Hello, I recently found this Vintage Model of the German Raider Ship Atlantis at a local estate sale. The children of the model maker told me he had a passion for making model ships and he would spend hours at a time working with wood and the many pieces. He also had The USS Richmond which I picked up as well. I was most intrigued by the Atlantis because a similar German Raider The Michel torpedoed and sunk The Texaco Connecticut on which my grandfather was on in the south Atlantic in 1941. The model is heavy and mounted to a stained wood base with a gold nametag. Its 31 inches long and the details are incredible. My question is how would i know the scale of this model, age, and possibly the kit that was used to make it. Many thanks in advance for any information that would be of help or suggestions of who might be able to tell me more about the model.
The Pinterest link goes nowhere, so there’s not much to go on.
Checkign Saclemates gives this:
https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=All&q=Atlantis+raider*
Which really only shows the Aurora 1:456 kit. Which would be about 13" long to scale.
Taking about 31" and 509 feet in length gives around 1/196, which is close to N scale, but I suspect it’s 1/196 scale, or 1/16" = 1’-0" a common ship scale.
The ModelerJoe kit list lists just two ‘plastic’ model kits of the DKM Atlantis; one referenced by the Captain by Aurora, and a 1:700 scale resin kit by HP models of Germany. ModelerJoe lists the Aurora kit as 1:410 scale and a product of the late '50s. Since you are talking about a ‘heavy’ model and which is twice as long as the Aurora, it is likely not a commercial plastic kit. The reviews on ModelerJoe say that the kit, while excellent for its day, was a blank canvas for adding detail.
The model may be totally scratch built, possibly on a solid wooden core. Magazines from the late-40s through the 50’s, in the genre of Popular Mechanics, would carry detailed plans for craftsmen to build model from. Ship model craftsmen would commonly use the 1/16 scale for larger subjects. And to tweek the Captain’s number just a bit, 1/16 scales to 1:192 (16x12).
I make that mistake too, as 1/8" = 1’-0" is 1/96.
But hey, he’s an architect like me.
Bill
Thank you so much and sorry about the image. I wish I could just upload them without having to attach a link to the photos 
Thank you so much.
There are a number of museum display models you can find online of this ship. Some might be at this scale.
A photo or two would be helpful. If you should decide to sell it, it could be pretty valuable.
Bill
And, to Bill’s point, I was looking right at the 192 number when I typed 196 the second time [headsmack].
Should have disconnected from my search for what “N” scale was before typing.