History

The USS Ingersoll was Spruance-class destroyer commissioned in April, 1980. During her short career, the Ingersoll was involved in a collision with a Pakistani oil tanker in the Straits of Malacca. Even though the Ingersoll was one of the newest ships in class, it was one of the first decommissioned. The Ingersoll was sunk as a target in July, 2003.

The Delta III class Russian submarine was first commissioned in December, 1976. There were a total of fourteen produced. As of 2008, six Delta IIIs were active. The model in the box seems to be just a generic representation of the Delta III submarine verse a specific vessel.

The Kits

The Ingersoll kit appears to have been a combination of kits that Dragon had produced. Included in the kit were a USS Ticonderoga plate and several deck options that were not used.

Overall construction was straightforward. The one area that needed some extra work was making the kit a full hull version. There was a pretty major trench where the upper and lower hull connected, not a major concern for modelers with moderate modeling skill. Decals went on very well. I did manage to pull one off as I had to mask an area that I forgot to paint. One note as far as the decals go – there are no white decals for marking the landing areas. These will have to be masked and painted. It actually was not that bad, once it was all done.

The Delta III SSBN kit had also been previously released by Dragon. This kit is comprised of twelve parts. The kit goes together pretty easily with just some minor seam filling and sanding. To me, this was a little jewel to build.

I have to say that I really enjoyed building these two kits. I had not built a naval model in over thirty years nor had I completed any model in the past year. I recommend this to anyone who has an interest in cold war naval subjects.

I would like to thank Dragon Models USA and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to be able to review this kit.