Academy

1/350 Admiral Graf Spee

Kit Number: 14103

Reviewed by  David Reinecke, IPMS# 42626

MSRP: $49.00 Review sample courtesy of MRC/Academy: www.modelrec.com When I first received this kit to build, I was excited that there was now a 1/350th scale World War II German ship other than Bismarck or Tirpitz. The instructions are broken down into 11 steps, with many of those steps having sub-assembly steps for clarity. I liked this way of breaking down construction. My main problem, however, was the way Academy will point to one part and give the number for the opposite side in parentheses (i.e. number(opposite number)). This led to many parts being put on the incorrect sides of the ship. (Mostly the railings.) There was a separate sheet that had the color callout table with multiple views of the model. The other side of the sheet contained the parts breakdown. This was very handy when I had to look for parts and not lose my place in the instructions. The hull is split vertically from stem to stern. (In order to get a waterline model, prepare to do some cutting.) Putting the two pieces together, I discovered severe warping, as much as 3/8ths of an inch at the center. I glued the halves together using liquid cement and super glue with sheet styrene reinforcements. Looking back, I should have used my large C-clamps to force the halves together. Adding the decks (Parts A1, A11, A12 and A9) proved troublesome after the hull dried. I went from bow to stern and discovered that I had to remove the aft deck (A1) and cut off the alignment tabs for A9 to get the pieces to fit properly. There is also a noticeable step between parts A11 and A12 that I did not discover until later. Shave down the alignment tabs on A12 to get a better fit. I think some of the problems I had installing the propeller shafts in Step 3 was due to misreading the above mentioned number(opposite number) problems I had. As I initially installed the shafts, they canted outwards. Believing this to be wrong, I ended up swapping the supports (Parts B9 and B10) and installing them upside down to get the proper direction on the shafts. From this point on, I did not construct or install many of the smaller parts until just before I finished. The construction of the superstructure begins in Step 6. In Step 6C, there is an object that looks very much like a refrigerator that is placed toward the starboard edge of part D15. I found out later that placing it there interferes with part G22 (a railing) and I had to cut G22 to get it to fit. In Step 7, I again encountered alignment issues. After gluing parts E4, E5, E11, E12, and E27 together to form the conning tower, I started installing the small decks (E18, E19, E24, E25, E22, and E23) and noticed that the cutouts on the conning tower did not line up, even though the conning tower parts were put together even. I had to cut the parts of the tabs away from these pieces to get them onto the tower. Step 7b is a bit vague on how the pieces align, so test fit first before gluing. Steps 10a and 10b both call for part C23. There is only one part C23, so use part C24 instead. After the major structures were assembled, I started to place the railings. The thickness of the rails measures out to .034 inches or nearly a scale foot! For the most part, the railings would line up with the locating holes. Parts G20 and G21, however, do not correspond with the holes on D15. There are no locating holes for parts G27 and G28 on E20. I also ended up putting the cranes on facing aft because facing forward they were interfering with the railings, parts G24. Once the smaller guns are installed, it would be impossible for many of them to traverse since they would hit the railings. If there is ever a photoetch sheet, be prepared to fill a lot of small holes! The ship was painted mostly with Tamiya acrylics. The exception being the wood deck which I used a Vallejo acrylic tan color. I then used black oil paint thinned with mineral spirits to wash the entire model down to the waterline. At this point, some of the acrylic ran, but I went with it since I made the gray look bleached. I finished the weathering by using orange and brown pastel chalk for rust. The stand is rather flimsy. Several times the ship fell off of it as I was working, prompting my fiancé to comment that the ship was "scuttling itself." I sprayed Tamiya Silver Leaf on the stand and then used black sludge wash to bring out the lettering. The Arado float plane is rather clunky. The only deviation from the instructions I made was to drill out the cowling slightly to get rid of the flat face before installing the propellor. The float supports will need work since they are molded solid. The decals were very tricky to place on both the ship and the plane, so I opted not to try and place the flags onto the ship. I never keep track of how many hours I work on a kit. I did work on the Graf Spee over a period of ten weeks. I want to thank Academy/MRC for the opportunity to build this model.