Neal Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 (edited) A little Airfix pressie arrived for me at Christmas: Das Boot a great film so I've made a start as soon as I could. I've never tackled a maritime subject let alone a sub but there a some great u-boat builds in WIP at the moment that I can study. The kits OK, the moulding is fairly crisp but some of the detail's a little chunky so I may replace some parts with some scratch built items. The hull parts are smooth and don't show any of the panels so I've scribed some on there not 100% accurate (and not very well done) but I think it looks a bit better. I probably preshade some additional ones on. I've also attacked the saddle tanks and added some oil-canning to them (shown on the upper half of the hull) More to follow. . . Edited March 17, 2014 by Neal 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard M Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Just for interest sake, this is actually a re-issue of the Mirage Hobby kit (40411), rather than an in-house Airfix kit (or the Heller one). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Delta 210 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Great start, Neal. I look forward to seeing your model progress. Like you, I'm not normally a maritime modeller, but I'm enjoying a bit of a sub-fest at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Just for interest sake, this is actually a re-issue of the Mirage Hobby kit (40411), rather than an in-house Airfix kit (or the Heller one). Cheers Richard, I think I'd read somewhere there was a PE set for the mirage kit but I could find one so I may have imagined reading it. Great start, Neal. I look forward to seeing your model progress. Like you, I'm not normally a maritime modeller, but I'm enjoying a bit of a sub-fest at the moment.Cheers, to try and improve my knowledge I read this a couple of times yesterday, it looks well reached and informative: http://amp.rokket.biz/docs/u-boat_colours_with_photos_5.pdfI've got the hull sides and the conning tower together. Both went together ok and there should just be a little seam to clean up. I'm going to leave the deck loose to help with the painting. The conning tower floor is too long for the main assembly so a bit of head scratching required. The forward dive planes don't fit too well but should blend in with a bit of sanding later. I've drilled a location hole for the deck mounted cannon. The forward upper cable cutter (?) assembly was pretty agricultural so I've changed some parts for strechted sprue. The decals come with the laughing swordfish and a white "96" I seem to think the numbers were removed when on operations and I can't remember seeing "96" on tower during Das Boot, can anyone confirm. Edited January 4, 2014 by Neal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dads203 Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Hi Neal, No boats carried the numbers on the conning tower during the war, and i dont think the training boats did either, one thing just to point out only the early VIIBs carried the net cutter on the bow, and then it only had one rear brace, so if you are doing U96 then the net cutter needs to come off as she is a VIIC Regards Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxy Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Great start Neal on an old kit. Would have been nice with a bit of PE for the railings atop the conning tower, but maybe you can scratch some. Good start. Cheers foxy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 Hi Neal, No boats carried the numbers on the conning tower during the war, and i dont think the training boats did either, one thing just to point out only the early VIIBs carried the net cutter on the bow, and then it only had one rear brace, so if you are doing U96 then the net cutter needs to come off as she is a VIIC Regards Dan Dan, thanks for that I'll see what I can do to correct. Great start Neal on an old kit. Would have been nice with a bit of PE for the railings atop the conning tower, but maybe you can scratch some. Good start. Cheers foxy Thanks, I'm thinking about doing some railings with wire or stretched sprue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Finally managed to get back to this; then 10 minutes into wished I'd not bothered. After much head scratching I got the conning tower floor in place. But the real toughy was the rear rudders, prop supports and dive planes; what a royal pain in the rear nothing fitted and everything had a seam line. So after an hour I've this concoction which I suppose looks ok. I'll make some new driveshafts and add them after painting. Then on to the conning tower (this I'm more pleased with) the kit doesn't contain any railings do out with some strechted sprue and some newly acquired copper wire. I've also made the adf (?) loop in cooper wire for a more scale appearance. Oh and the bow net cutters have gone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dads203 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hi Neal, It's looking good mate, such a small scale as well, the DF loop antenna should be on the right hand side of the conning tower wall if you are going accuracy fella. Keep up the good work. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted January 24, 2014 Author Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hi Neal, It's looking good mate, such a small scale as well, the DF loop antenna should be on the right hand side of the conning tower wall if you are going accuracy fella. Keep up the good work. Dan Dan, Thanks, although this is never going to be an accurate build it'll be fairly easy to correct the DF loop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dads203 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 No worries mate, have a look at my u boat build and you can see the housing should give you an idea on the location Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 No worries mate, have a look at my u boat build and you can see the housing should give you an idea on the locationDan Cheers Dan, I keep having a peek at you build it's truly tremendous in both scale, size and execution. So DF loop moved. I've found that the hull seems to have warped a bit over the past month as the deck doesn't fit (I'm sure it did) so I've managed to get a peice of spure glued in across the hull to open the apature again. I've thinned the props a bit an given them a little curvature. Everything is ready for a wash a prime when it'd less damp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Noice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted February 2, 2014 Author Share Posted February 2, 2014 Noice! Cheers Houston. It's stopped raining for 10 minutes so I popped outside and given it a coat of tamiya primer. It's a bit heavy in places on the panel lines so a little tidying up is required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin1980 Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Looking great Neal Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) Looking great Neal JustinThanks Justin. Last night I re-instated the lost panel lines and polished out the ones that were a little heavy so they're all now looking ok. Almost time to breakout the airbrush. Not really sure how to achieve realistic looking corrosion around the free draining holes alone the side, hairspray method or airbrush the rust colour on afterwards, thoughts and advice welcome. Edited February 5, 2014 by Neal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 (edited) first free night in ages so time to crack out the airbrush.. First job was to add some preshading I wouldn't normally use black but it seemed the only option as it's going under NATO black. I also preshaded the drain holes and anchor drepression with rust. A bit of straightforward masking and the xf19 grey is on the upper hull and conning tower. Then on with the NATO black, carefully applied in thin coats as I've cocked the topcoats with too much paint before. For the deck I used a 3 stage process, firstly painted brown to represent the wooden deck, then mask the high wear areas with a little maskol applied with a bit of strechted sprue. Then a light coat of grey, more maskol and then grey. Finally remove the maskol and a dry brush with light grey. Very pleased with the outcome. The hull I've dry brushed with light grey and rust around the drain holes. The guns, props, stand and anchor were all painted then the whole thing packed away to dry fully. Edited February 20, 2014 by Neal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin1980 Posted February 21, 2014 Share Posted February 21, 2014 The hull looks fantastic and the conning tower is great, Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 The hull looks fantastic and the conning tower is great, Justin Thanks Justin. On the home straight now. Glossed the parts a few days ago so it was on with some Florys safari wash before I realised I'd not added the laughing swordfish decals so the conning tower is a little behind the rest of the model now. Anyway the hull is now complete; the deck was faught into place and the props, guns etc added. I've added a little white and neat rust paint around the drain holes with a bit of stretched sprue. One the conning tower is finished it'll be a final Matt coat and complete. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Posted March 17, 2014 Author Share Posted March 17, 2014 All finished, attached the conning tower, coat of matt varnish and get the flag decal sorted. Pretty pleased with it. Some of the proportions don't look quite right with the kit but it's not something I'm going to worry about too much. More pics in RFI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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