Trumpeter HMS Astute. 1:144

[Shar2]

HMS Astute

Trumpeter 1:144

 

The Astute is the lead vessel in Britain's Astute class of nuclear powered Tomahawk cruise missile carrying submarines, and as such represents the cutting edge of sub design. While Astute was commissioned in 20107, it wasn’t until 2013 that the second of the class HMS Ambush joined her as part of the fleet, followed by HMS Artful in 2016.  There are four more of the class either in build or due to be built, the last, having been named only last week, being HMS Agincourt.

The kit comes in a glossy top opening box with a painting of the Astute on the ship lift. Inside the box are the two hull halves, a sprue of detail parts, a small stand, a fret of Photo-Etched (PE) parts, decals and instruction booklet. Essentially this is a blown up copy of the Hobbyboss 1/350 kit, the parts layout being exactly the same, apart from size that is. The moulding is superb though, even thought the two hull sections are quite large, there is no sign of imperfections or flash. 

 

The Model

The hull is split horizontally, and there are large lugs that join the hull parts together, but, at least on the review example there is a slight warpage in the parts and will need to be strongly clamped to get a good join. Once clamped, there isn’t too much of a join to clean up, which is always good.

 

The fin (conning tower) is moulded onto the upper half of the hull, and has a choice of two inserts to show the various periscopes and antennae hatches open or closed. The front recess is a standing area for the commander and crew, but appears to be too shallow to stand a crew figure in, so it should either be deepened, or your crew figures cut down if you choose to use them. The various antennae, 10 in all, including one PE part are installed later in the build, but you should check your references to see which should be extended together, as it is rare to see them all raised at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bow planes and rear steering vanes are all supplied as styrene parts, and slot into mounting lugs, as is the two piece propulsor unit. The large surround that reduces cavitation effects slides over the "spinner", and mounts on the multiple stator vanes forward of the blades. Two cowling supports are fitted, one per side of the upper fin. A few small PE parts are added to the bow area, which I think are the covers for the retractable bitts, while a mooring eye is fitted bow and stern at each end of the walkway area of the deck

 

The four piece stand has two y-shaped crutches on which the boat rests. The decal sheet is simple and well printed, consisting of depth markers, various lines, deck markings and so forth. They are crisp and in register, and should settle down well in use on a gloss varnish.

 

 

Conclusion

The 1:350 kit was very nice, but in this large scale it’s so much better.  In my view a submarine kit really needs some size to give it a presence in a collection. Of course it's not going to be 100% accurate, as a lot of the detail, especially around the propulsor, is classified. Having seen some shots of it out of the water however, I'd say that Trumpeter/HobbyBoss have managed to capture the shape pretty well, given the aforementioned constraints.

The low parts count might dissuade some, but adding any extra parts would only be making work where none was needed, as these vessels rely on their sleek hydro-dynamic shape to cut through the water at surprisingly high speed. The fun part is in the painting and getting any weathering just right.

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

 

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[whitestar12chris]

Great review Dave, as you say the fun part will be recreating the tile patterns. A welcome addition to the Royal Navy submarine head count.

 

All the best Chris