AJM Models
1/700 HMCS Prince David (1944)


 
Reviewed July 2024
by Martin J Quinn
HISTORY
HMS Prince David was one of three Canadian National Steamships passenger liners that were converted for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), first to armed merchant cruisers at the beginning of Second World War, then infantry landing ships (medium) or anti-aircraft escort. For three years, they were the largest ships in the RCN.

The three 'Prince' ships were a unique part of Canada's war effort: taken out of mercantile service, converted to armed merchant cruisers, two of them (Prince David and Prince Henry) were reconfigured to infantry landing ships and one (Prince Robert) to an anti-aircraft escort; all three ships were paid off at war's end and then returned to mercantile service.

In the early part of the war, as armed merchant cruisers equipped with antique guns and very little armor, Prince David and her sisters were sent to hunt enemy submarines and surface ships, tasks better suited to warships. As the needs of the RCN changed, so were the 'Prince' ships able to adapt to new roles.  In the spring of 1943, work was under way on the conversion of HMCS Prince David (and HMCS Prince Henry) to landing ship infantry (medium) LSI (M). She was reconfigured to carry 550 infantrymen, transported in six landing craft assault (LCA), and two landing craft mechanised (LCM), and have large sick-bay facilities for the anticipated casualties. Their 6-inch guns were replaced with two twin 4-inch (102 mm) mountings, two single Bofors 40 mm guns, and ten Oerlikon 20 mm cannons. The rebuilding, which took place at Esquimalt and Vancouver, was completed in December 1943 and shortly after re-commissioning, she left for the United Kingdom via Cristobal and New York.

On D-Day, 6 June 1944, Prince David disembarked 418 troops, including elements of Le Régiment de la Chaudière, Royal Marines and a detachment of British pioneers on the Mike and Nan beaches in the Juno sector. First to be lowered were the two Royal Navy craft which she carried in addition to her own. Their mission was to provide supporting small-arms fire and to clear mines and obstacles in advance of the assault craft. The Canadian landing craft then followed to form up with craft from other Canadian Flotillas. H-hour was set for 7.25, and after a delay of twenty minutes for a more favorable tide in the Juno sector, Prince David's landing craft started their hour-long trip to the beaches. Over the course of the day, all but one of her craft had been crippled, sunk or beached high and dry. As the one remaining assault craft made its way back to Prince David, a charging tank carrier forced her over an obstacle, which tore out her bottom and she sank at once. An outbound lighter ferried her crew back to Prince David. With wounded on board and unable to retrieve any of her landing craft, Prince David sailed to Southampton, ending her D-Day involvement. She made four more reinforcement trips to Normandy, one on 18 June and three in July. 

For more on Prince David, see her Wikipedia page, where this history was taken from, here.

AJM Models Prince David

AJM Models HMS Prince David. comes in a sturdy white box, with a photograph of a completed example of Prince David on the cover.   The model is appears to depict Prince David during the Normandy Invasion, wearing an attractive camouflage scheme.   The parts are cast in a gray resin.  Included in the box are over one hundred seventy resin parts, with parts for both the ship and landing craft; photo-etch, decals and brass wire. 

THE HULL 
The hull scales out pretty much spot on, as compared to the real thing, in both length and beam.  She's nicely cast in gray resin, with well defined portholes, a planked deck and "engraved" to mark the locations of the deckhouse and other small parts.  This will help when placing parts on the hull.   There is also a nice pair of recessed openings in the aft end of the hull (the purpose of these I know not) that are sharply cast.  The bottom of the hull does have some slight overpour, but with will be easily sanded away. 

 
DECKHOUSES/FUNNELS 
The Prince David had a prominent deckhouse running fore and aft.  This is cast as one part, on top of a very thick casting plug.  While the plug will be a pain to remove, it does prevents the part from warping.  The forward part of the deckhouse is planked, and the are recesses for the funnels and other, smaller superstructure parts included.  Overall, this part is very well done. 

There are additional smaller superstructure parts on separate resin casting runners - including the rest of the platforms for the superstructure, directors, funnels and more.  The casting is very solid - I especially like the recessed openings on the tops of the funnels. There is also the recessed outline of what looks like the Canadian Maple Leafs on either side of the forward funnel, perhaps a vestige of her commercial service.  The parts have minimal flash or over-pour.  The wafer holding the majority of the platforms for the superstructure is very thick, however, so it's going to take some time and care to remove these parts.

OTHER SMALL PARTS 
There are over 20 smaller resin runners containing the majority of the smaller parts - weapons, winches, chocks, directors, vents, paravanes, small deck parts and more.  The casting is solid all the way around, though super detailers might want to swap out the weapons and paravanes with 3D printed parts. 

LANDING CRAFT, SHIPS BOATS AND RAFTS
Prince David in her guise as a Landing Ship, Infantry, carried two types of landing craft, ships boats and rafts.  There are six runners of landing craft, consisting of 8 LCAs and 2 LCMs.  The quality here is good, and the boats have nice photo-etch parts - to compliment then, including the ramps.  The two ships boats are solidly done, as are the rafts. As mentioned above, super-detailers may want to replace the rafts with 3D printed versions, if you want something a little crisper. 

DECALS 
There is one small decal sheet included.  This includes flags as well as markings for the ships hull and the landing craft. 

 
PHOTOETCH
Prince David comes with one large, ship specific, photo-etch fret, as well as 8 small (and I mean small) PE sets for the landing craft.  The last two frets are PE gun shields for the main battery. The large, ship specific fret has railings, netting, inclined ladders, accommodation ladders and, crucially, the davits for the landing craft. 

There is also some brass wire included with the kit.  The instructions indicate these for for masts, yards, etc., but the wire seems rather thin and pliable for these purposes.

INSTRUCTIONS
The instructions, parts of which are in color, are spread out over four double sided sheets of paper.   Page 1 consists of a manifest of all the parts.  The rest is in typical AJM fashion, with exploded views showing you the step-by-step build instructions for the ship itself.  They seem fairly logical and straightforward, though I did notice they never actually show the final placement of some of the superstructure decks. But we, being modelers, find that instructions are really just a suggestion, right? 

Finally, there is a very nice painting guide of Prince David in camouflage on the last two pages. This shows both port and starboard patterns, as well as an overhead view of the ship.   The color callouts are for Lifecolor paints. 

CONCLUSIONS  
Right on time for the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, AJM has released one of the unsung veterans of the operation, HMCS Prince David.  This is a solid kit of one of the ships that doesn't get the attention the warships do, but one who's role was crucial to the success of the landings. Overall, the casting is really good. Along with over 170 resin parts, there's a lot of of photo-etch, decals, brass wire and solid instructions. The packaging of the overall product is very good as well. 

Overall, Prince David is a nice kit from AJM Models, and it should keep experienced modelers busy for quite some time.  As with many of these resin ships, due to the myriad of photo-etch and small parts, this isn't a kit for beginners.  It's a historically significant ship, and if you are a fan of auxiliaries, you'll want this as part of your scale model fleet. Recommended, especially for the aforementioned auxiliary and landing ship fans, those with an interest in the ships that participated in Operation Neptune/Overlord, Canadian Navy fans, or, finally, anyone with a thing for ships with unique camouflage.  Prince David checks all of those boxes. 

This is AJM Models' 1/700 HMS Prince David, kit number 700-039. The model lists for around $104.00, and is available from many of our fine sponsors, like Squadron.  I'd like to thank AJM Models for the review sample. 

As always, this is an in-box review, your mileage may vary once you commence construction.