Reviewed June 2026
by Martin J Quinn

The Deutschland class was a series of three Panzerschiffe (armored ships), a form of heavily armed cruiser, built by the Reichsmarine officially in accordance with restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The ships of the class, Deutschland, Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Graf Spee, were all stated to displace 10,000 long tons in accordance with the Treaty, though they actually displaced 10,600 to 12,340 long tons at standard displacement. The design for the ships incorporated several radical innovations, including the first major use of welding in a warship and all-diesel propulsion. Due to their heavy armament of six 28 cm (11 in) guns and lighter weight, the British referred to the vessels as "pocket battleships". The Deutschland-class ships were initially classified as Panzerschiffe, but the Kriegsmarine (the renamed German navy) reclassified them as heavy cruisers in February 1940.

Admiral Scheer was ordered by the Reichsmarine from the Reichsmarinewerft shipyard in Wilhelmshaven. The ship was launched on 1 April 1933; at her launching, she was christened by Marianne Besserer, the daughter of Admiral Reinhard Scheer, the ship's namesake. She was completed slightly over a year and a half later on 12 November 1934, the day she was commissioned into the German fleet. The old pre-dreadnought battleship Hessen was removed from service and her crew transferred to the newly commissioned panzerschiff.

Admiral Scheer's first overseas deployment began in July 1936 when she was sent to Spain to evacuate German civilians caught in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. From 8 August 1936 she served together with her sister ship Deutschland on non-intervention patrols off the Republican-held coast of Spain. She served four tours of duty with the non-intervention patrol through June 1937.

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Admiral Scheer remained at anchor in the Schillig roadstead outside Wilhelmshaven, with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper.  Admiral Scheer underwent a refit while her sister ships set out on commerce raiding operations in the Atlantic. Around this time the ship received two of its Arado Ar 196 floatplanes. Admiral Scheer was modified during the early months of 1940, including the installation of a new, raked clipper bow. The heavy command tower was replaced with a lighter structure, and she was reclassified as a heavy cruiser. Additional anti-aircraft guns were also installed, along with updated radar equipment.

Admiral Scheer sailed in October 1940 on her first combat sortie. On the night of 31 October she slipped through the Denmark Strait and broke into the open Atlantic. Her B-Dienst radio intercept equipment identified the convoy HX 84, sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Admiral Scheer's Arado seaplane located the convoy on 5 November 1940. The armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, the sole escort for the convoy, issued a report of the German raider and attempted to prevent her from attacking the convoy, which was ordered to scatter under cover of a smoke screen. Admiral Scheer's first salvo scored hits on Jervis Bay, disabling her wireless equipment and steering gear. Shells from her second salvo struck the bridge and killed her commander, Edward Fegen. Admiral Scheer sank Jervis Bay within 22 minutes, but the engagement delayed the German ship long enough for most of the convoy to escape. Admiral Scheer sank only 5 of the convoy's 37 ships, though a 6th was sunk by the Luftwaffe following the convoy's dispersal.

On 21 February 1942, Admiral Scheer, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, and the destroyers Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z5 Paul Jakobi, Z25, Z7 Hermann Schoemann, and Z14 Friedrich Ihn steamed to Norway. The first operation in Norway in which Admiral Scheer took part was Operation Rösselsprung, in July 1942. On 2 July, the ship sortied as part of the attempt to intercept Arctic convoy PQ-17. Admiral Scheer and Lützow formed one group while Tirpitz and Admiral Hipper composed another. While en route to the rendezvous point, Lützow and three destroyers ran aground, forcing the entire group to abandon the operation. Admiral Scheer was detached to join Tirpitz and Admiral Hipper in Altafjord. The British detected the German departure and ordered the convoy to scatter. Aware that surprise had been lost, the Germans broke off the surface attack and turned the destruction of PQ-17 over to the U-boats and Luftwaffe. Twenty-four of the convoy's thirty-five transports were sunk.

