kir review 1:200 Prinz Eugen - OcCre

[James H]

1:200 Prinz Eugen
OcCre
Catalogue # 16000
Available from OcCre for €499.99

 

 

 

 

Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third of a class of five vessels. She served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936, launched in August 1938, and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th-century general in the service of Austria. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,257 t).

(USS) Prinz Eugen during Atomic bomb tests

 

Prinz Eugen saw action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser Hood and moderately damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles. After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February 1942, Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was curtailed when she was torpedoed by the British submarine Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship's stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.

 

Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support for the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. After the German collapse in May 1945, she was surrendered to the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examining the ship in the United States, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. Having survived the atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll, where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946. The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles northwest of Bucholz Army Airfield, on the edge of Enubuj. One of her screw propellers was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.
From Wikipedia

 

The kit

 

Prinz Eugen is a brand new release from OcCre, hot on the heals of Amati’s recent Bismarck, both in the same popular 1:200 scale. The kit itself occupies a reasonably large but quite heavy generic box which has the specific kit artwork printed in colour and attached to the box lid. As is custom with OcCre, there’s a cut-out in the lid so the fittings box can be seen. Actually, that’s only one of two fittings boxes that are supplied with this release. The whole kit is also cellophaned too, to protect it further. The box is quite sturdy and lifting the lid off reveals that the contents are stored within a compartmentalised structure which is folded to separate the strip material from the sheets and plans etc. 

 

The first fittings box has a staggering number of metal parts and is quite heavy. The metal looks like a zinc alloy and the parts are all very sharply cast with nothing in the way of flash present. You will find ship’s boats etc. here amongst others. I still recommend that any cast parts are washed in soapy water first and then primed with a metal etching primer before you use them. Also in this box are pins for planking, turned wooden parts, eyelets, glass beads and chain etc.

 

The fittings container is first removed to that the rest of the pack can be split apart. When you remove the box, there is a paint reference chart supplied.

 

Inside the box main compartment are the numerous sheet materials, all bound in tough, shrink-wrap film. These materials consist of different colours (grades?) of MDF and also numerous sheets of ply. All are cleanly laser-cut with no real evidence of scorching. Parts aren’t numbered, so you will need to refer to the parts plans that are included. This is very common as engraving numbers everywhere can very much increase production time. The packing is very good, and none of the various MDF or ply sheets appear to have any warping.

 

Hidden amongst the flat sheets are EIGHT sheets of photo-etch brass, protected by wraps of tissue paper. Production quality is excellent, with small retaining tabs for parts and nicely produced multi-layer etching for the various part reliefs. There is only one small area which has an etch stain, but they can be common on larger sheets. These sheets include rails, deck structure sheathing etc.

 

 

Always a very good start. Also in this compartment is a Jiffy-bag containing a second clear box of fittings, identical in size to the one on display through the box lid. This box contains a vast number of cast parts which are all very crisp and clean. With this being a brand-new release, the moulds will be in A1 condition. The box also contains rigging cord and some turned wooden parts.

 

A cardboard tube also contains two long, full size glossy sheets which depict Prinz Eugen in both side elevations and also a view down until the decks.

 

The instructions for this kit are actually very good, being driven in photo-format. The sequences are split into an alphabetical format, so A, B, C etc. with the kit parts for each individual and extensive section, given an alphabetical prefix eg. Part W49 for build section ‘W’ etc. It’s a nice, simple way to approach thing and will help the builder locate parts far more easily too. These are printed in colour over many folded A3 sheets, and if you wanted to access them elsewhere, the whole set of instructions are available for download from OcCre, here. If you would like some very visual to guide you, then OcCre have their own YouTube channel where the whole model can be viewed at every stage of construction. Here HERE for that. 

 

The smaller compartment contains the various wooden strips, such as lime for hull planking. There is also some metal strip included here as well as block balsa! This is the first time I’ve seen this in a kit, and the idea is that you chop this up to exact size blocks and then sit between the lower bulkhead areas to add rigidity and also to help shape a solid, lower hull. I personally don’t feel these are needed, but they are there if you need the material. 

Perhaps one aspect of Prinz Eugen that I’m not very keen on is the planked deck. At 1:200, the supplied materials are grossly overscale, and this is why Amati decided to go for laser-engraved deck sections for their Bismarck. I wish OcCre had done the same for this kit too. My suggestion with Prinz Eugen is to cut up the strips so they are a lot narrower (or buy narrower strip material) and use that instead, instantly improving the overall appearance of the completed model.

