German F5 / British Mk XII Torpedo
ICM (48404/48405)
1:48

Torpedoes first appeared in the armament of the world’s navies back in the 19th century. By the beginning of World War II, they were rightfully considered a formidable and effective means of fighting at sea. During the war years, land and sea-based aircraft armed with torpedoes were able to carry out a large number of effective attacks.

Adding to their catalog of (what I class) "accessory" kits, ICM have most recently boxed up not one, but two WW2 era aircraft launched torpedos, with ground trolleys. Liking to keep things balanced, ICM gives us both a British and German torpedo, in separate boxings. These kits are super simple, each one consisting of a single small sprue. No decals are provided in either kit as I guess torpedo's never had stencils (seems unlikely, but I could not find any photos of the real thing that proved this one way or the other)

One thing I have observed about ICM new release kits is that there is always a logical connection for any particular subject. Consider for example the choice of a standalone kit of a British Mk. XII air launched torpedo. Taken at face value this seems like an esoteric subject, especially in a smaller scale such as 1:48. However, when you realise that ICM are working on a new tooled 1:48 Bristol Beaufort Mk.I things become a little clearer as to where this torpedo may come in handy :)

Likewise the German F5 torpedo kit with trailer would be very lonely if it were not for ICM previous releases of their He 111H-6 and Ju 88A-4/Torp. I don't have either of these two kits in my stash so can't confirm if they come with the torpedo ground trailer/trolley or not, but I'd assume no.

Of course you cam place these torpedo models next to any manufacturers aircraft or display them as standalone models in a small diorama if you so desire.

ICM provides two painting options for the F5 torpedo body. From what I can tell the only difference is the location of the demarcation line for the nose (warhead) section. Paint colors are called out using ICM, Revell and Tamiya brands, so most modellers will want to find equivalents to these options in the paint brand they prefer or have available.

In my research for this review I found a few photos of the German torpedos with trolley. I like this one as it shows several trailers in a convoy and gives a good idea of the material used in the torpedo body. Of course all period photos will be black and white so we can't accurately tell what color the trailer is but an educated guess can be made.

The kit comes on a single small sprue of ICM's usual light grey plastic. You will find the ICM plastic softer than most of the Japanese kits and even softer than Eduard for example. I don't find this to be a problem as I like that the parts are easy to clean up and sand/blend very nicely once the glue dries.

Assembly is straightforward with the trailer taking up the bulk of your effort. In fact the torpedo itself has only five parts (if you don't use the wooden propellor frame). Take your time with the assembly of the raised side walkway framing in steps 2 & 3 (parts 2, 13, 14 and 18) as you need these to correctly aligned, because when you try and later mate them to the main chassis things won't line up properly.

It only took me a couple of hours to assemble both models to the point of painting. The German F5 trailer took the most time by far as did the seam work on the torpedo's. For this work I took extra care as I know that natural metal finishes are very unforgiving to poor surface preparation.

I was always taught to use the "right tool for the job". One place this rings true is when you need to sand a circular surface such as a drop tank or in this case a torpedo and avoid the dreaded flat spot. One tool I use infrequently is my Flex-I-File sander but in this case it was perfect for the job. I find that to get the right curve for the part you are sanding its best to squeeze the metal handle to get some slack in the sanding tape. This way it conforms far better to the shape (curve) and blends the putty (or seam) pretty well. The putty I used here is Tamiya Basic (Grey) which I find feathers nicely with the 320 grit flex tape.

As I was not sure at this stage how "distressed" I wanted to make the model look I applied a blanket coat of Mr Color C8 Silver to all the parts. This color is from the standard Mr Color range and is not one of the hyper realistic metal paints from Mr Hobby, the so called Super Metallics. I like this particular color for undercoating as it's got just the right amount of silver to it for when you want to chip the top coat later on. It's also very robust, being resistant to light scratching and mild solvent washes. The propellors were finished in Super Metallic SM02 Gold, which despite the name, looks very close to brass.

In very short order the torpedo and trailer is painted and weathered. I chose XF-63 German Grey for the overall color for the trailer (rather than the ICM specified XF-65 Field Grey which looked too green to me). I used a light coat of hairspray to aid with the chipping followed by several shades of Tamiya Panel Liner washes on the trailer and torpedo body, then finished off with some pigments to try and replicate the look of dried mud on the walkways and wheels.

The main body of the torpedo was finished in Alclad ALC101 Aluminium with the tail in Mr Color Super Metallic SM205 Titanium. For the nose I decided to switch from lacquers to my favourite gunmetal paint, Humbrol 27004 Metalcote Gunmetal. I really love the realistic effect this paint has when buffed after drying. To my eye it looks about as real as you can get, with the only downside being its fragility when handled roughly.

To finish off I made up some straps from Tamiya tape (folded double, cut to size and painted) and fitted these to the trailer over the body of the torpedo. The last addition was a small section of brass chain which I draped over the body to give some visual interest.

The British Mk XII torpedo kit includes two painting options, again with no decals. The first is a training round with a colourful red warhead and the second a live example, used by RAF Coastal Command, with a black warhead. I could not find any period photographic examples in color so I relied purely on the ICM color callouts.

The 18 inch torpedoes were used by the British across a wide range of aircraft including the Swordfish, Wellington and of course the purpose built twin-engined Beaufort and Beaufighter torpedo bombers from Bristol. The loading trolley seems to have been pretty universal with minor differences between the small dolly wheels being evident in photos. Breakaway wooden fins helped to stabilize the torpedo in the air and were designed to grip the metal fins only by friction. These would break off on entry into the water.

Assembly of both the trolley and torpedo was trouble free with only a minimum of filler needed along the main torpedo seam. I left the small dolly wheels off during painting as I noticed these could be fitted at the end of the build via a force fit.

The assembly was completely trouble free but its always worth taking your time cleaning up the mold lines on the more complex parts such as the lifting scissors. As I felt the wooden fin parts (7,11,12) were overscale I left them off rather than scratch build new ones from card. Each of the four wheels can be painted separately and then attached at the end.

The body of the torpedo was painted first using Alclad ALC101 Aluminium. The tail was masked and the center body then painted Mr Color Super Metallic SM203 Iron. This gave some small contrast to the segments of the main body. As with the German torpedo I painted the two propellors using Super Metallic SM02 Gold.

The torpedo nose was painted using a couple of different shades of red based around Mr Color C108 Character Red. This helped give some depth to the red rather than a plain monochrome finish. The trolley was finished in Tamiya XF-65 Field Grey which despite its name looks quite green to my eye. Several shades of Tamiya Panel Liner washes were applied over the torpedo body and the trolley recesses.

I find it's always worth consulting period photos of your modeling subjects because you will be bound to pick up many small details that the kit manufacturer misses or chooses not to include. Two such details that I saw consistently in all the photos I collected were how muddy the trolleys became and the use of rope at the front and rear to hold the torpedo in place when being transported. Both these little details would be easily reproduced on the model.

To finish the model I conducted some light hairspray chipping of the trolley over which I applied several enamel based washes. Pigment powder was used to simulate dry mud and held in place using pigment fixer. The ropes were created using some "non fuzzy string" from M Workshop. This stuff is great on scale models as it has none of the stray filaments you find on normal string which make them look odd on a scale model. My last addition was a simple folded tarp made from household aluminium foil and painted with Tamiya XF-49 Khaki.

These little kits from ICM are both super fast and super easy to build. They will make excellent additions sitting next to your torpedo bombers. Below I have complied some gallery photos of both finished kits to show you how they scrub up.