| HISTORY |
|
SMS Furst Bismarck
was the first armored cruiser built for the Kaiserliche Marine. She was
much larger and better protected than earlier German cruisers, and spent
most of her career on foreign station, between 1900 and 1909. Rebuilt
in 1910, she was briefly used as a costal defense ship in the early stages
of World War I. Withdrawn from service, she spent the rest
of the war as either a training or accomodation ship, and was scrapped
in 1919. For more on Furst Bismarck, check out her Wikipedia
page
here.
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|
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| The
NNT Furst Bismarck
The model comes securely packaged in a sturdy white
cardboard box, with a painting of Furst Bismarck in the Kaiser Wilhelm
Canal on the cover. The hull is wrapped in bubble wrap and
taped to the base that is included with the kit. The smaller
parts are in smaller plastic bags, as is the photo-etch set. There
is a history of the ship, a larger version of the box art (which has the
wrong date on it) and a two page instruction sheet also included in the
box.
|
| THE
HULL |
|
| The hull is flat out gorgeous.
The model scales outs pretty much perfectly in length and width.
There is a little bit of resin flash on the bottom of the hull, but the
rest of the hull is exquisitely cast. There are subtle lines in the
deck to represent the linoleum covering. All the bollards and deck
fittings are well cast. What is really impressive is the stanchions
and shielding in the midships area. The shielding is so thin
to be translucent, and even the portholes look to line up, although the
may have looked a little better if they were a little deeper.
Furst Bismarck was a big ship: the hull is larger than the Combrig
SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and only slightly smaller than the
HP SMS Nassau. |
|
|
| DISPLAY
BASE |
| There is a small - but
heavy - display base included. It seems the base is supposed to represent
a portion of the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal. |
 |
 |
| SUPERSTRUCTURE
PARTS |
|
| The superstructure parts are on a
thin resin wafer, and will need to be sanded off. Everything is well
cast, the shields on the platforms look relatively thin. |
|
|
| TURRETS,
MILITARY MASTS AND FUNNELS |
|
| The turrets (and some mast platforms)
are on another resin wafer. Everything looks well cast with
decent detail. The funnels have a recess in the top, though
I would have liked to have seen it deeper. The bases for the military
masts have bracing at the foot of the mast cast into the part. |
|
|
| REMAINING
SMALL PARTS |
|
| The remainder of the small parts
consist of gun barrels, masts, ventilators, boat cranes, secondary guns
and shields, searchlights and ships boats. The gun shields
look really nice, and most of the small parts are very delicate and very
finely cast. Mast and yards look nice, but I'll probably replace
them with brass rod. |
|
|
| PHOTO-ETCH |
|
| There is a small photo-etch set included
with the kit. It has railings, davits, the stern walk, anchors braces
included. It appears to be well done. There appears to be no
relief etching. |
|
|
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|
| DECAL |
|
| There is a small decal of the Kaiserliche
Marine ensign included. |
|
|
| INSTRUCTIONS |
|
| The instructions consist of four pages
- two of which are a history of the ship. The other two pages
are photographs of the parts and of the unpainted model with numbers and
arrows showing you were the parts go. Frankly, I think they
are lacking, and for a model with all these tiny pieces in it, the instructions
could have been a little more robust. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
|
|
| This is a great little kit of
an interesting subject. The casting is first rate. My
only (minor) complaint with with the instructions - but that's been a complaint
I've had with many a resin manufacturer. This kit retails for
approximately $79 USD (71 Euros) and is available directly from NNT,
who I'd like to thank for this review sample. Highly recommended
for fans of the pre-dreadnought era! |
