That Revell "U-505" has a rather interesting story behind it. It was written up briefly in one of the magazines - either FSM or
Scale Ship Modeler, I think.
I don't remember the date, but I think it may have been in the very early eighties. At that time Revell, like most other plastic kit manufacturers, was having serious financial troubles. The original management of the company had long since died out or retired, and the current executives were less interested in scale modeling than in staving off bankruptcy.
The "U-505" ploy was intended to capitalize on a market consisting of people who'd been on board the real U-boat, which, of course, is preserved at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. In Revell's defense, the deception may have been due to ignorance rather than deliberate; I suspect the people in charge of the company at the time genuinely didn't know there was a difference between a Type VII and a Type IX. (Hey - they're all submarines, right?) At any rate, the howls of protest from customers were so loud that the gift shop at the museum refused to sell the kit. Revell thereupon took it off the market. It's a rare - if not downright unique - example of a model manufacturer admitting it was guilty of deceptive marketing practice.
When that U-boat kit was new it was the subject of an even more ridiculous stunt. The kit included (and presumably still does) a stand that featured a name plate, about a third the length of the hull, shaped like a torpedo. Revell commissioned an artist to paint a picture of the prototype U-boat for a magazine ad. (The one I saw was in the British
Scale Models.) The painting is an underwater view of the U-boat plowing through the sea in pursuit of a convoy - with an enormous torpedo dangling underneath. Revell apparently had provided the artist with a photo of the finished model mounted on the stand, and nobody who proofed the picture noticed anything wrong.
The torpedo in that painting must have been at least fifty feet long. When I saw that one I rolled my eyes and concluded that Revell was doomed. Fortunately, I was wrong.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.