Riich 1/350 Los Angeles Class Submarine Flight I Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Riich Models is a relatively new name to the hobby industry but according to the company, they've been producing kits for other companies for a number of years and decided to produce kits under their own brand name for a change. This release shows that they are definitely veterans at model production as this is a simple but beautifully detailed kit of the Los Angless-class attack submarine. The kit is molded in dark gray styrene and presented on three parts trees plus a base and stand-offs molded in black and a photo-etched brass plaque for the display base.

The kit represents the Flight I configuration of the Los Angeles class, distinguishable by the forward dive planes mounted on the conning tower. These were moved to the bow in Flight III as the boat couldn't use the dive planes until the boat was nearly submerged.

The kit consists of the two lower hull halves plus the upper hull molded separate to allow for changes in configuration in future releases. The small gray tree has the Flight I conning tower and dive planes.

The kit offers movable stern dive planes and 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)
• USS Hartford, SSN 768 (Flight III)

The decal sheet is included in all three releases and you're only supposed to build the Los Angeles from this sheet. The sheet does include sufficient numbers to render whichever boat you'd like to represent.

This is one of three kits currently available from Riich representing each of the three Flights in the Los Angeles class and this is a very nice example. If you're looking for a nicely detailed kit of this distinctive nuclear attack boat, look no further. Check out one of these kits from Riich Models!

My sincere thanks to DML for this review sample