Mirage Hobby 1/350 German U-511 Type IX C Turm I + WGr42 (350502)

U-511 was a Type IXC U-boat with a uniquely eventful operational and political history. Commissioned in December 1941, she conducted patrols in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean before becoming the subject of one of the Second World War's more extraordinary diplomatic transactions: in 1943 she was transferred to the Imperial Japanese Navy as a gesture of Axis solidarity, sailing to Japan under German crew before being handed over and commissioned as Ro-500 in the IJN. The Type IXC was the workhorse of Germany's long-range submarine operations, with a range sufficient to reach the Americas, the South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean, and the WGr42 rocket launcher configuration shown in this kit — an experimental weapon tested aboard U-511 for use against convoy escorts — represents a fascinating and little-known episode in U-boat weapons development. Mirage Hobby's 1/350 kit captures U-511 in this distinctive early configuration.

The U-boat that became Japanese — and the rocket weapon she tested first.