by Doug Hallet
1/350 Royal Australian Navy Oberon and Collins Class Submarines (Fleetline)
These are two 1/350 submarines produced by Fleetline, the resin company operated by Kevin Dunn in Melbourne Australia. Together, they pretty much cover the history of Australian submarine forces in the post-war era. The Oberon class boat (the longer, all-black one) was originally developed for the British Royal Navy, but six (HMAS Onslow, Orion, Otama, Otway, Ovens and Oxley were purpose-built in England for the RAN and served from the 1950s through the 90s. All are now out of service, although one is currently a museum ship.
The Collins class (Type 471) submarine was built locally in Australia to plans developed by a Swedish firm and was based on the Vastergotland class sub still in service in Sweden and Singapore. The Australian boat outwardly resembles the Vastergotland, but is approximately twice as big. Although experiencing a considerable number of production issues and cost overruns, the Collins is reputed to perform very well in joint fleet operations with other navies, including the USN. The six boats of the class are HMAS Collins, Farncomb, Waller, Dechaineux, Sheean, Rankin. If you are interested, there is a six-part mini-documentary produced for Australian TV about life aboard HMAS Rankin available on DVD (Region IV).
Thanks to Kevin Dunn for providing both kits. If you are interested in either one, I've provided a link to Kevin's web site here
Onslow · Orion · Otama · Otway · Ovens · Oxley
