WIP: 1:1200 Prinz Eugen -- building with my son . . .

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

Hi all,

My six-year-old, John, and I are working on the 1/1200 scale Airfix DKM Prinz Eugen. He and I built the Revell 1/1200 scale Bismarck late last year and now we’re working on the first ship of the Airfix “Sink the Bismarck” set. This time, John wants to paint the ships. :slight_smile:

Here’s more information on the Prinz Eugen, including color profiles at the bottom of the page. We’re going with the look of the ship in May 1941 with the three shades of grey. Interestingly, the color two-view sheet in the instructions does not have the darker bow and stern. However, the photo on the box does. We decided to go with the photo on the box and the web site research.

As for modeling with my son: it’s about the only modeling I’m getting done these days, so it’s a joy for both of us. John is six and his little brother, Andy, is two. The modeling gives John and me something to do that is special just for us. That makes up for all the accommodations that John has to make to his little brother. :slight_smile:

The way we work is that John does almost all the work, but I handle the glue and guide him. He has to figure out which parts go where by reading the instructions, and do the dry fitting. I do any parts clean-up with the X-acto blade first. Then I put a drop or two of liquid cement where it needs to go and he does the assembly.

For the painting, we’ve agreed that we’ll split the chores. I’ll mask with John’s help, and he’ll do the brush painting. I’ll do anything that he and I agree needs to be done with spray cans or the airbrush.

The important thing is that I don’t criticize his work AT ALL. The fun is the process and companionship. We work for about half an hour at a time, two to three times a week.

Here are some photos so far. Photo 1, just starting out with the deck on the hull:

The next couple of photos show priming, assembly, and painting the hull and deck.

We’re using MM Acryl paints over a well-cured Testors flat white enamel from a spray can.

Tomorrow night we’re going to mask and paint the parts of the deck where the crew painted over the swastikas, and perhaps do the final bits of sub-assembly on the superstructure before it too gets primed.

Regards,

2

Great job so far! Again, I love the father/son approach!

Bill

3

Thanks, Bill.

I’ll be posting some more photos after we make more progress.

Regards,

4

Here are some more photos after additional progress. We’re nearly done. :slight_smile:

5

He is quite obviously enjoying himself![Y]

6

Hi all,

We’re finally back on the Prinz Eugen!

Here are a couple of photos from tonight’s work. John was proud of himself for learning how to use the needle-nose tweezers.

We’re actually almost done. He and I are seriously considering getting some 1:1250 PE railings.

Regards,

7

nice stuff,hopefully he will continue as he grows up

8

Thanks Tojo72.

I’m doing what I can to make this a very positive and fun experience. We’re building subjects that he really likes, and I’m making sure that he does almost all the work.

The Airfix kit fits pretty well, but I occasionally have to do some trimming when the parts don’t fit perfectly. I also routinely enlarge the locating holes with the tip of my hobby knife so the parts drop in instead of having to be forced.

John will get a little bored if I’m doing prep work and there’s nothing for him to do, so I try to do the prep work for him after he goes to bed. :slight_smile:

Regards,

9

Very nicely done and it is great to see a Father/Son combo enjoying our Hobby together…Cheers Mark

10

My father and I built the 1/720 Revell Prinz Eugen kit together back in 1970 or so. It was our second build together. Yours is coming out much nicer! Thank you for sharing your memory in the making here. I am sure that one day both you and he will look back at this with great fondness.

11

Hi all,

We’re finally done. We’ve had a bunch of distractions, including a tragic death in the family, since I last posted. Nevertheless, John and I would do a little bit on the Prinz Eugen from time to time. We finished it tonight!

Here are a few shots with the completed ship sitting next to the Bismark he finished last year:

Here’s the proud modeler himself:

12

It’s so great to see a youngster getting involved in model building - and so obviously enjoying it!

I worry a little about the future of the hobby after the current generation passes. Will there be another generation that’s willing and able to shell out hundreds of dollars per on the kinds of kits that Dragon, Trumpeter, Wingnut Wings, et. al. are cranking out nowadays? Will there be a market for White Ensign, Eduard, Gold Medal, etc. aftermarket oarts? I’m not so sure there will. Some time back I had a conversation with a friend who owns a fine hobby shop in Tidewater Virginia. I asked him how many of his regular customers were under 21 years of age. He laughed bitterly and said, “none.”

Quite apart from deep philosophical questions about the fate of the hobby, it bothers me that so many kids are missing such an opportunity to have fun. A few years ago I built a Tamiya triceratops (dinosaur) with my oldest grandson. He already had some interest in dinosaurs (my wife and I knew that when we bought the kit - which is an excellent one), but he was telling people for months afterward how much fun he and Papajohn had had with it. He was also proud of the result. (He carried it carefully on the plane back to Texas, and his parents gave it a prominant place in the curio cabinet. And, incidentally, I’m proud of it too - as I suspect Lufbery is proud of that Prinz Eugen. A rousing Well Done to both shipwrights.

13

Prof Tilley–as always–raises excellent points.

