While the early Soviet nuclear subs were optimized for anti-ship work, by the end of the 1950s it became obvious that the new subs were needed for the anti-submarine work and so the new design for the Victor I was born. The production of the Victors was started in 1967 and a total of 16 were built. They were the first soviet subs to feature the teardrop hull and were able to travel at high speed underwater. While they were better than the first generation Soviet subs, they were still noisy and were easily tracked by the NATO subs. This was not rectified until the Victor III that came out in the end of the 1970s. By the early 90s all of the Victor Is were out of the service.

The kit is very simple consisting of 5 resin parts, 3 PE parts and a stand. Besides the hull there are four alternate tips of the propeller included. The real sub was 93m long, which in 1/700 scale comes out to 132mm, the kit's hull measures out at 133.5mm and when the propeller and its tip (~2mm) are added the length becomes just a little long. The width of the real thing was 10.6m which in 1/700 scale is 15.1mm, while the kit measures out at 15.7mm, which is pretty close. The casting on the hull is good with various hatches and holes accurately modeled. There are no periscopes included in the kit, but those are better scratchbuilt anyway from brass rod, so it's not a big loss.

A photoetch fret with two coaxial screws and an alternate multi-blade screw is included.

Given the simplicity of the kit, the instructions are very good, unfortunately I seem to have lost it, so I don't have a photo.
(Ed. Note- some OKB kits are now coming without instructions)

This is the only kit of this sub on the market in the 700 scale and it's a very good one. Highly recommend it. The kit is available from Freetime Hobbies for $20.95.