Project Witches' World - SMS Falkenhayn (1944)

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

SMS Falkenhayn

Class: Motlke class battleship
Affiliation: Karlsland
Laid down: December 1938
Pressed into service: Jan 1941
Official comissioning: August 44

Armament (1944):
4 x 3 28cm L/52 SK C/34
8 x 2 128mm L61 SK C/42
8 x 2 20mm Flakzwilling 38
4 x 4 20mm Flakvierling 38
2 37mm Flakzwiling 42
3 x 2 37mm Flakvierling 42
3 x 2 40mm Flakvierling 28
2 x 3 G7a T1 torpedoes

Air group complement:
x1 Arado Ar 196
x4 Flak Wulf FW 190-T striker units (4 reserve units)

Aviation facilities: 1 catapult

History

Laid down in December 1938, SMS Flakenhayn was the second ship in the Moltke class battleship of the Imperial Karlsland Navy. The Moltke class was based on the preceeding Scharnhorst class albeit the former has a 4th turret. Initially designed to carry the 4 x 2 38 cm (15") SK C/34 guns. The design was revised owing to the shortage of 15" guns and weight problems. As such, the Moltke ships were armed with 4 x 3 28cm L/52 SK C/34 that are found on the Scharnhorsts.

Construction of SMS Falkenhayn was briefly interrupted in August 1939. Following news that unknown beings called the Neuroi appeared over in Ostmark, construction timetable on Falkenhayn was pushed forward. In the same month itself, after intense fighting with the Neuroi, Ostmark falls. Refugees from Ostmark flee in all directions. In the following November 1939, the Neuroi invasion of Soumous begins. At this juncture, Falkenhayn's machinery has been installed and in undergoing trials. Her main armaments were slated for installation in December 1939 but this was halted. On 25 December 1939, Karlsland High Command issued all work on all and any existing ship construction to be suspended indefinitely. Any ships that are undergoing sea trials and machinery fitting should be expedited with utmost urgency. It was during this time that planning for Operation Small and Greater Bifrost took place. The former involves evacuating the royal family, government, Berlin and her suburbs. The latter involved a total evacuation of Karlsland in the face of the Neuroi threat


Operation Small Bifrost (May 1940)

SMS Falkenhayn played no role during this phase of the evacuation. She was undergoing speed and sea trials of her machinery. Whenever she was in port, AA guns of any available calibre were installed onto her. High Command has ordered her to serve as evacuation ship for Operation Great Bifrost


Operation Great Bifrost (January 1941)

SMS Falkenhayn was ordered to East Prussia and serve as the flagship for the evacuation of Karlslandian civilians from East Pomerenia to Orkney Islands. During the evacuation runs, the evacuation ships were under constant attacks by the Neuroi. Ships like Wilhelm Gustlov were lost with all hands and refugees. Despite running the gauntlet, Falkenhayn managed to evacuate the civilians. She also took on part of the Army casualties and part of the Army out of East Pomerenia to Orkney while the rest of the Army retreated eastwards to Orussia.

Operation Dynamo

SMS Falkenhayn also took part in Operation Dynamo albeit in the later stages.

Neu Karlsland

After participating in the closing stages of Operation Dyname, Falkenhayn, along with other evacuation ships made their way to Orkney Islands to transfer the last remaining refugees to Karlsland's colony in South Liberia, Neu Karlsland. There, her construction and fitting out was completed at N. K. Werke Marinewerft Wilhelmshaven. Her construction was officially completed in August 1944. She was officially comissioned into the navy in the same month

Awards

Due to her participation of evacuating Karlslandians from Karlsland and the bravery and dedication of her crew, she earned the following awards -

Bifrost Shield
Neue Karlsland medal
Iron Cross 2nd class
Iron Cross 1st class
Knight's Cross
High Seas Fleet Badge

Cultural Impact
SMS Falkenhayn was the first ship to be completed after the Evacuation of Karlsland. Much like HMS Hood, Falkenhayn received celebrity status. To the mainland refugees, Falkenhayn represented the indomitable spirit of the common Karlslandians. As such, just like HMS Hood, Falkenhayn was also known as "The People's Battleship"


----------------------------

Thanks for reading this far. Hope I don't bore you with the lengthy world building and exposition. I'm not sure how many of you are anime fans but Project Witches' World is a series of model builds based upon Shimada's Humikane's Project World Witches or better known as the Strike Witches Universe. Just like the Star Wars Universe, the expanded universe for Strike Witches is very vast. From series of books to manga to fan works, there are even original witches. You guys can check out the Strike Witches 1991 by ogitsune. It's an entire fan universe created by him based on the mechanics and story line of Shimada Humikane's Strike Witches although it's set in 1991.

For those of you interested in knowing more about the Strike Witches universe and what the Neuroi are, click on the links below -
http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Historical_Timeline
http://strikewitches.wikia.com/wiki/Neuroi

Quick introduction of the model series. I'm actually a huge fan of Strike Witches. Falkenhayn is actually the 3rd installment of the Project Witches' World that I'm doing. It actually started off when I toyed with the idea of making a 4 turreted Scharnhorst (which I will make a separate entry here). Why and how the model series came to me? It's all thanks to Brave Witches. The 1st and 2nd what-if ships that I was working on was immediately imported into the Strike Witches universe.

