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1/72 Type IXC U-Boat Build Log

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  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Sunday, October 19, 2014 5:18 PM

LOL OK "honey"!

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Sunday, October 19, 2014 8:46 AM

Sorry *HOKEY!

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Sunday, October 19, 2014 8:35 AM

Sorry honey. Here's the site I was talking about:

http://amp.rokket.biz

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Saturday, October 18, 2014 6:48 PM

Señormodeler

Agreed. Whatever shades of grey you choose will be totally fine. Jus a question of how insane you wanna get. You may want to check out this site if you haven't already. There is a off on there all about the kriegsmarine u-boat colors.

And get building!

Thanks for the "nudge"!!!  You refer to "You may want to check out this site if you haven't already" but I don't see a link there? Did I miss something Senor?

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Saturday, October 18, 2014 4:31 PM

Thanks, Bish! That means a lot. You've been very helpful throughout the process. I'm working with someone to build a display case and I'm still doing a little work on the stand. I'll post some final pictures once I get those things done.

In the meantime I'm focusing on my fine molds 1/72 millennium falcon. 900 pieces!!

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Saturday, October 18, 2014 12:41 PM

That is one nice looking boat. Its been a real joy following this build and I have certainly learned a lot. I will be book markings this for future reference. I really like the finish and all the streaking and other weathering. That's exactly the look I hope to get.

A huge well done and thank you.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Friday, October 17, 2014 7:54 PM

Agreed. Whatever shades of grey you choose will be totally fine. Jus a question of how insane you wanna get. You may want to check out this site if you haven't already. There is a off on there all about the kriegsmarine u-boat colors.

And get building!

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Friday, October 17, 2014 4:14 PM

I did note that before and maybe its just the color in his photo on the web but it has no green/blue tint to it that I can see. Its more the basic grays described on UBoat.net.   Bottom line, I'm sure both (and other slight variations) are totally acceptable to the masses!

When I look at the actual boat in the museum, the bottom paint does have a bit of green/blue More in photos with the blue floodlights!) to it but I also note the upper paint is quite a bit lighter like the Hellgrau 50 color.

Basically I'm totally confused!!! LOL...

And......I need to get off my butt - quit investigating everything - and get to building!

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Friday, October 17, 2014 1:11 PM

Hokey,

For the color scheme I pretty much followed Glenn Cauley's lead on his U-505 build:

www.travel-net.com/.../U505

He's done a lot of research and has specific information about the exact colors. LifeColor paints offer a package of paints that included the specific greys that I wanted. There's a lot of variation to the grey (it has a bit of green in it) and I wanted to try to get it really accurate.

The LifeColor paints have a matte finish but I sealed them with Multi Surface floor polish, which is gloss, and applied a a few washes first. Then I sealed that with dullcoat and started layering it with filters and streaking.

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Friday, October 17, 2014 12:33 PM

Señormodeler

I primed the kit with Tamiya Fine Primer. Then I preshaded all the rivet lines and panel lines. I used reversed pre-shading for below the waterline. After that I painted the sub with LifeColor paints. They have a Kriegsmarine set of paints that colors that I wanted to use.

In reading other info at UBoat.net the paint schemes seem to pretty much stay with a light grey and dark grey approach. Many quoted sources referring to Model Master RLM 63 and RLM 72 (light and dark grey) for upper and lower hull. 

Those paints are gloss acrylics so I'm guessing that when I finish the build, spraying with a FLAT clear would solve that problem? Maybe you sprayed flat finish as well?

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Friday, October 17, 2014 11:21 AM

Yes I did get periscopes. And gun barrels.

From:

Schatton-Modellbau:

Type IX periscopes (72168)

Type IX AA gun barrels (72169)

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Friday, October 17, 2014 11:14 AM

Señormodeler

Found it:

www.tehnoart.eu/u9-fittings-set-1.html

It includes a PE radar assembly.

Did you also get a machined periscope set?

