An icon of the Battle of the Atlantic, the German pocket battleship
Graf Spee struck fear in merchant sailors in 1939. Academy now offers an excellent 1/350
Graf Spee with lots of appeal.
The kit is well molded in light gray plastic with distinct portholes, doors, hatches, and planking. Plastic railings are included, but look a little heavy. Inclined ladders are molded separately. All parts are free of flash and need little cleanup.
You can build the ship as a waterline model, but I chose the full hull. Be sure to drill out the holes for the stand. I glued the hull halves and the aft deck (Part A1) together and let them dry, joined the two main deck parts, then sanded and scribed the seam. (Had Academy moved the seam aft 3/4" there would have been far less sanding and smoothing.) Then I attached the deck with Model Master liquid cement, a glue that gives you the strength and the working time needed for the hull's long seams; generous amounts of masking tape held the hull together while it dried. The rest of the hull construction was a snap, though I did wait until the model was nearly finished before adding small parts and railings.
The main and secondary guns are sharply molded. The barrels of the 11" guns have the muzzle bore molded in. The main turrets will require a putty or a small amount of sheet stock to fill the gap where parts A18 and A19 meet. The 37mm guns are good, but the 20mm weapons look oversized, thick and clunky.
Superstructure assemblies went together easily with the exception of the main tower. I had difficulty getting the bridge wings (parts E-18-19 and E22-25) to fit. The parts are a bit oversized, so test-fit and sand to fit. I painted these parts prior to assembly, as the decks would be difficult to paint after the tower is together.
The rest of the kit posed no problems. The Arado Ar 196 floatplane would benefit from photoetched-metal struts. The masts are inaccurate and have no braces, but can be replaced with brass stock.
The painting instructions and box art were not useful. I referenced Kreigsmarine Colors, Vol. 1 (AJ Press) and chose an early scheme of hellgrau 50 on the hull, using a variety of Floquil, Model Master, and Humbrol paints to match Snyder & Short naval color chips. The deck is RAF middlestone. I used several different Berol Prissmacolor pencils to highlight the planks and give the deck some life. Although the decals are beautifully printed, each swastika must be assembled from five pieces.
I spent about 28 hours building the kit, most of it masking. The model's dimensions are accurate, and I am happy with the results. Academy's kit is a great value that should appeal to "out of the box" builders as well as superdetailers.
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