Hobby Boss 1/350 Los Angeles Class Attack Submarine Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Not long after Riich Models released their 1/350 Los Angeles-class attack submarine kit, Hobby Boss as responded with one of their own. The kit is molded in light gray styrene and presented on three parts trees plus three hull halves, a base andand a photo-etched fret containing the brass plaque for the display base and two propeller options.

Where the Riich kit represents the Flight I configuration, this kit provides options for Flight I (dive planes on the conning tower/sail), Flight II (addition of vertical launch system (VLS) in bow) and Flight III (dive planes moved to bow and reinforced conning tower for ice operations), all in one box.

The kit consists of the two upper hull halves representing the pre-VLS configuration and post-VLS configuration. Both conning towers and all of the different bow and stern planes are provided for each of the Flight configurations. The kit offers your choice of extended or stowed periscopes and antenna masts.

Decals are provided for three examples:

• USS Los Angeles, SSN 688 (Flight I)
• USS Chicago, SSN 721 (Flight II/VLS)
• USS Miami, SSN 755 (Flight III/688I)

The decal sheet shows the image of a bull (decal 1) on the lower bow of the boat though the decals don't indicate to which boat this marking was supposedly applied.

Hobby Boss has definitely answered the Riich kit by providing you with your choice of variants all in one box and done so without some of the toy-like features like movable stern planes. This kit will make a nice display model and you'll definitely want to get three so you can build each of the three configurations.

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!