Flyhawk
1/700 Scharnhorst 1943


 
Reviewed February 2020
by Martin J Quinn
HISTORY
Lead ship of her class, Scharnhorst was built in Wilhelmshaven. Laid down in June 1935, she was launched in October 1936 and completed in January 1939. The ship was armed with a main battery of nine 11 in guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 15 in guns in twin turrets were never carried out.

Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation, Scharnhorst sank the auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement in November 1939. The twins participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway in the spring of 1940. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and - in separate engagements - sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. In that engagement, Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history, but also suffered a torpedo hit by one of the British destroyers. 

Post-repairs, the pair sortied on a commerce-raiding cruise into the Atlantic, Operation Berlin. From late January through March 1941, the raiders hunted British shipping in the North Atlantic, culminating in Scharnhorst sinking nine merchant ships over several days mid-month. Narrowly avoiding a clash with the British battleships King George V and Rodney, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sailed for Occupied France, arriving in the port of Brest on March 22, 1941. 

Scharnhorst was severely damaged during an RAF raid on July 24, 1941 while docked in La Pallice, Occupied France.  As a result, she returned to Brest for dry-docking and repairs. 

In early 1942, after repeated British bombing raids, the two ships – joined by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen - made an audacious daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany, during Operation Cerebus. Scharnhorst twice struck mines during the Channel Dash, being disabled for short periods after each mining. 

Post-Cerebus repairs in Kiel last until July 1942, but the ship was in and out of the shipyard for various issues until early 1943.   In March 1943, Scharnhorst joined Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. The two battleships sailed together to attack the island of Spitzbergen in September 1943. 

Sailing to interdict an Allied convoy bound for Russia, Scharnhorst and her escorting destroyers sortied from their lair on Christmas Day, 1943. Unfortunately, the British were aware of the German intentions – Scharnhorst was sailing into a trap. During the ensuing Battle of the North Cape on December 26, 1943, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York overwhelmed and sank Scharnhorst. Only 36 men were rescued, out of a crew of 1,968.

For more on Scharnhorst, visit her Wikipedia page here, which is where this abridged history was pulled from.

The Flyhawk Scharnhorst

Flyhawk’s 1/700 Scharnhorst comes in the familiar Flyhawk box with an evocative painting of Scharnhorst illuminated by star shells during the Battle of the North Cape. Inside the box, there is - along with hull and all the sprues - a separate painting of the box art, instructions, decals, a very small fret of photo-etch (this is the regular version of the kit) and a mask to help paint the aerial recognition markings Scharnhorst carried on her deck forward and aft. 


THE HULL AND DECKS
The hull and decks come wrapped separately in a white material to protect them from the rest of the kit contents. Unfortunately, the main deck and the waterline plate both had damage to the forward tip of each part.  Meanwhile, the hull scales out pretty much perfectly in length and beam. 

SPRUE B - MAIN DECK
Scharnhorst’s one long deck comes as one piece. As mentioned, the bow was damaged, bent up at the forward tip. There is very nicely done engraved planking on the deck, with butt ends. The anchor chains are molded onto the deck, but look pretty good.  I think only the super detailers will shave them off and replace them. There are small cuts outs in the deck for it to fit corresponding areas on the upper hull where the chocks and holes for the davits are.  The hatches and other small parts look good, with raised details (depending on the part).

SPRUE C - WATERLINE PLATE
It's a waterline plate...with a bent tip. 

SPRUE D - LOWER HULL
Some faint mold lines, but overall good. The forefoot is, for some reason, a separate part.

SPRUE F - FORE FOOT
This attaches to SPRUE D, for those non-purists building a full hull model.  There is a bump on the bow of the part, which must be meant to replicate the attachement point for the paravane chains.

SPRUE Y - UPPER HULL
The hull is well molded, with eyebrows over the portholes, a restrained strake on the hull, and an interesting feature that has the holes for the boat davits molded as part of the deck, with an matching cut out on the main deck. The instructions tell you to remove some detail and fill some portholes, which seems to indicate that other versions of the twins would be forthcoming.   The detail is light years ahead of the old Tamiya kit, shown for reference in a few photos.

 Here are the hull and decks dry fit together.

SPRUE E (X2)
 This sprue is where you’ll find the main battery turrets and the single 5.9 gun mounts, along with the main battery rangefinders, barrels (two versions – with and without blast bags) and torpedo tubes. The barrels of the 11 inch guns feature open muzzles. The detail on the main battery turrets and the armored shields for the 5.9 inch guns is very good.  It looks overstated in digital photos, but the Mk 1 eyeball, it looks great. 

SPRUE G
This is part of the aft superstructure, and it’s got lots of great detail, with nicely done watertight doors, planking and vents.  The cabling is especially well done. 

SPRUE H
This is the base for the AA rangefinders that are located by the funnel. It’s got nice tread plating detail and well done watertight doors.

SPRUE I
The pair of docking bridges and some vents are on this sprue. Even though this is the “basic” version of the kit, the supports for the docking bridges should have been done in photo-etch.  Some of the vents have sublte details in their openings. 

SPRUE J
This part is the base of the mid-ship deckhouse that supports the funnel and the heavy AA guns. It’s the bulkheads only – no deck (that’s a separate part). More good detail on the bulkheads – portholes, scuttles, w/t doors and cable reels.

SPRUE K
The only part on this sprue is the base of the funnel, below the searchlight platform. The detail is, as everywhere else on the model, really good.

