I just received the MicroMir Papa class SSGN (K-222) & Mike class (K-278, Komsomolets) SSN kits in 1/350. The K-222 Papa class was the experimental, one off, high speed cruise missile submarine with a titanium hull. She is noted as having reached the highest submerged speed of any submarine to date, 44.7 kts. Due to the cost and other issues (excessive noise at high speed, shedding of external hull pieces at high speed) she was in limited use and was retired early after reactor damage to one of her two PWR plants.
The Mike was the deep diving (1020 meters, 3350 feet) SSN design, again with a titanium hull. She was lost in 1989 when a fire broke out in an aft compartment, and ultimately sank with the loss of 42 of her 65 crew.
The two kits come in the distinct MicroMir light blue bordered boxes, with loose fitting lids. The parts are all sealed in a reclosable plastic bag. The kits feature a limited number of parts, small decal sets, and a small photo etch fret. Overall the scribing and other details look very accurate from the few photos available, and ballast tank flood vents are represented on the bottom of the hull (avoiding one of my pet peeves, submarine models without ballast tank flood vents). I have not as yet checked the parts fit, as I have some other kits to finish up before starting these.
One rather challenging aspect I discovered of both kits is the decision by MicroMir to make the photo etch propellers as individual blades. These will each need to be removed from the photo etch and glued (butt mount) on the propeller shafts. There are six blades on each of two prop shafts for the Papa class, and two tandem propeller sets of six, each mounted on one (very small) centerline shaft for the Mike. You would think that surely the mounting positions for the six individual blades and the mounting angle would be indicated. But then you would be wrong. What makes it doubly difficult is the lack of a lot of photo documentation on either of these unique submarines, particularly of the propeller areas. I would much rather have preferred a single six bladed photo etch piece to the task of trying to carefully measure and mount the six blades 60 degrees apart with superglue on a very (and I do mean very) small shaft surface. The joints themselves have a very limited surface contact area. Also, since you can't twist the blades a bit prior to installing as you can with a one piece photo etch propeller, you will have to guesstimate an angle to mount them on and get them to all look like the same angle. I think this will be a very frustrating exercise, and since these are straight "brass blades to plastic mounts with cyanoacrylate glue" jobs, it will be a very delicate build to pull off properly and look good. And you won't want anyone near the finished model to threaten the propeller constructions.
The Mike fret also has very small photo etch blades (I measured as 1 mm in length and 0.7 mm in width!) to be placed (2 each) on the maneuvering pods at the tips of the stern planes, for low speed maneuvering. Again, butt joints with no real guidance as to installation angles.
Also, a general comment: Am I the only one who finds flat, one dimensional photoetch propellers unconvincing on an otherwise detailed model? I have a couple of the older Pit Road Combat Subs resin kits. They came with white metal propellers, which had varying thicknesses and seem far more convincing than the 2 dimensional photo etch version.
_________________ Tom Dougherty Researcher for: "Project Azorian”https://www.amazon.com/Azorian-Raising-K-129-Michael-White/dp/B008QTU7QY"Project Azorian: The CIA and the Raising of the K-129" Bookhttps://www.usni.org/press/books/project-azorian
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