U-215
by Paul Helfrich

1/144 DKM U-215 Type VIID (Revell Germany)

Here's my latest sub build: the very nice 1/144 scale release of a Type VIID Minelaying U Boat by Revell Germany. I built my kit as U 215.

The kit is crisply molded, with great surface detail. It is, as would be expected, a huge improvement over Revell's old 1/125 U Boat tooling (U-41, U-99, etc). It is probably scaled down, at least in part, from Revell's recent 1/72 U boat issues.

My only complaint: Revell laid this kit out as two large sprues, rather than many small ones. That may make sense for a fairly large hull like this one, but I find that when you have a lot of parts on one big sprue, they are more likely to fall off and get damaged or lost in the building process, if not before. For instance, my kit's conning tower railings - very fine and delicate moldings - had pretty much fallen to pieces by the time I opened the box. So I had to scratch those with wire and thread. Better isolation and packaging of the delicate parts would help protect them.

Other than that small complaint, I was very pleased with this new kit and glad to add another 1/144 sub to my growing collection. I have Trumpy's new 1944 Gato in 1/144 up next...