World War I U-boats

My embarrassingly large stock of unbuilt kits includes a nice resin 1/350 German U-boat from Bluewater Navy. I believe that firm is now defunct, but its kits seem to be surfacing occasionally under other labels. I think I bought it from Model Expo; maybe they still have access to it.

For a long time the available plastic WWI ship kits available (if you don't count the Airfix Mauretania) could almost be counted on one hand. Revell and Airfix did 4-stack American destroyers, and in the '70s Airfix produced a pretty good HMS Iron Duke (which is still available, I believe). Revell also sold a kit that pretended to represent the German WWI raider Seeadler, but it was a slightly modified reissue of the firm's USCGC Eagle. And ITC had a US Navy subchaser (subsequently reissued by Glencoe). Things are a little better now, but not much. We have the 1/350 German battleships from ICM (nice kits as I understand it, though I haven't bought them). And there are some beautiful resin kits from firms like WSW and White Ensign - expensive, but with the potential to produce pretty spectacular results. If you're interested, a good place to get acquainted with them is the Steel Navy website: <www.steelnavy.com>.

It's a shame the period hasn't been covered more thoroughly by kit manufacturers. It's a crucial one; it could be argued that warship technology exerted a greater influence on world events between 1890 and 1918 than in any other period in history.

Good luck.

I think I've seen WWI U-boat kits (probably resin) advertised in old FSM mags. I'll go through some of my collection and see if I find anything.

Dave

The Bluewater Navy kits are now being done by Yankee Modelworks. They have the WW 1 U Boot in their catalog,

I checked White Ensign Models and couldn't find a kit. Checked ebay and they have a few things related to German WWI subs, didn't see any kits though. It may be worth it to check ebay from time to time. I typed in ww1 u-boat, and then wwI uboat and got different items that came up.

Dave

miragein1/400

The website for Steel Navy (<www.steelnavy.com>) has a link to Yankee Modelworks, which does indeed have the former Bluewater Navy WWI U-boat kit in its catalog. The vessel in question is in fact U-35, which had the most distinguished combat success rate of the war. It's a nice kit.

jtilley, please edit your links - you've got the ">" in the URL, so they don't work.

On topic: "The Modeller" offers metal kits of Austrian (Holland type) WWI submarines; but AFAIK, they only ship inside the EU.

Has anyone built the U-35? What's the cost of the kit? I tried opening up the U-35 in Yankee Modelworks on my computer, but it doesn't work. If the price is halfway reasonable for a resin kit, I'd like to try my hand. And if anyone has this model unbuilt that they'd like to sell, I'll entertain bids.....

At one time Combat Models Vacuforms listed two 1/72 WW I subs in their line. Don't know if they are still available.

The U-35 is an easy kit to build, simple and straight forward. As far as I know, the Combat Models subs aren't available yet, but the line was picked up by Rosemont Hobbies in PA I believe. Either way, don't waste your money on the Combat kits, as they're not really kits, just a baggy full of warped plastic sheet with a 3-view drawing...and yes, I'm speaking from experience here...the Combat Type IX U-boat in 1/72 is the only model I've ever given up on...

Jeff Herne

jtilley:

Although I don't know of any WWI subs not already listed here, there were 2 notable WWI models you forgot to list: The Revell German cruisers "Emden" and "Dresden" in 1/350-scale. Eduard made a PE kit for these (but I've had no success finding that PE kit recently).

"Should we prosper it shall be as is our custom...by Miracle!"

Azrog, ya got me! I haven't built either of those kits, but I've seen several built-up renditions of them and they look mighty nice - as most Revell-Germany kits do. And the ships themselves are both historically interesting and colorful.

I just checked the Gold Medal Models website. That firm offers a sheet specifically designed for the Revell 1/350 Emden and Dresden. I haven't seen that sheet either, but I have yet to be less than impressed with anything Gold Medal makes. You can get there by way of the Steel Navy website.

jtilley:

Thanks for the "heads-up" on Gold Medal Models.

"Should we prosper it shall be as is our custom...by Miracle!"

News flash: The Steel Navy website, under "What's New," has reviews of three new waterline WWI German U-boat resin kits from NNT. They're on 1/700 scale, which makes them pretty tiny, and the number of parts per kit ranges from one to seven. I didn't find them on any of the dealer websites (they're probably too new), but they surely can't be terribly expensive.

Try this...

Roberts/Combat Models

18 E. Clay St.

West Hazelton, PA 18201-3824

(570) 450-5647

These are 1/72 vacu-form kits.He has 3 WWI subs (that I know of),U-9,U-35, and a US "Old S-class" sub.

In the Dec. Squadron catalog supplement Mirage is now got a 1/400 german WWI U-boat, I think it's been out awhile and a new 1/400 US 4 stack destroyer.  I have no experience with either of these kits, but have built the V106 torpedo boat.  The kit was ok, but you'll need photoetch.  The prices were ok too. 

           G.L.