Nautilus Models- Turm II tower for the Revell Type VIIc

Smart alec...

Where'd I put that big red delete button?!?!

I'm glad James finally got these parts going. I put off scratchbuilding another Turm IV because I knew he was going to do these eventually. I do not have fond memories of doing the Turm IV on my converted VIIB. For those who don't know, about 3 years ago I converted an Amati Type VIIB into a Turm IV late-war VIIC.



Jeff

Will this conversion make it posible to install the Quad 20mm gun on the Winter Garden?

Ahoy modelbuilder,

The tower offered by Nautilus seems to be the Turm IV.

It would correct to mount either the 37mm( Flak 36 )cannon
or the Quad 20mm on the lowest part of the tower closest to
the main deck. This will all depend on which u-boat you
intend to model. Also if Nautilus is supplying only the lower
part of the tower, you will have to do some modifications to
the upper portside of the kit's tower.

Take a look at this site, they have some excellant reference
photos of the Turm IV tower. The site is in German but is quite
easy to use.


www.dream-arts.de

Have a nice day and happy modeling !

Joe

1.) How do you navigate the nautilus models website to get to the 1/72 U-boat pages? I couldn't get there from the home page (2004 listed) and the link below didn't have any info on the Turm IV.

2.) The Turm II photos look good. I assume that the upper conning tower components from the kit are used. How good is typical Nautilus documentation / instructions?

3.) How would I go about finding the Turm configuation for a particular sub?

I wan't to build U-223 as of 30 Mar 44. She shot it out with my wife's uncle's ship (HMS Laforey) on the surface, both vessels lost with their skippers (one of them my wife's uncle). Bernard Edwards' "Twilight of the U-Boats" ascribes a twin 20mm & quad 20mm (Turm II?)configuration on her first war patrol in January 1943 (erroneous I believe - According to Robert Stern's "Type VII U-Boats", the flakvierlinge wasn't mounted to a VIIC until March/April 1943). Also according to Stern, "the fitting of Turm 2 to Type VII U-boats began in December 1942", but bugs in the guns (20mm C/38) weren't ironed out until mid January 1943 with production deliveries not occuring until August 1943.

--- questions for U-Boat experts...

a.) By September 1943 (U-223s refit in St. Nazaire), what Turm configuration would be expected for a boat re-built in a French port headed for the Med? U-223 was launched in mid 1942, presumably with the standard conning tower. After her surface battle with HMS Hesperus in May 1943, she required a rebuild which lasted through the summer with a return to duty in September.

b.) were Med boats given a special paint job?

c.) what primer colors were used on the U-boats?


Anyway, I'm anxious to get started, my ROG kit is collecting a thick layer of dust.

any help or nudge in the right direction would be appreciated.

Thanks All










"Tom Dougherty just published this on the SubCommittee website, so I am assuming it's ok to publish now.

http://www.nautilusmodels.com/U-02/turm2.htm

As seen in the link above, a later war mod for the Type VII will be available from the folks at Nautilus."

Aloy schoonerbumm,

I don't think you can access info for the tower , on the site yet.
I've tried.

As far as the quality of the Nautilus products, I've been told
they are excellent. Haven't tried myself, I scratchbuild all my
conversions.

To find configurations of particular u-boat is quite a challenge.
Even uboat.net will give you the general boat type A, B, C ,C/41 etc.
but I've never came across any info for a specfic tower on a specfic boat.

Your best bet is to research photos and apply.
Here are some excellent sources:

Warship pictorial No:27 Kreigsmarine Type VII U-boats
German U-boat Type VII Heinz J. Nowarra
U-boats in action Squadron Signal No:1
U-boat War Squadron Signal

Med boats did have a particular camo.
Light Gray on upper vertical hull above waterline with irregular splotches.

Primer was dark gray on wartime boats (according to my sources)

See photos in the books and also you can see some very
interesting tower paint jobs at:

www.dream-arts.de

Hope the info is of some help,

Have a nice day and happy modeling !

Joe

Primer was also,sometimes, a red lead called Schiffsbodenfarbe III Rot 5.

The deck they are showing in the with the new Turm conversion is of the early u-boat. I wonder if we'll see pics of the later style. Also, the bow on the later boats were a little wider at the deck and the angle of the stem was a slightly less steep, named the Atlantic Bow.

In a perfect world, it would be great if there was a CT kit, complete with all the Turm conversions, including guns. You could just pick and choose. I like that about the Revell kit, where you have two choices of CT style. Can't hurt to dream.

Jess

Hello schoonerbumm

U-223 lies on the bottom off Palermo (Position: 38°48'N, 14°10'E); if you'd like to find out what AA guns she was carrying when she went down, I would recommend a quick dive to find out by yourself (it's summer after all!)

More seriously, I guess you can assume that by september 1943, U-223 would have a turm II modification and the somewhat unusual FlakVierling. But I agree with Grauwolf: extensive search in various books will be needed if you want to be sure about it.

This site can help you in your painting: http://uboatcolours.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/

Hope this helps!