In August 1942, she conducted Operation Wunderland, a sortie into the Kara Sea to interdict Soviet shipping and attack targets of opportunity. The length of the mission and the distances involved precluded a destroyer escort for the operation; three destroyers would escort Admiral Scheer until they reached Novaya Zemlya, at which point they would return to Norway. Two U-boats — U-251 and U-456 — patrolled the Kara Gate and the Yugorsky Strait. The Germans originally intended to send Admiral Scheer with her sister ship Lützow, but since the latter had run aground the previous month, she was unavailable for the operation.  On 16 August, Admiral Scheer and her destroyer escort left Narvik on a course to pass to the north of Novaya Zemlya. Upon entering the Kara Sea, she encountered heavy ice; in addition to searching for merchant shipping, the Arado floatplane was used to scout paths through the ice fields. On 25 August, she encountered the Soviet icebreaker Sibiryakov. Admiral Scheer sank the icebreaker, but not before she sent a distress signal. The German ship then turned south, and two days later, arrived off the port of Dikson. Admiral Scheer damaged two ships in the port and shelled harbor facilities. Meendsen-Bohlken considered sending a landing party ashore, but firing from Soviet shore batteries convinced him to abandon the plan. After breaking off the bombardment, Meendsen-Bohlken decided to return to Narvik. She reached port on 30 August without having achieved any significant successes.

On 23 October Admiral Scheer, Tirpitz and the destroyers Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, Z23, Z28, and Z29 left Bogen Bay and proceeded to Trondheim. There, Tirpitz stopped for repairs, while Admiral Scheer and Z28 continued on to Germany. Until the end of 1944, Admiral Scheer was part of the Fleet Training Group.

On 22 November 1944, Admiral Scheer, the destroyers Z25 and Z35, and the 2nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla relieved the cruiser Prinz Eugen and several destroyers supporting German forces fighting the Soviets on the Estonian island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in the Baltic. The Soviet Air Force launched several air attacks on the German forces, all of which were successfully repelled by heavy anti-aircraft fire. On the night of 23–24 November, the German naval forces completed the evacuation of the island. In all, 4,694 troops were evacuated from the island.

In early February 1945, Admiral Scheer stood off Samland with several torpedo boats in support of German forces fighting Soviet advances. On 9 February, the ships began shelling Soviet positions. Between 18 and 24 February, German forces launched a local counterattack; Admiral Scheer and the torpedo boats provided artillery support, targeting Soviet positions near Peyse and Gross-Heydekrug. The German attack temporarily restored the land connection to Königsberg. The ship's guns were badly worn out by March and in need of repair. On 8 March, Admiral Scheer departed the eastern Baltic to have her guns relined in Kiel; she carried 800 civilian refugees and 200 wounded soldiers. An uncleared minefield prevented her from reaching Kiel, and so she unloaded her passengers in Swinemünde. Despite her worn-out gun barrels, the ship then shelled Soviet forces outside Kolberg until she used up her remaining ammunition.

The ship then loaded refugees and left Swinemünde; she successfully navigated the minefields on the way to Kiel, arriving on 18 March. Her stern turret had its guns replaced at the Deutsche Werke shipyard by early April. During the repair process, most of the ship's crew went ashore. On the night of 9 April 1945, a general RAF bombing raid by over 300 aircraft struck the harbor in Kiel. Admiral Scheer was hit by bombs and capsized. She was partially broken up for scrap after the end of the war, though part of the hull was left in place and buried with rubble from the attack when the inner harbors were filled in post-war.

In 2024, an industrial archeologist and a geophysicist, along with a team of researchers using reflection seismology, examined a parking lot of a navy arsenal in Kiel where they suspected the wreck was buried. Some 70 percent of Admiral Scheer was located, including the main guns and superstructure.

For more on the Admiral Scheer, check out here Wikipedia page, where this history was culled from, here. 

