I will be using the senior citizen option and split my build in half.
Anyway, given my current interest in honoring the Great War Centenary by (mostly) building models from them, and because I do not think I have blitz'd a submarine, perhaps not even a ship before, we'll take on the new Mikr Mir 1/350 Royal Navy K-class Submarine, which interestingly enough was oil-fired steam-powered on the surface, with diesel generator charge the limited batteries.
It was designed in 1913 to provide a large, fast submarine with endurance (12,000 nm at 10kts) and speed (24kts on the surface) to operate with the main fleet, perhaps getting around the back of an enemy fleet and "shooting them in the back". There were 4 torpedo tunes in the bow, 2 on each beam, and a further 2 on a swivel mount on the deck; the latter were removed because they took too much damage in rough seas and are not portrayed on the kit. And, oh, yes 3 main deck guns, 2 4in and one 3in.
17 of the planned 21 were built. It was not a very good boat, with many control and depth-keeping problems. This, combined with an overall length (339 ft) that was greater than diving depth (200 ft), meant they were hard to get submerged and to keep submerged without something being visible (bow resting on bottom, stern sticking up). And 200 ft was only a goal, as the hull had only been tested to 70 ft.
Unsuccessful in both concept and execution, they were the basis for the later M-class and influenced subsequent RN submarine development.
I know very little about this and will resist the urge to go nuts tracking it down, but I can see that the boxart and the parts don't really match. I see no deck guns on the box art, but what appears to be a deck gun and a pair of torpedo tubes sticking out of the side of the superstructure. I, am going to resist figuring all that out and build the model presented to me in the kit box.
Not too many parts, but does include some photo-etch - nothing complex. Note the right side of the main sprue and what appears to be a smaller duplicate to the right of that. Either they changed something or recognized that those parts on the main sprue weren't very good and provided a nice replacement section. Other than that, the parts look very good. I will note that the hulls are slightly longer than the box and came on a single sprue somewhat forced into the box - fortunately with no damage; I confess to cutting the hulls from the sprue to avoid damaging them - Jeff can dock me a few minutes on my build time. The photo-etch doesn't have any deck railings, I *might* dive into the spares box ....
The one-page of instructions are very simple and clear, with PE in red.
As is the paint diagram. It's dark grey under, light grey upper, and in the case of the top profile, black on the decks - I shall probably do that one. It's a blitz, I will use Tamiya rattle-cans. The difficult part will be masking the waterline as the hull is very long and bulged.
I have a simple plan, and will start shortly.
