Kriegsmarine Zerstörer "Werner Glienke" ZE-Class, April 1943

[nönöbär]

Kriegsmarine Zerstörer "Werner Glienke" ZE-Class, April 1943

The Ship:

During the invasion of Norway in April 1940, the Kriegsmarine lost half of its operational destroyers (10 ships) during the battle at Narvik. While new destroyers were already under production, a quick solution for a replacement of the lost ships was required.

Under the leadership of Marinebaurat Drucker, a simplified destroyer design was made, the so called "Zerstörer-Einfach" (destroyer simple), which was based in simple to produce spare parts that should be build in segments at smaller shipyards and then completed at the main contractor.
The ZE ships were about the same size as other German destroyers, and with an armament of 5 x 15cm guns plus two quadruple torpedo launchers, their offensive power was similar to classic German destroyers.
The total orders were 32 ships and production started as early as September 1940 on various shipyards at the coast and even on inland facilities that formerly only produce river ships.
The final assembly line was at Papenburgs Meyer Werft, a shipyard that was not heavily involved in construction programs for the Kriegsmarine so far. From there, the completed ships were transferred to the North sea via the Ems river.

The first ship got completed in October of 1941, from then a steady flow of ships began to enter the Kriegsmarine util the end of 1943 with one ship every 3-4 weeks.

Named after sailors and officers lost during the battle of Narvik, the destroyers of the ZE class were valuable ships for the Kriegsmarine, operating in Norwegian Waters, the Baltic Sea and the British Channel.
However, the rushed and simplified production caused several quality problems of those ships and among the Kriegsmarine sailors, those ships were not the most liked.
During wartime, 13 ships got lost, most of them in late 1944 and early 1945. The remaining ships were divided between France, Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union and most of them were scrapped after initial inspections.
Of the 5 ships taken over by the Soviet Uniton, 3 were later given to the  Bulgarian Navy which operated the ships until the end of the 1950s.

The model shows the fifth ship of the series, the destroyer "Werner Glienke (ZE-5)" in April 1943

The Model:

The original 3D model

This is from a little PovRay animation i made a very long time ago: http://www.german-navy.de/web/ScaleModels/fjord2.mpg

The 3D-print:





Together with a "real" German destroyer model


This 1/700 scale model was 3D printed based n a 3D model I made in the early 1990s for a computer game called "Flight Sim Toolkot" where you could build your own flight simulations. And which was pretty bad...
A few years later, I converted the model into the Raytracer Povray where i made a few images and animations form it, which are very very basic in today's standards.
Luckily I was able to take the 3D model and load it in a 3D printer slicer program where I printed it with an Anycubic Mega-S, PLA+, Layer height 0.1 mm. A few parts of the model could not be printed, so I had to add some details made fromp lastic sheets.
Additionally, guns, masts, boats and other smaller parts were taken form the spare part box. Finally the model was enhanced with PE crew and railing. The model was painted with Revel Aqua Colour.

[zenrat]

 

You're doing well with this 3D printing.  Good stuff.

[rickshaw]

Looks better than the bought one, mate!   

[NARSES2]

It does look good 

In particular I find the turret layout interesting 

[nönöbär]

It does look good 

In particular I find the turret layout interesting 

Well, this was the typical turret layout on German Destroyers in WW2, for example, look at the Z1936(Mob) class:

[NARSES2]

Yup, I looked it up after I'd seen your build. I must admit I've always tended to associate that turret layout with Japanese designs for some reason.

I obviously need to get out more

That Z1936 is a nice looking ship

[Captain Canada]

Great job on this 3D stuff ! They look great together.