This latest title in the excellent ShipCraft series of ship modelling books focuses on the British WWII Town, and Colony Classes and post-War Tiger-class cruisers. Authored by well-respected British naval historian and modeler, Les Brown, this 64-page monograph features 60 b&w period photos, many color photos mainly of model, some very nice color profiles illustrating WWII camouflage schemes, and some plans.

The book follows on from Brown’s earlier volume on British 6-in cruisers from the 1930s onwards and concentrates on the later wartime classes with triple-gun turrets of the Town-, Colony-. and Tiger-class, the latter of which were laid down in wartime but not completed until well afterwards and which take the story of British big-gun cruisers to it’s end in the 1970’s. One of the ships, the famous HMS Belfast, still survives as a museum ship.

HiSModel is a Czech manufacturer of high quality accessories for sailing ship models such as wooden blocks, laser cut wood decks, metal cannons, photo etch detail sets and much else for existing wood and plastic model sailing ships. The Statenjacht Utrecht ,their first complete plastic kit, is a model of an 18^th century luxury yacht built in the Netherlands that was used by the executives of the United East India Company. Between 1998 and 2003, a replica was built from the same plans which can still be seen today.

ICM has released a dual midget submarine kit in 1/72^nd scale. The submarines are U-Boat Type XXVIIB Seehund (early) and Molch.

he K-Verband (in English "small battle unit", derived from Kleinkampfverbände der Kriegsmarine"small battle units") was a World War II German naval unit that operated a mixture of midget submarines and explosive speed boats. It was formed in April 1944 and operated until 26 April 1945.

In The Package

There are two (2) kits provided inside the box, U-Boat Type XXVIIB Seehund (early) and Molch. If bought individually, the MSRP is $31.99 each. Thus, there is great value in buying this dual kit.

There are two (2) bags of sprues packaged. One for each submarine. The Molch has two sets of sprues, gray and clear. While the Seehund only has one gray sprue. Also, each sub gets its own decal sheet and set of instructions. The instructions are well illustrated and assembly is straight forward based on the small number of steps.

Neverland Hobby has been involved in the plastic model hobby for a while and have jumped into the pond with there first release, a 1/144 Kriegsmarine U-Boat U-96. As a bit of background, U-96 was a Type VIIC version of the U Boat which sunk 27 ships and was it self sunk in port by allied bombs. It is known for having the markings of a laughing swordfish.

Intro

I was excited to see the upcoming launch of Trumpeter’s USS Midway and jumped at the chance to do this review. The DKM H-Class was a terrific ship to build - if the Midway is as good as that, or better, this will be an enjoyable build for sure. As I got into the build the 3 characteristics of Trumpeter’s ship kits that I think set them apart from others showed up right away: first sprue gate locations are strategically placed so that whenever possible they are on a surface not visible in profile thus requiring no sanding, second the PE is very forgiving with a distinct “snick” when cutting the PE from the fret along with a softness that allows it to be re-bent at least once without breaking, and third a level of detail on even the smallest part that requires a macro-lens to get a clear picture of it. I had a few thoughts on how to break up the build for review. In the end it feels like 3 distinct build sessions.