Valkyrie

Ok, I want to kick things off at midnight on Friday so the votes are the Benghazi scheme has it..

It’s really great @Robert Stuart I think these for every group build. Impressive. Thanks for doing that

Delicious! Love the “where there is trouble there is a Hind”....sounds like an album cover of a fabulous group build....

Thanks Col. I am wondering do I try to squeeze U-boat U-331 into this GB too between two aircraft? Part of its Afrika action was to shell a fuel dump with its deck gun at Sidi Barani which might be an interesting wee addition...

Good bit of history too, looks interesting all in.

Having missed out on building one from this Royal Class boxing in the MTO III I will be making one of the 2 Afrika deployments included in the box. Being limited to building only one of the Afrika options from parts from the boxing I’m not restricted as purchased an overtrees kit in the Eduard sale last year when I went a bit daft on Spitfires. I do like the tropical filter but I really should make yellow 4 too, seen as I have the print of it involved in a naval attack of Bona Harbour hanging in the study...

Hi @Robert Stuart this will be the other build. I’ve not picked which one yet...

Oh my goodness! This is going to be great. Ambitious and will be following this for sure

That is tasty

Botswana wow, and what a great scheme too

Ok so the yellow 14s of Marseille are already out

I might will be going for a double build yes.....but it will be a 109 and a 190! And of course, the group gets to have a flick through the scheme and have input on which 109.... I will get the magazine photographed after dinner for some light reading this evening

What it says on the tin...well box. A number of options within the box but they are all from Afrika

Excellent, thanks Col.....not long to go!

I’m going to dig into the airing cupboard secret house stash and grab my chosen kit. Desert 109. I’m also wondering if a u-boat operating off Africa can be considered too?...

So nearly a full day at the desk and it’s looking more like a U-boat bunker than an office at the moment. Had a bit of a struggle getting the fore deck on in with a good bit of filing and trimming, but it’s on and happy with the fit. It’s a nice kit. Deck in place and work has just started on the periscopes which like the snorkel can be raised and lowered once built. I have missed out the rudder and all planes as they have knocked off and lost written all over them. Il add them at the very end.

I had hoped to get out to take a picture of where the action unfolded in the sinking of U-33 this morning. Snow capped mountains of Arran, fiery frothy Firth of Clyde and clear blue sky on a bitterly cold morning, as would have been on the 12th February 1940. It’s just on the limit of the travel restrictions here, so it will be next year for the photo at the same time of year. On to the kit then. It is an old mould and depicts U99, a famous boat in itself commanded by Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer who nailed a golden horseshoe to his conning tower or sail as it’s also called. U-99 was scuttled SW of the Faroe Islands in 1941. Crucially for the U-33 project, U-99 was also built at GermaniaWerk in Kiel and although separated by 66 boat numbers, they are actually very close to each other in succession in builds. When considering any U-boat build, the yard can actually be key as many characteristics can be builder specific such as free flooding vent style, placement and count, fog horn position to even paint colour. U-33 being the first ever type VII had a lot of unique characteristics which I will try to include, such free flooding vent position, number and style. U-99 is the closest large scale kit that comes close to this. There is a Hobby Boss Type VII A in 1;400 which is on its way as we speak from Germany. The Revell kit looks nice but sadly lacks any hull panel lines. I have seen others who go to the lengths of stretching sprue to add the detail. I will see how I get on with drilling the accurate U-33 free flooding vents and then decide what to do. Here is a comparison with Revell’s 1:144 VIIC/41 kit im also working on in a WIP. She is really a practice run for techniques and colouring for U33 but eventually I’m thinking she’ll be painted as an Arctic boat. Next now, research into the flood vent pattern for U-33, I know there’s lots of holes that will need added.

A little after midnight, kptlt Wilhelm Von Dresky ordered U33 to progress on the final leg of her journey to breach and lay mines at the entrance to the Clyde Naval Base. A similar mission some weeks before by U32 failed after her commander deemed it too dangerous, Dönitz quickly relieved him. U33 was given the task and many of the crew joked that it was a suicide mission. Indeed, a lavish banquette was thrown in their honour the night before they left Germany. At about 02;55 Gleaner detected engine noise of the submerged u-boat and searchlight sweeps caught the periscope and spray briefly. Von Dresky set his boat shallow on the bottom believing Gleaner to be a cruiser and would pass overhead. A series of 4 depth charges rocked the boat and some damage was done, not only to U33, but Gleaner had lost all detection capabilities as the blasts were so severe. The crew pleaded with their captain to make for the surface and run for it in the darkness, one eel loaded in the on deck rear torpedo tube ready to dissuade any pursuers. Unknown to the crew and commander of U33, they would at that have been able to slip away undetected. They remained on the shallow bottom and Gleaner, now with capability restored, found 33 on the bottom and pounded her once more. Damage this time so great, Von Dresky ordered to Surface, rig scuttling charges and distributed the Enigma rotors among 3 crew to be distributed into the sea on leaving the boat. Charges exploded killing the man who set them, chief engineer Schilling. U-33 her commander and crew in the freezing water gave three cheers for U33 as directed by Von Dresky and she slipped beneath the waves to where she rests virtually intact in relatively shallow water just off the Scottish coast at Maidens. Most of the crew succumbed to the cold, including the commander, the rest were given hot baths, thick blankets and cared for. On checking one crewman of U33’s soaking clothes, a RN sailor discovered 3 Enigma rotors in a jacket pocket. The sailors who perished, along with 2 other German bodies at that time unknown, were buried in Greenock, then transferred in the 60s to Cannock Chase. One survivor, returned to live in Ayrshire after the war. In 2002, he layed a wreath at sea above the spot of U33’s current and final resting place.

Nothing wonky with this, magnificent. Great colours, great build, well done

In the early hours of 12th February 1940, HMS Gleaner, on an anti-submarine patrol in the freezing Firth of Clyde, detected a U-boat on a secret mine laying mission. Admiral Karl Dönitz himself saw the U-boat off from Wilhelmshaven but just 4 days later it would be on the bottom off the town of Maidens in Scotland. From Enigma rotors to mysterious crew members, this is the story of U-33. U-33 was the first of the type VII boats and the kit will need to be made into a type A from this type B. As we are in the grip of a similarly harsh winter as was the case this night in 1940, it must have been harsh entering the water in these conditions. This photo shows the characteristic Type A with rear torpedo tube on the deck with freezing ice in Wilhelmshaven. I will need to make this torpedo hatch.

Well she arrived and she is so big she will not be getting built on this bench but might be displayed on a shelf above. Really looking forward to researching and making a start.

Thanks for the comments. so next is the snorkel, an idea the Germans stole from the Dutch and allowed U-boats to run on diesel engines submerged at periscope death to charge batteries. The boat could only travel at 6 knots with the snorkel raised and when it hit a wave the air supply would cut off sucking then air from the interior of the boat bursting the ear drums of the crew.

Mud moovers I like that. Count me very in with a Fw-190 F-8

Oh brilliant, thanks guys. I always panic but now I’m really looking forward to it. Just getting it off the postman without being noticed...

Hi I have just bought the 1/72 Revell kit and now, after sweating over not buying it for months, I’m now looking for some kind of positive reinforcement and support from those on here that I have done the right thing. The don’t come up too often and if I didn’t get it I might never have had and etc...😬 I hope this was wise and money well spent. Especially as a box that can only live in the garage will not go unnoticed when it arrives.