When I received this kit for the review, the box wasn't as big as I’d expected, and upon opening it I also discovered the kit was double-boxed. There’s a nice colorful outside box of typical smooth cardboard and a second inner box of fine white corrugated board. The reason for the smaller-than-expected box is that the hull comes in four pieces – top and bottom front half and top and bottom rear half. They were packed very well with a light foam between the pieces, then sealed in a plastic bag. One side of the box states that the model is 40 inches long and the other side says it’s 42 inches long. I measured the completed model at a little over 42 inches in length.

I really liked the way Moebius handled their instructions. All the parts are named as to what they are, besides having part numbers assigned to them. As a young modeler, this is how I learned lots about the subject I was building.

I followed the instructions, first building the prop and diving planes, then went to work on the hull. I joined the front half and back half and let them dry for a day. I used lots of tube glue, wondering if it would take a longer-than-normal time to dry since I sealed it all up. I also put a large amount of lead in the keel so that it will float upright – a leftover habit from my youth. The upper and lower halves fit well, but I noticed they used two different kinds of joints. On one half they used a T notch and on the other an L notch. The front and back halves also fit together well.

The prop is in two pieces, which makes for some hard-to-access seams, but these were the only seams I had to fill. There’s a lot of sanding to do, however, and after two hours’ of using a sanding stick, I broke out my “mouse” palm sander which really sped up the hull sanding. Without the sail, the model could easily be made into a WW1 blimp.

I built everything per the instructions, but left the prop (and all scopes, etc., on top of the sail) off for ease in painting. I painted the upper half flat black from a Testors rattle can. After allowing that to dry another day, I combined Gunze H33 [russet] and H47 [red brown] acrylic in a 50-50 mix, and airbrushed the bottom. I shaded the front panels by overspraying a very thinned-out light blue color over them.

The many parts which went on top of the sail took me longer than building the hull. I sprayed Future where the decals went, since I was applying them over a flat-painted surface. I overcoated them with Future, then sprayed Testors Dullcoat over them to blend them into the matte-finished hull.

I modeled the USS Scorpion in honor of the crew which was lost on June 5, 1968, in the southwest Azores while returning from deployment. The 6 Skipjack-class subs were built between 1956 and 1961, the last one being retired in 1990. They were 251.7 feet long, could run 15 knots surfaced, and 33 knots underwater. The design was tested to a depth of 700 feet, and these boats had a 93-man crew. This class was nuclear-powered, introduced the teardrop hull, and were the fastest subs until the Los Angeles class subs came out – and they cost 40 million dollars each.

To top off this kit, I went online and found a company which sells a package that will turn this into a diveable R/C sub. They even feature operating (firing) torpedoes for it.

Overall, this is an excellent kit which any modeler can handle. My thanks to Moebius for providing the review sample and IPMS-USA for the review opportunity.