Shipbucket

1.) January 1939:
"Scharnhorst" as commissioned.


2.) August 1939:
After refit - "Atlantic bow" added, main mast moved further aft, new hangar and raised funnel cap.


3.) November 1939:
"Scharnhorst's" look during the attack on the "Northern Patrol" and the sinking of "HMS Rawalpindi".
Note the added active FuMO 22 radar on the foretop rangefinder.


4.)April 1940 Operation "Weseruebung":
"Scharnhorst" during Unternehmen "Weseruebung" (Operation Weser-Exercise) - the German invasion of Norway. The catapult on top of turret "C" was removed.


5.)February 1942:
"Scharnhorst" during the infamous "channel dash" - Operation "Cerberus".
Note the increase in number of light AA guns and the second FuMO 22 set on the aft rangefinder.
Two tripple sets of 533 mm torpedo tubes originating from the light cruiser "Nuernberg" were added midships.


6.) March 1943:
This is "Scharnhorst" during Operation "Paderborn". She spent most of 1943 in Norway paticipating in training excersises and made a few mostly unsuccesful sorties into the Norwegian Sea.
The foretop rangefinder was upgraded with a FuMO 27 (or 26?) and a passive FuMB 7 "Timor".


7.)December 1943:
"Scharnhorst's" final camouflage scheme and how she looked during Operations "Sizilien" and "Ostfront".
"Scharnhorst" was sunk on 26 December 1943 in the "Battle off the North Cape" by superior british forces lead by the battleship "HMS Duke of York".
1.932 members of "Scharnhorst's" crew perished - only 36 survived.





1.) July 1938:
"Gneisenau" as commissioned.


2.) January1939:
After refit - "Atlantic bow" added, temporarily fitted hangar and raised funnel cap.


3.) April 1940 Operation "Weseruebung":
"Gneisenau" during Unternehmen "Weseruebung" (Operation Weser-Exercise) - the German invasion of Norway.
Note: She was still carrying her stern eagle then.


4.) Late 1940:
In June 1940 "Gneisenau" sustained a torpedo hit by the british River-class submarine "HMS Clyde".
Here she is shown during sea trials in the Baltic Sea in late 1940 after receiving all the necessary repairs.


5.) March 1941:
"Operation "Berlin".
Together with her sister "Scharnhorst" she broke out into the Atlantic on a commerce raiding mission, which lastet until 22 March, when both ships arrived in the occupied french harbor Brest.
The drawing depicts her shortly after her arrival in Brest on 22nd March.


6.) February 1942:
This is "Gneisenau" during Operation "Cerberus" - the "channel dash".
"Gneisenau" was hit by a mine on the Brunsbüttel Roads on her way to Kiel.

Note the new hangar structure and added light AA-guns.


7.) Just for the sake of completeness- "Gneisenaus" PLANNED conversion to 38cm guns:
On the night of 26–27 February, Gneisenau suffered a heavy bomb hit during an air attack. The complete bow section burned out and 112 men were killed.
As a result the ship was decommissioned and conversion work started with the aim of replaceing the 28 cm (11") triple with 38 cm (15") twin turrets. The conversion was never finished and "Gneisenau" was subsequently sunk as a block ship in Gdynia (Gotenhafen) when the Red Army captured the city.
(Full thread in the Never-Built-Desingns forum: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5042)


Thanks for looking!

Hello everybody,

after visiting this great forum for some time now, I thought it was time to contribute something.

The following drawings are my take on the WW2 era "Deutschland" and "Scharnhorst" classes used by the german Kriegsmarine.
I know that these ships have been posted on shipbucket before, but I hope you guys don´t mind me haveing a shot at redoing them.

While drawing them I was inspired by DG_Alpha´s awesome (!!!) "Hipper" class cruiser and that´s why I tried to draw them in a similar style (- well, at least as best as I could ).


