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Hi The first three U-Class submarines (HMS Undine, HMS Unity, and HMS Ursula) had a very distinctive bow, a straight bow -or so it seems-, rather archaic looking. I have seen some illustrations, but never a single picture of this bow. Does anyone have something ?

It feels like I'm under-performing in this GB. I've got a Mosquito on hold because the canopy needs a set of masks and a 'quick and dirty' P-40B that is proving to be anything but quick. So while I await the kabuki tape assistance needed to finish both of my (current) aeroplanes I've decided to build something without a canopy. Or any windows, in fact. It's HMS Upholder. Despite the human story of the siege and the excitement caused by her heroic aerial defence, Malta's key role in the war was always offensive. The Royal Navy was pre-eminent in Malta's strategic role and in HMS Upholder the Island had an utterly devastating weapon, the most successful British submarine of the war, captained throughout by Lieutenant-Commander Malcolm David Wanklyn - who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his brilliant command. The Upholder was laid down in October 1939 and commissioned a year later. She left British waters for Malta in December 1940 and, in total, went on to complete 24 patrols, sinking 14 vessels totalling 93,031 tons of enemy shipping. Her victories included two other submarines, a destroyer, three troop ships and six cargo ships. On her 25th and final scheduled patrol before returning to Britain she was sighted and sunk with all hands, most probably by depth charges dropped from the Italian torpedo ship Pegaso which was patrolling north-east of Tripoli. The kit is from the Russian (I think) brand Mirage, which produced a 1/400 scale U-class submarine boxed as HMS Undine. Undine and Upholder were all-but indistinguishable: two of the first seven U-class submarines, all of which were built with both four internal and two external torpedo tubes. After these first seven submarines were completed and put into service, the external tubes were deleted from the 42 U-class submarines that would follow because they created an unwanted bow wave and often broke the surface at periscope depth. I've never built any kind of ship or boat before. It's a multimedia kit with plastic, resin and etch. It's all rather unfamiliar but it's all rather intriguing, and makes a change from aeroplanes for me. My stash of Malta bits remains fairly sprawling, so it's nice to pull something out of it that I would otherwise have struggled to get the courage up to attempt! Here goes, then...

Here are some photos of my collection of U-class submarines. I really like these small submarines and i'm keen to build more. Not 100% on colours but i haven't found much in the way of reference material. I'm building more and more world war 2 subs now, although Id prefer to build the British designs. Alex