 

Conclusion
This is actually a very nice, beautifully presented kit that shouldn’t prove too difficult to the average modeller. Construction is straightforward and very well illustrated. All parts are mapped so they are easy to find, and the kit castings (love castings, or loathe them) are sharply made with excellent definition. As already stated, the only thing Prinz Eugen needs is to do the deck planking differently. Yes, it will take longer, but the finished result will be far more rewarding. You’ll need some space to display the finished ship too, with her being 1077mm long when complete! Prinz Eugen is definitely worth your consideration if you hanker to build something without masts or sails, but don’t want to be unfaithful to your hobby of building ships in wood!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prinz Eugen Paint Set
OcCre
Catalogue # 90506
Available from OcCre for €59.99

 

OcCre have also made available a custom acrylic paint set for Prinz Eugen, consisting of eleven acrylic paints and one large bottle of acrylic satin varnish. The paint bottles are the fairly standard white-capped plastic type, but each of these contains 30ml of paint, with the larger varnish bottle being 100ml. The bottles don’t state whether the paints could be thinned for airbrushing, and I get the feeling that they may be brush applied.

 

 

Our sincere thanks to OcCre for providing the products you see reviewed here on MSW. To purchase directly, click the links in the title for each item.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ccoyle]

Looks great!

[TeckB]

Very good review. I am looking to by the Bismack or the Prinz Eugen, I dont no which one for now.

[mtdoramike]

From the pictures, it looks great, I wondered how the kit would look once released. But with that said, two glaring issues for me is way to much metal fittings in this kit. It would have lightened the load a bit by using plastic fittings in a lot of places, the second issue is the use of fiber board, which I detest in kits, it has a tendancy to be brittle and if you have a warped piece, you can't soak it and flatten it out like you can wood.

 

 

[Theodosius]

I'm sorry, but there are two major things, that are in MY opinion a no go:

 

1. the deck planks are ridiculous out of scale, they make the whole ship to look like a toy! For this price tag I would expect a to scal lasereched wood deck with all the edging for the huge amount of guns/fans/boxes etc.

Perhaps the aftermarket will develop some, but than again: price tag!

 

2. the stem is an even bigger no go: it is fat and round like the nose of a blue whale, while the real ship has had a razor-sharp cutwater! It would be an huge amount of work to correct the lines of the forward half of the model to went elegant into the needet sharp stem.

 

Again: just my opinion, and these two points might be of no interest for other builders! 

[James H]

3 minutes ago, Theodosius said:

1. the deck planks are ridiculous out of scale, they make the whole ship to look like a toy! For this price tag I would expect a to scal lasereched wood deck with all the edging for the huge amount of guns/fans/boxes etc.

Perhaps the aftermarket will develop some, but than again: price tag!

 

That was noted in the review, and I also said the model would benefit from a laser engraved deck.

[mtdoramike]

I would like to add my appreciation to OCcre for producing a nice battle ship model in a worthy size. As for the stem and the planking, both of those issues can be overcome with little effort on the builders part. There is one major benefit to building a wooden battle ship like the OCcre kit versus a Trumpeter plastic model is with wood, you can fix about anything you dislike about the original kit where as with plastic, you are pretty much stuck with what you get out of the box, not a whole lot you can do about it.

 

Like I tell newbies, a kit is a kit and only a starting point, it's up to the builder to make the model all it can be. 

 

So although there are a few things I nit picked about the OCcre kit, it still would make into a worthy model and I think easy enough to convert to radio control if that is your ticket with modifications and lightening up the super structure whetre it wouldn't be nearly as top heavy.    

[CDW]

I saw where Model Expo is offering this kit for $399 on their website. Seems a fair price for something like this IMO.

For those who want upgraded details but are put off by the cost, I just noticed that the Pontos update set for the 1:200 USS Enterprise is a mere $549, and that's more than the cost of the model kit itself which sells for about $475. Hey, it is what it is. 

[Bill Morrison]

On 8/19/2022 at 9:44 AM, Theodosius said:

I'm sorry, but there are two major things, that are in MY opinion a no go:

 

1. the deck planks are ridiculous out of scale, they make the whole ship to look like a toy! For this price tag I would expect a to scal lasereched wood deck with all the edging for the huge amount of guns/fans/boxes etc.