I am emailing Oto about the brass deck too.

UPDATE: I got his reply. It reads:

"hello here is my work for type IXC.
http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=176&t=80880
eduard doing a few deck covers. It is not sufficient, so I designed the entire deck"

Can you look at his work and give me your thoughts on his 2 kits? I have the 3 Eduard sets already so I guess there would be some waste with one or the other?

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Thursday, October 9, 2014 12:11 PM

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate that.

  • Member since
    December 2010
  • From: Salem, Oregon
Posted by 1943Mike on Thursday, October 9, 2014 9:53 AM

Señor,

This looks to me to be an excellent submarine build. I'm so very impressed. Thanks for posting your WIP since it has added to my knowledge and my appreciation of this hobby.

Mike

Mike

"Le temps est un grand maître, mais malheureusement, il tue tous ses élèves."

Hector Berlioz

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Thursday, October 9, 2014 8:35 AM

Found it:

www.tehnoart.eu/u9-fittings-set-1.html

It includes a PE radar assembly.

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Thursday, October 9, 2014 8:26 AM

Thanks Senor!  Can you tell me what the name/brand of the screw, etc. kits too please?

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 9:30 PM

Thank, Hokey! Sure thing.

I used the Eduard PE for this kit (there are 3 sets). I considered Oto's brass deck but it wasn't ready in time, so I just used the kit deck. I also used a brass kit that has the screws, the UZO, the captsans and few other items.

I primed the kit with Tamiya Fine Primer. Then I preshaded all the rivet lines and panel lines. I used reversed pre-shading for below the waterline. After that I painted the sub with LifeColor paints. They have a Kriegsmarine set of paints that colors that I wanted to use.

I had a little trouble with the LifeColor paints, probably due to my inexperience. I had trouble figuring out how much to thin it. It would clog in my AB very easily. So I ended up thinning it quite a bit and layering on a lot of thin coats.

I then sealed it up with Future floor polish and started weathering it. I used Gamblin artist oils and odorless turpentine for all the washes and filters.  I started with several dark washes of black and brown. I would then put down a dull cote to seal it. I used dot filtering above waterline. Below the waterline I applied some light grey filters to fade the base paint.

I was able to get some splotchy effects by diluting some white oil paint with lighter fluid and splattering that on the hull below the water line. The lighter fluid drys very quickly and leaves behind an irregularly shaped faded mark. I basically continued to apply different oil paints as I saw fit, and then started adding specific rust streaking on the conning tower and upper hull.

For the deck I used nato black and then painted areas of earth brown to make it look like the carbilinium had worn away.  

After all that I did just a little bit of pastel weathering here and there. To age the screws, I soaked them in vinegar and salt for a few days.

That's about it. I started it in April and finished last week (October 3). I learned a lot. It was my first attempt at weathering something major.

Hope that helps!

  • Member since
    April 2012
Posted by Flying Finn on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 9:21 PM

Senor,

Beautiful build!  The finish and weathering is top of the line.  Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Wayne

  • Member since
    February 2011
Posted by Hokey on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 5:00 PM

That is ONE great effort and thanks soooo much for charting your course for us!. Could I ask you to (in a short post) summarize:

Paints and finishes used

and

After market parts used?

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Wednesday, October 8, 2014 9:21 AM

Finally calling this build done! I made the final push last week before OrangeCon. And then was deeply humbled at OrangeCon when I saw the level of workmanship there. Very cool stuff.


I'm still working on the stand but otherwise the u-boat is finished. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to get a display case? I've looked at a few online but I'd love to get your input.

Here are some pics. Thanks for looking, and thanks for all the help.





















  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 8:56 AM

Time for an update. I've been working on this every free chance I get so that it will be done in time for OrangeCon this saturday. All that's left to do is the rigging, the stand, and a few touchups and fixes.

