In 2010 Dragon was extremely proud of its most stunning ship kit ever till that point – a 1/350 scale rendition of the famous German battleship Scharnhorst. Item No.1040 depicted the battleship as she appeared in 1943, but now Dragon is launching an equally fabulous kit, this time of Scharnhorst as she was in 1941. The 31,500-ton warship was commissioned on January 7, 1939, and she often operated in partnership with sister ship, Gneisenau. Buoyed by a top speed of 31.5 knots, this battleship wreaked havoc on Allied shipping with her nine 11-inch guns. She was involved in the invasion of Norway in 1940, during which she sank the British carrier HMS Glorious. In early 1941 Scharnhorst and Gneisenau broke out into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping lanes. Scharnhorst finally succumbed to mortal wounds off North Cape in Norway in December 1943.
The new Scharnhorst has been given a complete overhaul to backdate her to the correct configuration for the 1941 time period. The enormous lower hull is made as a single piece via slide molds, and the accurate hull includes the correct undercut shapes. The upper hull is brand new to give correct detail in the area of the prow and fairleads in particular. Also new are forward superstructure, an Arado Ar 196 reconnaissance seaplane, crane and etc. The kit makes use of multimedia materials such as photo-etched and DS parts. Ship modelers are certain to be tantalized by Scharnhorst’s mouthwatering level of detail and 1941 sophistication!