Prinz Eugen 1942 by CDW - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1:700 Scale - PLASTIC

[CDW]

Primarily because they are so tiny and tedious, put off building and painting the ship guns until last. Mains and secondaries won’t be bad but the other AA guns are a different story.

 

[Old Collingwood]

She is looking  really nice Craig  - these kits are  so good   so much sharp detail.

 

OC.

[CDW]

8 hours ago, lmagna said:

The way they established the plank pattern on the main deck looks a little odd, at least to me. Hopefully it won't be as pronounced when you add the remaining superstructure and other decks.  

When you order these decks, it's a little like opening a box of Cracker Jacks...you never know exactly what you'll get.

[CDW]

One of four 37mm AA guns. Number 11 XActo blade for reference.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Nicely done Craig.  Makes you cross eyed building those doesn't it!

[CDW]

Just now, Landlubber Mike said:

Nicely done Craig.  Makes you cross eyed building those doesn't it!

There is a certain amount of madness involved in this hobby and while doing these guns it occurs to me this is a good example of it. Maybe not quite as much as the paintings done on grains of rice as I used to see at the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, but pretty darned close to it. If I were going to do anything smaller, would need a microscope, not an opti visor. 

[RogerF]

4 minutes ago, CDW said:

There is a certain amount of madness involved in this hobby and while doing these guns it occurs to me this is a good example of it. Maybe not quite as much as the paintings done on grains of rice as I used to see at the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, but pretty darned close to it. If I were going to do anything smaller, would need a microscope, not an opti visor. 

 

Wonderful.

At the end of the day we put in endless hours of time and effort with insane, microscopic detail because we enjoy it. Set-backs aside, there is tremendous satisfaction to be felt as these things come together. Nobody, but nobody who isn't into scale model building will ever be able to see, let alone, appreciate the intricacies we dish up in a model like this or have any understanding of the challenges it involved, not only for the model builder but also for the designers and manufacturers. But it doesn't matter. If there are imperfections in our model, we know where they are, every last one. Nobody else will see them so it doesn't matter - except to us! As Craig so aptly puts it - "There is a certain amount of madness involved in this hobby..."

[Old Collingwood]

Well said Roger.

 

OC.

[CDW]

Four down, twenty four to go. 😳

 

[Landlubber Mike]

I'm working on my triple AA guns at 1/350 scale and feel the same way even though I only have four to do.  I don't think I could remain sane if I had to do 28, let alone at 1/700!

[CDW]

8 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

I'm working on my triple AA guns at 1/350 scale and feel the same way even though I only have four to do.  I don't think I could remain sane if I had to do 28, let alone at 1/700!

Oh, it gets worse. The next 24 are smaller than these.

[yvesvidal]

Trumpeter just announced the Scharnhorst in 1/700 scale.

 

 

 

 

Yves

 

[CDW]

In front is the Flyhawk 20mm AA gun. Immediately behind it is the plastic blob, Trumpeter 20mm AA gun. Even though the Flyhawk guns are two dimensional, they are light years better than the kit guns.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

On my 1/700 build, I was worried about the 2D look of the single AA guns as well, but with the folds, some paint, and in situ, they look perfect.  Definitely much better than the plastic kit counterparts.

[CDW]

4 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Trumpeter just announced the Scharnhorst in 1/700 scale.

Yves

 

With the Flyhawk Scharnhorst in production, I wonder how well these will sell? I'm sure they can be modeled to look great with a good set of aftermarket updates just like their other 1:700 scale ships. But it's my opinion the Flyhawk models are very hard to beat, particularly the quality of their plastic molding as well as their very nice update add-ons.

[king derelict]

4 hours ago, CDW said:

In front is the Flyhawk 20mm AA gun. Immediately behind it is the plastic blob, Trumpeter 20mm AA gun. Even though the Flyhawk guns are two dimensional, they are light years better than the kit guns.

 

Beautiful job on the PE guns Craig. They look great.

Alan

[CDW]

1 hour ago, king derelict said:

Beautiful job on the PE guns Craig. They look great.

Alan

Thanks Alan.