SPRUE L
Another one part sprue, this is the hangar structure. More good detail abounds, with portholes, vertical ladders, piping as well as detail on the interior of the hangar bulkheads. Though since the sliding roof for the hangar doesn't look like it can be posed open, and there is a large “L1” part number stamped inside the hangar, I’m not sure you would be able to pose it in the open position, without a little work.

SPRUE M
This is the structure that the tower sits on.  More great detail, with bracing inside the splinter shields, portholes, nicely done watertight doors and piping/cabling on the bulkheads.

SPRUE N
Director bases.   Same comments as above

SPRUE O
This is one of the largest parts in the kit, and also one of the most impressive.  It consists of the bulk of the forward superstructure and the barbette for Turret Bruno. The forward part of the superstructure is a separate piece (sprue R). Lots of excellent detail here – portholes, vents, piping, planking, scuttles. 

SPRUE P
 The lowest level of the aft superstructure. The detail on the scuttles/armored shutters is outstanding.

SPRUE Q
This small part is the conning tower. Well molded with great detail.

SPRUE R
This is the forward part of the forward superstructure. I’m not sure why it’s molded separately – I don’t know if there were any difference between the sisters. I think it’s more to facilitate the details molded onto the 01 level deck.  Anyway, the detail is just as good as Sprue O, the deck detail on the open bridge is especially good. 

SPRUE S
This is the largest sprue in the kit, and is chock full of nice parts: props, shafts, struts, rudders, breakwater, anchors, masts, platforms and other assorted parts.

SPRUE T
The deck that sits on top of Sprue J and supports the funnel and AA guns, another forward superstructure deck, the funnel cap, other platforms, the sliding top of the hangar and parts of the forward tower are on this sprue. Detail is really good, especially on the decks – Flyhawk does a fantastic job reproducing tread plating and planking.   There's a lots of great little details on some of the smaller parts as well. 

SPRUE V
The top platform of the tower, the searchlight platform on the funnel, some vents, directors and platforms can be found here. Again, the deck detail is sublime. 

SPRUE W
Director towers, cranes and their bases, reels and anchors are this sprue.  The cranes are nice, photo-etch won't be much of an improvement, if at all.

SPRUE X (X2)
There are some AA platforms and the gun tubs for the AA that sit on the secondary turrets here.  Good detail on the decks. 


SPRUE DE02 (X2)
The Scharnhorst's motor boats are on this sprue.  There's some nice detail on the foredeck and portholes on the hulls.

SPRUE DE03
Lots of boats here - nice interior detail, including thwarts and planking on the decks. 

SPRUE DE04 (X2)
Here you'll find the Arado float planes.   Flyhawk does a nice job on their aircraft.  There are nice details (I use that phrase a lot, don't I?) with options for the wings to be folded or not. 

SPRUE DE05
The little square lift rafts on this sprue have strap detail on the inside of the raft.

SPRUE DE06
Torpedoes tube parts, paravanes and rangefinders. 

SPRUE DE07
Small AA weapons are here.  The 37mm twin AA gun barrels are particularly fine, a few of the barrels have flash on the muzzles. 

SPRUE DE09/10 (X2)
These two sprues are molded together.   Sprue 9 has rangefinders and what looks like optical equipment, while Sprue 10 has the searchlights.   The faces of the searchlights have shutter detail!

SPRUE DE11 (X2)
There are more ships boats on this sprue.

SPRUE DE12 (X2)
Here are some very nice cable reels, with detailed cables on the spools, with some paravanes and other assorted equipment, including what looks like the catapult. 

SPRUE DE14 (X2)
More AA guns.  There is some minor flash on some of the muzzles of the gun barrels.

SPRUE DE15 (X2)
This sprue has the twin secondary turrets and barrels, which feature barrels both with and without blast bags.  The is texture to the blast bags, and raised detail on the turrets. 

SPRUE DE22/23/24
This is another set of multiple sprues that are molded together.   There is more AA guns on sprue 22, rafts (with nice interior detail) and some really freaking tiny parts on sprue 23 and the heavy 105mm AA guns on sprue 24.


PHOTOETCH
As this is the basic edition of Scharnhorst, there are only two very small photo-etch frets included with the model. 

DECALS
There is a small set of decals in the kit. Here you’ll find the aircraft markings, multi-part swastikas, the ships crest and the flags. 

MASKS
This is a really nice addition - a mask to mark off and paint the aerial recognition markings on the decks.   What a brilliant idea! 

INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions are the now familiar Flyhawk format, on glossy two sided heavy paper. There are 16 steps for Scharnhorst and two for the A/C - one for each type of wing (folder or unfolded).    The instructions feature exploded view drawings with colored highlights, that are logical and look easy for follow. 

The last page of the instructions has shows both plan and profile (both port and starboard) of Scharnhorst, and plan and profile of the Arados, all in color.   The instructions reference both "WEM" Colourcoats (Flyhawk hasn't gotten that memo yet, apparently) and Mr Hobby paints.  The bottom of page 3 also has colors and/or mix formulas for Tamiya paints. 


 
 
   
CONCLUSIONS
This kit is another homerun for Flyhawk, who continue to the leader in 1/700 injection molded ship model kits.  It's finely molded, has great detail and certainly looks like the very handsome, but tragic, German battleship. 

This is Flyhawk’s 1/700 HMS Scharnhorst, kit number FH1148.  The kit appears to retail for around  $38.00.  Remember, this is the basic version, and contains only a small bit of photo-etch.  There is a "Special Accessory Box" for this model available separately.  Highly Recommended!! 

Thanks to Flyhawk for the review sample. This is an in box review, your mileage may vary once you start assembly.