¹⁄700

German Frigates Hamburg and Sachsen FFG 219& 220

The Kit…

No, you’re not seeing double. My intrepid patron wanted two of the same ship (or rather two sister ships). The German Frigates Sachsen and Hamburg, FFG’s 219 and 220

As is typical for this type of kit, the bulk of the hull was molded in a single piece. A few major superstructure pieces to add and it’s all down to the details. Unlike many resin kits, this kit actually had quite a few smaller pieces to add, and a full PE compliment on two frets. While the frets did include railings, I preferred to substitute Lion Roar’s US modern railing as they are finer and more in scale.

The PE…

Two Frets with a full PE piece for the helo deck, upper funnel deck and sides of the ship under the funnel deck. Great details like the emergency life raft racks and radar tower.

The Instructions…

Although the instructions span multiple pages and include very close up pictures of the actual ship (nice), no details are given for individual sub-assemblies or smaller pieces. The modeler is expected to know how, where and more importantly when, to assemble and attach individual assemblies etc. Not for the novice or the faint of heart.

Decals…

Better and more inclusive than most. The decal sheet included hull numbers for all three ships of this class as well as individual hull crests for each ship. (Would have been nice if they had told us which crest to use with which ship.) Lots of squinting at pics on the internet for that one. Decals were included for the helo pad (one large decal - very much appreciated), hull numbers and nice details like the red striping on the deck surfaces and even the ship’s award flags on the side of the bridge. While they provided three separate sets of award flags, presumably for the three different ships, the instructions did not tell us which flags go to which ship.

The Build…

Pretty much OOB, except for the substitution of the Lion Roar railings. All colors are custom mixed Tamiya acrylics. Horizontal rigging is 20 denier fly-fishing twine and vertical rigging is stretched sprue.