[RogerF]

Two-dimensional or not, when painted and in place they're going to look the business but wow, what a lot of work is involved and you have certainly mastered the intricacies of PE in this scale - I doubt I'll be as proficient when I turn my attention to the AA guns. I think your Hood will look stunning when finished, and well deserved. The two-dimensional 'look' will only be evident when viewed with optical aids, if at all. It always surprises me when I see close-up photos of my work and see how flawed it is but seen as a whole it looks just fine (well to my eyes!). The camera renders the subject quite magnified which is of course unrealistic.

Roger

[CDW]

1 hour ago, RogerF said:

Two-dimensional or not, when painted and in place they're going to look the business but wow, what a lot of work is involved and you have certainly mastered the intricacies of PE in this scale - I doubt I'll be as proficient when I turn my attention to the AA guns. I think your Hood will look stunning when finished, and well deserved. The two-dimensional 'look' will only be evident when viewed with optical aids, if at all. It always surprises me when I see close-up photos of my work and see how flawed it is but seen as a whole it looks just fine (well to my eyes!). The camera renders the subject quite magnified which is of course unrealistic.

Roger

Thanks Roger. I agree 100% on magnification. It brings out detail not seen with the naked eye. So a model with flaws seen under magnification may not show up at all on the shelf.

[CDW]

Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst, and Hood, side by side. The Hipper class were large heavy cruisers.

Modeling in identical scale makes it interesting to compare the various warships visually.

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

2 hours ago, CDW said:

Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst, and Hood, side by side. The Hipper class were large heavy cruisers.

Modeling in identical scale makes it interesting to compare the various warships visually.

 

 

 

Yes indeed  - Hood  was nealy 100 feet longer than Scharnhorst  and about 160 feet longer than Prinze Eugen.

 

OC.

[CDW]

These 20mm quad AA guns came as unused extras in my recently built Flyhawk Scharnhorst kit. While I wrestled with building 20mm quad guns from the photo etch that came with my update set, remembered I had these unused plastic molded guns that look quite good. Perhaps even better than the photo etch ones. I will use the photo etch shields as the plastic ones had none. Prince Eugen carries seven of these mounts but I had only four. Fortunately, Flyhawk offers them as an accessory set which I ordered to acquire the three additional I needed.

 

[RogerF]

They look good to me and a neat solution.

I've ditched ideas to add the brass barrels to Hoods 5,5" secondary armament (see my build log). There are times when 'gilding the lilly' just doesn't make sense. 

[CDW]

27 minutes ago, RogerF said:

I've ditched ideas to add the brass barrels to Hoods 5,5" secondary armament (see my build log). There are times when 'gilding the lilly' just doesn't make sense. 

Totally agree with this.

[CDW]

Without intending to do it, I have wound up with three FH Bismarck kits. Two are the bonus kits that include the update sets and one is the bare plastic kit. Just for comparing the two, I plan to build one with no extras except photo etch railing. I think the FH plastic is good enough to compare very well to a fully upgraded one. We shall see.

[Landlubber Mike]

Putting together 1/350 and 1/700 guns using PE is a huge time suck.  I decided to pick up some resin guns to try out on my future builds.  You only have to use a few pieces of PE, rather than build up guns from a dozen or so parts. 

[popeye the sailor]

super nice progress so far Craig........really looks good with all that PE  

[CDW]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Putting together 1/350 and 1/700 guns using PE is a huge time suck.  I decided to pick up some resin guns to try out on my future builds.  You only have to use a few pieces of PE, rather than build up guns from a dozen or so parts. 

This is so true. Besides the inordinate amount of time it takes to assemble the 1:700 photo etch AA guns, putting them together in the proper way, in the proper sequence, using the proper tools and adhesives is an experience-acquired process that's only learned through trial and error. Often times, you destroy three (or more) in order to make one good one because of what you didn't know before you made the errors that destroyed them. The quad 20mm AA guns were a case in point. I literally got just one chance to fold these things the correct way or to handle them the correct way. Once I didn't do it correctly, they are kaput, non repairable/non recoverable. On the bright side, the update set provides more than you actually need so there are spares. 

[CDW]

36 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

super nice progress so far Craig........really looks good with all that PE  

Thanks Denis. I am plodding along through it. Will be glad when it's done. 

[Old Collingwood]

Have you seen the Micromaster  stuf  -  😍

 

OC.

 

https://micromaster.co.nz/collections/1-700-scale