Perhaps the aftermarket will develop some, but than again: price tag!

 

2. the stem is an even bigger no go: it is fat and round like the nose of a blue whale, while the real ship has had a razor-sharp cutwater! It would be an huge amount of work to correct the lines of the forward half of the model to went elegant into the needet sharp stem.

 

Again: just my opinion, and these two points might be of no interest for other builders! 

All model kits have flaws. But, as modelers, we make decisions to either accept those flaws or improve them. Decks are easy. The cutwater can also be improved with a little creativity.  For example, I once built the Constructo HMS Pandora. The entire bow section was grossly misshapen. It was much too sharp. Working with plans, I rebuilt the entire forward third of the ship, then corrected the model as much as possible with what we know of her class.  It can be done.

 

Bill

[Roger Pellett]

These European POB kits have been around for over half a century.  One would think that by this time the kit manufacturers would understand that the basis for  a good model is an accurately shaped hull.  A bulbous stem not matching the vessel’s original hull lines is a fatal error.

 

Roger

Edited August 20, 2022 by Roger Pellett

[James H]

1 hour ago, Roger Pellett said:

These European POB kits have been around for over half a century.  One would think that by this time the kit manufacturers would understand that the basis for  a good model is an accurately shaped hull.  A bulbous stem not matching the vessel’s original hull lines is a fatal error.

 

Roger

 

It's actually very easy to fix. Agreed, it should not have been like that and someone at OcCre dropped the ball, but a 'fatal error'? 

 

No, I don't think so.

[Bill Morrison]

It is far easier to fix the Prinz Eugen's bow than it was to correct the Pandora's bow. Just shape the bow when building it to a razor-edge cutwater. After all, we are modelers not simply parts affixers.

 

Bill

[Kevin]

great review, thank you @James H

[Roger Pellett]

By buying a kit one avoids extensive research.  Supposedly the kit designers have already done this.  Model builders who are not privy to comments on the forum are likely to buy the kit in the belief that by assembling the parts in accordance with the instructions they will end up with an accurate model.  Such is not the case here.  That is why I consider the misshapen stem to be a fatal error.

 

Roger

[James H]

6 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

By buying a kit one avoids extensive research.  Supposedly the kit designers have already done this.  Model builders who are not privy to comments on the forum are likely to buy the kit in the belief that by assembling the parts in accordance with the instructions they will end up with an accurate model.  Such is not the case here.  That is why I consider the misshapen stem to be a fatal error.

 

 

That does sort of leave me a little confused. 

 

So, if a modeller is aware of the error, then he/she can choose to correct it. Doing so is the simplest sort of correction that a wooden modeller can do.

 

On the other hand, if a modeller is unaware of the error, and chooses to build it per instructions, then that is a 'fatal error'? If a modeller has built the kit as thus, and to a standard that are happy with, then that is somehow a 'fatal error'? Fatal to whom?

 

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the context in which you use that phrase?

 

A reason I ask this is because I have primarily worked with plastic models, which are extremely difficult to correct if you get an error like this. I would consider that to be a 'fatal error' to a modeller who is knowledgeable about that particular subject, although not to someone ignorant of the error. I also hear some modellers decry any kit which has a flaw in shape etc. which can easily be rectified, and they call it 'unbuildable'. There seems to be a lot of rhetoric/white noise over kits which basic modelling skills can correct. 

 

Did OcCre screw up the bow? Yes they did. Is it easy to correct? Yes, very.

[Kevin]

£400 at Cornwall Model Boats - 

Occre Prinz Eugen 1:200 Scale Model Ship Kit OC16000 | Cornwall Model Boats

 

[Bill Morrison]

13 hours ago, Roger Pellett said:

By buying a kit one avoids extensive research.  Supposedly the kit designers have already done this.  Model builders who are not privy to comments on the forum are likely to buy the kit in the belief that by assembling the parts in accordance with the instructions they will end up with an accurate model.  Such is not the case here.  That is why I consider the misshapen stem to be a fatal error.

 

Roger

I'm confused. In what way is one avoiding research by purchasing a kit? I research every kit I buy.  That seems to be an extreme assumption.

