Kriegsmarine 1947 World Tour

[TomZ]

Kriegsmarine 1947 World Tour



After the armistice at the end of 1943 German Kriegsmarine entered a phase of rapid expansion. Their failure during the war to achieve any significant naval feat with their surface force prompted an accelerated building program. A new battleship was built to replace the Bismark which was sunk during the war. This ship, built to the same design as the Bismark and the Tirpitz was named the Holtzendorff and entered service in 1946. The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was joined by the Peter Strasser and Manfred von Richthofen.







In 1947 the German navy undertook a goodwill tour around the world visiting their allies. The Three aircraft carriers, the Tirpitz and the Holtzendorff, joined by a number of destroyers sailed from Hamburg in October 1947. Their first stop was the Mediterranean where they visited Italy and Egypt.







After that they sailed around Africa to Japanese occupied India and after that Japan itself. The pictures with this article show the German flotilla in the Japanese Naval dockyard of Yokosuka.





After visiting Japan, the ships sailed for South America, first going to Chili and after that to Argentina. From there they crossed the Atlantic back to Germany. The trip was the end of the operational career of the three Graf zeppelin class carriers. From 1948 onwards they were relegated to training duties. Five new carriers of the much bigger Bodensee class took their place. These were optimised for the operation of jet aircraft like the Me-262T and Hs-132F.



The model started out from two 1/3000 scale Fujimi kits of the Yokosuka and Sasebo naval dockyards. It was expanded with scratch-built harbour parts and 3D model ships from Shapeways.
The aircraft are 3D printed models from Shapeways.





TomZ
http://airwar1946.nl/index.htm

[Knightflyer]

WOW! Incredible 

[Rheged]

Gosh!!!

[nönöbär]

Nice one! How big is it in total?

[TomZ]

Nice one! How big is it in total?

About 40 by 60 centimetres.

TomZ

[PR19_Kit]

GASP! 

[philp]

Very nice.

[nönöbär]

Nice one! How big is it in total?

About 40 by 60 centimetres.

TomZ

Cool, not so big. I have a few hundred 1:1250 scale ships here and wanted to build a diorama for them, but after some inital planning I found out that it would a too big to put somewhere.....

[TomZ]

Nice one! How big is it in total?

About 40 by 60 centimetres.
TomZ

Cool, not so big. I have a few hundred 1:1250 scale ships here and wanted to build a diorama for them, but after some inital planning I found out that it would a too big to put somewhere.....

This is 1/3000. That makes it a lot smaller.

TomZ

[NARSES2]

Gosh!!!

Beautifully understated 

Amazing work Tom 

[Dizzyfugu]

Cool, and impressive. 

[PR19_Kit]

How long is a carrier in 1/3000 scale  please?

I'm trying to get my head round the size of this, and failing.............

[zenrat]

Wow, that's really great.

[TomZ]

How long is a carrier in 1/3000 scale  please?

I'm trying to get my head round the size of this, and failing.............

The Graf Zeppelin is 8.8cm, that's 3.46 inch for you imperial types.
The wingspan of the Bf-109 on deck is 3.1mm, which translates to 0.13 inch.

TomZ

[PR19_Kit]

The Graf Zeppelin is 8.8cm, that's 3.46 inch for you imperial types.
The wingspan of the Bf-109 on deck is 3.1mm, which translates to 0.13 inch.

Jeepers! That's TINY? A 3mm span model is only just about visible!

Hats off to you TomZ, that's exceptional work.