Ahoy Shipmates!!!

Join me for an inbox review of Trumpeter’s newest ship, the German Heavy Cruiser, DKM Prinz Eugen in 1/350 scale.


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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hi,
First off, thank you so much for this in depth review of the DKM Prinz Eugen. Really appreciated.
As a first question I could not figure the masts have the proper length. The Academy kit comes with masts way too short. Would be glad to get know Trumpeter fixed that.
Looking at your picture dsc0057.jpg and comparing that to this photo Click: Main turret on prinzeugen.com made me wonder how accurate the riveting is.
According to the mentioned picture the Trumpeter main turret has way too many rivets. This is supposely true for the double row of rivets beside the attached side ladder to start with.

Again, thanks a million for the in box review.

I will look into that. To be honest I did not measure the main mast, but now that you mention it, I am curious.

Good call on the rivets. It does look as though Trumpeter has about double what it should have, in some locations. I will make note of that.

Did Academy do one of these in 350 as well? NIce review. I might pick one of these up next year

Oh, and Jim if Steven's sends you a free sample of the Littorio for review, I call dibbs on the kit to build

Hi Steve,

Oh boy, you got me. I am totally sorry I confused things.

You are right that Academy did no DKM Prinz Eugen but the DKM Graf Spee.
Trumpeter does a DKM Graf Spee as well and through all this mess of announcements and double production I lost it.

So my comment on the length of the mast does apply to the Academy DKM Graf Spee.
Again. sorry for the confusion.

Well, I guess I can stop the measuring then.

On another note. For the question as to which Graf Spee to get, if you want a quick no frills build I say the Academy kit. If you want a better build go for the Trumpeter, this is based on how they did on the Prinz.

It will be interesting to see how the Graf Spee turns out.

Great review of what sounds like a very nice kit, too many rivets or not. Your explanation of why Trumpeter chose the 1945 build, and not the more popular 1941 or 1942 rigs makes sense. I'm still cynical enough to believe it's so they can come out with a 1941 or 1942 rig, AFTER ever body has bought the 1945 and backdated it. That's Murphy's Law of modeling, the week after you finish a backdated model somebody comes out with it. This way Trumpeter can sell two kits instead of one. Still at least 1/350 fans have the final missing piece to model the major players in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Bismarck, Prinz Eugen, Hood, and POW. I guess we'll have to wait another 20 years for Suffolk and Norfolk.

Here is an historical side note. Many people assume the Prinz Eugen was so great and powerful compared to other navy's CAs simply because she was German. The Prinz Eugen was supposed to be a treaty cruiser, under the terms of the London naval treaty. As such she was supposed to be a 10000 ton ship. If you notice the stats of Jim's review she was actually 15000 tons, 18400 ton fully loaded. Even cheating by 50% the Germans got a CA that lost her stern after a hit by a single, relatively small, torpedo.

Thanks Jim for an excellent review.....you certainly covered it well.
I have just completed the Academy 1:350 Graf Spee and it is a good little model.

I feel that the Trumpeter model will be superior with the inclusion of the PE.
The rails on the Academy model are poor and out of scale and have the overall effect
of spoiling the model.
I also had a problem fitting the deck to the hull to avoid distention amid ships. Could have been me but if doing it again I would put a strut and bearer where the deck joins.
Thanks again for a fine review.

Les

The Hipper class cruisers had unreliable engines,and had short endurance.During the Battle of the Barents Sea in Dec 1942,the Hipper was hit a three 6" shells,these put two out of her three boiler rooms out of action.She was never properly repaired,and although the KM tried to get her operational in1944,there wasn`t enough labour or parts to do this.
They were ,never-the-less great looking vessels,and I`m pleased as punch with the Trumpeter Prinz Eugen ,which,I plan to convert to her to the 1941 configuration,and not wait for Trumpy to do it!!

Regards Phil

Great review Jim - I appreciate taking the time to list the "faults" and how to fix them. That allows us "rookies" modellers with limited skills to determine if we can "fix" the kit. cheers

This is such a nice kit! I back-dated mine to represent the Eugen on its 1942 sortie in Norway prior to having her stern shot-off. Debated depicting that but decided against it as I feel that this was one of the nicest-looking ships to come out of WW2 and deserved better. Ditto on a 1946 dio.