1/72 Type IXc U-Boat Build (U505 Early) Revell 05114

[AndyPG]

So, Christmas came and went, and as requested, a new U-Boat kit was left.

Good old Santa.

 

I'd completed (debatable) a Revell 05015 1/72 Type VIIc earlier in the year.

Despite struggling through the endless painting/weathering, I'd committed to, much to my surprise I wanted more.

It was my first plastic model for over 20 years but with a bit of patience, my first attempt at weathering ended to my liking.

I'd also added quite a bit of DIY detailing which I particularly enjoyed.

 

So, on to the Type IX.

 

 

It's a big un at 1063mm (nearly 43") long.

I wanted to go to town on the detail with this one so I bought most of RCSubs.cz photo etch sets including the 105mm deck gun.

I didn't buy the hand rail kit as I prefer the DIY approach with these with copper and brass wire.

 

 

 

This is the first time I've even seen PE so I was quite surprised just how thin it is.

I was equally surprised by the small size of some of the hundreds of parts.

 

The deck sections also looked more daunting now that they were on the table.

More on that later.

 

Well, that's my project intro.

I've taken plenty of pictures so I'll start blogging to bring the build up to date.

Please feel free to comment along the way.

Be as critical as you like..........your genuine thoughts and advice are valued.

 

Andy.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

The U-505 is only 25 miles from me. Its at Chicagos Museum of Science and Industy. If you need any info on her im sure they would have the ability to help. Ive actually gone through her several times in my life as its open to walk through. 

[AndyPG]

Cheers CFFU.

I've saved lots of reference and pictures of U505 for the build.

I'm not sticking strictly to the U505 "Late" theme. More an earlier Type IXc, "U" number to be decided.

The main diverge will be the inclusion of the 105mm deck gun.

Seems they were present on many of the early Type IX boats but were removed during the mid point of WW2 when surfacing to finish off torpedoed ships became too risky due to much improved U-Boat hunting technology.

 

You're lucky to have such an icon, beautifully preserved and displayed in Chicago.

We have the only other surviving Type IX (U534) here in the UK but unfortunately, its been cut into sections for display.

I say unfortunately, as I would have much preferred it preserved and displayed in one piece.

It was in one piece only a few years ago but the attraction had dwindled in popularity so a new attraction was built and the rest is history.

Maybe one day they'll weld it back together and display it like Chicago have.

 

Moving on to the build, first job will be to open up the free flood holes.

Bearing in mind that this model will be displayed in a glass case, I only open the holes which can be seen easily from the side and above.

I'm not skilled enough to install any PE free flood detail so I'll thin down the hull shell (from inside) in the areas visible to improve the fine detail effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, the Revell hull panel lines and rivet detail is way over pronounced.

Technically, at this scale, the lines and rivets would have been barely visible.

Some of those lines were protruding nearly 1mm which would have represented 70+mm at scale!

So I scraped and sanded the lines and rivets to a much more subtle effect.

This is the first time I've ripped into the stock molded detail in this way but glad i did, I think it looks much more realistic.

The following two pictures show, before sanding (on left) after sanding (on right)

The last two show how smooth the actual Type IX hull was.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, more soon.

[AndyPG]

The conning tower also will need the rivets toning down.

 

 

With the hull halves glued together, time for a mock up.

Mmmmmm...... nice.

 

 

 

[uncarina]

Really nice start, and great work with scaling back the lines and rivets!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[JCSeattle]

Looking like quality work so far. I just finished one as well, completely OOB. 

 

The PE from rcsubs.cz is great. Oto makes some beautiful products and the fit is perfect.

 

pulling up a chair to follow this one 

[AndyPG]

Thanks Guys,

Appreciate your comments.

More blog to come.

 

Andy.

[AndyPG]

I'll get back to the build shortly, but just wanted to share this with you all.

 

We spent a week in France last September and during our stay, we visited the U-Boat pens at St Nazaire and La Rochelle.

The missus was thrilled. 

 

Pics below, then back to the build......promise.

 

These are the pens at St Nazaire.

You can walk around inside and out.

There's also stairs onto the roof where you get a good view of the fortified lock opposite and the Loire estuary beyond.

Better still, the first pic is pretty much the view from a harbour side restaurant where we had lunch.... Heaven.

 

 

 

 

This is the rear which backs onto a supermarket.

 

 

This is the fortified lock which the U-Boats passed through to get into the Loire estuary and the Atlantic.

 

 

This is the 4m thick reinforced roof which, despite dozens of bombing raids, was never breached.

 

 

And Finally, these are the pens at La Rochelle.

They are part of the harbour secure complex so this is as near as I could get.

Love the Bismarck style camo painted on the side and front.

 

 

That's all.

More sub soon.

