COBI Battleship Bismarck Set 4860

COBI's large Bismarck is a 1:300 model built from 3,204 blocks, 85 cm long and 21 cm high on its base. A removable section of the upper deck opens the interior to view, parts of the propulsion system come out, and the armament and propellers move. A base with a collector's plaque is included. All markings are printed; the set contains no stickers.

She was already damaged when she sank the Hood

The Denmark Strait action on 24 May 1941 is remembered for the Hood blowing up in a few minutes. The other half of it decided the rest of the story.

HMS Prince of Wales, firing alongside the Hood and barely out of her builder's yard, put three shells into Bismarck before she was driven off. One of them holed a forward fuel tank and let seawater in. Bismarck began trailing oil, lost access to several hundred tonnes of her own fuel, and took a bow-down trim.

That ended the operation. A commerce raider that leaks a visible oil slick and cannot reach its own fuel cannot spend weeks hunting convoys in the Atlantic. Admiral Lütjens broke off and set course for occupied France for repairs — a predictable destination, which is what allowed the Royal Navy to work out where she was going.

Three days later she was gone. The ship that destroyed the pride of the Royal Navy in six minutes had a combat career of eight days, and the shell that doomed her was fired in the battle she won.

In the COBI range

Set 4854 is the Bismarck at 1:700 with 590 pieces — the same ship at a third of the length. Set 4830 is HMS Hood at this 1:300 scale, and 4839 is her sister Tirpitz.

Specifications

Pieces: 3,204 · Scale: 1:300 · Removable deck section and propulsion parts · No stickers
Model dimensions: 85 × 12.5 × 18 cm (33.5 × 4.9 × 7.1 in), 21 cm high on the base