To say that it is a big kit does not do it justice. Here it is at my front door.
And guess what the model box isn't any smaller, no padding in the box.
For anyone not familiar with this release is will be approx 48" long when complete and 18" high at the top of the periscope. The hull is half (about) solid and the other half transparent (think Monogram's clear sided B-17 model). It includes interior details for much of the submarine and has approx 1100 parts. It also has a crew of 48 members with the kit.
Once you open the box you find a very well packaged model. the hull parts are bagged and set in cut outs to prevent them from moving around in the box. The sprues are all individually bagged and packed in 3 separate boxes.
The first thing you discover are the two instruction manuals, one for the build the other of painting. Both look very clear and well layed out. Random pages from the instruction book...
and the painting manual is very well done in color you you can tell exactly where colors start and stop. Far better than the grayscale pictures you get on so many models.
The sprues themselves are very crisp in mold with a little seam on some where the molds came together. The detail is good, but if you want to super detail there is room to do that. That being said it will still make an impressive build out of box. In the pics aren't great I didn't remove the plastic wrap but you can get an idea of the sprue quality.
I do have to give kudos on the well packaged sprues, especially on the small and fragile parts.
And finally the hull is a 3 piece affair. the port side is solid with the top deck attached and is about 2/3rds the length of the model. The starboard side is the clear plastic and again about 2/3rds the length of the model. The stern is one full clear piece that will slide over the end of the model to complete the hull.
The kit also comes with one small fret of PE and decals that appear to be very crisp and detail and print.
All in all this looks to be a good all round kit that will look good OOB and super detailed. I am sure there will a bucket of aftermarket parts coming real soon for this. (some poor sot will get more crew members and model the entire crew of over 100 on this boat) (not me
)So when do I plan to start it? After I finish my 32 scale B-17. So i see lots of glue and paint in my future.
(If you want to several more photos of the kit, just click on any of the pics above and rummage around my photobucket directory)
That is gonna be a big one.
