In Box Review of Revell of Germany1/144th Scale
German Submarine Type XXI U-2540 With Interior
Kit no. 05078
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.96
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $29.96
HISTORY:
The Type XXI U-boat was a fundamentally new sort of submarine for Germany with a very streamlined hull and high-capacity batteries to give great submerged speed and endurance. The design was suggested at a conference in Paris in November 1942 as an alternative to the Walter turbine boats which were taking so long to develop. By June 1943, the preliminary design work was complete.
The planned submerged speed was to be 18 knots for 90 minutes, a tremendous advance on any submarine’s performance and one that would have caused formidable problems to the Allied navies had the Type XXI become operational in any numbers earlier in the war. Additional advantages of this type of U-boat were a deep-diving capability, a fast silent speed and rapid torpedo loading. The underwater armament was six bow tubes with 23 torpedoes.
It was planned to give these boats a defensive AA armament of a quadruple 30-mm (1.18 in) gun of a new design, but because of production problems few were fitted and most boats had the standard 20-mm (0.79 in) weapons. To speed production the hull was prefabricated in eight all-welded sections in different shipyards away from the bombing targets of the Allied forces. After transporting the sections to the launching slip, they could be welded together rapidly and the boat launched after spending minimum time on a vulnerable launching slip.
The size of the Type XXI made it unsuitable for operations in the North Sea or the English Channel. Although 118 Type XXI U-boats were built, not many saw action and many were sunk in German territorial waters by Allied aircraft. After the war, U-2540 (mentioned on the box art) was damaged by Allied fighter-bombers and scuttled on May 4th, 1945. It was raised and underwent a modernization program. The U-boat was handed over to the Bundesmarine (West German Navy) in 1958 and renamed “Wilhelm Bauer” in 1960. It is currently the only surviving Type XXI U-boat and since 1984 is housed in the Technical Museum in Bremerhaven.
THE KIT:
The kit comes in a long end-opening type box. It is not cello-wrapped and the end flaps are held shut with large circles of Scotch tape. I am no fan of this type of box. Invariably PE frets, decals and small parts find their way past the end flaps to become lost forever. Give me a tray and lid type box any day of the week.
The box art shows a Type XXI that has just below the surface of heavy seas with it’s hull side open to show interior details.
A side panel shows 7 color photos of the model made up, along with a paint color listing and a list of features of the kit in multiple languages, including English.
The other side panel has the U-boat’s history in four languages, including English, the copyright date of 1992, Revell of Germany’s street address there and features of the kit again in 7 languages,
On a scale of 1 to 5 for difficulty of assembly of this kit it is rated as a 5. That is described as “A difficult model with over 150 parts, requiring a very high level of skill”.
The bottom of the box has color illustrations of 6 other ship models that Revell markets: a British Vosper Motor-torpedo-boat, the U.S.S. Pine Island, the Alexander Von Humboldt sailing ship, the German Bismark, the box art of this sub kit and a Viking Ghost Ship. None of these is labeled with the kit numbers. A color photo of Revell brand paints, glue and an airbrush is shown.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
Inside the box is 2 large cello bags holding four medium grey trees of parts. The instructions, decal sheet, a small sheet of signal flags, and a single-sheet color brochure sheet about the Technikmuseum U-Boot Wilhelm Baur in Bremerhaven Germany, where a real type XXI U-boat is on display.. There is a frosted sheet provided to protect the face of the decal sheet. However, it is floating around loose and is not protecting anything!
The instructions consists of an unbound booklet of 12 pages in 6 ¾” x 9 5/8th page format.
Page one of the instructions begins with ATTENTIONS about the kit in 7 languages including English. This is followed by international assembly symbol explanations and a paint color listing. The bottom of the page has Revell’s address in Germany to contact for any problems found with the kit.
Page two through page eight give a grand total of 54 assembly steps.
Page nine has 2 profile illustrations of the sub, showing its solid side and the cut away one. It is the color guide. There are no parts tree illustrations in the instructions. This means that modelers will have to carefully search each tree for correct parts for each assembly. Trees are not alphabetized which does not help either. Bad move Revell of Germany.
Pages 10 to 12 are blank.
The first medium grey parts tree holds: the rudders, display cradle parts, deck sections, hatch doors, periscopes DF loop and antennas, propellers etc. (47 parts)
The Type XXI U-boat was a fundamentally new sort of submarine for Germany with a very streamlined hull and high-capacity batteries to give great submerged speed and endurance. The design was suggested at a conference in Paris in November 1942 as an alternative to the Walter turbine boats which were taking so long to develop. By June 1943, the preliminary design work was complete.
