Trumpeter’s recent 1/200 scale Bismarck is a gigantic kit at over four feet in length! Using plastic for her guns is, frankly, a serious disservice. Fortunately, Master Model has fired a salvo of several metal barrel upgrade sets aimed squarely at this large-scale Bismarck.

The three Bismarck sets being reviewed are:

• SM-200-06 - 1/200 German battleship Bismarck - main gun barrels - 38 cm (15in) SKC/34 (8 pcs) - $24.00
• SM-200-07 - 1/200 German battleship Bismarck - secondary and heavy AA armament barrels - 15cm (12 pcs), 10,5 cm (16 pcs) - $15.00
• SM-200-08 - 1/200 German battleship Bismarck - anti-aircraft armament barrels - 37 mm SKC/30 (16 pcs), 20 mm C/30 (12 pcs), 20 mm C/38 (8 pcs) - $15.00

Master Model has excelled in creating amazing turned metal products at reasonable prices, and these upgrades are no exception. The main guns are huge, well machined, and beautiful. The secondary and AA guns have astounding detail.

Master Model, maker of some amazingly detailed metal replacement parts, offers a new turned-metal barrel upgraded set for the 1/350 scale Zvezda kit of the HMS Dreadnought. The set consists of ten turned-aluminum 12in main gun barrels and twelve turned-brass 12-pounder secondary gun barrels. Both barrel sizes are spectacularly cut.

Using the Master Model barrels couldn’t be easier, as they feature a small mounting peg at the breech end of the barrels. Simply remove an existing kit barrel, drill a small hole in its place, and insert and secure the Master barrel’s mounting peg into the hole with a bit of CA glue.

Like many of the Master Model barrel sets, this set is not only limited to use with the HMS Dreadnought, as both the 12-inch and 12-pounder guns were found on many other British ships before and during WWI.

Model Art Magazine is a monthly publication covering aircraft, armor, ships and car modeling. Model Art began releasing magazines in 1966, and has evolved over the past forty-six years. They also release many special issues during the year, as is the case of this sample.

This issue covers IJN destroyers that were produced from 1918 - 1941. The classes include: Minekaze, Kamikaze, Momi, Wakatake, Mutsuki, Fufuki (Tokugata), Hatsuharu, Shiratsuyu, Asashio, Kagero, Yugumo, Akizuki, Shimakasze and Matsu. The magazine is broken down into ten sections.

After building the Aoshima rendering of the Imperial Japanese Navy Cruiser Submarine I-16 a couple of years ago, I was interested in reviewing this release of the I-365 Transport Submarine. I took one photo for this review showing the two submarines side by side to show a size comparison of the two. Like the I-16 kit, the I-365 went together well, for the most part, and should not present too many challenges for modelers with some experience in dealing with small parts. The level of detail on the deck is good, but if I were building this for a competition, I would likely invest in a wood laminate deck and possibly photoetched rails.

The Ship

A lesser-known fact about u-boat attacks is that most came during broad daylight and were conducted with the u-boat's deck gun not at night with a torpedo. The convoy system was yet to be established, so when the u-boats encountered individual unescorted ships rather than waste a torpedo, which they had on board in limited numbers, the u-boat would surface and shell the target with their deck gun. Sometimes the target would surrender, so the u-boat would send over a boarding party to help themselves to whatever they wanted before they told the ship's crew to abandon ship. They then scuttled her using no more valuable ammunition. However, when the target did not surrender or chose to run, the u-boat would just blow them out of the water with the deck gun.