Mirage 1/400 Polish Torpedo Boat ORP Mazur ca.1935

By Bob Pearson

History

Following the end of the First World War the German navy was divided among the victorious allies – Poland received six torpedo boats in two classes. The V Class torpedo boat V-105, launched in 1914, was renamed Mazur. In 1931 the torpedo tubes were removed, the fo'c'sle was extended aft to be abeam of the bridge and she became a gunnery training ship. In 1935, she was again refitted, this time losing one funnel and its associated boiler room, while the bridge structure was reworked.

Mazur was to gain a dubious fame as the first ship sunk in the Second World War, when she was sunk by German aircraft on 1 September 1939. The wreck was later raised and scrapped by the Germans.

Two new kits by Mirage of Poland depict Mazur in her pre and post refit guises. This review will focus on the kit of her prior to the 1935 refit.

The Kit

The kit comes in a cellophane bag and consists of two sprues of medium grey styrene and a decal sheet. The plastic is fairly soft and very easy to work with. The closest I can compare it to is Pegasus/Blue Max or perhaps Waveline resin. Detail on the parts is reasonable and is a great starting point for a more detailed model.

The first sprue contains the hull halves, bow, funnels, bridge, as well as a stand to display the kit.

The second sprue has the main deck as well as 75mm guns.

I must confess I started work on this kit as soon as it got off the scanner. The hull halves went together with no problem at all. Although the deck inserts took a little effort to get them to line up correctly, the strake at the fo'c'sle break requiring some care to get right.

As seems to be common for Mirage kits, the superstructure is molded integral to the deck and then has facets which are attached to the side of each. These facets carry all the detail of the superstructure sides and are somewhat thick. If it is desired to thin the bridge wings, this should be done prior to affixing the bridge facets as there is little room to do so afterwards. The front of the bridge can also stand to be thinned as it is open from the rear. One major modification that would make all the difference would be to open the windows in the bridge. However I did none of this, as this kit is being done totally OOB (except for PE rails).

The kit has a novel approach to the waterline boot-top – decals. Six of them in fact. The hull has the upper and lower extent of the boot-topping very lightly etched into it, and the intent is to use these decals along this line. Other decals include the hull letters 'MR', pennants and ship name.

The instructions are in Polish, and it would be great if they were also in English as they include a full page of history. I have tried to find an online Polish-English translator, but no luck. Luckily the drawings require no explanation as to part locations. There is also a nice top and side view of the ship included.

Conclusion

Mirage seem to have a nice niche market going with their kits of Polish warships (see Grom review), each of which can be built as in use at a certain date. The Mazur has been a fun build so far, and I will have to keep my eye out for others from this company.

My thanks to Squadron Mail Order for the review sample.