The ship was launched in December 1938 with a projected completion Date of Mid 1940
At the outbreak of World War II, the the ship was 85% complete. In April 1940, work on the ship was halted, the 15 cm guns removed and transferred to Norway and the heavy flak armament of twelve 10.5 cm guns had already been shipped elsewhere.

Graf Zeppelin was towed from Kiel to Gotenhafen in July 1940 and then to Stettin in June 1941 after the invasion of the Soviet Union to Protect the Ship from Soviet air attack.In November 1941, once the risk of Russian air attacks had ended the ship was returned to Gotenhafen.

Work was resumed on the ship in May 1942 after the usefulness of Aircraft Carriers was demonstrated by the attacks on Taranto Italy and Pearl Harbor, and the critical damage done to the Bismarck by British Fleet Air Arm that eventually contributed his loss.
With numerous changes throughout the ship, naval staff had hoped to have the ship completed by April 1943, sea trials in August and ready for combat by the end of 1943

In late January 1943, in a fit of rage over his percieved incompetence of the Kriegsmarine, Hitler replaced Admiral Eric Raeder ordered all Capitol ships Broken up. Raeder's Successor, Admiral Karl Dönitz eventually persuaded Hitler to void most of the order, work on all new surface ships and even those nearing completion was halted, including Graf Zeppelin. All work on the ship was again stopped.

In April 1943 Graf Zeppelin was again towed eastward, first to Gotenhafen, then to Swinemünde and finally to a wharf in the Parnitz River where it remained until the End of the war. In April 1945, as the Soviet forces approached, the small crew scuttled the ship into the shallow water of the river to render the ship inoperable to the Soviets.

The Ship was later re-floated by the Soviet Union and eventually sunk as a target ship in the Baltic
The wreck was discovered in 2006

The first thing I notice upon opening the box is the Hull. Unlike Trumpeter's usual practice, the hull is split vertically down the keel instead of at the Waterline. Next was how few pieces there are.
Also the size of the ship. I never expected this ship to be equal in length to an Essex Class carrier (870 ft) which made me wonder why it had half the aircraft until I saw just how narrow the beam is, and the poor use of space on the hangar deck

Paint...
Since this ship never actually became operational, it was painted the standard Kriegsmarine gray (Hellgrau RAL7001 K50?).
The kit comes with a paint scheme based on the Norwegian blue-grey camouflage colors. I might use a variation of that or go with the black and white Baltic recognition stripes it might have had during his sea trials.

   
(modified from original drawings on shipbucket.com)

Hangar Deck
I have blueprints of the sprinkler system that shows locations of those fixtures, as for the rest I'm probabaly going to make it up as I go. I'm sure there are hatches leading into the Life boat storage galleries, ladders in various locations etc....

Drilling out the portholes, 425 or so on each side of the hull and then painted the inside of the hull with 2 coats of black to keep the LED's from lighting up the entire hull.
I've decided to go with the Baltic camouflage stripes. I originally went with 3/4" but they looked too wide so I masked them at 1/2" and they seem about right.
 

With the lighting plan scrapped I assembled the two halves of the hull and hangar deck.
I dry fit the assembly to see where the issues around the Lifeboat galleries would occur. As I suspected there were a couple minor annoyances but easily resolved

Pretty straight forward, PE for the Launch rails and hand rails.
I would recommend putting in the outer handrails first then the Launch rails and finally the center rail.
I had to reset a couple launch rails to fit the outer hand rails
 

15cm SK C/28 main guns
The Master Model barrels are a tad longer than the barrels included in the kit
Takes a #73 drill bit and I drill the hole for the new barrel before I cut off the Plastic one

10.5 cm SK C/33 secondary Guns
Veteran Models, pretty straight forward

37mm SK C/30 guns
I only have 1 set of the veteran models 37mm aa so I'm using the kit set with Master Model barrels, until the others become available again
These barrels require a #83 Drill which I've needed to order.
I tried a #80 but it was too large and might have damaged the piece I was using it on
 
 

20mm FlaK guns
My first thought when I opened the box was "What was I thinking?"
The veteran kit for these is a little intimidating when you open it. The parts are insanely small and the instructions could be a little better but they actually go together quite nicely (with the help of a good strong pair of +3 readers AND and magnifying light)
I did need to drill out the barrel sockets a little so I made a drill bit from a sharpened piece of a guitar string

Arresting Wires
Again, I'll need to guess. Several models show four wires, one just aft of the elevator and the rest in front, a some show five wires, two aft and three forward.

Four types included in the kit, five of each type. each has a PE arresting hook
Painted in standard Luftwaffe RLM colors, the decals are tiny and the Swastikas for the tails are split into the politically correct 2 halves which makes life a little difficult lining them up

Master Model Gun Barrels
SM-350-002 German 15cm (5.9in) SK C/28 Barrels
SM-350-045 German 37mm/83 SKC/Barrels for 1930-1943 Warships

Veteran Models Flack Guns
VT35057 Kriegsmarine 20mm Flak-Vierling C35
VT35051 Kriegsmarine 37MM Flak Doppel C30
VT35091 Kriegsmarine 10.5cm SK C/31 mount D model Shield

As luck would have it, the PE kits and decks came out a few days after I finished the kit