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DKM Tirpitz

The Lonley Queen of the North...

The model is built straight from the box and the only photoetch used was, the railings of the ship. The rest is all scratchbuilt using bits and pieces of plastic rod and strips. The model was airbrushed in enamels , of course masking was paramount to achieve the splinter camouflage and every colour was individually weathered masking the rest off.

The ship is portrayed in its lair where it spent most of its life. At that initial stage my research was quite limited and there are a couple of things which I have overlooked. Firstly one doctored picture shows a model swordfish superimposed circling above the ship. That I’m afraid is not right …The Tirpitz was never attacked by swordfish aircraft but by Albacores. Secondly some people remarked about the ship being too weathered. This makes sense as well because the ship was very seldom in high open seas….hence less weathering. But I think the overall effect is acceptable.

The rigging was a real nightmare . Very thin straightened fuse wire was used. The seascape was made up of tissue and pollyfilla with leadshot for the antisub net buoys.