The Spearhead of the High Seas Fleet

A group picture of the three 11" armed German battle cruisers - they are now joining the remaining ships of the First Scouting Group: Lutzow and Derfflinger so I have the complete line up for Jutland of all five vessels.

I have at last managed to finish the remaining dreadnought capital ships for my WW1 German High Seas Fleet. I have added an additional Kaiser class battle ship (making 3 out of the 5 built - the other dreadnought classes were each of 4 ships represented by 2 models) and have also completed the earlier 11" gun armed battle cruisers. The sole battleship is a metal Stonewall Miniatures model whilst the remaining vessels are all from Panzerschiffe and are cast in an epoxy resin. The painting technique is my by now familiar black undercoat and dry brushed shades of grey with the decks and ships boats picked out.

The last of the dreadnoughts - painted as the Germans had five in the class rather than four so I have represented it with 3 models

The last of the 11" battle cruisers built for the Germans and a particular favourite of mine. 

One of a class of two ships - the second joining the Ottoman navy and helping to push Turkey into the war alongside Germany.

The first of the German battle cruisers.

S.M.S. Goeben as she was renamed in Turkish service. She was the last of the German capital ships in service and was modernised on a couple of occasions and finally scrapped in the early 1970s. Turkey had offered to sell her back to the West German government prior to scrapping her but sadly they declined.

The Germans now possess the heavy units comprising the First Scouting Group as it appeared at Jutland in 1916 - Lutzow, Derfflinger, Seydlitz, Moltke and Von der Tann back up by the 9 dreadnoughts of the High Seas Fleet (bear in mind these are based on the Paul Hague system of each pair of battleships being represented by a single model for scale purposes). I have collected the battle cruisers for both sides on a 1:1 basis simply because the numbers involved are fewer and will look better in any games I choose to fight. As they routinely were at the forefront of the main battle fleets this makes a lot of sense - at least it does to me!

Now back to the British!