Those darned swastikas

[Pax Melmacia]

Much has been written here about the turret tops, but the deck swastikas were only briefly mentioned. Next to the turrets, I find the swastika issues the most confusing for modelers.

I was prepared to go with the currrent view that these things were painted over just before the sinking. My question is what color were the fields of those swastikas? Red or grey? While most seem to prefer red, the Ballard wreck photos make them look gray. Now I realize this may be discoloration from age. But then again, it might not. (Is it possible that the crew actually painted over only the red fields with grey? Don't ask me why, though )

Interestingly, the famous Tamiya model kit directs that the fields be grey, and this model came out before the Ballard expedition.

Any ideas?

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao Pax and all,

from modeler to modeler .

You asked :

My question is what color were the fields of those swastikas?

Red or grey?

The answer is : RED, always only red ( like the national flag colour ).

The light grey colour was used to paint them over and remove the air recognition marks ( used by Luftwaffe to avoid bombing German ships ) once the ships were sailing out of Luftwaffe range.

It is obvious you do not want to facilitate enemy airplanes recognizing you on the open sea.

You can see the effect on my models of both Bismarck and Prinz Eugen during Operation Rheinubung :

http://www.kbismarck.com/models/model61.html

http://www.kbismarck.com/models/model62.html

So you need to decide which way you want to make Bismarck, what day and situation.

What you may need to study and verify is the particular orientation of the Bismarck swastikas that was not like on all the other ships inclined 45° degrees compared to the ship center line, but horizontal at 90° degrees.

I can anticipate you that every KM warship made those air recognition marks the way they interpreted the specifications, so on every ship is kind of unique.

Not a common way for Germans to do things...

Hope this helps and enjoy your modeling.

Ciao Antonio

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

The “Hackenkreuz” (a.k.a. svastika) on the decks of some German warships may have had many configurations as well as occasions for display, but some official models of the time that have survived show a white circle with a “svastika” surrounded by a red ring. That would be equivalent to the NSDAP party emblem as far as I remember. Some Wiking-Modelle that were discovered in the former East Germany Republic, the 1:200 Lützow (ex Deutschland) and Admiral Hipper, had this ID on the deck of these models; perhaps, Schönfeldt says, this was only in April 1940. There may have been various configurations of this ID on ships, and nobody remembers how they looked. The Bismarck's ID was painted over and what is left may not tell the whole story.
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/ ... nkreuz.jpg
Ref: WIKING-MODELLE: Die Schiffe und Flugzeuge, Peter Schönfeldt, Koehlers Verlaggesellschaft, Hamburg, 1998.
I agree with Antonio that a grey outline would have been a dumb way to show your national recognition ID, and red in a ring or across the deck swath would have been a smart move. The dark grey to black of the deck ID suggests “red”, since B&W film, particularly with a high contrast green filter, would make red very dark grey.

[Pax Melmacia]

Thank you, all. So I'll go with a red field.

The Ballard wreck photos clearly show the swastika(s) to be oriented at 90 degrees.

Just for the sake of discussion, if the Bismarck crew used distemper paint to paint over the aerial IDs as some sources have suggested, wouldn't some of the markings show through the paint?