German Battleship
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| The Tirpitz was the sister ship to the infamous Bismarck. It was virtually identical in displacement and armament, with the same graceful lines as her better known sister. After losing the Bismarck Hitler was reluctant to risk his only other main battleship, so her true potential as a surface raider was never realized. Instead she was repeatedly subjected to aerial bombardment until sunk in a Norwegian fjord. | |
| Like the other Tamiya 1/350 kits you will find the parts securely packaged in a sturdy box with a nice built in cradle to secure the hull. |
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| The hull is nicely shaped and is molded in one piece. Inside you will find provisions for motorizing the kit. |  |
| The deck is molded in three parts with a middle superstructure that overlaps the bow and stern deck sections. This part is made to be easily removed to access the battery compartment if you chose the motorized version. |  |
| The superstructure parts are sharp in detail and surface detail is pretty fine. The splinter shields are thin as are the various masts and accessories. |  |
| The main guns and turrets capture that massive look of the German Battleship as do the secondary ones. Light anti aircraft guns are very fine so be careful when handling them as you may break the barrels off. |  |
| The various boats are molded in several parts and are pretty detailed as are the float planes. Also included a mounting base and a gear box for motorizing. The motor is not included. |  |
| The instructions are well presented in separate English and Japanese booklets. They are several pages and include both exploded views and actual pictures of the sub assemblies. There are many detail views that show you some of the more intricate steps. The photo on the right should give you an idea of what is in the instructions as there is far to extensive to reproduce every page. |  |
| Conclusions:
This is a pretty good kit right out of the box, add a little photo etch and you have a real crowd pleaser. It's a huge kit, just like the real thing and can be built into a stunning model. Just clear out some shelf space because the monster is almost 30" long. |
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