Lützow
by Paul Helfrich

1/720 Lützow (Italeri)

This is the Italieri 1/720 kit of the German Panzerschiff (popularly known, like her sister ships Admiral Scheer and Graf Spee, as a "pocket battleship) Lützow.

She was originally named Deutschland, but was re-named after the commencement of hostilities in 1939 due to Hitler's fear of losing a ship named for the Fatherland.

I painted her as she appeared in April 1940 for Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. This was probably Germany's most successful naval operation of the entire war, but the Germans lost so many cruisers, destroyers, and smaller ships that they were never able to do anything like it again.

Italieri's 1/720 kit was better than I thought it was going to be. I dressed it up a bit with the Gold Medal Models German Warships set.

All three Panzerschiffe had slightly different bridge and superstructure arrangements. The big difference between Lützow and her two sisters is that Lützow has the aircraft catapult forward of the funnel, whereas Scheer and Graf Spee have it aft.