by Martin Kohring
1/72 USS Cobia SS-245 (Revell)
I had the pleasure of building the show exhibition display model for Revell Germany from the pre-production test-shot sprues in readiness for Telford 2006
At an overall length 91.60meters (300 ft 52 in) the kit of the 1/72 Gato results in a model of 1.30 meters(51 inches) model length.
When Revell announced the Gato kit I was impatient for the receipt of the the test-shot kit! My hopes and longing was well rewarded! A box crammed with sprue trees of beautifully detailed parts arrived along with good instructions to guide me through the assembly of the 300 plus parts. The Hull is divided into three sections - which perhaps hint at other possible versions in the future…this is however mere speculation on my part…
In contrast to the the VII/C the limber holes are pierced and a special feature are the movable forward hydroplanes. In contrast to the VII/C all torpedo hatches are represented closed and are moulded integrally to the bow and stern parts. . The rudder, prop shaft and the aft hydroplanes are not movable. The aft propellor guards consist of four parts.
The deck, like the hull,is a three part assembly which is installed onto the previously assembled hull.
Many modellers will have their work cut out filling and making good the hull seams which fall between the raised simulated weld lines ,fortunately on deck the joint falls on a change in deck texture-so is slightly less work.
On deck there are some davits as well as the 4 in gun.
For truly positive location of these parts one should drill through the indentations in the deck surface. I followed the same procedure for the metal ladder rungs on the Conning tower . The parts for the Conning tower are very impressive, with well executed rivet detail( I did not count them) and convincing WT doors with well moulded handle . The Periscope unit is a multi-part assembly and there are clear parts supplied for the searchlight and navigation lights.
The railings on the Conning tower platforms consist in part of moulded 2-bar solid railing as well as individual curved stanchions with eyes through which one can run suitable material - on this model I used stretched sprue.
The deck armament is interesting - the kit contains 20mm MG, 40mm Bofors and a detailed 4in deckgun. Clear parts are supplied for the gunsights.
The remainder of the deck hardware is well executed - the individual stanchions having eyes through which the railing cable can be drawn as per the original vessel.
The kit on the whole impresses with its fine quality and scale fidelity.
The kit suggests that the following vessels can be built- USS Cobia SS -245, USS Silverside S-236. SS Flasher SS-249 and USS Growler, however I have doubts thereto, the Conning towers of these vessel do show differences.
After close examination of photos I decided that USS Cobia would render the most accurate model from the kit based on the tower parts.
Colour Guru John Snyder of White Ensign model supplied the painting information as well as the suitable Colourcoat paints—thank you.
The USS Cobia carried Measure 32/3SS B, a three-colour camouflage pattern which can be described as follows: The deck is painted gloss-black (CC ACS 04) to a distance of 2 ft of the deck edge. All other horizontal and diagonally sloping surfaces are painted to UC flat black (CC C 02). The vertical surfaces were painted in Haze Grey (CC US 28).
The transitions between the flat black and Haze Grey to curved surfaces were implemented as process. Directly aft of the tower the Haze Grey merges into Ocean Grey (CC US 31) and thence into the flat black aft. The lower surfaces of all overhangs were white painted 5-U (CC C 03). The forward rounded part of the tower and the periscope shanks were painted in Ocean Grey. The deck guns were painted flat black on the top of the barrels Outside Grey (CC US 32) everywhere else.
In conclusion Revell has supplied the modeller with an excellent product: The moulding quality is state of the art. The large number of parts is justified in the delicacy of the end result. The good fit of the parts permits brisk construction , the interesting camouflage enhancing the look of this submarine.
All in all the kit constitutes an outstanding model. One should not underestimate the amount of time a model of this magnitude can consume-so a degree of patience and care is recommended!
References used:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/04idx.htm
http://www.usscobia.com/
http://www.wisconsinmaritime.org/sub.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cobia
US Submarines in action, Squardron/Signal
U-Boots in WW2 (Motorbooks)
