The Los Angeles (SSN 688)-class submarines are the backbone of the U.S. Navy’s submarine force with forty one ships now on active duty. Thirty Los Angeles-class SSNs are equipped with 12 Vertical Launch System tubes for firing Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Designed as a follow-on to the Sturgeon-class submarines built during the 1960s, the Los Angeles-class incorporates improved sound quieting and a larger propulsion plant than previous classes. It’s capabilities include wartime functions of undersea warfare, surface warfare, strike warfare, mining operations, special forces delivery, reconnaissance, carrier battle group support and escort, and intelligence collection.
The ‘Los Angeles’ class enjoyed notoriety after the USS Dallas (SSN 700) was featured in the highly successful film, The Hunt for Red October along with the Russian Typhoon and Alpha submarines also produced in 1/350 by HobbyBoss (and others).
The last 23 submarines of the Los Angeles class, called "Improved 688s" (I688s), are quieter, incorporate an advanced combat system and are configured for under-ice operations - their diving planes were moved from the sail to the bow and sail strengthened for breaking through ice. The I688s also have twelve vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk Cruise Missiles.
The HobbyBoss 1/350 Los Angeles-class attack submarine kit is molded in light grey plastic on three small sprues. What is unique is that the kit provides three hull halves, two upper and one lower - also a base and photo-etched selection containing the brass plaque for the display base and two propeller options.
Where the previous Los Angeles submarine in this scale issued by Dragon (Riich) and Revell (1/400) represented the ‘Flight I’ configuration, this kit provides options for Flight I (dive planes on the conning tower/sail), Flight II (addition of vertical launch system (VLS) in bow) and Flight III (dive planes moved to bow (Royal Navy style) and reinforced conning tower for ice operations), all in one box.
The two upper hull halves represent the pre-VLS configuration and post-VLS configuration. Both conning towers and all of the different bow and stern planes are provided for each of the Flight configurations. The kit offers your choice of extended or stowed periscopes and antenna masts.
A careful study of the kit brings me to the conclusion you can actually build TWO kits from the box if you are content to have one as a waterline model.... Now that IS value for money!
Decals are provided for three examples:
• USS Los Angeles, SSN 688 (Flight I)
• USS Chicago, SSN 721 (Flight II/VLS)
• USS Miami, SSN 755 (Flight III/688I)
The decal sheet shows the image of a bull (decal 1) on the lower bow of the boat though the decals don't indicate to which boat this marking was supposedly applied.
