by Jason M. Stone
1/350 Typhoon (DML)
I’ve always thought that the Soviet’s were the coolest looking of the modern submarines. This is my version of DML's 1/350 Typhoon. Overall, it is a good kit. I built the Revell Typhoon years ago and have concluded that the Dragon kit has more accurate lines (although the Revell kit has more pronounced acoustic tiling detail on its surface – not sure if it’s to scale, but it looks good – and would have been a nice feature on the Dragon kit).
However, both the Dragon and Revell kits have one major flaw: the stern. It’s completely wrong on both models. Both kits were first released in the 80’s, during the Cold War, presumably before pictures were available to show what this section of the sub looked like. So, they just took an educated guess. It turns out that the stern configuration of the real sub is much more interesting than what it is on either the Dragon or the Revell kits. A few pictures showing the Typhoon’s stern details have cropped up now, and since it doesn’t look like any of the model manufactures are going to be releasing a new kit, it’s up to the individual modeler to scratch build a more accurate model.
It took a lot of sheet styrene, putty, and sanding, but it looks much closer to the photos I have seen of the real ship. The hardest part was reshaping and repositioning the rudders.
While researching, I noticed that it looked like the torpedo tube configuration of the kit was incorrect as well. The Typhoon has six tubes, configured in three rows of two (instead of 8 tubes, arranged in two rows of 4 as supplied on the kit). This was an easy fix, just a little filling and drilling.
The kit has movable diving planes that ‘fire’ torpedoes when retracted. I thought this was a neat feature. I was going to scratch build a couple of accurate RSM-52 SLBM's (Sturgeons) for the missile bays, but by this time I was getting worn out, so I just used the generic missiles provided in the kit. The base is made of stained walnut. The nameplate and Soviet insignia were created in Adobe Illustrator.