I didn't much like the insulators that the kit provided so, after a lot of research, I decided to follow Glenn Cauley's (and other's) example and make my own turnbuckles and insulators. For the insulators I just just cut apart the kit provided piece and then cut grooves on the sides of them. Then I wrapped electrical wire around them. I still need to find something to use as a wire "wrap" between the insulators.



I made the turnbuckles from styrene with wire hooks on each end. Glenn has an excellent set of instructions for doing this on his WIP thread for his U-673:
http://models.rokket.biz/index.php?topic=67.msg9954#msg9954
Thanks, Glenn!



For the wire rigging I used EZ-Line (fine). But I twisted the line so that it would look like braided steel cable. I still need to paint the cable and weather the turnbuckles to knock them back a bit.















Thanks for looking!

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • From: Brunswick, Ohio
Posted by Buckeye on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 11:34 AM

That looks fantastic!

Mike

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 9:15 AM

Thanks for the comments, fellas. And thanks jtilley for the rigging advice. I'll check out bluejacket.

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Monday, September 8, 2014 11:15 PM

Nice looking U Boat. I have one I got for Fathers Day that I'm not quite ready to "dive" into just yet. I like watching other builds and getting ideas.

Great subject for weathering. Nice work, looks like she's in dry dock.

Steve

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Monday, September 8, 2014 3:24 PM

Another thought. I think (I'm not sure) that most of the rigging of a U-boat was made of stranded cable. (I'm not sure about he long antenna wires. It should be easy to find out.)

Bluejacket sells a rather stiff bronze, stranded wire that ifs through a hole made by a #73 drill. That Sounds like it would work well.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Monday, September 8, 2014 1:20 PM

EZ Line is a slightly elastic monofilament. It's sold by a model railroad-oriented cottage industry called Berkshire Junction. Wingnut Wings also sells it for rigging WWI aircraft.  I've got a spool of it; it's nice stuff.

I've also got some fly-tying silk that's so fine my poor old eyes can barely see it. I asked a surgeon once for the up-to-date story on surgical silk; he said it was still used, but only available in short lengths with built-in needles bonded to one end. I don't know whether that's still the case or not.

For the rigging of a 1/72 U-boat, I should think almost any fine thread would work well - with one exception. Don't use cotton. It not only has a flabby, floppy character to it, but it's highly hygroscopic (it shrinks and stretches, a lot, with changes in humidity). The sewing thread sold in sewing centers and craft stores is, for the most part, a "cotton/poly mix." I've shied away from it because of the cotton content, but I honestly don't know whether humidity affects it much or now.

Nylon might be a good choice. Bluejacket (www.bluejacketinc.com) sells some mighty thin that probably would be about right.

Those are some random thoughts from an old sailing ship modeler. Hope they help. There isn't much rigging on a U-boat, but I think you're right in thinking carefully about it. This is going to be a superb model; it deserves the best rigging job you can give it.

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Monday, September 8, 2014 12:38 PM

really liking the effect your getting. I know what you mean about progress not showing very well in the pics, I am sure many of us have had that. To the eye one stage looks different from the other, but in photo's, I think light and other factors can effect that.

And who said the camera never lies.

I use EZ line for aircraft antenna's and rigging bi planes. Its great stuff, but I am not sure it would be right for the wires on a 72nd U-Boat. But I am sure PJ will have some advice.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    March 2014
Posted by Señormodeler on Monday, September 8, 2014 12:11 PM

Thanks, Gene. I feel like I'm getting close to the end. I might do a little dry brush work next. I'm also talking to a guy about building a display case for it. Also need to figure out what to use for the rigging. I've heard of this stuff called EZ Line that sounds pretty good. But then somewhere else I read about someone using silk surgical thread. Not sure yet. I'd like to find a substitute for stretched sprue.

  • Member since
    January 2010
Posted by CrashTestDummy on Monday, September 8, 2014 11:54 AM

Wow!  If it weren't for the background and the table it's sitting on, I'd be hard-pressed to discern that as a model vs. a 1:1 example.  Very Nice Work!  

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

G. Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

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