Small Scale Military Headquarters

I've been seriously tempted to get this model, but I've seen in much maligned on the internet. The bow is wrong, the conning tower is wrong and the kaitens are wrong.

So I've been doing my own research. The kaitens aren't wrong, but they represent a type that was never entered into service due to poor performance. The only one that was used was the type I, which is smaller and somewhat diff't looking from the type2/4 offered in the Lindberg kit.

The problem with the I-53 model itself is this, I think: The sub was initially named I-53. In 1942 it was renamed I-153 for whatever reason. I-153 was retired from combat duties and went on to become a training submarine. After it was retired from combat, I think there was another submarine commissioned that was called I-53. It went on to carry kaitens late in the war and in fact conducted one of the most successful missions with kaitens.

So I think the two subs were mixed up by whoever did the research for Lindberg when developing their I-53 model. The hull is correct but for the first I-53 (later named I-153) but not for the one that carried kaitens late in the war.

Where they got the shape for the conning tower from I don't know as it's wrong for I-153 and I-53 and in fact, I haven't found anything that shape yet......but Japanese submarines are a bit of a confusing mess to research.

If anyone has info to add to the above i'd love to hear it.

I personally would never touch a Lindberg kit. For the most part they are generally horrible; I think some people buy them simply for the few kits that aren't made by any other company. The owner was notorious for having stated that he didn't care if the kits were good, because it was only kids who were buying them.

I just discovered some new info. The Lindberg sub is too big, for what it is. What it is, is a Kadai IIIa submarine. They were 328 feet long which scales out to 54 inches and change in 1/72....the Lindberg sub is 58 1/2 inches long. So they took the shape of the earlier Kadai type IIIa sub and scaled it up to the size of the later type I 53 submarine it is supposed to represent. Which means it's about 8% over scale, so about 1/67 scale as a Kadai IIIa. Oy.

Yeah, the owner just did not care about accuracy. I've seen many of the kits at discount stores like Big Lots and Ollie's and the photos pretty much give away the game. How that company lasted as long as it did is a mystery, unless they were bought by kids with firecrackers.

however, it's odd that they would make what must have been a huge investment in tooling, manufacturing and distribution of this Japanese submarine kit, without putting some effort into making it accurate and of good quality. How many kids did they think were going to shell out over $100 for a toy Japanese submarine?

Virtually none....this kit was going to be purchased by adult model builders.

It's too bad because they had I-20 planned as well and the pre pros of that looked terrific.