 

Bill

[mtaylor]

4 hours ago, Bill Morrison said:

I'm confused. In what way is one avoiding research by purchasing a kit? I research every kit I buy.  That seems to be an extreme assumption.

 

Bill

Many only follow the instructions and don't do any research.   

[Theodosius]

Hello!

 

I think about my post for every day now, since I posted it here, and thought about to add a comment or not. Perhaps I will regret this, but here it is :-).

 

Please let me point out some explanations first:

 

I'm not a native speaker, so it is very possible, that I don't hit the the tone I want to hit, or that the meaning of my writing is not in the way I intendet to write it. Please keep that in mind!
My intention is never to offence someone or someones work here on the forum, but if a post of mine sounds like this, than I'm very sorry!

 

@James H: your review is great, very detailed, and I'm sure was a ton of work to do! My first comment was not intendet as a critique of your  work. 

 

I write this, because you get a lot of thumbs up for your comment on my post, in which you pointed out, that you have allready written about the low-quality-deck. Yes you did, but it is not ok to point out a bad point again? Then sorry for that!

For me, this 'feels' like it is not wanted to write about the things in the kit I don't like, or my comment is seen as a criticism of your review, but it is not!

 

Well, lesson learned, I will not do that anymore, this will be my last posting under a kit review!

 

But then again: when nobody tells the industry what is not ok, if we only ever praise the kits, then they will never improve them. Why would they, if everbody is fine with them? It would just cost em money.

I mean, one could see a criticisym(?) also as a help for the manufacturer to improve his kits! But they only can, when they will see that there are things that could be done better.

 

So I don't understand why it is wrong to point out something again, that you allready have talked about? OcCre can say, "look at this, only one see the deck as a small point to improve, every other comment on the review is full of praise, we did all things the right way"

 

My second point, the bow: I know, I'm not a good modell builder, so perhaps I have not enough experience to call this a no go, even if I pointed out twice, that this is only my personal oppinion.

Well, I have read the instructions(*), and I'm not sure that everybody how says, "it's so easy to correct this", read them too, because,

The bow is NOT formed with a wooden planking method, it is formed by two relativly massive metal cast parts. And inbetween the wooden keel. In the middle part of the bow you would have to sand almost all of the metal away. Have fun.

You need templates/plans to find the correct lines. Because with the provided material of the kit you can not know at what point you have to start to correct the lines of the ship(**).

(*) & (**): To mee, this looked very much like the a long time ago provided subscription kit where you buyed small amounts of the kit on a monthly base. At least I could not see any differences, but I have to say that I did not collect this one, so I can not be 100% sure of that.

At least, the bow- and deck was disscussed at the time of the collectibel PE kit, becaus it looked just like this one. Even if the bow parts were made out of plastic instead of metal.

It is possible, that during construction the PE was not a success as Bismarck was, so they needet to make more compromises and had to save money.

 

The Bismarck partwork was a success, and that brings me to:

 

@TeckB: go for Bismarck. The partwork Bismarck (I kollected this one) is the base for the now available Amati kit, James H wrote this in his kit review of Bismarck. My point here is: the Hachette Bismarck (the partwork one) was developed together with Josef Kaiser. I mean: Josef Kaiser!!!! Well, some 15 jears ago that thrilled me and a lot of other modell builders at that time :-).
I sold the kit later, because I still want to build a big BB when I can sort out my storage problems, but it will not be Bismarck, I'm in (and have tons of plans) a different ship.

 

So again: sorry, if my message was seen as a criticism of James H's great review, it was not! He's done a phantastic job there! My personal meanings of the kit are still my personal ones, but, as allready told, I will not criticize a kit anymore :-). I wishes everybody building this PE-model a lot of fun!

 

Happy modell building! 🙂

[mtdoramike]

7 minutes ago, Theodosius said:

Hello!

 

I think about my post for every day now, since I posted it here, and thought about to add a comment or not. Perhaps I will regret this, but here it is :-).

 

Please let me point out some explanations first:

 

I'm not a native speaker, so it is very possible, that I don't hit the the tone I want to hit, or that the meaning of my writing is not in the way I intendet to write it. Please keep that in mind!
My intention is never to offence someone or someones work here on the forum, but if a post of mine sounds like this, than I'm very sorry!

