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Kormoran, German WW2 Auxiliary Cruiser, Recognition Style Model in 1/500 Scale, Near Complete

While researching famous German WW2 ships to add to my faux German recognition navy, I stumbled upon the Wikipedia story of the Auxiliary Cruiser Kormoran – Wow, what a good read that was! If you’re not familiar with Kormoran’s story I highly recommend you check it out. I was floored that I’d never heard of this ship before, she’s definitely made the list.

Basically a freighter, the Blender design for Kormoran has been a nice change of pace and I’ve found the work quite enjoyable. The end detail level will be fairly low, keeping her more or less consistent with my other WW2 recognition style models. That said, there will still be considerably more detailed than typical. I’d like to do her up proper in 1/350 scale, maybe some day.

In other news, I’ve also finished the designs for the per-dreadnought battleship Schledwig Holstein and the torpedo boat Jaguar. It’s almost time to add a new project page so I can put all this content in one place…

German WW2 Recognition Model Fleet in 1/500 Scale, Nearing Completion

I took a long design and printing break during the second half 2024, but I’ve recently jumped back in, and am now working on wrapping up my 1/500 scale, WW2 German navy recognition set. I’ve just added the light cruisers Nurenburg, Köln, Emden and the destroyer Maass (Maasz?).

I’m now thinking I’ll be done with the blender work for this project after designing: destroyer Narvic, torpedo boat Jaguar, pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein, and the Auxiliary Cruiser Kormoran, I’m also still on the fence about adding one more destroyer: Z28. I really do enjoy these fast, simple projects!

Perhaps when they are done, I’ll start a meatier subject.

New Project Time?

Imperial German Navy, WWI Torpedo Boat: V69

I still have the Revell USS Arizona WWI conversion project to finish, it’s been more challenging than expected but once she’s done, I’ve a choice to make.

Over the last few years, mostly while printing, building and recovering from Charles Martel, I’ve kept busy in Blender revisiting some of my earlier, favorite designs, rebuilding them from the ground up to be reprinted on my Elegoo Saturn. This allowed/required me to increase their detail levels to take advantage of the Saturn’s capabilities and also because I’ll be printing some of them in a larger scale. During this time I also completed a couple totally new designs, IJN Yamato and a German Schnellboot, and last and yes least, there’s my tiny Japanese WWII plane collection in 1/450 scale, intended to augment some of my “finished” Japanese ships. They’re fairly simple and were fun Blender designs to create, only taking a day or so each.
I’m almost ready to dive in, but which to start?
Decisions, decisions!

Graf Zeppelin 1/500 scale German recognition model complete

My Graf Zeppelin German aircraft carrier, is complete. She fits in well with the rest of the fleet. A faux WW2 recognition model, she probably has a bit more detail than a real one would’ve but I couldn’t resist, the under deck support details were just too cool to omit. She’s a whopper too, building out to about 21 inches. She was also the most difficult of my recognition replicas to design, her casemated guns were tricky and her high degree of bow flare that blends into the near vertical hanger deck sides took me a while to get right (or at least acceptable) . I actually printed a first draft on the Ender 3 that didn’t look right in hand – huge waste of filament!

I’m thinking I’ll only recreate one each of the light cruisers and destroyers that came in the original 1/500 scale German recognition set. Then I’ll call this project complete. But they’ll have to wait till spring for completion, winter has solidly set in and my resin printing is done in a shed. The Blender work will keep me busy for a bit and I’ve been off and on with a schnellboot design for almost a year…

German Admiral Scheer 1/500 scale ww2 recognition replica complete

Right on the heels of completing Scharnhorst, the design, printing, and assembly of my Admiral Scheer Pocket Battleship/Panzerschiff/Heavy Cruiser, WW2 recognition replica, was a piece of cake. Everything just came together and worked the first time.

My next design will be more challenging and diverges from the authentic 1/500 scale WW2 German recognition sets with a subject that I have always wanted to see included in them – the Graf Zeppelin Aircraft Carrier.

German battleship Scharnhorst 1/500 scale ww2 recognition replica complete

Scharnhorst is complete, I’ve been able to take advantage of a relatively warm weather window and print the resin parts for Scharnhorst, Scheer and Graf Zeppelin (GZ is actually still printing, again…). While recreating these recognition replicas has been a blast, I’m finding that without an example in hand, it’s difficult to stick to the original designs as seen from pictures on the web. I inevitably need actual pictures of the real ships to fill in the blanks and when I start designing from them, it’s painful to stop, and retain the often inaccurate design elements of the actual recognition models.

When I get all the ships completed I’ll likely make a project page to contain them all but for now this post is it for Scharnhorst.

Graf Zeppelin joins the German 1/500 scale, replica, recognition fleet

Aircraft Carrier Graf Zepplin joins the Blender recognition fleet

While waiting for a weather window to print the resin parts for Scharnhorst and Admiral Scheer I got a jump on the Graf Zeppelin’s Blender design. As was always her way, she’s not quite done yet! I did have a couple days in the low 50’s and after a totally preventable screw-up (I forgot to screw the vat down!) managed to get both their resin parts printed. The 10 day forecast says we’ll get warmish days in a week or so. With luck, I’ll get to print Graf Zeppelin’s resin before spring.

Should have Scheer and Scharnhorst built shortly. Recreating the WW2 German recognition set, has been a fun and fast project.

Update:
Links to posts for the now completed models mentioned above:
Admiral Scheer
Scharnhorst
Graf Zeppelin

Admiral Scheer German 1/500 scale recognition replica, joins my Blender fleet

The Blender work on Admiral Scheer is done, I had a good weather window to print my finished Scharnhorst design but blew it working on Scheer instead. Printing Scharnhorst will have to wait. With some luck I’ll be able to print the resin parts for both if another good day comes along.

Scharnhorst, Joins My WW2 German Fleet of Recognition Replicas in 1/500 Scale

3D Printed WW2 German recognition Fleet Replicas 1/500 Scale

Scharnhorst is almost ready to join my 3D printed WW2 German recognition replica fleet. The blender model still needs some finish work. I need to hollow out the resin parts and clip objects that are partially embedded in other parts but will be printed separately. With any luck I’ll have some warmish days to print the resin parts before the cold sets in for the season.

I don’t have an original Comet model of Scharnhorst, I searched online and used the few halfway decent pictures I could find and diagrams of the actual ship. When printed she will fill a whole in my collection nicely.

I’ll likely have plenty of time this winter to design the rest of the set. I’ll be starting the Blender design of Admiral Scheer next. I don’t have an original model of her either…

3D printed Tirpitz 1/500 scale model

October 11, 2023

After completing the Prinz Eugen replica Comet recognition model, it was only natural to follow up with Tirpitz.
Again I used the Ender 3 Pro for the “Wooden” hull parts and my Elegoo Saturn for the parts that would have been cast lead on the Comet models.

As with Prinz Eugen, the pictures with two ships show my printed model next to an original. And again like Eugen, this Tirpitz is not a perfect replica – minor improvements were made as well as a few mistakes…
My next version should be close to perfect 🙂

This was a small, simple build, so no project page, just this post.