Pavla 1/72 Molch Midget Submarine Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The Molch (German for salamander or newt) was the first combat midget submarine developed by the German Navy during World War 2. Designed as an all-electric one-man attack submarine, the Molch had a range of about 40 miles and was armed with a pair of G7e torpedoes that were externally mounted. While the design of the craft looked good on paper, the Molch was apparently a handful to operate in combat as the boat required the operator to manage a series of complicated ballast tanks in order to keep the submerged vessel under control.

The Molch was first used in combat in September 1944 in the Mediterranean against a group of allied battleships. Of the 12 Molch submarines deployed, 10 were lost and the remaining two were subsequently sunk by allied bombardment. Later attempts to employ the Mulch in combat resulted in minimal results with high attrition. The German Navy used the remaining craft as training vessels for improved midget submarines.

Here is an interesting kit from Pavla. This is an all-resin 1/72 scale kit of the Molch midget submarine. The kit consists of 27 finely cast resin parts which consist of resin hull halves, two torpedoes, stern planes, rudder, dive plane, propeller, snorkel,and other details.

The detailing cast into these parts is very nicely done. Assembly will be quick and straightforward once the resin parts are removed from their casting blocks and cleaned up. Assembly is done using cyano-type adhesives as usual for resin-based kits and conversions. Care should be taken with the smaller bits, as it will be all-too-easy to knock off a snorkel or lift rings while you're painting the boat. The kit also includes a vacuformed shape for the operators hatch fairing and obervation ports.

While the Molch didn't carry any markings and they were painted overall gray, you can really turn this into an eye-catching model with the proper weathering and drybrushing techniques.

This is a very nicely done model and won't be a difficult build for the experienced resin modeler. This wouldn't be a bad model for the fledgling resin modeler (with experience in other mediums) though care will be required due to some of the small edges that will require cyano adhesives to build.

My sincere thanks to Pavla Models for this review sample!