Has anyone built the Tamiya waterline series kits? I understand they're pretty old... how's the detail, and are there any detail sets in this scale?

Not one of those, but I built Tamiya's 1/700 waterline King George V - she looks pretty nice OOB, but I added a White Ensign Models AM set - they probably do sets for the other 1/700 kits as well

You can see my KGV here

Both are decent kits, with good detail. I've got both of the twins under construction. Both White Ensign Models and Tom's Modelworks make a PE set specific to these ships, while Gold Medal makes a German Naval set with parts for this class.

The Scharnhorst represents the ship in her "as sunk" configuration, while the Gneisenau kit is a 1939 version of the ship. I bought a 2nd Scharnhorst cheap to use the parts to convert Gneisenau to a June, 1940 appearance.

They are - IMO - a good value for the money. I've enjoyed building them. Here's a few in-progress pictures of Scharnhorst (top) and Gneisenau:

Martin

You never stop amazing me with your production level and quality control
Looking sharp

Skipper