1/72 scale German light cruiser Munich

I am a veteran of the U.S. millitary both Navy and Army. I have studied war history and built millitary models since the age of 5. I was stationed aboard 3 aircract carriers as a aircraft mechanic, and was a Tank/Feild artillery mechanic in the Army and served 7 months in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in Desert Sheild, and Desert Storm.

I am starting this Post to show the Construction of a scratch built Z plan cruiser design that The Germans were planing on building but never got to the point of doing. They did laydown a few keels of quite a few ships and start construction on some but latter when the war started recycled those materials into building tanks and field guns that were needed in other theaters of the war.

There are other forums and wikis that talk about the war history and conjecture what might and could have been if things would have been done different, so I dont want to wear your ears out here with that. I just wish to describe that the model in this post is from a design that the Germans wanted to build 4 to 6 of as part of the Z plan, and basically had 3 variations in design stages with 2 designs for a possible 2 improved ships in the same class and possibly a second class.

This was do to influences from previous light cruisers in existance and projected mission expectancy. The Germans Lacked design and construction experience that the major nations of the world had. The financual situation after world war 1 and the naval treaties led to this situation, so the ships that The Germans were designing were slightly modified world war 1 designs. This was very apparent in ships like Sharnhorst and Bismark where they used 3 engine rooms and shafts, instead of 4 like the British, Japanese, and United States. this allowed for reduced weight in the ships and less crew to man them.

The Germans also realized that they would not build a Navy in 5 years that would rival the British Navy in battle fleet engagements. Briton simply had to large of fleet and it was already in place, so the Germans knew the Comerce raiding tactic would be the goal again in a future war that was supose to start in 1945, not 1939.

Therefore the ship designs were idealezed to run fast, and cruisers ussually had mixed diesel and steam poweplants so they had an extended operational range, but could cruise at a high speed during combat and hit and run on convoys. With this in mind and the time frame in history I am designing My model with the basic hull and main armermant design from the proposed line drawings then add equiptment and AA armerment in a fasion that I belive to be logical to what they would have done, and did on ships during the war.

Here is a Picture of the basic Hull, its a bit rough and needs some work but i got it sheeted so its a good start.

top veiw

I am going to straighten out the side metal with stiffeners and start working on the front section before the deck and detail for the sides.


Here is a pic of the plywood center brace section.

Wow ...now that is some experience you have , I congratulate you ..

Very interesting subject you have , looking foward to see this project...

scale ref pics

this is a Japanese hull in 1/350 that is so similar in size and design that im useing it as a design referance for the German cruiser, note the main turrets are from the Bismark kit that You see in the Background and the Hull to the Graf Spee aft of the cruiser hull.

slightly unrelated but interesting line lay out for a F19 stealth aircraft that suposedly wasnt buit, i have a model in 1/48 scale and not very detailed, I started building it in 1/32 scale and need to dig it out of the closet, perhaps after the Munich. For now I dont wish to lose my focus.

You choose a wise choice for scale ..... a 109...

The aircraft came from a Revel kit that had 4 airplanes in it/ the 109, an f4 wildcat a p40 and a japanese am6 2 zero all with the landing gear in the wings, no option for lowered gear. For being cheap models I did some good paint jobs on them. this was in 1993 or so, no i have a seven year old daughter and when she was 4 she found the models along with some more expensive 1/72 aircraft models that I had stored in tisue paper in a file box and decided they were wonderfull toys, and I think that the 109 was the sole survivor of her flight training, whats left of that one LOL if you notice no prop blades, antenea's, horizontal stabalizers ect ect. anyway I like it for a 72 scale referece to the ship and turret size. I do need to get some crew figures like Paul has for the similar reasons but for now the 109 will do nicely. I did notice your thumbnail though, they were good planes. I worked on F4s and F14s so I like the aviation models also. I have a grandfather who is no longer with us who was stationed on the West Virginia at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed and served on her and a Baltimore class cruiser throughout the war. this is part of the reason I like war history, and on my mothers side of the family my Grandmother who is 92 at teh moment and still alive, Her grandfather was 14 years old and was the Horse stuart for General Sheridan in the Union Army during the American Cival war. I have a rock crystal glass and frame the contains a poster graph from a cival war painting that is over 150 years old. the paper print is apraised as no price but the crystal glass is supose to be worth 35 to 50 thousand dollars if we could find a collector, but we have never been interested in selling it anyway as it is a family Heirloom. I plan to hang it up for luck in my new shop when I get done building it sometime this summer.

Sorry, dint mean to ramble, I just think outloud allot, and thats probably why I like to build ships and models.

After all thats good that you like wings aswell... and I see that you are or have been involve very well in history.....

