Full Review

Merit International

British HMS X-Craft Submarine

1:35 scale

with

Dave Coward

(May 2018)

Copyright www.scalemodellingnow.com 2018

Background (From Wikepdia)

The X class was a World War II midget submarine class built for the Royal Navy during 1943–44.

Known individually as X-Craft, the vessels were designed to be towed to their intended area of operations by a full-size 'mother' submarine - (usually one of the T class or S class) - with a passage crew on board, the operational crew being transferred from the towing submarine to the X-Craft by dinghy when the operational area was reached, the passage crew returning with the dinghy to the towing submarine. Once the attack was over, the X-Craft would rendezvous with the towing submarine and then be towed home. Range was limited primarily by the endurance and determination of their crews, but was thought to be up to 14 days in the craft or 1,500 miles (2,400 km) distance after suitable training. Actual range of the X-Craft itself was 500 nmi (930 km) surfaced and 82 nmi (152 km) at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged.

A number of development craft were built before it was felt that a feasible weapon had been produced. The first operational craft was X3 (or HM S/M X.3), launched on the night of 15 March 1942. Training with the craft began in September 1942, with X4 arriving in October. In December 1942 and January 1943 six of the "5-10" class began to arrive, identical externally but with a completely reworked interior.

The operational base and training establishment was HMS Varbel at the former Kyles Hydro Hotel at Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. Their first deployment was Operation Source in September, 1943, an attempt to neutralise the heavy German warships based in Northern Norway. Six X-Craft were used, but only 2 successfully laid charges (under the German battleship Tirpitz); the rest were lost, scuttled or returned to base. Tirpitz was badly damaged and out of action until April 1944.

This was the only multiple X-craft attack. The lost craft were replaced early in 1944 with X20 to X25 and six training-only craft.

On 15 April 1944 X24 attacked the Laksevåg floating dock at Bergen. X22 was intended for the mission, but had been accidentally rammed during training and sunk with all hands. X24 made the approach and escaped successfully, but the charges were placed under Bärenfels, a 7,500-ton merchant-vessel along the dock, which was sunk; the dock suffered only minor damage. On 11 September 1944, the operation was repeated by X24, with a new crew; this time the dock was sunk.

X-Craft were involved in the preparatory work for Overlord. Operation Postage Able was planned to take surveys of the landing beaches with X20, commanded by Lt KR Hudspeth, spending four days off the French coast.

Periscope reconnaissance of the shoreline and echo-soundings were performed during daytime. Each night, X20 would approach the beach and 2 divers would swim ashore. Soil samples were collected in condoms. The divers went ashore on two nights to survey the beaches at Vierville-sur-Mer, Moulins St Laurent and Colleville-sur-Mer in what became the American Omaha Beach. On the third night, they were due to go ashore off the Orne Estuary (Sword Beach), but by this stage fatigue (the crew and divers had been living on little more than benzedrine tablets) and the worsening weather caused Hudspeth to shorten the operation, returning to Dolphin on 21 January 1944. Hudspeth received a bar to his DSC.

X20 and X23 acted as lightships to help the D-Day invasion fleet land on the correct beaches (Operation Gambit), as part of the Combined Operations Pilotage Parties (COPP).

X24 is the only remaining intact example of an X-Craft. It can be found in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum.

Operations continued in the Far East with the revised XE class submarines.

For the full Wikipedia article

References used:

Internet

Aftermarket Extras:

Eduard PE set

• Wee Friends Royal Navy Figures

• 3 bladed display propeller from Cornwall model boats

• Brass rod from Albion Alloys

• Tow Cable from Karaya (KYTCR10 from Hannants).

Construction…

On opening the box what you will immediately notice is that there is not a lot to this kit. The hull comes as two main parts with the top decking integrated into the right-hand side. There are parts for the diving planes and manoeuvring planes along with their associated control rods. The hatches are separate so they can be posed open but there is no internal detail so if you want this you will have to scratch build it. There are 4 masts (2 periscopes, a engine induction mast and a compass mast), these can be extended or retracted (the larger periscope and the compass mast) or in the case of the induction mast folded down. There is a small PE fret and a decal sheet with a white ensign flag. There are some other small details but that is pretty much what you get in the box.

I opted to use Eduard’s PE set but to be honest this didn’t in the end bring that much more to the kit so I wouldn’t consider it essential for the build.

So, starting with the build I firstly joined the two hull sides together. This is straightforward and the fit is quite good. If you do want to have the hatches open and show some internal detail I would recommend you add this before you join the hull halves. I drilled out all the drainage holes in the decking and along the hull sides as this just looked a lot better.

With the hull assembled I followed the instruction and added the diving and manoeuvring planes along with their associated control rods. This looked really good until I was told at a show by a modeller who had made this kit that this area was wrong, there were no diving control rods on the left-hand side. This was confirmed with a bit of internet research so it was out with the knife, cutters, filler and sanding sticks. Not a major problem but it would have made life easier if I had known this earlier before I had added all these parts and painted the model! With regards to painting, it’s pretty simple – its BLACK!!

An odd omission…

The next issue with the model are the saddle mine attachment links. Strangely the kit has the end shackles but not the rods that go from the shackles to the hull attachment recesses. Again, not a major problem as these were made from brass rod but quite an odd omission from the kit.

Next issue was the kit propeller, this is just wrong, it’s the wrong shape and size. The Eduard PE has replacement blades but I couldn’t get these to fit properly and

the kit shaft was very undersized anyway. The solution came from a model boat outlet (Cornwall Model Boats) who sell static brass propellers, although not 100% accurate it was a massive improvement on the kit option.

The masts were added next and the kit has the option to have the periscope and compass mast extended or retracted and the induction mast folded down. I went for everything up.

Reference pictures showed a cable between the bow and front of the coaming. I managed to source this from Hannants in the form of an armour tow cable from Karaya.

The final addition I opted for where some Royal Naval figures from Wee Friends. These are very nicely made and add a sense of scale to the model to show how small these X-Craft really were.

Summary…

This is quite a simple model of an interesting subject. The scale is good in that it is neither too big nor too small and the detail is quite good from the box. It also goes together very well but is sadly let down by errors in its accuracy and omissions such as the wrong control rod configuration, lack of mine linkages and a poorly replicated propeller. None of these issues are really major and can be corrected as I have shown but they really shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Overall would I recommend it, yes for a simple build of an interesting subject but you will have to do the extra work to get it accurate.

Dave C.

SMN Quick summary Star rating out of 5

Quality of moulding ****

Accuracy **

Instructions ***

Decals N/A

Subject choice *****

Build enjoyment ****

Overall ****