Bronco CB35053 – Seehund XXVIIB/B5 Midget Submarine
Usually when you build in 1/35 you’re working with armour, figures, soft skins, maybe buildings and the like. You seldom get the opportunity to cross over into aircraft and marine areas, which is what makes this kit such a great idea. Certainly you have things like the Italeri E-Boat and you can usually get away with 1/32 scale aircraft, but it’s hard to integrate them with armour and the like. There are also the manned torpedoes that Italeri do but this is an opportunity to put a sub into a diorama that doesn’t necessarily have to be a marine oriented one, and in my book that is a good thing.
This kit from Bronco was only released last month so this is the first opportunity I’ve had to get my hands on it. It comes in a large tray and lid style box on four light grey sprues, two of which are the same for the torpedoes. There is also a small photo etched fret, a plastic display base, a colour paint guide, a small clear sprue with the single clear part, a sheet of decals, and the instructions.
The mould quality is excellent with completely clean parts with almost non existant mould seams, very sharp detail and some particularly fine and delicate detailing. When you’re used to building complex armour kits from the likes of Dragon this kit does seem very simple, but you soon realise that it isn’t simple due to the lack of detail, but more because the actual real sub was very simple.
The submarine assembly is very straight forward as it primarily consists of joining the two large hull sides then adding the small conning tower and fittings. In fact there are more parts to the torpedoes than to the sub but don’t read anything into that as the level of surface detail is excellent and these subs just didn’t have a lot of stuck on bits. There is a clear domed cover on the top hatch, which can also be positioned open, though there is no interior to be seen inside. Though I would not at all be surprised to see a resin or photo-etched detail set for this soon appear on the market.
One thing to watch for is that there are optional rudder assemblies for either the XXVIIB or XXVIIB5 versions, as well as optional flotation tanks for the B5 versions, and the holes for the appropriate rudder assembly and the extra tanks, if they are to be added, need to be opened up in the hull sides from inside. So make sure you decide which version you want to build first and then open the appropriate holes, and install the rudder assembly before joining the hull sides.
The torpedo assemblies are also very straight forward, consisting of twenty five parts for each torpedo. It is made up from two halves plus a separate nose and tail cone, with the fins and separate access panels then added. The twin screws that drive each torpedo are injection moulded with two of the four blades on each as separate parts while the small spinners on the noses are each made up from an injection moulded hub with four photo etched blades.
A display base is included if you want to model this to be displayed just as it is. The base is injection moulded in black though the cradles for the sub to sit in are moulded in the light grey. There is also a photo-etched brass plaque to mount onto this base with the inscription “German ‘Seehund’ XXVIIB/B5 Midget Submarine” in both english and chinese.
Decals and a painting guide are provided for four different craft – German ‘Seehund’ XXVIIB5 Midget Submarine, Captured by British Forces on an assembly line in Germany in May 1945 : German ‘Seehund’ XXVIIB Midget Submarine No. 075, Captured by Allied Forces at a Dockyard in Germany in May 1945 : German ‘Seehund’ XXVIIB Midget Submarine No. 329, Operated in the English Channel between January and May 1945 : German ‘Seehund’ XXVIIB Midget Submarine No. 17, Operated off the German Coast between January and May 1945.
This is a fantastic kit, both in its physical execution and the overall concept. For the opportunity alone to add this to a diorama and give it create a scene that is totally removed from the usual I would recommend this any day. It’s a great kit that creates whole new diorama ideas, and even if you don’t like dioramas but just like subs it’s still straight from the box a very nice kit.
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