Scheer desire...

I can speak extremely favorably about a series of pocket battleship kits that don't get a lot of attention:  the ones made by Italeri in 1/720 scale.  I've only built one of them - the Graf Spee - but I have the impression that all of them are to the same quality.

They were originally released back in (I think) the late seventies.  For a while they were sold in the U.S. in Testor's boxes; some of them have also shown up fairly recently under the Revell Germany/Revell Europe label.  (Beware:  I think Revell also was selling the old Matchbox 1/700 Graf Spee for a while.  Be sure the one you buy is on 1/720.)

Those Italeri 1/720 kits don't get a lot of publicity, but in their day they represented the state of the art and they still hold up quite well by today's standards.  (The Italeri H.M.S. Hood is also excellent.)  The first thing you notice when you open the box of one of the pocket battleships is the odd, ingenious molding of the hull.  The above- and below-waterline sections are molded in one piece, with a space between them that's bridged by a series of thin styrene "gates."  Slice the two pieces apart, sand off the remains of the gates, and you've got top and bottom halves that, by definition, fit together perfectly.  (If you want a waterline model, there's a flat "bottom plate" as well.)  And the deck components fit beautifully.

The individual components may not look so impressive at first glance, but on close inspection they're quite remarkable.  Take a look at the windows and doors on the bulkhead that forms the break of the quarterdeck.  And the subtlety of the deck planking.  And the ship's boats.  And the near-scale mast components.  I had only a few minor criticisms of the Graf Spee kit.  I thought the "roller" for the "sail" (the canvas contraption that swung out over the port side to help in the recovery of the seaplane) could have been rendered much better.  (In reality it wasn't much of a success; the crew gave up on it and heaved it overboard early in the ship's one wartime cruise.  So if you're building the model in wartime configuration, you can leave that part off without any concern.)  Since I wanted to do mine in prewar, spit-and-polish configuration, I was a little disappointed that the kit didn't include the coats of arms on the bow (though they were shown in the box art) or the big gold eagle on the stern.  Or the name "CORONEL" on the front of the superstructure.  But all those are pretty small gripes.

Gold Metal Models makes a really nice generic WWII German Navy set of aftermarket parts, many of which can be used in this model.  (The GMM set is on 1/700 scale, but almost all the parts work just as well on 1/720.  They include railings, ladders, small-caliber guns, details for the ship's boats, a stack cap, and quite a few other details that I've forgotton.)

Highly recommended.

jtilley wrote:

I can speak extremely favorably about a series of pocket battleship kits that don't get a lot of attention:  the ones made by Italeri in 1/720 scale.  I've only built one of them - the Graf Spee - but I have the impression that all of them are to the same quality. They were originally released back in (I think) the late seventies.  For a while they were sold in the U.S. in Testor's boxes; some of them have also shown up fairly recently under the Revell Germany/Revell Europe label.  (Beware:  I think Revell also was selling the old Matchbox 1/700 Graf Spee for a while.  Be sure the one you buy is on 1/720.) Those Italeri 1/720 kits don't get a lot of publicity, but in their day they represented the state of the art and they still hold up quite well by today's standards.  (The Italeri H.M.S. Hood is also excellent.)  The first thing you notice when you open the box of one of the pocket battleships is the odd, ingenious molding of the hull.  The above- and below-waterline sections are molded in one piece, with a space between them that's bridged by a series of thin styrene "gates."  Slice the two pieces apart, sand off the remains of the gates, and you've got top and bottom halves that, by definition, fit together perfectly.  (If you want a waterline model, there's a flat "bottom plate" as well.)  And the deck components fit beautifully. The individual components may not look so impressive at first glance, but on close inspection they're quite remarkable.  Take a look at the windows and doors on the bulkhead that forms the break of the quarterdeck.  And the subtlety of the deck planking.  And the ship's boats.  And the near-scale mast components.  I had only a few minor criticisms of the Graf Spee kit.  I thought the "roller" for the "sail" (the canvas contraption that swung out over the port side to help in the recovery of the seaplane) could have been rendered much better.  (In reality it wasn't much of a success; the crew gave up on it and heaved it overboard early in the ship's one wartime cruise.  So if you're building the model in wartime configuration, you can leave that part off without any concern.)  Since I wanted to do mine in prewar, spit-and-polish configuration, I was a little disappointed that the kit didn't include the coats of arms on the bow (though they were shown in the box art) or the big gold eagle on the stern.  Or the name "CORONEL" on the front of the superstructure.  But all those are pretty small gripes. Gold Metal Models makes a really nice generic WWII German Navy set of aftermarket parts, many of which can be used in this model.  (The GMM set is on 1/700 scale, but almost all the parts work just as well on 1/720.  They include railings, ladders, small-caliber guns, details for the ship's boats, a stack cap, and quite a few other details that I've forgotton.) Highly recommended.

