Revell German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper 1:720

Review by Geoff Coughlin

• Kit reference: 05117
• Price around: £9.00 GBP (Oct 2012)

Our thanks to Revell for supplying our review sample. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit http://www.revell.de or email ukbranch@revell.de

Reference…

A little bit of background…

WWI was a disaster for the German Navy. Many ships were sunk, scuttled or became prize ships. By 1939, when the Admiral Hipper was commissioned, it was one of only three heavy cruisers in the German arsenal. The Hipper participated in several commerce raids against shipping in the North Sea, and the disastrous Battle of the Barents Sea. She was scuttled at her moorings in Kiel in 1945. This full-hull kit features a display stand, Arado 196 aircraft and two paint options: North Sea, 1940 or Atlantic Ocean, 1941.

Initial assessment…

This isn’t a new-tool model, in fact it looks very like (and probably is) the old Matchbox model of yesteryear. The model comes with a full hull and display stand.

Accuracy and quality…

Given then that this is a very old tooling the detail that’s provided is showing its age with some flash and the detail being soft in places like he anchor chains and cranes. To be honest, the pictures included with this piece show you all that you need to know and it’s clear that you aren’t going to get a new model to 2012 standards.

This kit retails for around £9.00 GPB, about the money for what’s in the box. There is a lot of flash and this has spoiled some of the parts, others show their age like the ship’s boats moulded to the superstructure. Detail generally is heavy as you might expect and just about everything would need to be replaced using photo-etch to bring the detail up to the levels often expected and wanted by experienced maritime modellers.

You may be building a collection in 1:700 and although this Admiral Hipper kit is slightly smaller at 1:720 scale, you may be more concerned with getting the type onto the shelf, in which case the detail supplied may be acceptable.

Instructions…

The instructions are the usual A4 folded booklet style that Revel favour and I have no trouble with. They cover the construction of the kit in 24 stages including those covering painting, as usual showing the codes for Revell’s own colour paints. The exploded diagrams are clear and concise and should be easy enough to follow.

Decals…

The decals look good quality and as there are very few marking on the real ship, sufficient are supplied.

Conclusions…

As is inevitable with a kit of this scale and price, some of the finer detail on such as walkways and radar/mast detail will either be over scale or left off. To beef it up, a set of Photo Etch detail enhancement from the likes of White Ensign Models (Gold Medal) will help improve the overall look of your model. You can display your model using the plastic stand provided on a nice piece of polished wood. You may want to go the whole hog and set your model in a seascape and to that end we have some great tips from Ian Ruscoe in your Techniques Bank to help with that.

SMN Quick Summary Rating out of 5