Pavla Models

1/72 X-Craft Submarine

Kit Number: 72068

Reviewed by  Kenny Loup, IPMS# 42960

MSRP: $82.95 Website: www.pavlamodels.cz Brief Ship History Known as the X-craft, this British built midget submarine was towed to the target area by a larger "mother" sub where the crew would transfer to the X-craft and begin their mission. Once the mission was completed, the X-craft would rendezvous with the "mother" sub and be towed back to its home port. The most famous of the X-craft missions was Operation Source in which the X-craft were used in an attempt to sink large German warships in their Norwegian home ports. Two of the six midget subs used, were able to place their charges under the battleship Tirpitz and cause major damage to the warship. The craft was also used in various capacities during the Normandy invasion. The kit, box, and what's inside The kit comes in a light weight, open-lidded style cardboard box, which is adorned with a photo of the completed model. After opening the box, you will see several resin pour stubs with various parts attached. You will also find both hull halves and the upper hull assembly. Rounding out the contents is the two page, fan folded instruction sheet. Now, let's take a look at the parts themselves. The kit parts are nicely molded with a great amount of detail on all three of the hull pieces. There is some flash, but nothing a sharp hobby knife or a sanding stick can’t fix. The underside of the upper hull will need to be sanded and test fit before attaching to the main hull assembly. The main hulls mate up nicely with very little sanding. One of the drawbacks of resin kits is the chance of broken or warped parts. Unfortunately, this was the case with this kit. All of the control rods were warped or broken and had to be replaced with scratch built replacements. Assembly Assembly of the kit is very straight forward and can easily be built within a weekend. You will need to carefully align the tail plane surfaces before attaching them to the hull assembly. Failure to do this will result in poor fit of these parts. I suggest using the top mounting point which molded into the upper hull to align the other three mounting points. Once the tail plane assembly is done, it’s time to add the smaller bits and pieces that make up the control rod attachment parts, snorkel, periscope and guard and the hatches. Final thoughts The only drawback that I can find in this kit is the small broken parts. Pavla may need to rethink their packing to prevent this with future kits. With that being said, the kit itself is nicely molded with the majority of the clean up coming from the underside of the upper hull. As stated earlier, this is a straight forward build which can be completed in a weekend. Unfortunately, mine took slightly longer when it took a nose dive off of the top of the hutch on my desk. When I could not locate all of the dive planes, my only option was to make her a waterline model. Many thanks to IPMS/USA and Pavla Models for providing this excellent review sample!