Hello all,
We would like to announce a new product (AMP7205) for release in the next few months. It is a photo-etch and resin set for Revell's late war 1/72nd Type VIIC/41 kit.
Over the past few years we have researched the mid-to-late VIIC and VIIC/41 features such as the planked deck, Atlantic bow and other details. The new set develops this research further and creates parts to accurately replicate different features which have not been possible with existing kits and sets. There are two PE frets in our new set which can be seen below -
Revell's Type VIIC/41 Platinum Edition has excellent photo etched details but the stick on feature intended to correct their very basic plastic deck does not work at all. Although some improvements were made by Revell to the pattern there are still plenty of inaccuracies including the inaccurate gap in the deck where the schnorchel sits. We would recommend the Platinum Edition due to the quality of the photo-etch but not the stick deck. An accurate photo-etch deck with corrected schnorchel gap is required in conjunction with the platinum kit.
As with our other deck designs, we have not relied upon inaccurate plans and have designed the deck exclusively from period photos. It takes significant time and resources to do it this way and that is why we do not release sets like these regularly.
The main aspect of our new set is that within the one set you have two different options for a VIIC or VIIC/41 with planked deck - one with the snorchel gap and one without the schnorchel gap.
The first option is simply a more accurate version of the planked deck with a corrected schnorchel gap in the deck. Our deck design includes the many rivets which hold the planks onto the under deck supports. These cannot be seen on the image above. Our deck also includes the under deck supports which could be seen on the real boats in between the planks. These supports work really well with photo-etch. We have used period photos to determine most of these supports but have also used knowledge of the deck supports on slotted decks from our previous research. Our previous slotted deck design (AMP7202) was also consulted for position of hatches, some of which were the same on planked decks and other which were different.
The second option is for mid-war boats (43/44) which had a Turm IV tower and planked deck but did not have the schnorchel fitted yet. There were a lot of boats which had this arrangment so we are really pleased to be able to offer this arrangement to modellers. With this second option, the rear piece has no schnorchel gap but does have an ammunition hatch on the port side (this can be seen in the top fret above on the right hand side). You can also see that the forward piece for the second option has no big gap for the life raft containers (see at the bottom of the top fret in image above).
There will be a resin ammunition hatch in our set as modellers will need this for the second option. Also included in resin are the cushions at the side of the hull casing, which are the wrong shape and position in the kit. There is also an Askania compass fairing in resin which was fitted to many but not all late war boats.
There are pieces for the three tower decks. A bonus photo etch part is the three vent blanking plate on the starboard side. As with our 7202 set, we have included saddle tank covers, sacrificial anodes and four flood pieces in this new set.
A 28-page instruction printed booklet will be included in the set as with our previous sets.
An article "Askania, Side Cushions & Update VIIC Vent Patterns" has been written to consolidate and share the research and help guide customers on the various mid to late war features. This includes as much detail as possible on individual boats as possible for maximum accuracy.
It will be available in a few months, with parts total being 111 photo-etched brass plus 4 resin parts. We will also be releasing a rivet replacement set at some point as well.
Cheers,
Dougie