 

@James H: your review is great, very detailed, and I'm sure was a ton of work to do! My first comment was not intendet as a critique of your  work. 

 

I write this, because you get a lot of thumbs up for your comment on my post, in which you pointed out, that you have allready written about the low-quality-deck. Yes you did, but it is not ok to point out a bad point again? Then sorry for that!

For me, this 'feels' like it is not wanted to write about the things in the kit I don't like, or my comment is seen as a criticism of your review, but it is not!

 

Well, lesson learned, I will not do that anymore, this will be my last posting under a kit review!

 

But then again: when nobody tells the industry what is not ok, if we only ever praise the kits, then they will never improve them. Why would they, if everbody is fine with them? It would just cost em money.

I mean, one could see a criticisym(?) also as a help for the manufacturer to improve his kits! But they only can, when they will see that there are things that could be done better.

 

So I don't understand why it is wrong to point out something again, that you allready have talked about? OcCre can say, "look at this, only one see the deck as a small point to improve, every other comment on the review is full of praise, we did all things the right way"

 

My second point, the bow: I know, I'm not a good modell builder, so perhaps I have not enough experience to call this a no go, even if I pointed out twice, that this is only my personal oppinion.

Well, I have read the instructions(*), and I'm not sure that everybody how says, "it's so easy to correct this", read them too, because,

The bow is NOT formed with a wooden planking method, it is formed by two relativly massive metal cast parts. And inbetween the wooden keel. In the middle part of the bow you would have to sand almost all of the metal away. Have fun.

You need templates/plans to find the correct lines. Because with the provided material of the kit you can not know at what point you have to start to correct the lines of the ship(**).

(*) & (**): To mee, this looked very much like the a long time ago provided subscription kit where you buyed small amounts of the kit on a monthly base. At least I could not see any differences, but I have to say that I did not collect this one, so I can not be 100% sure of that.

At least, the bow- and deck was disscussed at the time of the collectibel PE kit, becaus it looked just like this one. Even if the bow parts were made out of plastic instead of metal.

It is possible, that during construction the PE was not a success as Bismarck was, so they needet to make more compromises and had to save money.

 

The Bismarck partwork was a success, and that brings me to:

 

@TeckB: go for Bismarck. The partwork Bismarck (I kollected this one) is the base for the now available Amati kit, James H wrote this in his kit review of Bismarck. My point here is: the Hachette Bismarck (the partwork one) was developed together with Josef Kaiser. I mean: Josef Kaiser!!!! Well, some 15 jears ago that thrilled me and a lot of other modell builders at that time :-).
I sold the kit later, because I still want to build a big BB when I can sort out my storage problems, but it will not be Bismarck, I'm in (and have tons of plans) a different ship.

 

So again: sorry, if my message was seen as a criticism of James H's great review, it was not! He's done a phantastic job there! My personal meanings of the kit are still my personal ones, but, as allready told, I will not criticize a kit anymore :-). I wishes everybody building this PE-model a lot of fun!

 

Happy modell building! 🙂

I for one appreciate your opinions on the kit and hope that you do not refrain from do the same in the future. It's always better for modellers going in if they are aware of pitfalls or short comings of a particular kit.

[Roger Pellett]

Theosidus,

 

In reading your excellent comments posted last Friday, I understood that you were criticizing OcCre’s Kit, not James’s review.   You express yourself well in English.

 

Your comments were valid and have every right to make them.

 

You are correct.  Without having access to a lines drawing for the vessel how can even a skilled model builder produce the templates to correct the bow.  It makes one wonder if OcCre used an accurate lines drawing to produce the kit.

 

Roger

 

 

[James H]

2 hours ago, Theodosius said:

@James H: your review is great, very detailed, and I'm sure was a ton of work to do! My first comment was not intendet as a critique of your  work. 

 

Not at all! I didn't take it as such.

 

I know the bow castings for this are metal, but those could be omitted and the planking continued to a sharp point, so no need to sand down metal. 

[Bill Morrison]

22 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Many only follow the instructions and don't do any research.   

It's hard to quantify "many". As far as I know there is no empirical research into this issue. For example, I could say that "many" people do their research before buying. Whose "many" is more accurate? I don't know.

 

I can say unequivocally that I research my kit before purchasing them. I assume "most" do, but we all know what they say about making assumptions . . .

 

Bill