In Box Review of Heller 1/400th Scale
U-Boot type VIIC/VIIC 41
Kit no. 1072
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: 9.60 yen from Hobby Link Japan (about $8.00) plus postage.
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: 9.60 yen from Hobby Link Japan (about $8.00) plus postage.
HISTORY:
The German Navy started to reconstruct its submarine fleet in 1935 .
U-995 and U-576 were built in the Blohm & voss naval dock yard in Hamburg. It was with his type VII U-boats, called “grey wolves”, that Admiral Donitz implemented his personal tactic of “packs” which caused serious losses to Allied convoys in the North Atlantic during the first 5 months of the war.
TECHNICAL DATA:
Displacement: on surface 769 tonnes
Submerged 871 tonnes
Length: 67.10 m
Width: 6.20 m
Draugh: 4.70 m
Engines: 2 diesel engines and 2 electric motors
Speed: on surface 17.3 knots
Submerged 7.6 knots
Range: on surface 6,500 miles
Submerged 80 miles
Crew: 44 men
Torpedoes: five 533 mm torpedo tubes with 14 torpedoes or 14 mines
Guns on type VIIC: 1 80 mm cannon and 1 20 mm cannon
Guns on type VIIC 41: 2 20 mm cannons and 1 37 mm cannon
Heller is a model company based in France.
THE KIT:
This kit came in an un-shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box, held shut with tape.
The box art shows a type VIIC U-boat on the surface of a calm sea. It is overall grey with a tan deck.
One side panel has color box arts of other ship models that Heller marketed: kit no. 1073 a Daphne submarine and Kit no. 1097 La Combattante. These are followed by the statements that the kit contains 34 parts and the model makes up to be 168 mm in length. This is said in French, English and German marked with color illustrations of the flags of the countries that speak those languages.
A list of paint color numbers, which I think are for Heller brand hobby paints is next. However, no mention is made as to what those colors are.
The other side panel repeats all of the above again.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
The box is very blousy, with a letter L void around the parts trees.
There are 4 pale grey parts trees, a tiny decal sheet and the instructions in the box. Parts are not cello bagged and are floating around loose.
The instructions consist of a single sheet that is 8 ¼” x 12” printed on both sides and folded 3 times to fit the box.
The face side of the instructions has the history of the Type VIIC in French on it’s left side. In the center of the sheet is an exploded drawing to use to assemble everything. Below the exploded drawing is a two-view illustration for marking the model as either a Type VIIC or a VIIC 41. However the colors are called out only in French.
There is what looks like a service coupon provided that you mail in to Heller with any problem with the kit.
The back side of the instructions has the history of the Type VIIC in English, a parts listing , hobby tools suggestion, paint colors and decal application instructions also in English. The main in service coupon appears here in English too. This is all repeated in German.
There are NO parts trees illustrations on the instruction sheet. The trees do have tabs next to the parts with part numbers, but care will have to be taken to search the 4 parts tree for the part needed for assembly in the one exploded drawing.
The first large pale grey parts tree holds the hull halves (2 parts)
The German Navy started to reconstruct its submarine fleet in 1935 .
U-995 and U-576 were built in the Blohm & voss naval dock yard in Hamburg. It was with his type VII U-boats, called “grey wolves”, that Admiral Donitz implemented his personal tactic of “packs” which caused serious losses to Allied convoys in the North Atlantic during the first 5 months of the war.
TECHNICAL DATA:
Displacement: on surface 769 tonnes
Submerged 871 tonnes
Length: 67.10 m
Width: 6.20 m
Draugh: 4.70 m
Engines: 2 diesel engines and 2 electric motors
Speed: on surface 17.3 knots
Submerged 7.6 knots
Range: on surface 6,500 miles
Submerged 80 miles
Crew: 44 men
Torpedoes: five 533 mm torpedo tubes with 14 torpedoes or 14 mines
Guns on type VIIC: 1 80 mm cannon and 1 20 mm cannon
Guns on type VIIC 41: 2 20 mm cannons and 1 37 mm cannon
Heller is a model company based in France.
THE KIT:
This kit came in an un-shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box, held shut with tape.
The box art shows a type VIIC U-boat on the surface of a calm sea. It is overall grey with a tan deck.
One side panel has color box arts of other ship models that Heller marketed: kit no. 1073 a Daphne submarine and Kit no. 1097 La Combattante. These are followed by the statements that the kit contains 34 parts and the model makes up to be 168 mm in length. This is said in French, English and German marked with color illustrations of the flags of the countries that speak those languages.
A list of paint color numbers, which I think are for Heller brand hobby paints is next. However, no mention is made as to what those colors are.
The other side panel repeats all of the above again.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
The box is very blousy, with a letter L void around the parts trees.
There are 4 pale grey parts trees, a tiny decal sheet and the instructions in the box. Parts are not cello bagged and are floating around loose.
The instructions consist of a single sheet that is 8 ¼” x 12” printed on both sides and folded 3 times to fit the box.
The face side of the instructions has the history of the Type VIIC in French on it’s left side. In the center of the sheet is an exploded drawing to use to assemble everything. Below the exploded drawing is a two-view illustration for marking the model as either a Type VIIC or a VIIC 41. However the colors are called out only in French.
There is what looks like a service coupon provided that you mail in to Heller with any problem with the kit.
The back side of the instructions has the history of the Type VIIC in English, a parts listing , hobby tools suggestion, paint colors and decal application instructions also in English. The main in service coupon appears here in English too. This is all repeated in German.
There are NO parts trees illustrations on the instruction sheet. The trees do have tabs next to the parts with part numbers, but care will have to be taken to search the 4 parts tree for the part needed for assembly in the one exploded drawing.
The first large pale grey parts tree holds the hull halves (2 parts)
The second large pale grey parts tree holds: the deck, propellers, rudders, display stand, display name plate. Periscope etc. (17 parts)
One of the small pale grey parts trees holds: the conning tower floor, guns etc. (11 parts)
The other small pale grey parts tree holds: the conning tower parts (4 parts)
The other small pale grey parts tree holds: the conning tower parts (4 parts)
The small decal sheet has a black square with the black word U-Boot in the center and U995 and U576 twice each in off white lettering.
These numbers are shown in the instructions to apply your choice of either of them to the sides of the bow of the U-boat.
These numbers are shown in the instructions to apply your choice of either of them to the sides of the bow of the U-boat.
This is very small model and will not eat up much display shelf space. It is also easily a weekend build and I recommend it to beginner or novice modelers.
Care will surely have to be taken removing the tiny parts from the trees to prevent damage. I don’t think sprue-cutters are a good idea. A razor saw with very fine blade would be better.
Heller first released this kit in 1977 and kit no. 195, then again changing the box art only in 1979 (this kit), again in 200x as kit no 81002 only changing the box art again and in 2012 with the same kit number as before with just a box art change. Finally in 2012 as second time this time changing the decal and box art as kit no. 81o76 (this is the kit that Hobby Link sells).
Care will surely have to be taken removing the tiny parts from the trees to prevent damage. I don’t think sprue-cutters are a good idea. A razor saw with very fine blade would be better.
Heller first released this kit in 1977 and kit no. 195, then again changing the box art only in 1979 (this kit), again in 200x as kit no 81002 only changing the box art again and in 2012 with the same kit number as before with just a box art change. Finally in 2012 as second time this time changing the decal and box art as kit no. 81o76 (this is the kit that Hobby Link sells).
Kit was courtesy of my wallet many years ago.