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Greetings! Commissioned in June 1938, U-45 was the prototype of the Type VII B class which comprised a total of 24 submarines including some of the most successful U-boats of the war. There are several excellent photographs of U-45 taken at the time of her commissioning which show the pre-war characteristics of the early Type VII B U-boats. Rather than build another wartime U-boat, I wanted to capture the unique prewar appearance of these early VII B boats in 1/72 scale from the Revell and Amati kits using the abundance of clear photographs of U-45 as a guide. The Revell hull parts required a great deal of modification to adapt them to a Type VII B and I had to compromise in a few places. Surprisingly, the Amati photoetch deck fit very nicely into the Revell hull and was a great enhancement. A major challenge was constructing the early type VII B conning tower which involved significant modification to the Revell kit parts along with a great deal of scratch building. I also scratch built an inner pressure hull which is almost impossible to see on the completed model. Several other details such as rescue buoys, 20MM gun mount, KDB canvas cover, and many others were all scratch built from a variety of materials. Painting included enamels, lacquers, and acrylics applied with airbrush, rattle cans, and some brush work for small details. At the time of commissioning, U-45 was immaculate so I avoided any heavy weathering and just applied some subtle hull streaking and a hint of brown to the wood areas of the deck. I decided to place the 20MM gun on the deck mounting rather than leave it unmounted as shown in all of the photographs as it seems to look better. Decals were designed and printed on my inkjet printer. I struggled with several frustrating techniques to scratch build the rigging insulators and would have liked to have done these better. The completed model is mounted on brass pedestals secured to the wooden display base and protected with an acrylic display cover which I made from pre-cut panels. Many thanks for having a look, questions and comments always welcome. Cheers, Bill
