visible from sea-level and was most likely open on top.

It is possible to open open, but at the time I have not made that call. I hope it still works, somewhat. You have no idea how many comments from people from Montevideo I get (angry ones) that Graf Spee only had 2 turrets and this is so wrong and I dont know what Im doing. It is so funny.

This is so cool! Very original idea, and executed so nicely.

Even though you did it a year ago it is brand new to all of us.
Thanks for pulling this out and sharing it!