Aircraft Carrier "Graf Zeppelin", Bundesmarine, 1975

[nönöbär]

The Aircraft Carrier "Graf Zeppelin":

The "Graf Zepplin" was the only aircraft carrier ever build in Germany. Laid down on 08.12.1938 in Kiel, it was initially planned to complete the ship in 1940. However, after the start of WW2, construction was stopped in April 1940. In 1942, it was obvious thatan aircraft carrier would be very useful to support naval operations, therefore it was planned to complete the ship by winter 1943. But after the battle of the Barents sea, the construction was stopped again while the ship was completed by 80-85%.
At the end of he war, the unfinished ship was taken over by the Soviet army and was sunk during weapons tests in 1947. In 2006, the wreck was detected in the Baltic Sea, 55 km off the polish coast in a depth of 80 meters.

More about the "Graf Zeppelin" can be found at www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/carrier/grafzeppelin/index.html

So such about the real ship, now lets see the what-if....

Aircraft Carrier "Graf Zeppelin", Bundesmarine, 1975:

The construction of the "Graf Zeppelin" was not stopped in 1940. Instead, the ship was completed by mid 1942.
The carrier was put into service in late 1942 with its original planned aircraft, the Me 109T as a fighter, the Ju87 as dive bomber and the Fi167 as torpedo bomber.
While it was too late to be used in Atlantic operations, the ship was send to Norway in spring of 1943 after doing its training and trieals in the Baltic Sea. There additional FW190 torpedo bombers were put on board.
The "Graf Zeppelin" operated together with other major German warships in actions against arctic convoys.
As the Me 109T were a very difficult aircraft to be used on the Graf Zeppelin, it was decided to replace them with eight captured Corsair fighters
(see http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,36256.msg582333.html#msg582333). On Oct 22 1943, the aircraft arrived on the ship which was directly send to Norway. The Corsairs formed the so called "Delphin-Staffel". There, the Graf Zeppelin operated together with Scharnhorst and Tirpitz. The Corsairs were very successful in providing air cover for the battelships during their few operations.
In  May 1944, all three ships were returned to the Baltic Sea where they operated until the end of the war in 1945.   
While being bac in the Baltic Sea, the first trirals with jet fighters - with the Me 262T - were made on the "Graf Zeppelin", but altough they showed the potential of those aircraft, the ship did not realy fit the needs of jet aircraft
(see http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,37120.msg600517.html#msg600517)

Im May 1945, war ended as we know it, but several Kriegsmarine ships survived.
The ships were divied between the Allied Nations, with "Graf Zeppelin" and "Tirpitz" given to the British, "Prinz Eugen" given to the USA, "Scharnhorst" and several destroyers & torpedo boats given to the Soviet Union.

As the tensions between the western states and the Soviet Union grew quickly after 1945, several of the ships given to the western Allies were used to form the core of a new Bundesmarine in 1948, with "Tirpitz" and "Graf Zeppelin" among them.

Put into service again with only minor modifications (mainly a removal of the 15 cm guns), the Bundesmarine first continued to operate the Corsairs and FW190 until the early 1950s.
Clearly outdated, they were then replaced by the first jet aircraft, the Grumman F-9 and the Hawker Sea Hawk. At that time, the "Graf Zeppelin" mainly operated in the Baltic Sea.
Im 1957, the ship was put out of service for a major modernization refit. It was equipped with an angled flight deck, new aircarft lifts and a completly rebuild superstructure. The catapult was replaced with a single, modernized steam catapult.
Besides this, there was a huge change in the armamanet. All heavy AA guns were removed and replaced by two twin RIM-2 Terrier missle launchers and their corresponding SPG-55 directors. Plus a few light mulitpurpose AA guns.
It took unitl early 1962 until the ship could be recommissiond. Since the refit, the ship mainly operated in the North Atlantic as part of the patrols at the GIUK-gap.

Still useing the old aircraft, they were about to be replaced by more modern ones: A-4 as attack planes (see http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,37658.0.html) since 1968, F4-Phantom II since 1965, Blackburn Bucaneers since 1965, A7 Corsairs since 1975 and F8 Crusaders since 1972.
Because of the site of the ship, only a limited number fo aircraft (up to 25) could be used simulaniously.

In October 1980, a complete enigne breakdown took place on board of the "Graf Zeppelin" while it was on its way though the British Channel. It could be prevented that it run aground, and the ship was towed back to Wilhlemshaven for repairs.
But because of its age and the size of the damages, it was decided to put the ship out of service. Huge discusstion started to replace the ship with a new, bigger, modern carrier, but because of the costs for such a project, no new carrier was bought or build.
After sitting in the Marinearsenal in Wilhlemshaven for almost 10 years, the "Graf Zeppelin" was finally given to the Marinemuseum locate in Wilhlemshaven where it is still shown today, with a collection of almost all aircraft that were used on board of the ship.

Pictures:

The ship:







Graf Zeppelin - WW2 and 1975:



Some details:







The model:

The model is based on the Revel 1/720 Graf Zeppelin kit. Hangar and flight deck are made from plasitc sheets, while the superstructure and several other parts were taken from a 1/800 Zhengdefu  Kitty Hawk kit. Which has a really bad qulity.
The flight deck was not completly remade, instead I made extensions to the orignal one. Additionally two external aircraft lifts were added, plus a visible hangar allows you to look inside the model. Painting has been done with brush/airbrush using Revel Aqua Color colors, the deacals were taken from the Zhengdefu kit. Additionally quite a lot Eduard 1/700 navy personal figures were put on the ship.

The model should represent the "Graf Zeppelin" as it might have looked like in summer 1975 in the North Atlantic.

[Hobbes]

Interesting idea, well done!

[sandiego89]

Great job! like this very much. 

[TsrJoe]

really nicely done, neat modelling, interesting idea too  

[Captain Canada]

Awesome ! Nice work on such a wee kit. All the little dudes running about really bring it to life as well. Nice to see old and new side-by-side.

[Dizzyfugu]

The Corsair IIs are nice - and the tiny crew as well. Makes a big change to a "bleak" deck. Well done! 

[NARSES2]

Come out well. Especially like the way you have included the crew 

[nönöbär]

Thanks for your feedback !

The crew.... many of them got lost, I would say about 20% simply flew away during construction and were never seen again. Only a few others could be saved and glued to the ship.

But  I only could add a few at one time, they are too tiny to work with for me.

[lancer]

Oh those are bloody lovely!!!!! Superb detail and a fantastic upgrade path

[buzzbomb]

Great backstory and a terrific build.. both of them

Gee.. some Buccaneers would look nice on that

[nönöbär]

Great backstory and a terrific build.. both of them

Gee.. some Buccaneers would look nice on that

I would like to build a Buccaneer, but they are hard to find in 1/72 (at least for a reasonable price). And haven't seen any in 1/700 so far.

[Cobra]

This is a Superb Build Hope this Ship gets Nominated for a Whiffie! Keep up the Superb Work Dan

[Weaver]

That looks great - nice one. 

Great backstory and a terrific build.. both of them

Gee.. some Buccaneers would look nice on that

I would like to build a Buccaneer, but they are hard to find in 1/72 (at least for a reasonable price). And haven't seen any in 1/700 so far.

WEM have some: https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/product-search/buccaneer/1/

[NARSES2]

The crew really do make a huge difference to small scale ship models, glad you persevered

[dumaniac]

nice job