I have the GMM Kriegsmarine set as well. But White Ensign Models produces a Pocket Battleship set which I also have that does include the bow crests for all the pocket battleships as well as the stern eagle (which includes the Swastika!) and for the Graf Spee it includes the Coronel name plate.

I agree that the Italeri 1/720 pocket battlesips are the nicest.

Heller made them in 1/400, but their detail was not as nice as that of the much smaller Italeri kits.

Nichimo made a 1/500 scale Graf Spee that was state of the art in about 1971, but very rare now, and nothing too special anyway.

Airfix made a 1/600 Graf Spee that was nice in 1971, but left way behind the Italeri kits.

Aurora made a "1/600" Graf Spee in the 1960's that was all imagination, but fun for a ten year old.

Fujimi made a set of the class that was pale next to the Italeri kits, and it has been re-released  many times over the years, but never significantly improved.

Matchbox / ERTL/ AMT releaseda 1/700 Graf Spee in 1978-ish that was real junk.  And as Prof Tilley says, if you're not careful, you can wind up buying Revell of Germany 1/700 junk instead of 1/720 very nice kit.

 Rick

It sounds like the White Ensign aftermarket parts set is the one to get; I don't think it was on the market yet when I built my little Graf Spee.  [Later edit:  small wonder I wasn't aware of it back then.  The White Ensign website lists this set as "coming soon."  It looks outstanding - and includes a replacement for the "sail" mechanism in addition to everything else.]

On the other hand, the Gold Medal set includes parts for the Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen, and Z-class destroyers.  I don't think there's enough on the sheet to do more than one ship, but with some additional rails and ladders one could outfit quite a fleet.  Something to take into consideration if price is an issue - as it is for so many of us these days.

I remember building that old Aurora kit when I was a preteen.  By modern standards it was indeed either a piece of junk or a toy, depending on the generosity of one's viewpoint.  It's worth noting, though, that for quite a long time the Aurora Graf Spee, Yamato, and King George V were virtually the only plastic German, Japanese, and British warship kits available in the U.S.  If you lived in the vicinity of a really good hobby shop you might have access to some of the early Airfix offerings, but to the ship modeler buying kits at the drug or department store Aurora, Lindberg, and Revell were the only games in town.

Out of curiosity I just checked the appendix to Dr. Graham's fine history of Revell.  That company's first non-American modern warship (as opposed to merchant vessels and sailing ships) seems to have been the 1/570 Bismarck, which initially appeared in 1963.  By that time Revell had been producing warships for a decade (starting with the Missouri in 1953), but all of them were American.  (I don't know of a comparable history of Lindberg; I think its awful Hood and Bismarck kits appeared a couple of years before that.)  Aurora deserves some credit for - if nothing else - having the nerve to tackle some subjects that the competition wouldn't touch.

I had the pleasure recently of reviewing a superb book, The Battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood:  An Illustrated Biography, 1916-1941, by Bruce Taylor.  One of my favorites among the 200+ pictures in the book is a 1938 photo of the teams from the Hood and Graf Spee getting ready to play a football match.  One can't help wondering how many of the people in that picture were alive three years later. 

I couldn't find a Revell 1/720 Scheer on the Squadron website, but I did find the Graf Spee.  That's gotta be the old Italeri one (if it is indeed on 1/720).  I can say from experience that the vast majority of the relevant parts on the Gold Medal etched fret will fit it - and I suspect the White Ensign set will work even better.

