Manufacturer: Revell / Airfix / Scratchbuild
Scale: 1/600
Additional parts: scratch build parts
Model build: 1988
Kriegsmarine Schlachtschiff H
Revell / Airfix / Scratchbuild
Ghost of the Sea
Made with Suno
The Hunter
The year was 1942, and the tide of war had turned against Germany. The once-mighty Kriegsmarine was dwindling, its ships scattered or sunk. Yet, deep in the Kiel Fjord, a secret project was underway. The "Hindenburg," a colossal H-class battleship, was nearing completion. Its hull, a monstrous steel behemoth, gleamed ominously in the shipyard.
Captain Wilhelm von Bülow, a seasoned U-boat commander, had been chosen to lead the Hindenburg. A man of few words, his reputation was built on his tactical brilliance and unwavering loyalty. He knew the ship was a gamble, a last-ditch effort to turn the war around.
The Hindenburg was a marvel of engineering. Its main armament consisted of eight 40.6 cm (16 in) guns, capable of hurling shells over 40 kilometers. Its secondary armament was equally impressive, with numerous anti-aircraft guns and torpedo launchers. But what set it apart was its advanced propulsion system. Powered by a combination of diesel and electric engines, the Hindenburg could reach speeds of over 30 knots, making it one of the fastest battleships of its time.
The plan was audacious. The Hindenburg would slip out of Kiel Fjord under the cover of darkness, evade the British blockade, and make its way to the Atlantic. There, it would join forces with German U-boats, providing them with crucial anti-aircraft protection and long-range firepower.
The operation was a success. The Hindenburg managed to elude the British patrols and reach the Atlantic. Its presence immediately boosted the morale of the German U-boat fleet. The sight of the colossal battleship, with its imposing silhouette, struck fear into the hearts of Allied convoys.
One fateful day, the Hindenburg encountered a large Allied convoy. The ensuing battle was a spectacle of destruction. The battleship's powerful guns raked the convoy, sinking several ships. But the Allies were not without their own firepower. Their aircraft carriers launched waves of torpedo bombers and fighters, determined to take down the German behemoth.
The Hindenburg fought valiantly, its anti-aircraft guns blazing away at the incoming aircraft. But the relentless attacks took their toll. A torpedo struck the battleship, causing severe damage. The Hindenburg limped away, badly wounded.
As the Hindenburg retreated, von Bülow knew that its days were numbered. The damage was too extensive to repair at sea. The only option was to return to Germany. But the journey was fraught with danger. The British were closing in, determined to finish off the crippled battleship.
The Hindenburg managed to evade the British patrols and reach the Norwegian coast. There, it was met by a flotilla of German destroyers. With the help of these escorts, the battleship managed to limp back to Kiel Fjord, where it was finally put out of commission.
The Hindenburg had failed to turn the tide of the war, but its legacy would live on. It had proven that even in the face of overwhelming odds, the German spirit could still fight back. And for that, von Bülow and his crew would be forever remembered.
The Titans That Never Ruled the Seas — The Story of the Schlachtschiff H
Few warship designs in history capture the extremes of ambition and absurdity quite like Germany’s projected H-class battleships — vessels so vast that even on paper, they dwarfed the oceans they were meant to dominate. Conceived at the height of pre-war naval confidence, the Schlachtschiff H was to be the logical successor to the Bismarck and Tirpitz, and the embodiment of the Kriegsmarine’s dream to challenge British sea power on equal terms.
Birth of the H-Class
The story began with the Z-Plan, the massive naval rearmament program authorized by Hitler in January 1939. It envisioned a balanced fleet of 10 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 12 battlecruisers, and dozens of cruisers and submarines — all to be completed by 1948. Central to this vision were six super-battleships of the new H-class, each larger, faster, and deadlier than the Bismarck.
The first of them, simply known as Schlachtschiff H, was ordered from Blohm & Voss, Hamburg, in June 1939. Her sister ship, Schlachtschiff J, followed shortly thereafter at Kiel.
With a projected standard displacement of 62,000 tons, the H-class would mount eight 40.6-cm (16-inch) guns, giving them firepower comparable to the American Iowa-class or Japanese Yamato. They were to be diesel-powered, granting a remarkable range of over 20,000 nautical miles — a true “raider battleship,” capable of crossing the Atlantic without refueling.
On the drawing board, they were magnificent. In reality, they were doomed before a single plate was finished.
War Changes Everything
When war broke out on 1 September 1939, the vast ambitions of the Z-Plan evaporated overnight. With the Kriegsmarine’s surface fleet suffering early losses and the focus shifting toward submarine warfare, the great battleship projects were quietly shelved.
Construction on Schlachtschiff H and J had barely begun — only the keel sections were in place. On October 10, 1939, Grand Admiral Raeder ordered both hulls dismantled so that the steel could be diverted to U-boat production. By spring 1940, both ships were gone, their remains melted into the growing wolf packs of the Atlantic.
But the concept of the H-class refused to die.
Evolution into Myth — The H-44
As the war progressed and Germany’s situation worsened, naval architects continued to refine theoretical battleship designs — more academic exercises than practical plans. These evolved through H-39, H-40, H-41, H-42, and finally the colossal H-44 — an unbuildable behemoth of almost 140,000 tons displacement and a length of 345 meters.
Armed with eight 50.8-cm (20-inch) guns, the H-44 would have been nearly twice the size of the Bismarck and three times the cost. To protect her against air attack, her designers proposed up to 400mm of armor plating — so thick that no existing dockyard in Europe could have handled her construction.
Even on paper, the H-44 was more fantasy than weapon — a naval engineer’s daydream of ultimate power. Yet within its pages lay the distilled lessons of surface warfare: range, protection, firepower, and survivability in the age of air power.
The Legacy of the Impossible
When Germany capitulated in 1945, the H-class remained a dream — two half-laid keels, a handful of drawings, and a mountain of theoretical data. No shipyard could have completed them; no war economy could have sustained them.
And yet, they left a ghostly mark on naval history. The H-39 blueprints influenced post-war Soviet battleship studies, and even American naval planners examined the designs out of curiosity. The sheer audacity of the H-44 — the “fortress battleship” — became a cautionary tale in naval architecture, symbolizing the end of the era of super-battleships.
Today, the Schlachtschiff H survives only in documents and models — a monument to the age when nations still believed that steel and guns alone could command the oceans.
The model was mainly build with parts of two Revell 1/570 scale Tirpitz models, plus some parts (like the secondary armamanet) from an Airfix 1/600 Bismarck. The scale of the model is roughly 1/600.
Superstructure was altered with additional plasitc sheets, which were also used to build the hangar structure aft and the boat deck. Main guns, funnels, flak, boats and other parts were taken from the original kits.
As there was no name given for those ships, I have choosen "Hindenburg" for it.
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