One though may be overstated form “our” perspective, though. Cost. Kids’ sneakers can cost $200 and $300 the pair. A gaming system is a c-note, and the games all sorts of prices beyond that (and that gaming system will need replacing in a 2, possibly 3, years; the the bought games as obsolete as “box scale” models not in collector’s condition). In all fairness, everything is more expensive, from movie tickets to retail fuel (I remember matinees for $1, and “date” prices as high as $2.50, and needing 79¢ for leaded; the Testors red tube cement was 69¢)

But, I agree there is a steep entry-level curve for the tools needed to get to basic skills. Start adding up items like a pair of diagonal cutters, package of cardboard nail files, a “starter kit” of paint and glue–this will add up. And all that before (or with) a simple starter kit.

So, I, too, wonder if our hobby will be one that winds up populated with people of a certain age, with a certain buying power (just who is the target market share for a $300 1/32 B-17G most of a meter wide and another long; or of a 1/200 WWII carrier?)

14

Thanks for taking a look, gentlemen. :slight_smile:

My son, John, really did have a lot of fun on this kit. I’ll reiterate my points from the first post in this thread: he does almost all the work, and I don’t criticize what he does at all. The point is not to make a competition-winning model. The point is to have fun building, learn new skills, and spend some quality time together.

John is already looking forward to working on the Airfix Bismarck next. We opened the package and looked at the parts tonight. We compared the Airfix kit to the Revell kit in the same scale that he’s already built. He was fascinated by the differences between the kits as well as the differences with some of the references we have. It’s wonderful to see him thinking critically and having fun. (I’m sneaky. :smiley: )

Regarding the barrier to entry into this hobby, I think it can be pretty low – but everything depends on one’s expectations. I fear that many people think it would be neat to build a model, then go to a hobby shop and get told they need an airbrush, three different types of glue, $50 in tools, $40 in paint, and then their $99 kit will come out just like the ones in FSM.

I’ve seen this in almost all hobbies, from fishing to photography. In almost all cases, there’s nothing wrong with starting out modestly and then accruing the more expensive equipment as one’s skills demand it.

A good example is astronomy. I’ve heard people say that you need an expensive telescope to get started. “Don’t waste time with inexpensive scopes; they’ll just frustrate you!” There’s truth to that, but for $50, you can get a pair of 10x50 binoculars and a good book that will keep you busy for at least a year seeing a lot of wonderful sights (and incidentally teaching you how to find your way around the sky). The skills you get for the $50 will put you a lot further ahead than if you bought a $500 telescope right off the bat.

It’s the same with building models. These 1:1200 Airfix and Revell kits are a great value. The entire Airfix “Sink the Bismarck” set of seven ships set me back $30. At a little over $4 a ship, the set gives me kits that only require minor cleanup before assembly, but provide hours and hours of fun. Throw in an $8 sprue cutter and $5 for a hobby knife and some blades. Paints and brushes will set you back another $15 or so. Glue is another $5. So, seven kits and the required tools for a bit over $60. That’s pretty good!

What some people fail to remember is that building any skill is an iterative process. People need to make mistakes, and then try to do something different or better the next time. You see a seam that didn’t get smooth or parts that didn’t fit quite right, and you resolve to clean up the parts better, and learn to use liquid cement to hide seams. You paint and get brush marks. Then you learn techniques for not doing that. :slight_smile:

The best part is that the seventh ship of the set will surely be a lot better than the first one.

Regards,

15

I’ve started building the Revell 1/1200 kits with my grandsons, who all seem to enjoy them very much. I just bought my oldest (age 7) the new 1/1200 USS Nimitz, and he is enjoying it tremendously. I think that we can “pass the torch” to a younger generation if more parents and grandparents shared these joys with children.

Bill

16

Lufbery’s numbers do give grounds for hope.

When I was his son’s age, $5.00 in our household was the price of a birthday present and $10.00 bought a big Christmas present. (And that $10.00 would by the most expensive plastic kit on the market, the Revell Cutty Sark. Come to think of it, when I was seven years old that kit’s release was two years in the future.) Pocket money consisted of, at most, a dollar. With that dollar I could buy (at the corner drugstore) a small Hawk or Lindberg or Pyro kit (maybe the Pyro/Eaglewall Prinz Eugen) for 50 cents, a tube of glue (10 cents) a bottle of paint (one, of course would be enough - 10 cents) a decent brush (10 cents), and a cherry phosphate at the soda fountain (5 cents) and maybe a candy bar (5 cents), pay the sales tax (3 cents), and get a little change back.

Those days, obviously, are gone. I wonder how the modern seven-year-old and his parents define “pocket money”? I suspect I don’t really want to know…

17

Ah, yes! I remember running to the local five and dime every week with my 50 cents allowance and buying a Pyro Table Top Navy model kit, or an airplane kit that cost 39 cents! If it was a hot day, I could buy an ice cream cone for 10 cents or a popsickle for a nickle. I could get into a movie for 10 cents as well.

But, on the down side, the model kits were usually very badly detailed!

Bill

18

Looks like that was a lot of fun!

19

I second the opinions above…building with kids/grandkids (etc.) is time well spent. My son is just getting into it at almost ten years old. He’s got a wish list bigger than mine. I agree, in some regards, I think the hobby is slowly fading…but bringing the young ones in early will help keep it going.

Great job!

20

Earlier this evening I took a look at the Revell Germany website. It includes the instructions for the company’s new Nimitz on 1/1200 scale. It appears to me a really nice kit - with 99 parts. I may be tempted to try that one (though the scale is awfully small for my poor old eyeballs).