MikroMir Spanish Submarine Peral. 1:144

[Shar2]

Spanish Submarine Peral

Mikr Mir 1:144

 

Isaac Peral was born on 1 June 1851 in Cartagena, a large and densely populated city on the Mediterranean coast, which was established as a naval base in the 16th Century. At the tender age of 14, Peral enrolled at the San Fernando Naval Military School in Cadiz, and at 16, he earned a commission into the Spanish Navy. During his Naval career, Peral was involved in active duties, travelling to Cuba and the Philippines. Peral excelled in his work, and was awarded a medal for bravery.

In 1882, Peral was awarded the role of Professor of Physics at the Escuela de Ampliación de Estudios de la Armada. His growing knowledge of science and technology, combined with an understanding that Spain needed new methods to protect their territories overseas, spurred him to begin work on the plans for El Peral, a submarine designed for military use. With the encouragement and financial input of the naval minister Manuel de la Pezuela, Peral was able to build a full sized model of his design and which was launched in 1888. El Peral measured 22 metres in length, with a cigar-like shape, and was powered by two electrical 30 horse power engines. During the testing process, the submarine simulated both day and night time attacks, along with firing three Whitehead torpedoes.

Unfortunately, despite promising results, in 1890, further investigation of underwater vessels for military use was brought to an end. In 1890 Peral was withdrawn from service, equipment removed, and the hull stored at La Carraca Arsenal. In 1913 her demolition was ordered but this was not carried out. In 1929, Admiral Mateo García de los Reyes, first commander of the Spanish submarine forces, managed to reclaim the hull and towed it to Cartagena, putting it ashore at the submarine base. In 1965 the authorities of Cartagena succeeded in moving the hull to the Plaza de los Héroes de Cavite. In 2002 was moved to the Paseo Alfonso XII, in front of the port of Cartagena. In 2013, Peral was restored and moved to the Cartagena Naval Museum.

 

The Model

The kit consists of two sprues of light grey styrene, one of clear styrene and a medium sized etched brass sheet. 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, even in this scale though it is still a small submarine model, although some of the etched parts look to be quite fiddly.

 

The instruction sheet just shows two complete operations with all the parts arrowed to their positions, broken up with only a few magnified areas where required.  The hull is spilt horizontally and once glued together is fitted out with the addition of the bow torpedo door, upper and lower rudders, which are moulded complete with their support frames, the two main propeller shafts, shaft supports, tower trunk, two periscopes and two ventilators. The seven clear parts are used to shroud the lower tower, and on top of the tower trunk. You will need to paint the lower tower black first, and mask off the window areas before painting the hull colour. The rest of the build is accomplished using the PE parts provides, these include a small propeller on the underside, right aft, in front of the lower rudder, along with the protective guard that goes over it, along with a similar propeller and guard fitted right forward, just aft of the torpedo door. The main propellers are glued to their shafts, followed by their individual bosses, and shaped accordingly. The trickiest parts of the PE to assemble are for the two platforms that are fitted either side of the tower. Each platform consists of eight supports and the separate decking, but with patience these will look great when assembled and fitted to the model.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

MikroMir really have a knack of producing interesting and unusual subjects, and this is another one that I knew nothing about. It’s great that they have chosen to release this in 1:144 scale as it makes this really small submarine that little bit bigger once built to show off, measuring out at around 155mm long when complete.

 

Review sample courtesy of