Dear Joe--

Thank you very much for verifying that. In the event I am dissuaded from Nichimo, what would you offer for your u-505, hmm, pardon me, u-99? I found it for just 13.00, plus Shipping and Handling. Of course, I do trust that if it is just the u-99 in a different box, that the quality is the same as u-99. Assuming that, I would offer 13.00 plus shipping and handling.
On a closing note, I will emphasize that I am *very* ambivalent about Nichimo. Like academy, it has the ridiculous "option" to motorize. As the academy debacle may portend, kits with such an "option" are often just toys--not serious models. That will not do, as Uboat.net, especially Rainer Bruns' and other patrons' great erudition on this subject, have converted me to an ardent purist about the precision scale of a model. In any event, another fellow I have chatted with says that Nichimo is at least of minimal quality. Unlike Academy, there are no drastic, irreconciable problems with basic fitting to mention. That neither the keel nor any other feature are horribly out of scale, and, perhaps most important of all, that the kit does include "display" prop gear realistic and proper for a IX. But the "motorized" featured, coupled with Nichimo's more obscure--and thus less reputable--name, still leave a lot of doubt, while Revell of Germany has a reputation for producing kits of at least moderate quaility. And then there is the mysterious posting by Woody Collum, desperately requesting contact information for reasons our dark, pessimistic imagination can only begin to fathom. Yet, my preference for IX vessels still leaves me on the fence, though I am leaning towards Revell's VII. I know these issues have been addressed on this forum before. But as the mistake I made before has prompted me to exercise extreme vigilance, the prior postings do not conclusively resolve these issues.

With Warm Regards and Much Gratitude,

Einsamer Wolf