1/350 DKM Admiral Hipper (Trumpeter)

Admiral Hipper was the name-ship in its class. Four more ships followed, but only two were put into Kriegsmarine service – Blücher and Prinz Eugen. The last being a modified Hipper- class cruiser.

Like Prinz Eugen, Admiral Hipper had a long and interesting life. The ship survived almost till the end of WW2, only to be bombed and thereafter demolished by its crew in the Kiel docks in 1945.

Admiral Hipper took part in the invasion of Norway (Weserübung) April 9th 1940 heading the group destined for Trondheim and is built using colours as of that day.

My Hipper is the well-known 1:350 Trumpeter kit. The box shows Hipper as during Weserübung, but the kit inside turns out to be a somewhat later Hipper with a modified main mast built for raiding the Atlantic convoys.

So this had to be modified, and a new mast was built from scratch using brass tubing. Also, armoured plates fastened to the hull were missing, so these had to be cut to shape from plastic sheets. Numerous other details were also built or modified to show the cruiser as of April 1940. The most visible changes are shown in the last 6-8 pictures here.

Beside the kit, I used the Hipper PE-kit from Flyhawk. What I like about this PE-kit is that it is easy to work with, and sufficient detailed. The wooden deck is from Artwox and fits well to the kit. The deck is washed to give a more correct color. Swastikas are sprayed onto it using self-made masks.
Colors are Lifecolor acrylics from their Krigsmarine series, plus enamels from Revell and Humbrol for details.
Lifecolor paint works excellent for me; sprays well in my Iwata airgun and covers like no other paint while brushing!

Gallery updated 4/13/2017

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