Alright. Enough with the chatter. Here's a rough plan of Falkenhayn that I did to keep myself awake at a teacher's workshop. More photos to follow later

[/list][/list][/list][/list][/list][/list]

[Zombolt]

I don't know what i'm more surprised at, that it took this long for one of these anime to get wiffs here, or that it was alright.


Keep it up!

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

I don't know what i'm more surprised at, that it took this long for one of these anime to get wiffs here, or that it was alright.

Keep it up!

I assume this is one of those anime based wiffs here in this thread.

I think I wanna use this post to talk more about it. I'll continue on the build process in later posts.

Mixing anime and what-if

From what I understand, wiffs are mostly, if not, always, products of our active imagination. Inspiration mostly comes from blueprints, the works of others, games, TV shows or our need to clear out the spare bin.

Actually, Project Witches's World isn't the first time I mixed anime and what-if together. Wait... Thinking back, there were 3 tanks that I did years ago that fit into the series as well.

I like anime. Seeing how series like Strike Witches and Valkyria Chronicles incorporated WW2 themes and equipment got me thinking if it was remotely possible to combine the 2 together. Will, it does. Though at the express end of money.

The exciting thing about the Strike Witches universe is that it puts a slight twist to WW2. Instead of fighting the Axis, humanity bands together to fight the Neuroi. The WW2 theme itself and it's references creates huge possibilities of an expanded universe. So I thought why not try and play around with it. I did and SMS Falkenhayn is the product of it.

Strike Witches may have planted the seeds but it's the expanded universe materials and Brave Witches that is helping in building up the narrative of my builds.

I donplay Star Wars Armada and one thing I've learnt from
Is is that, a model is just an assembly of plastic. What makes it different from other models is the narrative that the builder gives it.

[Zombolt]

If there is a place that loves a good story, it would be here. So please continue on your path! If you have previous work, Give them a thread, we'd love to see them.

also, it dosen't hurt that I am also an anime fan on hand, and I know there are a few more here. I also know of shows/games your blending in your Wiff : D

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

Brief run down to Falkenhayn's construction -

Base kit: Tamiya's 1/700 Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.



1 -
Taking the hull from either one of the kit, the superstructure amidships was sawed off and made flush with the main deck. Thereafter, the raised deck lines were sanded down from fore to aft to give the impression that Falkenhayn never had her wooden deck installed.

2 -
To make the amidship superstructure, left over parts from Trumpeter's 1/700 Tirpitz was used to make the structure and covered with Evergreen's 1mm (if I remember correctly) plasticard

3 -
Taking the aft superstructure piece, the end was cut off to put the turret's trunk in place. The deck on the aft superstructure was gutted away since it had many raised parts to facilitate the actual parts from the kit. The new deck is made using 0.5mm plasticard

4 -
The Admiral's/Navigation (Or what ever it's called. That second bridge higher up) was made using parts from Trumpeter's Tirpitz

From the picture above, you can see that the current layout has no provision for the aviation facilities amidships. No worries. Future updates will show you what happened and where the aviation facilities are.

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

The catapult is rebuilt using styrene and it was relocated to the aft of the ship.


Anchor chains were reconstituted






AA being fitted out


For those of you who are curious, I got the AA from 3dmodels. I must say, 3D printing present countless opportunities and with the current technology, the resolution is rather high albeit the layers are obvious when you go in and look at it. There's no flash to clean. You can try to sand down the layer but be warned, it is at the risk of breaking the part and/or loosing the detail all together. Trust me, the detail is par excellence. PE guns cannot match the details of 3D printed AA guns

http://www.3dmodelparts.com/

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

Some quick fun shots together with the 1st 2 official members of Project Witches World in 1/700. These are not the 1st 3 Strike Witches themed builds that I did years ago. Those models were AFV models.


Left to Right: SMS Lutzow (1935), SMS Moltke, SMS Falkenhayn









As you can see, SMS Lutzow (1935) laid the precedent for the stern catapult.



Top to bottom: SMS Scharnhorst, SMS Gneisenau, SMS Moltke, SMS Falkenhayn

Took this for the lulz. I temporarily imported Scharnhorst-Gneisenau into the Witches' World project just for this photo shoot

[Old Wombat]

Woh! Major construction under way!

Looking good!

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

It's actually completed. The 1st 2 haven't colour yet

[proditor]

That's really awesome! I'm currently only planning to up-gun a Scharnhorst at some point, this is a lot more (really good) work. 

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

15"?

[Weaver]

Nice one! 

I'm not a huge anime fan, but they do come up with some thought-provoking ideas as well as some totally wacky ones, some of which are equally inspiring.

[Velvet_Scarlantina]

SMS Falkenhayn was completed last December 2016.

Here're the finished pictures









And she wears her decorations proudly


Left column top to bottom - Karlsland Honour Clasp; Operation Great Bifrost Shield
Middle column top to bottom - Iron cross 2nd class; Iron cross 1st class; Knight's Cross
Right column - High Seas Fleet Badge

If you're wondering, yes I did change the award that she got during the painting process

As for the colours -

All colours are from Tamiya

Freeboard - German Grey and Dark Sea Grey
Main deck - RLM Grey
Superstructure - Light Sea Grey
Top of guns - German Grey
Ar 196 - Dark Green and Black Green
Other colours - Chrome Silver, Gun Metal, NATO Black

[proditor]

15"?

Ayup. I've been playing too much World of Warships. 

[NARSES2]

Fantastic