Battleship Tirpitz, 1941

The Battleship Tirpitz deck plans reveal the inner workings of the largest warship ever constructed by Germany. From the machinery rooms on the Stauung (hold) deck to the main artillery station on the Vormars (9th deck above main deck), you can see where the crew of a Bismarck class battleship lived and worked while onboard. On the Batteriedeck, you can trace the path of the 38cm overhead ammunition transport rail for moving shells between the turrets, view the multiple foam fire extinguishing canisters, and see pedantic items such as the wastepaper baskets in the crew spaces. On the Zwischendeck, the dumbwaiters reveal how the food was conveyed to the crew mess areas from the Batteriedeck galley and the 15cm shell chutes indicate how the shells were transferred from the ammunition hoist to the turret loading platform.

Using the original 1:100 scale Tirpitz deck plans (dated between July and September 1941), we've redrawn the battleship Tirpitz's deck plans in a set of highly detailed 1:1 scale CAD plans. These plans truly bring the Tirpitz to life. Each individual transverse frame (all 298 in total) of the ship was accurately positioned, along with the transverse bulkheads, the deck accesses, funnel uptakes, and ventilation ducts. The author spent over three years researching and drawing the Tirpitz deck plans, to reveal the ship as she's never been seen before.

Deck Plans

Below is our collection of plans for the Tirpitz. Each deck is printed individually and includes an abbreviation and symbol table. The superstructure decks are combined onto a single sheet of paper.

Tirpitz Längsschnitt (Profile view)

Tirpitz Aufbauten (Superstructure decks)

Tirpitz Oberdeck (Main deck)

Preview

Tirpitz Batteriedeck (2nd deck)

Tirpitz Zwischendeck (3rd deck)

Tirpitz Panzerdeck (Armor deck)

Tirpitz Oberes Plattformdeck (1st Platform deck)

Tirpitz Mittleres Plattformdeck (2nd Platform deck)

Tirpitz Unteres Plattformdeck (3rd Platform deck)

Tirpitz Stauung (Hold)

Tirpitz Doppelboden (Double bottom)

Lines Plans

The battleship Tirpitz's lines plans were recreated from the original German hull offsets recorded on the Tirpitz's completed hull in 1941. In February 1941 the Tirpitz's commander, Kapitän zur See Karl Topp, requested a hull offset plan for both the Tirpitz and the Bismarck. In August / September of 1941, the shipyard created a separate table of offsets for the completed Tirpitz. We used both of these hull offset tables to model the Tirpitz's hull in 3D at a 1:1 scale from which we were able to create the body, half-breadth, sheer, and framing plans. For comparison, we also had copies of the original lines drawings which allowed us to overlay our drawings and check for accuracy. We believe the modeler will not find a more complete and accurate set of plans to recreate the shape of the Tirpitz's hull.

The lines plans for the Tirpitz and Bismarck are very similar, but not identical. The most noticable feature difference is the shape of the bow. The Tirpitz was constructed with an "Atlantic" bow, whereas the Bismarck had the Atlantic bow shape added after the ship had been launched. This resulted in a slightly different curve to the stem and to the ship's lines at the bow. The lines plans also indicate a slight change to the hull plating and framing just before and after the 320mm armor. The Tirpitz's side cover hull plates were cut in a straight line, whereas the Bismarck's plates curved slightly. Other differences between the ships include the flat bottom, the frames, and slight variations in the breadth of the ships.

Shown below are the Tirpitz's lines plans. Each plan is printed separately and includes salient dimensions.

Body and Framing Plan

The Tirpitz's forward and aft framing plans show the lines for the hull armor and the individual decks at the ship's side. Every continuous frame (89 forward, 89 aft) on the Tirpitz is shown on the framing plans. The body plan includes stations 0, .25, .5, .75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.25, 2.5, 3 through 18, 18.5, 19, 19.25, 19.5, 19.75, and 20.

Sheer Plan

The Tirpitz's sheer plan accurately models the ship's buttock curves using molded offsets below the side armor and external hull offsets at and above the side armor. This change occurs between WL9 and WL10 on the ship. The Tirpitz's sheer plan includes buttocks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16.

Half-Breadth Plan

The Tirpitz's half-breadth plan models the ship's waterline curves using molded offsets from WL0 up to the lower edge of the armor (WL9) at which point the waterline curves are drawn using the external hull offsets to WL20. The half-breadth plan includes waterlines 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20.

Purchasing Plans

All orders include both the deck and lines plans with the file sizes for each scale rounded to the nearest 1/8” shown in the tables below. We offer three separate plan scales, plus an option for any desired plan size. The smallest plan at 1:300 scale may require a magnifier to view all details and is an excellent size for display; the largest plan at 1:200 scale really brings the details to life but does require a much larger viewing surface. The 1:250 scale is a nice, medium plan size.

Note that we only sell paper copies of our plans; no pdf files are offered.

Photos

Here are several photos of the Tirpitz we've collected. Select a thumbnail to view the larger photo.