Original post: 3/1/2010
This is the Lee 1:400 scale German “Pocket Battleship” KMS Admiral Graf Spee. It seems to be a rebranding of an old Heller kit as they seem to be identical down to the decal sheet. She was a simple and fun kit to build though showing her age with poor details. She’s nothing special out of the box, but has plenty of potential. The kit was originally designed to be motorized, with a slot opening on the torpedo deck for an on/off lever. It would have been nice if a part were included to plug that up. I found her cheap enough ($19.00) on eBay and had to have her as I’ve always had a soft spot for Germany’s commerce raiders. She was my 4th build and is the first kit I tried adding customization to. She’s a good size and can be dressed up nicely with extra PE parts. I did add some, but nowhere near as much as she deserves/needs, maybe some day.
Update 6/3/2012:
Someday actually came!
After finally finishing my two year Akagi build, I was jonesing to work on something but too burnt to start another year+ project, so I spent a few days on this old build adding photo etched parts, re-doing much of the paint job and rigging her up.
I’ve added a few of the before pics below.
The Arizona may be next…