Nice pics Horatio,

I see that you are using multiple small scale models to be able to create the lines and shape of the cruiser in question. But please be careful, The Germans were very independent people,and never copied other designs. The hulls of their ships had a unique charateristic. The streamlinded hulls of their ships were a state of the art when compared to ships of other countries navies. I think I had already advised you to purchase the book Shiffer history had published. It's called German Navy Volume One. It gives a very good insight on the Z-Plan and the ships planned for construction. Another advise would be to contact the German Military Archives (Bundes Militararchiv). Just go to the contact us section, where you can write them a message, indicating that you are a scale modeller and wish more information on this type of cruiser. I am quite sure that they can give you a copy of the proposed ship builder's plans, which are normally in scale 1:100 and at a cost of course; but this will give you vital information.

Another curious aspect of your project, is how you are assembling the secions without the keel strip. In my opinion, you will need this if you want the sections to be perfectly aligned. I made the same mistake once, and had to dismantle nearly half of the hull to correct the foul.

I also noted the brass barrel fitted with the turret (still under construction). The barrel looks very good,did you buy them from a supplier in the states or turned them on a lathe?

As you may already know, my next project is the 1/72 german aircraft carrier the Graf Zeppelin. but the biggest of the all will be the H-Class Super Battleship Hindenburg as finally designed in 1944 with the 20" (500mm diameter) calibre main armament, having a displacement of 141000 Tons. The model will measure some 479cm, and that my friend would be a very nice model to see.

Good afternoon Horatio,

Did you carry out any more work on the model? Would love to see more of the progress.

It would be nice to have a picture of the light cruiser uploaded in this thread.It would make the article more exciting. Model ships forming part of the Z-Plan are very rare. I don't know of any manufacturers that produce scale model kits of ships intended in the Z-Plan. As such it would a very interesting thing to see.

Im sorry Ive been off for a good few weeks, I did find actuall plans for teh M class Cruiser and due to copyright I cant post them here however I posted that they were on Operation Dreadnought. anyway I have made small progress on teh Model but allot of progress on Building my workshop on My house. The weather is not cooperating today and my Daughter is out os School for a week so im babysiting. I did make a new Hullform out of wood like the old one but need to fill in the countoures with filler. I am sorry I didt see your posts from the fith untill today as My computer wasnt logging in on the blog right. It has been telling me that I was logged in, but I need to Double login for some reason. The Brass Barrol on teh Turret in the Picture is acctually a 11 inch gun in 1/144 scale for an Idea I was working on for a Graph Spee in 144 scale, and no it wasnt bought I just layered up brass tubeing so It accually is straight as sewe pipes but in stages, they used to do that allot in teh 60s on scratch buit ships, however I like the Lathe aproach better, I just lack the funds at the moment for that Purchase. And Thank be To You Paul the Wood turret in the picure is to large in dimension. I figured it out after I received my copy of German Naval Guns, So I started working on a more accurate size, LOL from cardboard. As soon as I figure out where I misplaced my camera I'll post more pics, and yes Thank you for the info on the hull, I wish I would have been designing their ships for them, I would have designed a Medium class cruiser with 6, 8 inch guns in 3 turrets like on the light cruiser hull but with Prinze Eugen main guns.

One more thing. You mentioned that no manufacturer produces any Z plan ship models and I dont know of any. The 1/72 scale model that I am working on started as a 1/350 scale model that I wanted to do in Resin cast, I just think that they are so small in that scale. I hope that the modeling world will get more hip and exited about 100/ 200/ 144/ and 72 scale in ships, however i know that battleships get huge fast in those scales and thats not everyones cup of Tea. I acctually ws thinking if I made even just the hull and deck in Resin cast and Photo etch super structure parts that Someone could add parts from other kits to complete the M class cruiser in 1/350 scale.

I could start the Z plan Model company LOL. anyway sink some Mercant men for me till I can launch on the slipway, and Thank you for the Imput.

A always Haratio.

Ive made a little progress[img][/img] The Pic host page isnt working today, Darn Happy easter. Ill post Pics as soon as it is up.

Hello Horatio,

Happy Easter, we will await your pics.

ah ha Gotit< I wasn't pasting it right. this is part of the scale deck plan

laying it out on the poster board

Amazingly the ship was 181 meters long and the Prinze Eugan was just over 200, this could havee easaly been refitted with 3 8inch heavy cruiser gun turrets at a later date. The Germans were known for building allot of their ships larger than other countries. plus the size would have enabled mare speed and operational distance.

Ironically the Gun tube that I built for the Graph Spee in approxamatley 144 scale is allmost right on the mark after I rescaled turrets to more accurate demension, the wood turret in earlier pictures was a bit to large as I discovered affter getting the German Naval Guns hardback volume, The book is all 4 of the volumes that are published in Polish and even though I can vaugely speak and read German, I am glad they republished it in english.

As you can see in this picture better the tube is just glued in layers and not the quality of the Beauties that You make. but ill get there, and or fly to Malta so you can make me some LOL.

here is a pick of the oversized turret on the deckplan.

heres teh front of my House that I'm building on the wood deck as to have a workshop and get out of the TV room.