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I just received the model, I'm itching to paint it, but am a bit confused regarding what to do. I'm resorting, as usual, to "]one of my favorite sources Shipbucket, and here is what I find.

here is what the Gneisenau looked like in June 1940 during operation Juno, where it sank HMS Glorious with the assist of the Scharnhorst.



Now, in November, it looked like this.



But at that time it was still under repair after being torpedoed by HMS Clyde, a RN submarine. And only set back to see in January for operation Berlin, at the end of which it took shelter of Brest for many months till its escape during operation Cerberus, under this aspect :



So, how to paint the Gneisenau? Pic #2 is the coolest by a long shot, but did it ever exist? Why would the KM camouflage a ship while it stays in harbor to repaint it nearly the same way as before as it sails again?

Hi Foxbat. I checked my copy of German Naval Camouflage Volume One 1939-1941 by John Asmussen & Eric Leon, which matches your dates of Gneisenau with her standard Baltic Stripes camo for late 1940. Then in December 1940, it shows her repainted in peacetime light gray with dark panel on her stern. It references that she was repainted to head back to Germany after her frustrated attempt at breaking out to the Atlantic and the British shipping lanes. Previous to the Baltic Stripes camo scheme, it references Gneisenau in a starboard only camo called an ad hoc Norwegian scheme that was adopted by other Kreigsmarine surface ships. This scheme is a sloppy pattern that was applied dating it from mid 1940 until the Baltic Stripe camo was applied in late 1940. No specific date is given for late 1940.

I have my model of Gneisenau in the Baltic Stripe camo, mainly because it looks the best. I just thought I would share what my only German reference book showed.

Thanks a lot indeed, ww2navyguy. That solves the mystery for me. Now, I'd really like to see that dark panels on the stern paintscheme, could be interesting too. Cheers!