The first picture shows the german battleship "Scharnhorst" as she was commissioned on 9. January 1939. Notable features of "Scharnhorst" directly after commissioning were her straight stern, the main mast aft of the funnel and the layout of her aircraft facilities:


This drawing is still a "WIP", as I had some difficulties in finding decent reference material showing her in this early configuration.
That´s also why I am not 100% confident that the area around the hangar and seaplane is correct.
I am considering to rework the belt armor, as the look doesn´t really please me at the moment.

At the moment I am working on a drawing of her after refit.
_______________________________


The following series of pictures show the Deutschland class Panzerschiff "Admiral Graf Spee":

1.) This is the so called "Pocket Battleship" " Admiral Graf Spee" after being commissioned by the Kriegsmarine on 6. January 1936:


2.) The second drawing shows her after leaving Wilhelmshaven on 21. August 1939 bound for the south Atlantic and awaiting the outbreak of WW II:


3.) Note the fake funnel and dummy gun "turret" in this picture. These were made out of wood and canvas to confuse or fool enemy ships during "Spee´s" commerce raiding career in the southern Atlantic. According to some references, the Arado 196 seaplane was repainted to look like a british aircraft:


4.) "Graf Spee" shortly before being scuttled off Montevideo (Uruguay) after the "Battle of the River Plate" in December 1939:


Currently I am working on "Spee´s" sisters "Deutschland/Luetzow" and "Admiral Scheer", but they still need more work and may be posted some time later.

Please let me know what you think, as I am eager to improve my drawings and bring them up to the high standards I have seen around here!

Thanks for looking!
- maomatic -

are these drawings yours from the ground up? if they are, they are most likely some of the best first works I have seen in a while. I am not familliar with the ships enough to really comment on the drawings, but the quality seems suberb on first glance.

_________________
Drawings are credited with J.Scholtens
I ask of you to prove me wrong. Not say I am wrong, but prove it, because then I will have learned something new.
Shipbucket Wiki admin

Excellent stuff!

_________________
USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Welcome aboard Maomatic!
These look like the real deal.
These are indeed very impressive entrance pieces. I hope we have much more in store for the future.

_________________
Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Hi and thanks for the kind comments!

Yes, I made them from scratch.

Some of the smaller parts like the searchlights or a few of the boats were taken or reworked from DG_Alphas superb drawings.
I wasn't sure if this requires crediting, but I will gladly do so if you guys say so.

Unfortunately I am lacking good references, so the ships may contain some mistakes here and there. :-/

Cheers!
Daniel

I have to say, those look absolutely amazing.

A couple of minor points:
-The most aft heavy flak of Scharnhorst is an 88mm part instead of the 105mm part.
-The aircraft crane seems to 'disappear' behind a bobble-head rangefinder at the tip.
-The grey edge lines seem to miss their camo paining on Graf Spee.
-The aircraft could need their individual unit markings, if available.

Keep up the good work, as I said those look amazing, especially for a first entry.

_________________
My worklist
Any help and source material is always welcome.

Well this certainly doesen't need to be in Beginers section when at starts its allready better than many veteran can put together.

Wellcome aboard

_________________
Shipbucket mainsite, aka "The Archive"
New AU project "Aravala"

Hi,

thanks again for the comments and the warm welcome!

@DG_Alpha:

I have corrected the drawing of "Scharnhorst" - completely missed the wrong Flak gun.
To my knowledege, the crane was "stored" behind the AA-Rangefinder. That´s why I intentionally "cut off" the top part of it. I have changed it nonetheless, as I do think it looks better that way.

I will correct "Graf Spee" as soon as possible and maybe will remove the "second" plane altogether as information about it´s insignia/callsign is hard to come by.

Cheers!
Daniel

This work is pure top level. This also show what very good part work from other members, and inspiration on how to draw different things by other top members can do. but to get to this level, a person need to be already awesome good at drawing pixel-art.

My God, we need another dozen newcomers like this.

This is superb work, far better than I can ever dream of doing.