If you are looking for a unique addition to your WWII U-boat collection, let me direct your attention to the kits of Mirage Hobby. In one of their latest releases, the company offers a Type VIIC boat equipped with a pair of Biber mini subs, each carrying a pair of torpedoes. Shying away from the typical 1/700 and 1/350 scales for ships, Mirage Hobby offers this and several other submarines molded in 1/400 scale. Modelers with some experience with small parts will have no issues with the construction of this kit.

This set of replacement barrels for the 1/200 scale Mikasa. It includes 4 305mm (12”), 14 152mm (6”), 20 76mm (3”) and 12 47mm (1.85” Hotchkiss Guns). The 305mm and 152mm barrels are machined from aluminum and the other 2 are machined from brass. The 305mm barrels include brass trunnions.

These are designed for Merit International IJN Pre-Dreadnought Battleship Mikasa.

The 305mm is a straight replacement. The machining is quite good, and the only difference is that the plastic piece has what appears to be a cover on the end of the barrel while the metal barrel is bored out to depict the barrel in action.

The rest of the barrels requires surgery to remove part of the old barrel and drilling out a locating hole for the replacement barrel to slip into.

Project 628 was a design study, circa 1952-1953, to fit a Vladimir Nikolayevich Chelomei (Влади́мир Никола́евич Челоме́й) sub-sonic cruise missile to the 1,500-ton diesel-electric Soviet XIV series K-Class sub. The Russian Project 628 proposal is similar to what the US Navy did with a ‘Loon’ launching from a Gato Class submarine, the USS Cusk SSG-348. The original K-Class design was approved in 1936 as a long range "cruiser submarine" with a heavy torpedo and gun armament. The boats could operate as a "fleet submarine" working with the battle fleet or as long range commerce raiders. The double hull was divided into seven compartments. It was originally planned to carry a small floatplane for scouting but this concept was abandoned when the planned aircraft proved too flimsy. Twelve submarines were built, although seven of them ended up being trapped in Leningrad by the Germans, and were not finally completed until after the end of the war.

Mark Stille is a retired Commander of the US Navy and has written a succession of books for Osprey Publishing on naval topics. He continues as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon. New Vanguard 258 covers Italian cruisers of World War Two, an overlooked topic. This book joints Stille’s previous Osprey Vanguard 182 book on WW2 Italian Battleships (previously reviewed for IPMSUSA in 2011). Like other Osprey books, this issue is 48 pages (not counting the front/back covers) – not enough for an in-depth treatment of WW2 Regia Marina cruisers, but enough for an excellent synopsis of design, characteristics and history of each ship.

“They saved the best for last.” The USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687), named for the Georgia senator who served his state from 1933 to 1971, was the 37th and final boat of the Sturgeon class, and was the ninth long-hull version of the class. Built in the Newport News Shipyard, her keel was laid 19 October 1971; she was launched 12 January 1974, and was commissioned 16 August 1975. She was decommissioned 24 June 1994, and was scrapped through the Ship and Submarine Recycling Program between 1 October 2001 and 3 January 2003. Powered by an S5W reactor, the boat could travel at speeds of 15 knots surfaced, and 25 knots while submerged. The crew complement was 126, and she was armed with four 21-inch torpedo tubes.