Brief History

(taken from the photographic reference manual provided in kit).

Original conceived in 1915, as a little torpedo boat early prototypes were a failure due to the heavy weight of the torpedo. Soon afterwards, Italy entered WWI and more of the boats were ordered. Development never ceased, and by the end of WWI over 244 MAS's were in service. The first true torpedo MAS gained considerable fame by sinking the Austrian Battleships Wien and Szent Istvan.

Development of the boats continued thru the 20's and 30's. Speed was essential and improvements were made to the hull and more powerful engines installed. Finally the much sought after 40 knots was achieved in MAS 424 in 1928. Three 500 hp Isotta Fraschini Asso engines powered the boat.

This will be a box-review of Round 2/ Polar Lights' Batboat, from the classic “Adam West Years-of-Batman”. Round 2 has been giving us great stuff, and this is no exception! They have taken the old molds and tweaked them: then providing great decals and informative and easy instructions. The box and artwork are nicely done as well.

The breakdown of the parts is simple: 13 chrome pics, a great decal sheet, a full hull, a stand and 25 blue colored plastic pieces that make up the rest of the boat. Adam and Burt are also included in the box! The box and artwork are nicely done as well!

No paint codes are mentioned but colors are. Follow them closely and you will be rewarded. The clear parts for the windscreen are a bit thick, but workable. If you want to have fun, give one of these a try. A beginner could actually build this and not paint it, but it should be done-up to bring this boat to life!

Osprey Publishing’s latest monograph (Book # 31 in their Duel series) focuses on the largest World War I battleships, the Dreadnoughts, and the epic 1916 clash between the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Kaiser's High Seas Fleet. Author Stille (CDR USN ret.), makes the technical material understandable to the layman, and is ably assisted by the illustrators, whose drawings and maps clarify the ships’ layouts and the battle tactics. I read the chapters in order, and found them well organized, with the climactic Battle of Jutland saved for last. The reader, depending on his previous knowledge of the subject, may choose any particular chapter of interest. The book is an excellent starting point for naval history buffs, war gamers and ship modelers. I selected the book to learn more about World War I naval history, and for info on building a dreadnought ship model in the future.

Construction started with the stand and a visit from Murphy. Following the kit instructions, I drilled out holes #3 and #6 and cemented in part Z1. The instructions label the base as Z2 but it is marked Z1, not a big deal, it is obvious what’s what. When I tried to set the lower hull on the stand it did not fit. The pedestals should be installed in holes #4 and #5, NOT holes #3 and #6 (so much for starting with something easy).

Construction was straightforward with no real problems. Some areas that could be better are listed here:

Fine Molds continues their series of finely detailed ship accessories with this weapons set of small caliber anti-aircraft guns. The 13mm gun, which was based on a Hotchkiss design and originally imported from France, was one of the two primary light automatic AA guns used on IJN warships (the other being the 25mm Type 96).

This boxing includes two each of two different sets of weapons. Fret A contains two twin 13mm guns and two pedestals for them, along with one each single mounted Vickers machine gun and one single mounted Lewis machine gun. Fret B contains one single quad 13mm unit and one mount, plus four single mount 13mm guns. In total, the box includes two quad mount 13mm, four twin 13s, eight single 13s and two each of the Vickers and Lewis guns. All of the parts are exceptionally well molded with extremely fine detail. There’s practically no flash on any of these tiny parts.