Reviewed by Timothy Dike |
| Not as well known as her more famous sister ship. The Tirpitz
was an improved Bismarck class battleship. Similar to the Bismark, the
primary differences between these two ships was the location of the aircraft
cranes amidships and addition of torpedo tubes. The Tirpitz also had a
slightly modified bridge, additional anti aircraft guns and protective
domes over the fire control directors. |
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| The hull halves are molded as on piece with a bow and stern insert.
The two parts join at the location of the forward secondary guns. This
makes it easier to hide the seam. The lower hull is molded as two halves
and are well done. |
Click images
to enlarge
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Deck detail is pretty good overall. Deck planking is well done and there
are plenty of hatches and hose reels molded on. |
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The main superstructure parts are pretty well molded. The parts are mostly
molded as complete structures. This limits the better detail to surfaces
that are perpendicular to the mold faces.
The funnel and other superstructure parts are molded in a rather curious
choice of material, Vinyl. While at first glance this allows for a lot
of detail, it presents the modeler with a few problems. Among them are
finding an adhesive to glue the parts together, as well as a paint that
can stick to the surface. Also if the modeler has to cut, sand, or carve
these parts the results will probably be very undesirable. I wish Dragon
would refrain from using this material in the future. |
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| I have included a flat scan and photograph of these parts
sprues to help illustrate the detail. Weapons on these sprues are pretty
fine and nicely detailed for this scale.
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| The main superstructure part is one part, with very nice detailing
on the deck surface. There is a lack of detailing on the sides due to the
way the part is molded. |
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| Main gun turrets are really nice. The rivet detail is a little overdone
but really makes the turrets stand out. |
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| The float planes and ships boats are molded on a clear sprue. This
is done so you can have a clear canopy on the aircraft. The drawback to
this is that clear plastic is a brittle and harder to work with. I would
rather paint my own canopy than have to work with this clear material. |
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| A big bonus is the photo etch fret. The fret includes railings and
radar and even walls that help rectify the lack of detail on the superstructure
sides. |
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| A ship stand is included if you want to display your ship as a full
hull kit. |
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| Decals include flags unfortunately presented in their politically
correct style without the swastika complete. But you can put the parts
of the decals together to complete the decal. A nameplate decal is also
included as well as what appears to be camouflage sheets. I am not sure
how these are to be used with the kit though.
Instructions are well done with several subassembly views that show a step
by step approach to building the ship.
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Conclusions:
Thanks to Hobby Link
Japan for the review sample. They carry both this kit and the rival
Pit-Road
version as well as a complete line of ships from the best manufactures
in the business. |
