DKM Gneisenau
by Carsten Schwenck

1/700 DKM Gneisenau (Tamiya)

Here are the pictures of the battlecruiser Gneisenau in her appearance on 20th May 1940. When searching the internet for pictures of her I discovered one picture showing the crew painting top sides of 28cm guns in red colour for aircraft identification. The model, despite the age of over 25 years (copyright Tamiya 1975), fits perfectly. It is upgraded using WEM's Scharnhorst/Gneisenau class photo etch. The entire model is sprayed in Tamiya TS-4 German grey and main deck is painted using Revell's africa-brown 85 plus heavy weathering with different artist oils. One of the ARADO 196 seaplanes just landed aside her while the second one still is in the air. The Gneisenau is a rather unspectacular ship, with no history-marking battles like the "Bismark", yet very effective if you review her curriculum vitae closely. Hope you enjoy the pictures!