SMS König was the first of four König class battleships which served with the German Imperial Navy during World War I.

Built at the Wilhelmshaven Dockyard, she was launched on the 1 March 1913 and officially completed on the 10 August 1914. She served in the Third Battle Squadron and took part in thebattle of Jütland on the 31 May 1916. Her final fight occurred in Scapa Flow, where she was scuttled by her crew. On the 21 June 1919 around 2pm, SMS König vanished under the surface.

Here is her complete battle history: Mar.5/6.16 sortied to the Hoofden...Apr.25.16 escorted battle cruisers on the action against Lowestoft and Yarmouth...May.31.16 battle of Jutland, at which she received ten hits, under repair until Jul.21.16 when she was reported as ready for sea...Aug.19.16 actions against the east coast of England...Oct.19.16 actions against the Dogger Bank...Nov.5.16 sortied up the west coast of Denmark...Oct.11-19.17 operations near the Baltic islands, she destroyed the Russian ship Slava (Oct.17.17)...Apr.23.18 sortied to the northern North Sea... Dec.6.18 interned at Scapa Flow...scuttled Jun.21.1919, total loss.

As built she weighed 25,390 tons and 175 m lomg, 30 m at the beam and a draft of 9 m. She was powered by three turbines developing 46,000 hp each yielding a maximum speed of 22 knots. Her armament consisted of ten 305 mm cannons, fourteen 150 mm cannons, six 85 mm cannons and five 500 mm torpedo tubes. She carried a crew of 1,136 men and officers.

The wreck of the König is still present at Scapa Flow.

Molded in white plastic, as are most ICM kits, this one comes in a rather large box, which gives the kit parts a lot of room to slide around. The majority of the sprues are in three large and one small bag. The parts themselves are very nicely molded. I looked long and hard for the usual problem areas of sink areas, ejector pin marks and flash. I was quite pleased to not find anything of consequence aside from some very deep sink areas on the prop shaft housings. Some of the parts are very finely done and thanks to the sprues being several to a bag, some of these bits had either broken off or had been bent to where straightening them will result in their snapping. The detail level is quite good and you'll find the usual rivets and the myriad of stanchions, ladders, davits, guns, and various naval accoutrements that one normally finds on ships.

The main superstructure is quite complex for a ship of this era and careful construction will be needed to keep things in place. This is especially true of the various mast work and cranes. It is for these constructs that you'll find the finest of parts and the need to do the most repair if your kit has been roughly handled before it got to you. If you don't have a small set of hand drills, I highly recommend getting one to drill out the gun barrels. Both the main and secondary armament are of such a size that doing this will surely enhance the look.

It seems from the instructions that each one of the three kits in the series is basically identical in terms of the sprues in the box. Some parts are shown as not used on different variants and this is to be expected as few major ships are exactly the same. Instructions are superbly done with all the needed modifications clearly shown. All the parts are listed in both Russian and English where needed. Color information is supplied in both Model Master and generic terms. An overall painting diagram is provided in the center of the instruction booklet. I did notice that the waterline is visible on the hull part to aid in painting as this is usually quite difficult. Though the basic color of the ship is shown as Light Ghost Grey, there are enough additional bits and pieces of different colors to keep from the ship looking a boring monotone. A small decal sheet provides basically your flags and a few smaller bits.