Tweet
My Special Navy 1/72 Type XXIII arrived last week and I have made a little progress so far.
If you’re not familiar with this new release, the kit comprises 24 short run injection moulded parts (including display stand), 11 resin parts and a photo etched fret. The injection moulded and resin parts are crisply moulded and there's no troublesome flash or injection marks. You will need to add 'scratchbuilt' wire and plastic rod to complete the kit. It comes in a very large box with a big piece of foam rubber to stop things rattling around (or to fill the void).
There is no interior detail but the conning tower is well detailed with resin and etched components.
The base of the conning tower has open vent holes that do have some flash and it will be worth cleaning them up. That should create an appearance of scale thickness too.
As there's no interior, you will be able to see straight through the conning tower. I will insert some plastic card to represent the pressure hull inside the conning tower.
A test fit of the two hull components revealed that they don't provide an exact match. However, the top of both hull parts seem to have an identical kink.
The failure of the hull components to mate correctly is due to slight warping of one side rather than an incorrect or mis-cast component. I have used thick plastic card spacers or bulkheads to get both halves to align and the last test fit was pretty close.
After a little packing and trimming, I should be able to get a perfect fit.
The very basic plans and few photographs that I have been able to find suggest that a couple of minor modifications (keel and vents) may be required but I'm not going to carry out major surgery unless I'm convinced that it's necessary.
The kit is nowhere near as good as Revell's recent 1/72 kits but it provides more of a challenge and I think that completing it will be very rewarding.
Any thoughts on suitable 1945 crew figures from the range now available for the Revell u-boot?
David
If you’re not familiar with this new release, the kit comprises 24 short run injection moulded parts (including display stand), 11 resin parts and a photo etched fret. The injection moulded and resin parts are crisply moulded and there's no troublesome flash or injection marks. You will need to add 'scratchbuilt' wire and plastic rod to complete the kit. It comes in a very large box with a big piece of foam rubber to stop things rattling around (or to fill the void).
There is no interior detail but the conning tower is well detailed with resin and etched components.
The base of the conning tower has open vent holes that do have some flash and it will be worth cleaning them up. That should create an appearance of scale thickness too.
As there's no interior, you will be able to see straight through the conning tower. I will insert some plastic card to represent the pressure hull inside the conning tower.
A test fit of the two hull components revealed that they don't provide an exact match. However, the top of both hull parts seem to have an identical kink.
The failure of the hull components to mate correctly is due to slight warping of one side rather than an incorrect or mis-cast component. I have used thick plastic card spacers or bulkheads to get both halves to align and the last test fit was pretty close.
After a little packing and trimming, I should be able to get a perfect fit.
The very basic plans and few photographs that I have been able to find suggest that a couple of minor modifications (keel and vents) may be required but I'm not going to carry out major surgery unless I'm convinced that it's necessary.
The kit is nowhere near as good as Revell's recent 1/72 kits but it provides more of a challenge and I think that completing it will be very rewarding.
Any thoughts on suitable 1945 crew figures from the range now available for the Revell u-boot?
David
Comment