The Flyhawk Admiral Scheer

This version of Flyhawk’s 1/700 SMS Admiral Scheer is the "deluxe" version, which comes in a dark cardboard box with artwork showing Admiral Scheer cruising at sea from the vantage of an escorting ship. 

Inside the box is a copy of the box art that is suitable for framing.  The hull, decks and lower hull are wrapped in a thin white material, while the sprues are in various plastic bags.  At the bottom of the box are the directions, decals, and more.  Being that this is the "Deluxe Edition" release of Admiral Scheer, there is photo-etch, turned brass parts and 3D printed parts included. 

FlyHawk lists each component of the hull and decks as different sprues, A through D.   Sprue A is the main deck, Sprue B the aft deck, Sprue C the upper hull, Sprue D the lower hull.  

SPRUE A - MAIN DECK
The first of two decks, this is one long piece.  There is nice planking, with barely perceptible buttends. There are also bollards, hatches, barbettes and anchor chain molded to the hull.  The latter is nicely done, but I would have preferred this to be left off and either supplied my own or had anchor chain included in the kit. 

SPRUE B - AFT DECK
The detail here is similar to the main above.

SPRUE C - UPPER  HULL
The upper hull has portholes with delicate eyebrows, vertical ladders and chocks integral to the hull, along with the armor belt.  Interesting, this part if one piece with a solid bottom, so there are no hull halves to glue together and no waterline plate to attach.  Instead, there are slots on the bottom of this part that are keyed to raised nubs on the lower hull, to help fit the two halves together.  I like this approach.  The inside of this part has a recess for the metal plate that is included with the kit.

SPRUE D - LOWER HULL
Bilge keels, skegs and the lower part of the armor belt are molded to the lower hull.  As mentioned above, there are raised nubs that key into slots in the upper hull. 

SPRUE E

This sprue has superstructure parts and an AA platform for the after superstructure.  All the parts show FlyHawk's usual level of detail, with watertight doors, and non-slip treads on the AA platform. 

SPRUE F

This is the forward 01 deck. Really nice detail - there are portholes with open scuttles, piping, vertical ladders, skylights and planking. 

SPRUE G

Flyhawk specializes in these really small one part sprues.  This is one of them - it's the foundation for a director. 

This is the 01 level of the aft superstructure.  Same comments as above for sprue F.  Also molded to this part are what I believe life rafts. 

The breakwater, crane boom, props, struts, shafts, a boat, mast, davits, anchors and more are included on this sprue.

These small sprues contain the shields for the 10.5cm SK C/33 guns.  There are two shields on each sprue.  There is some raised rivet detail on the front of each part, which is probably a little over scale. 

Here you'll find the tops of the 11" main battery turrets, the raison d'être for Scheer's existence.  There are molded on ladders and rivet detail on the turrets. 

SPRUE O (X2)

Here are the bottoms of the turrets, along with the 11" barrels, torpedo tubes, cable reels, 5.9 inch secondary gun barrels (with blast bags), and other small bits. 

The instructions are in typical Flyhawk deluxe edition fashion, printed in color, on both sides of oversized glossy paper.  This sheet has the deluxe parts manifest, exploded view drawings, and color photos of parts placement, which is very handy.

I like the way Flyhawk designed the upper hull, turning three parts (two sides & a WL plate) into one part, that is keyed to fit the lower hull, for those heretics who build their 1/700 models full hull.  The deluxe edition has lots of extra goodies - turned brass, photo-etch and 3D printed parts - that will dress up an already nice kit into a very fine build, especially in the hands of a talented modeler. Let's hope Flyhawk follows this up with a 1942 or later Lutzow.  Highly Recommended. 

This is Flyhawk’s 1/700 KM Admiral Scheer, kit number FH1168S. The kit is averaging around $62.00 online, but can be found for less than that, plus shipping (and perhaps tariff charges).  This review sample is courtesy of my wallet - I picked mine up eBay. 

This is an in box review only, your mileage may vary once you start assembly.