Trumpeter 1/350 DKM H-Class Battleship

[themongoose]

At long last IPMS has published my review...which means I'm free to share it myself now! This is where I was for 8 weeks basically. Given the timeline to finish I had to just focus on one thing. And what a one-thing it was - Great kit guys. Here's the link to the full review, we're allowed to post a few shots with the key being to steer people to the review pages. Actually, if you haven't been to the IPMS review pages they are worth checking out. Last year I didn't even know they existed. Many many reviews of everything from books and decals to full kits.

DKM H-Class

[stikpusher]

So does that mean IPMS wants you to publish only a positive review? If not you're out of the "cool kids in crowd"?

[ogrejohn]

That looks great!

[themongoose]

Oct 15, 2023 14:21:25 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

So does that mean IPMS wants you to publish only a positive review? If not you're out of the "cool kids in crowd"?

I’m confused. Give me a little more context about what made you think that and maybe i can rephrase something. Chris 

[keavdog]

I got the same sentiment. This line "Given the timeline to finish I had to just focus on one thing. And what a one-thing it was - Great kit guys." leads one to believe you're compelled to say it was a great kit.

[406 Silverado]

At first glance I can see where things could be misconstrued but after reading the Conclusion to the review it reads that the kit was a "stupendous kit" and "built out of the box it makes an impressive display piece". The way I'm reading "Great kit guys" after reading the review is that Chris is impressed with the kit in which he should be.

Turning the attention to the completed build here I'll have to agree with you that this is an impressive display piece Chris. Lots of detail out of the box and you carried out a labor of love in bringing this bad boy together. 8 weeks superbly spent brother.

[handiabled]

Oct 15, 2023 17:56:54 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

At first glance I can see where things could be misconstrued but after reading the Conclusion to the review it reads that the kit was a "stupendous kit" and "built out of the box it makes an impressive display piece". The way I'm reading "Great kit guys" after reading the review is that Chris is impressed with the kit in which he should be.

Turning the attention to the completed build here I'll have to agree with you that this is an impressive display piece Chris. Lots of detail out of the box and you carried out a labor of love in bringing this bad boy together. 8 weeks superbly spent brother.

I have to agree with Joe, I thought it was a very thorough review that didn't call out any blazingly obvious shortcomings of the kit 
And I must say for an 8 week oob build it turned out fantastic!

[keavdog]

As for the build - just wow! Fantastic looking piece. Do they call that a splinter pattern in the ship world? From the deck, to the PE, the skiffs(?) and davit, hollow barrels on the big guns - awesome.

[reserve]

All else aside you did a marvelous job on this

[Joe Rix]

Congratulations Chris. Gorgeous build and a well written review. Kudos to you for going the extra mile in our hobby. It's one thing to just build kits for pleasure but, to take time to fully write a review of a kit is an excellent gesture to continue to assist the health of our hobby.

I agree concerning IPMS reviews. Great resource if you have questions about a certain kit. I've used it often over the years.

Not sure where the confusion lies in your post. I simply understood it that you considered it a great kit based on your judgement alone. Oh well, Carry on Chris and thanks for your contributions.

[themongoose]

Oct 15, 2023 17:42:16 GMT -5 keavdog said:

I got the same sentiment. This line "Given the timeline to finish I had to just focus on one thing. And what a one-thing it was - Great kit guys." leads one to believe you're compelled to say it was a great kit.

Most helpful. I’m sure stik will jump in too and let me know if that’s what he interpreted or if it was something different.
what i was thinking when i wrote that obviously didn’t get put into text 😂 was … for these large kits they look for us to get them done in 8 weeks, including the review. Since I’m working alot I couldn’t spend any time doing other stuff and neglected all my other posts for builds here on MSC 😀 weekends and evenings were focussed on this. I wanted to do the hull plating and the world of warcraft camo scheme!

[themongoose]

Oct 15, 2023 18:31:59 GMT -5 keavdog said:

As for the build - just wow! Fantastic looking piece. Do they call that a splinter pattern in the ship world? From the deck, to the PE, the skiffs(?) and davit, hollow barrels on the big guns - awesome.

You know i saw it as a splinter pattern but didn’t find anything specific on the WoW site to confirm or deny that 🧐 man i just love these schemes even though they seem to have proven that they rarely have any impact on the outcome of battle 👍

[stikpusher]

Oct 15, 2023 10:42:16 GMT -5 themongoose said:

At long last IPMS has published my review...which means I'm free to share it myself now! This is where I was for 8 weeks basically. Given the timeline to finish I had to just focus on one thing. And what a one-thing it was - Great kit guys. 

This kind of makes it sound like you were under pressure to give the kit a positive review, no matter what. And if not, well, no more review kits for you. 

[themongoose]

Oct 15, 2023 20:01:08 GMT -5 stikpusher said:

Oct 15, 2023 10:42:16 GMT -5 themongoose said:

At long last IPMS has published my review...which means I'm free to share it myself now! This is where I was for 8 weeks basically. Given the timeline to finish I had to just focus on one thing. And what a one-thing it was - Great kit guys. 

This kind of makes it sound like you were under pressure to give the kit a positive review, no matter what. And if not, well, no more review kits for you. 

