Reviewed by Timothy Dike
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The USS Penguin was originally built as the USS Chetco a Fleet Tug in July 1943. She was reclassified as the USS Penguin ASR–12 in September of 1943 and finally commissioned in May 1944. Her first duties were with SubRon 1 at New London, Connecticut serving as a target towing and torpedo recovery ship for the submarines training in the area. Penguin also performed minesweeping and minelaying duties as the Allied experimented with new mines. She was later called upon to help salvage a sunken U-boat near Block Island in 1945. She later moved to Portsmouth, N.H. and operated there as a target towing ship. When new subss underwent sea trials, Penguin would be there for rescue/salvage support as needed. After the war she was placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 1952 when she was recommissioned. Penguin was assigned to SubRon 12 and operated out of Key West in support of Caribbean subs. In 1955 she conducted a simulated rescue at the depth of 349' below the surface. In 1961 she deployed with the 6th fleet operating out of Rota Spain. the first ARS to do so. Battlefleets's ASR is based on a 1944 version of this ship.
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| HULL | |||||||||||||
| The hull is cast in the typical waterline style. The casting is very clean and the details are sharp and well defined. There will be very little cleanup needed on this hull. The surface detail is nice with a really detailed winch located in the aft portion of the superstructure. | Click images
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE PARTS | |||||||||||||
| The navigation bridge and upper deck are also well cast. A little flat sanding on the bases will be needed, but overall the parts are pretty much flash free. The funnel and other parts are nicely done as well. |  |
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| MISCELLANEOUS PARTS | |||||||||||||
| Life boats, anchors, bollards, flag bags, and derricks are provided. The small parts have only some light flash on them and shouldn't need a whole lot of cleanup. Two types of diving bells are included to use. Boats are cast with canvas covers in place and two types of rafts are included. |  |
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| ARMAMENT | |||||||||||||
| Two 3” 50 cal. main guns are included, but you will only need one. In the limited edition kit a brass turned gun barrel is provided to replace the resin cast one. There are also 4 resin 20 mm guns, or you can opt to use the PE ones. |  |
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| DECALS | |||||||||||||
| A simple sheet of decals is included with numbers in white and black from 0-9. |  |
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| PHOTOETCH | |||||||||||||
| The brass photo etch fret is supplied on a Tom's Modelworks Destroyer Escort fret. This will leave you with plenty of extra parts that you can use on other kits too. There are two sizes of brass rod provided 4" of .030 and 2" of .020 that you can use to fabricate the mast |  |
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| INSTRUCTIONS | |||||||||||||
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| Conclusions: | |||||||||||||
 Conclusions:
Another nice kit from Battlefleet. This one will allow you to build a nice WW2 version of this ship. This is kit #BFM-708C for $30.00 US. Certainly a fair price for a nicely detailed kit like this with Photo Etch. You can get yours from direct from Battlefleet Models or one of their distributors. |
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