Edited March 5, 2018 by AndyPG

[Chillidragon]

Ah, this takes me back.  Wifey did her MA thesis on subtitling with reference to the action scenes in 'Das Boot'... 

[AndyPG]

Ok, back to the build.

Opening up the large free flood vents along the side of the Type IX gives a clear view inside the hull.

I'm not really up for building full under deck detail but I did want the immediately visible structure replicating.

Namely the support brackets with holes in.

This meant cutting 128 tiny triangular pieces of 0.5mm polystyrene sheet and drilling a 2mm hole in each.

I'd already glued the hull halves together so this was really fiddly.

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out as the little brackets are very visible and look much better than the original Revell detail. (Below)

 

 

Thanks for reading and more soon.

 

Andy.

[uncarina]

Andy,

 

Outstanding work and dedication!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[AndyPG]

Thanks Tom,

 

Knowing that other builders, of this model, had fit issues joining the hull forward and aft sub assemblies, I took extra care to make sure the joint was as good as I could get it.

Unfortunately, the plastic has a sink line running along the side of the join so after a light coat of primer, I could see that filling and sanding was going to be unavoidable.

I'll replace the rivets and hull lines later.

 

 

 

And after another light coat of primer, I can see it's good enough.

 

 

Since the kit arrived, I couldn't take my eyes off the bulging sonar thingy at the forward end of the keel.

Don't like it so it has to go.

Initially, I thought this would mean I'd have to model the build on different Type IXc sub but it turns out that the sonar bulge was only fitted to U505 in the last year of service so my build will simply be U505 in it's earlier years.

This bides well with the fact I'm installing the 105mm deck gun, also only present in its earlier years.

To seal the deal, my U505 early decals arrived this morning, ie two black axes and the Olympic emblem.

The shell/shield emblem only appeared on U505's final sortie.

 

Anyway, here's the sonar bulge removal pictures.

Hole filled and keel remodeled with polystyrene sheet.

 

 

 

 

Happy with that.

Thanks for reading, more soon.

Edited March 6, 2018 by AndyPG

[kpnuts]

Looking very good I wouldn't like replacing those panel lines and rivets.

[AndyPG]

I know what you mean.

I went carefully with the sanding so I've only lost maybe 100 rivets.

Just another one of those tasks where we have to get in the zone and knuckle down for a couple of hours.

 

Andy.

[uncarina]

Outstanding! The same thing happened to me with my 1/72 Skipjack build: sinkmarks around the hull quarter seams. You did a great job removing them. By the way, have you seen this? http://amp.rokket.biz/lib_uboats.shtml

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Another stonking WIP to follow!

[mick]

great work

[robgizlu]

Following with interest - nice work on the vents - what a difference it makes.  Lovely modelling on the seamless join.

Keep it coming

Rb

[AndyPG]

6 hours ago, uncarina said:

By the way, have you seen this? http://amp.rokket.biz/lib_

 

Cheers,  Tom

Hi Tom,

Yeh, AMP is where I bought the U505 "early" decal sheet.

Lots of great reading on there.

Thanks for suggesting.

 

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Really appreciate the encouragement.

 

Andy.

[AndyPG]

Ok, time to have a go with some of that photo etch.

Probably no need for too many words here.

Here's a few pictures of the detailing done so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AndyPG]

I drilled the ends of the gun barrels out to improve their look. The photo etch set includes tiny pieces of brass which need rolling into a cone in order to replicate the flared barrel muzzle.

The standard muzzle detail is so good so I'm still pondering as to whether I can make a good enough job of them to be an improvement.

My Type VIIc Flak gun muzzle was very crude and a brass barrel or even a PE muzzle would have been welcome.

I'll see how we go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AndyPG]

The supplied PE bollard tops weren't quite right.

The PE instructions called for them to be glued to the top of a short piece of 2.4mm round poly rod.

I had some 2.4mm (3/32") brass tube which was perfect as the Type IX bollards do appear to be hollow anyway.

Once the tops were glued in place, you can see the obvious issues when compared to U505's actual item.

They are far too big and their design doesn't make sense at all.

I checked the suggested 2.4mm rod diameter and my references show this to be correct to scale.

After some fiddly messing around, I scrapped the supplied tops and scratch built my own from spare PE brass sheet.

In the pic below, the supplied top is on the right and my DIY one on the left.

 

 

Here are a couple of pics of U505's bollards.

 

 

 

As you can see, the tops are much smaller and the cross bar slimmer than depicted in the PE.

Here's a couple of pics of the DIY ones in place.

 

 

 

[uncarina]

Andy,

 

Sensational work, and the photoetch really sets it off. What do you use as adhesive for this?

 

Cheers,  Tom

[AndyPG]

Thanks Tom,

 

I just use cheap superglue for the photo etch.

 

Andy.

[uncarina]

Andy,

 

It certainly looks clean! 

 

Cheers,  Tom