| There has been many inquiries about Italian Navy subjects in plastic, especially in 1/350 scale. Trumpeter has a plastic 1/350 scale kit of the RN Pola that may interest some. I have no plans and very few photo's of this cruiser so it is hard to give an accurate assessment. We will instead concentrate on what's in the box. Upon opening the box you will find a one piece hull with an electric motor and gearbox pre mounted. The hull has many portholes molded in place, the bow appears to be too blunt, compared to pictures of the ship. | Click Thumbnails
to enlarge  |
| The Decks are pretty plain with a few raised lines to represent the planking. The bow details are rather crude and would be better replaced by photo etch and scratch built details. the center section is molded separately to allow for battery access. |  |
| Superstructure parts are OK, but suffer from splinter shields that are too thick, and there are numerous ejector pin marks on the parts that will need cleaned up. The port holes and windows are molded open, a nice touch. A good set of photo etched hatches is recommended as the molded one one are represented by raised lines, marking the out line of the doors. The float plane is a major disappointment, as is is very crude and appears to be totally inaccurate. |  |
| The main gun turrets look all right, with nicely tapered barrels. The secondary guns are decent, but the AA guns are a little bare. The boats are going to need some work as well, with most of them having large ejector pin marks that look like mounting holes for other parts. The gun directors look rather bare and have some pretty big sink holes to fill in. Boat davits are nicely molded, but the boat anchors are thick and crude. |  |
| Also included in the kit are alternate parts for static
or motorized versions including propellers that are better suited to each
version. Shafts, rubber couplers, shaft bearings and motorizing parts are
included as well.
This kit has a lot of potential, but it seems that the manufacturer has engineered it to appeal to the toy boat crowd and not for a static model. I cant really recommend this kit to the serious modeler, unless you just need a basic shape in which to scratch build your model upon. It is better suited for the first time modeler or someone who like wants to build his back yard pond fleet up. |
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