Mikr Mir HMS M1. 1:350

[Shar2]

HMS M1

Mikr Mir 1:350

 

HMS M1 was a submarine of the British Royal Navy, one of four vessels of her class ordered towards the end of the First World War. She sank with the loss of her entire crew in 1925. The vessels were originally intended as "submarine monitors", but their purpose had been changed before detailed design began. M1 was fitted with a 12-inch (305mm) gun which was intended for use against surface ships in preference to torpedoes, the argument being that, "No case is known of a ship-of-war being torpedoed when under way at a range outside of 1000 yards". Although the gun had an effective range of 15,000 yards (14 km), it was normally fired using a simple bead sight at periscope depth with only the barrel above the water. It was important for the submarine's gun to sink or disable the target with the first shot, because the gun could only be loaded on the surface. She was 295 feet 9 inches (90.14 m) long, displaced 1,950 long tons (1,980 t) submerged and operated out of Portsmouth. She was launched on 9 July 1917, but was not involved in active service in the First World War.

 

In 1923, water leaking into the barrel of the gun resulted in extensive damage to the muzzle when it was fired. She sank with all 69 hands on 12 November 1925 while on an exercise in the English Channel. A Swedish ship, SS Vidar, struck the submerged M1 and sank her in 70 m of water. The collision tore the gun from the hull and water flooded the interior through the open loading hole. The crew members appear to have tried to escape by flooding the interior and opening the escape hatch, but their bodies were never found. Her wreck was discovered by a diving team led by Innes McCartney in 1999 at a depth of 73 m. Later that year, the wreck was visited again by Richard Larn and a BBC TV documentary crew, and the resulting film was broadcast in March 2000. The wreck is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

 

The Model

Consisting of two hull halves and a single sprue of light grey styrene and quite a large sheet of etched brass, the kit is contained in the standard, colourful Mikr Mir box. As with most submarine kits, there aren’t a lot of parts and shouldn’t take too long to build.  The difference with this kit is that there are quite a few PE parts which, whilst adding to the detail, will slow the build down, especially for those not used to working with brass.

 

 

The build begins with the assembly of the turret from two halves into which the two part gun barrel is fitted. The two control tower halves are then joined together and fitted with the periscope deck, along with two periscopes and three aerials, whilst alongside each side is a faired projection.  The two hull halves are joined together and the completed tower assembly glued into the slot in the main deck, which has obviously been made so that HMS M2 can be made from the same hull moulds. The propeller shafts, complete with A frame supports are glued into position, along with the two PE propellers and plastic bosses.

 

 

The front and rear dive planes are attached and each fitted with two PE support frames. The single 3” gun is fitted to the upper deck aft of the tower, one the PE decking has been glued into place, as well as gun mounting base and two support frames to the front and rear of the pedestal. The tower is then further detailed with PE handrails all round and a strake on the starboard side. Lastly the two PE keel strakes are fitted to the lower hull.

 

Conclusion

Whilst HMS M1 has been released before in 1:350 by ROP os, although in resin, it’s nice to have options when choosing a kit and this one will probably be more inclusive, for those modellers who don’t like resin, and it is certainly cheaper. Be aware that this is a limited run kit so won’t throw itself together, but it does build into a nice looking model, one that any submarine or maritime fan will proud to have in their collection.

 

Review sample courtesy of

[whitestar12chris]

Great review Dave, Mikromir have promised the M2 & M3 at a later date, it builds into a nice Royal Navy submarine for the collection.

 

All the best Chris