Academy 1/150 Type IXB U-boat, previewed by Scott Van Aken

The German Type IXB submarine was a sub-class of the German Type IX submarine built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine between 1938 and 1940. The U-boats themselves were designed to be fairly large ocean-going submarines. The inspiration for the Type IXB submarine came from the earlier original Type IX submarine, the Type IXA submarine. The design of the IXA was developed to give an increased range, a change which resulted in a slightly heavier overall tonnage. This design was improved even further in the later Type IXC submarines.

The class comprised 14 submarines, U-64, U-65, U-103, U-104, U-105, U-106, U-107, U-108, U-109, U-110, U-111, U-122, U-123, and U-124; thirteen were sunk during the war and the last scuttled by its crew at the end of the war. The Type IXB submarines were the most successful class of submarine in the war in terms of the total amount to tonnage sunk, with each U-boat sinking an average of over 100,000 gross register tons (GRT) during its career.

THE KIT

Our local IPMS chapter has a raffle for members during the December meeting and this year I picked one of the 'mystery' offerings which turned out to be this kit. As a note, I did a google to see what this was selling for and the prices ranged from $25-$60, all wanting a considerable sum to ship it (thanks to the weights, undoubtedly)

1/150 is a bit of an odd scale for ships, but then this is not your usual submarine kit. For one thing, it is motorized and includes all you need except for three 'C' batteries. Not only is it motorized, but it is also designed to submerge for a period of time. For that reason, there are a number of gaskets to ensure that the electrics stay dry. In addition, there are a couple of small grease tubes to help with sealing in the gaskets.

The way it submerges is pretty neat. The fairly large 'radar' mast is connected to the rear dive controls. One sets the forward dive planes so that the sub will submerge. Water pressure pushes against the radar mast and this, in turn, allows the rear planes to move so the sub heads towards the surface. Not exactly prototypical, but a neat idea. Obviously this is too big for the bathtub so a small pond would be appropriate. The kit also includes 22 grams of metal weight for ballast.

The lower hull is divided in three sections with the center section covering the batteries. It is held in place against a gasket with several screws. All of the electrical components for the motor attach to an upper hull section, which in turn has three covering deck plates. There is an opening in the forward plate for the power switch.

After all that, I should mention that you can leave off all this working stuff and build the kit like a standard model, though I think it is a bit of a waste of all the additional bits to do so. Typical of most submarine kits, there isn't all that much to what's on the upper deck aside from the conning tower, deck gun and some other ancillary bits. Because of the fairly large scale, the parts themselves are of a decent size so no worries about fiddly bits.

Instructions are well done and easy to follow. It is clearly delineated what parts are for the static model so no concern there. The kit doesn't have decals, but a sheet of stickers instead, which is understandable considering that they expect the finished model to be spending time under water.

It would be easy to dismiss this as little more than a toy, much due to the lack of small details, but judging from the build photo on the box side, it can be made into a very nice model. I would not hesitate to recommend this to a newer modeler because of the larger parts and it will teach a bit about electric circuits as well.

KIT #:	1442
PRICE:	$ Gift
DECALS:	Stickers
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	1995 release. Motorized