Nice kit.  Enjoy.

jtilley wrote:

I couldn't find a Revell 1/720 Scheer on the Squadron website, but I did find the Graf Spee.  That's gotta be the old Italeri one (if it is indeed on 1/720).  I can say from experience that the vast majority of the relevant parts on the Gold Medal etched fret will fit it - and I suspect the White Ensign set will work even better. Nice kit.  Enjoy.

jtilley wrote:

It sounds like the White Ensign aftermarket parts set is the one to get; I don't think it was on the market yet when I built my little Graf Spee.  [Later edit:  small wonder I wasn't aware of it back then.  The White Ensign website lists this set as "coming soon."  It looks outstanding - and includes a replacement for the "sail" mechanism in addition to everything else.] On the other hand, the Gold Medal set includes parts for the Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Prinz Eugen, and Z-class destroyers.  I don't think there's enough on the sheet to do more than one ship, but with some additional rails and ladders one could outfit quite a fleet.  Something to take into consideration if price is an issue - as it is for so many of us these days. I remember building that old Aurora kit when I was a preteen.  By modern standards it was indeed either a piece of junk or a toy, depending on the generosity of one's viewpoint.  It's worth noting, though, that for quite a long time the Aurora Graf Spee, Yamato, and King George V were virtually the only plastic German, Japanese, and British warship kits available in the U.S.  If you lived in the vicinity of a really good hobby shop you might have access to some of the early Airfix offerings, but to the ship modeler buying kits at the drug or department store Aurora, Lindberg, and Revell were the only games in town. Out of curiosity I just checked the appendix to Dr. Graham's fine history of Revell.  That company's first non-American modern warship (as opposed to merchant vessels and sailing ships) seems to have been the 1/570 Bismarck, which initially appeared in 1963.  By that time Revell had been producing warships for a decade (starting with the Missouri in 1953), but all of them were American.  (I don't know of a comparable history of Lindberg; I think its awful Hood and Bismarck kits appeared a couple of years before that.)  Aurora deserves some credit for - if nothing else - having the nerve to tackle some subjects that the competition wouldn't touch. I had the pleasure recently of reviewing a superb book, The Battlecruiser H.M.S. Hood:  An Illustrated Biography, 1916-1941, by Bruce Taylor.  One of my favorites among the 200+ pictures in the book is a 1938 photo of the teams from the Hood and Graf Spee getting ready to play a football match.  One can't help wondering how many of the people in that picture were alive three years later.

I was actually planning on butchering the Bismark/Tirpitz catapults in the GMM set and adding them to my 1/720 scale Graf Zeppelin once I figure out how long they have to be.

Oh and I have the original 1977 Matchbox 1/700 scale Graf Spee and it actually doesn't look that bad to me.

The one I built, and liked, was the Graf Spee.  (I think I actually cobbled two kits together - one in an Italeri box and one in a Testor's one.) 

The two ships originally looked quite similar - the most conspicuous difference, as I recall, being that one of them had a couple of extra searchlight platforms on the sides of her forward superstructure.  The Graf Spee, of course, had a short career and never got modified much.  (The eagle got added to her stern when the Weimar Republic fell to the Nazis, her Heinkel biplane got swapped for an Arado monoplane, she acquired a radar set - one of the first - on top of her "fighting mast," and the aforementioned "sail" airplane recovery mechanism got junked.  Otherwise, if I remember right, the changes to her appearance were confined to the color scheme.)  The Scheer, however, underwent a major modification to her superstructure.  The "pyramid"-like "fighting mast" got replaced by a much skinnier, tubular structure.  I don't recall exactly when that was done, but I think it was quite early in the war.

If I remember right (a highly dubious proposition; it's been a long time), Italeri actually issued four pocket battleship kits:  Graf Spee, Scheer, Deutschland, and Lutzow.  In reality, of course, the Deutschland and Lutzow were the same ship, renamed (supposedly because Hitler wanted to rule out the possibility of a propaganda disaster if a ship named Deutschland were to get sunk).  The two kits represented her before and after her major modification (which was similar to the one the Scheer underwent).  Italeri was, by the standards of that era, quite meticulous about such things. 

The more I think about it, though, the less certain I am that I have the story of those kits straight.  Maybe somebody who has several of them in hand can correct me.