It's my pleasure to announce that Model Maniac Page 49 - Part D is now available! In this Part there are 7 warships on show, as follows:

- EU-II's IJN Kaiten type I 1:72
- Finemold's IJN A-Target type A "Pearl Harbor" 1:72
- ICM's German U-Boat type XXVIIB "Seehund" 1:72
- Innex's Russian Missile Corvette "Tarantula III" 1:400
- Maquette's Russian Submarine S-13 1:400
- Flagman's German U-Boat VIIC/41 1:350
- Flagman's German U-Boat VIIC Special Version 1:350

All by "Tazmanian"

Index and sample pics :

















For more pics please visit my latest page :

http://www.falconbbs.com/model49d.htm

Have fun!

Hi there,

Is the colour of the props on this model accurate?

I am basing my question upon the Sydney midgets and an original one which is on display in the Australian War Memorial. The props on these are black.

There is not a lot of information available on these subs although the Royal Australian Navy did commission a set of drawings based upon the Sydney attackers (2 of the 3 were recovered with the third discovered a couple of years ago) which are the only drawings of these subs in existence.

Keep up the good work - looking forward to the Emden pics.

cheers,

bj

After some searchings on the A-Target, I'm afraid you're right - that the props are black. A finished model shown on hlj.com website also shown the props in black. Looking at its instruction sheets, they suggested flat black for the hull while props' color was not mentioned. So I think they might be in black too. I'll look for the Sydney version of this kit and next time the props will be in black for sure.

Thanks for your kind encouragement and your visit here on this forum. The Emden is coming soon, along with the Markgraft.

All the best,
MM

MM,

I have been doing the FineMolds Sydney sub and, I have to say, it is less than accurate with so much missing or not to scale.

Essentially, FineMolds took the Pearl Harbour sub and attached a different guard to the front tubes, the rear props and the conning tower and that's about it. But, there is so much wrong with the original hull and many of the modifications provided aren't accurate, either.

Also, the decals are the original Pearl ones which mostly don't apply to the Sydney one - even the box art is inaccurate. ggrrrrr.

I hate to sound like a perfectionist but, well, the inaccuracies in this one really do annoy me.

Anyway, I came across a couple of other kits (ok, they're Pearl kits again but, hey, who knows? - they might come out with a Sydney one, too) one from Choroszy and one from Wings. Both look to result in a substantially better looking model than the FineMolds one - have you had experience with these brands?

cheers,

bj

Hi BJ,

Nice to see you again. It's too bad that you're not satisfied with the Sydney sub from Finemolds. I haven't got one yet and I've never heard of the other two names of producers that you mentioned. I myself don't know about precision and accuracy and I don't care much about them. You know, the I-53 1:72 newly released by Lindberg has got very poor review, citing inaccuracies on many parts including the hull. Even so, I still want one because a plastic model this size and length (4' 10.5" or 148.59cm) is unprecedented. I'm trying to get one.

"Tazmanian" - my modeler told me lately that he'll finish Markgraft soon, along with Russian Cruiser Admiral Lazarev (Ex- Frunze) 1:350 w/ PE upgrade sets from Lion Roar. The Emden will be finished later. I'm looking forward to seeing them delivered. Last Saturday he offered a built kit to me - USS SSN-21 Seawolf Attack Submarine 1:144. It's the biggest submarine in this scale that I've ever seen. It just dwarfs the Gato 1:144.

Good luck,
MM

Yes I must admit that the accuracy was getting a bit anal and it's something I didn't want to get involved in too much.

The other two manufacturers I only came across this week when I typed "midget submarine" into the Ebay search engine. The detail on both of these kits looked impressive.

The Lindberg sub does sound special - on the subject of size, I came across a Zeppelin model today that is over 38" in length - quite a sight to see, I would think.

I'll be starting my own Emden soon so I look forward to seeing how you with yours. I'm doing mine in its final colours when it met its fate against HMAS Sydney. If only I could get a 1/350 of Sydney to place alongside her.

cheers,

bj

What about their prices (2 manufacturers)? Not too high?

You mean the Zeppelin dirigible in 1:700 scale? It's that long? I've yet to see one.

This evening I'll get USS Oliver Hazard Perry 1:350 w/ PE set from MK1 delivered by "Toom" - one of my three shipbuilders. "Toom" will also deliver one 1:72 plane and one 1:35 tank. I think this weekends I can take pictures for another new page. Prior to this I also got 4 new vignettes from "Joh".

I'll ask "Tazmanian" to finish Emden soon (after the two ships mentioned earlier), and I have the 3rd type VIIC 1:350 for him to build. This one will have midget submarines (Biber's) on it!

Cheers,
MM