Cool, we’ll call that poorly worded on my part. Thx stik 👍 
no emphasis on positive required. Lots of reviews on stuff that isn’t worth the money, and insights on parts that don’t fit well.

[kyledehart5]

Impressive stuff!!

[Tobi]

A re-occurring term I found in the German model community for the kind of pattern on Bismarck & co is "Ostseetarnung", and seems got to be translated into English as "Baltic Stripes". Literally translated it would be "Baltic Sea Camouflage".
WOW speaks also of a "Gaußtarnung" (Gauss camo) from 1942 onwards, I couldn't find anything more specific on that.
The English term for this type of pattern is Dazzle, I believe, or sometimes Razzle Dazzle, but you probably know that already.

Consulting the book "Anstriche und Tarnanstriche der DKM" by Jung, Abendroth and Kelling did not reveal any specific names for different DKM patterns.
As a lesson from WWI there was awareness of the advantages of camouflage patterns, though ships were not painted with them during pre-war period.
In a 1942 summary a certain corvette captain Dechend described the different methods of camouflaging a ship and pointed out the importance of the surroundings and that the pattern almost always has to be a compromise.
He distinguished between different methods: a pure visual camouflage (concealment) to make the ship invisible against sea and air forces, in a) open sea, b) coastal areas and c) harbor and docks, a type camouflage (disguise/mimicry) rendering and disguising the ship type to something different by painting on false features or build mock-ups, a camouflage of speed and orientation (disruptive) and most frequent a mix of all these three, according to assessment of the military situation.
In January 1943 the OKM started a series of tests on models to scientifically find the best method of camouflaging and this was closed by February 1944. Compared with the writings by Dechend the late date indicates how little influence this must have had on the remaining naval forces, but the victors who seized the material probably said thanks for the studies after the cease fire. Dechend stated later at least a series of freighters was painted after these 1944 results and none of them got ever hit by a torpedo, but that could have been also pure coincidence.

Edit:
The first volume of "German Naval Camouflage" by Asmussen and Leon speaks of "Baltic camouflage", "Splinter camouflage" and "Dazzle camouflage" on page thirteen, but wether this is a categorization by the OKM or the authors is not clear to me.

[themongoose]

Tobi You are a wealth of knowledge! A great add to this thread

[Tobi]

Thanks Chris, I simply found that was an interesting question and wondered if I could answer it to myself, so I started a bit of digging the wild, wild web.
Sadly I'm not any wiser now, I don't get the exact difference between splinter and dazzle, but on the other hand I'm not enough of a maritime buff. :-)

You did great on this model, BTW.

[deafpanzer]

WOW! Beautiful build! Will it be at your local show this Saturday? Unfortuntately I have to work that day.

[Tojo72]

Beautiful job,great detailing,at first I thought it was a Biamarck had to do some research on H Class,would have been impressive if built

[brentprice]

Oct 15, 2023 17:56:54 GMT -5 406 Silverado said:

At first glance I can see where things could be misconstrued but after reading the Conclusion to the review it reads that the kit was a "stupendous kit" and "built out of the box it makes an impressive display piece". The way I'm reading "Great kit guys" after reading the review is that Chris is impressed with the kit in which he should be.

Turning the attention to the completed build here I'll have to agree with you that this is an impressive display piece Chris. Lots of detail out of the box and you carried out a labor of love in bringing this bad boy together. 8 weeks superbly spent brother.     

I also took him to mean that he liked the kit and was impressed with it, but I also see how it can be confusing.

[Steve Zuleski]

Wow, and I thought tanks and planes had fiddly bits, excellent build, Chris.

[madhatter]

Finally, someone has one of these built online! I have this in my stash, begging to be built. I thought Trumpeter did a great job of this ship. I had been waiting for the usual AM PE set to show up online but I've only seen 1 detail set and it wasn't ready for release. Not that you really need it though as the PE you get is sufficient to make a great display piece.


I got super excited when I first found out about this ship as the Grosser Kurfurst is one of my favourite ships in WOWSL. I forked out the dosh for one and was slightly disappointed to find it isn't the H-45 like the GK but more an H-41 which is the Pommern. Still, I will be painting mine in the Azure Lane black and red camo.

I really like your rendition. Congrats on having your review published.

[themongoose]

Apr 19, 2024 1:20:55 GMT -5 madhatter said:

Finally, someone has one of these built online! I have this in my stash, begging to be built. I thought Trumpeter did a great job of this ship. I had been waiting for the usual AM PE set to show up online but I've only seen 1 detail set and it wasn't ready for release. Not that you really need it though as the PE you get is sufficient to make a great display piece.


I got super excited when I first found out about this ship as the Grosser Kurfurst is one of my favourite ships in WOWSL. I forked out the dosh for one and was slightly disappointed to find it isn't the H-45 like the GK but more an H-41 which is the Pommern. Still, I will be painting mine in the Azure Lane black and red camo.

I really like your rendition. Congrats on having your review published.

Thanks mad hatter. I’m gonna be looking forward to your build for sure. I thought I found a site that listed all the differences between the H classes when I was doing this. Do you have that or do you want me to see if I can’t locate what I had for reference?

[madhatter]

Mate, I'll take any references! Thanks for that