by Paul Helfrich
1/600 DKM Prinz Eugen (Airfix)
Judging by submissions to this site, the Prinz Eugen is the most popular heavy cruiser for ship modelers. It helps that it's been produced in a variety of scales by several manufacturers, including the old 1/720 Revell, the new 1/700 Tamiya, the 1/400 Heller, and this 1/600 offering from Airfix. Certainly no US heavy cruiser has been replicated in such a way, but help is on the way, in the form of new "Baltimore" class kits from Trumpeter.
Getting back to the Airfix Prinz Eugen: this kit is more accurate than some Airfix kits I've built, notably their Bismarck, which is way off. I was pretty pleased, overall, with how the kit went together. Like most older Airfix moldings, there's lots of flash, mold lines, sink holes, etc, but overall they did a good job of capturing the sharp, clean lines of this classic warship.
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