The planned submerged speed was to be 18 knots for 90 minutes, a tremendous advance on any submarine’s performance and one that would have caused formidable problems to the Allied navies had the Type XXI become operational in any numbers earlier in the war. Additional advantages of this type of U-boat were a deep-diving capability, a fast silent speed and rapid torpedo loading. The underwater armament was six bow tubes with 23 torpedoes.
It was planned to give these boats a defensive AA armament of a quadruple 30-mm (1.18 in) gun of a new design, but because of production problems few were fitted and most boats had the standard 20-mm (0.79 in) weapons. To speed production the hull was prefabricated in eight all-welded sections in different shipyards away from the bombing targets of the Allied forces. After transporting the sections to the launching slip, they could be welded together rapidly and the boat launched after spending minimum time on a vulnerable launching slip.
The size of the Type XXI made it unsuitable for operations in the North Sea or the English Channel. Although 118 Type XXI U-boats were built, not many saw action and many were sunk in German territorial waters by Allied aircraft. After the war, U-2540 (mentioned on the box art) was damaged by Allied fighter-bombers and scuttled on May 4th, 1945. It was raised and underwent a modernization program. The U-boat was handed over to the Bundesmarine (West German Navy) in 1958 and renamed “Wilhelm Bauer” in 1960. It is currently the only surviving Type XXI U-boat and since 1984 is housed in the Technical Museum in Bremerhaven.
THE KIT:
The kit comes in a long end-opening type box. It is not cello-wrapped and the end flaps are held shut with large circles of Scotch tape. I am no fan of this type of box. Invariably PE frets, decals and small parts find their way past the end flaps to become lost forever. Give me a tray and lid type box any day of the week.
The box art shows a Type XXI that has just below the surface of heavy seas with it’s hull side open to show interior details.
A side panel shows 7 color photos of the model made up, along with a paint color listing and a list of features of the kit in multiple languages, including English.
The other side panel has the U-boat’s history in four languages, including English, the copyright date of 1992, Revell of Germany’s street address there and features of the kit again in 7 languages,
On a scale of 1 to 5 for difficulty of assembly of this kit it is rated as a 5. That is described as “A difficult model with over 150 parts, requiring a very high level of skill”.
The bottom of the box has color illustrations of 6 other ship models that Revell markets: a British Vosper Motor-torpedo-boat, the U.S.S. Pine Island, the Alexander Von Humboldt sailing ship, the German Bismark, the box art of this sub kit and a Viking Ghost Ship. None of these is labeled with the kit numbers. A color photo of Revell brand paints, glue and an airbrush is shown.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX:
Inside the box is 2 large cello bags holding four medium grey trees of parts. The instructions, decal sheet, a small sheet of signal flags, and a single-sheet color brochure sheet about the Technikmuseum U-Boot Wilhelm Baur in Bremerhaven Germany, where a real type XXI U-boat is on display.. There is a frosted sheet provided to protect the face of the decal sheet. However, it is floating around loose and is not protecting anything!
The instructions consists of an unbound booklet of 12 pages in 6 ¾” x 9 5/8th page format.
Page one of the instructions begins with ATTENTIONS about the kit in 7 languages including English. This is followed by international assembly symbol explanations and a paint color listing. The bottom of the page has Revell’s address in Germany to contact for any problems found with the kit.
Page two through page eight give a grand total of 54 assembly steps.
Page nine has 2 profile illustrations of the sub, showing its solid side and the cut away one. It is the color guide. There are no parts tree illustrations in the instructions. This means that modelers will have to carefully search each tree for correct parts for each assembly. Trees are not alphabetized which does not help either. Bad move Revell of Germany.
Pages 10 to 12 are blank.
The first medium grey parts tree holds: the rudders, display cradle parts, deck sections, hatch doors, periscopes DF loop and antennas, propellers etc. (47 parts)
The second medium grey parts tree holds: ladders, internal floor sections and bulk heads, torpedoes, engines etc. (55 parts)
The third medium grey parts tree holds: more engine parts, more internal floor sections, more bulkheads, pipes etc. (60 parts)
The fourth medium grey parts tree holds the two hull sides. One solid and the other cut-away.
The parts trees are not alphabetized, but they do have the part numbers molded next to the parts.
1/144th scale may sound small, at first, but the hull of this kit is 21” long so it makes up into a nice size sub.
Highly recommended to modelers who have had a number of other ship kits of this parts count and complexity under their belts. This sub, with it’s cut-away interior showing, will be a real eye-catcher on any modeler’s shelf for sure.
Revell also markets this model without the cut-away hull half and internal details. I have that one too somewhere in my stash.
Kit courtesy of my wallet.
Highly recommended to modelers who have had a number of other ship kits of this parts count and complexity under their belts. This sub, with it’s cut-away interior showing, will be a real eye-catcher on any modeler’s shelf for sure.
Revell also markets this model without the cut-away hull half and internal details. I have that one too somewhere in my stash.
Kit courtesy of my wallet.