Das Boot

[Tcoat]

Need to take a break from cars so lets do a fun little build of this.

 

Using only the paints that came with the kit

 

It is 1:16PM on Saturday March 11 and I am cutting the first part off the sprue ... NOW

 

 

 

[bismarck]

One of my favorite subjects!??. I’m following along.

[Joe Nunes]

I will be watching, too.  ?

Joe

[cobraman]

I'm on board.

[mustang1989]

This is gonna be a complete BLAST to watch. 

[Tcoat]

OK so it is time for the 4 hours of bench time (not consecutive) update.

Lower hull and decks assembled. 

There were a couple of small spots where the deck just simply would not meet flush with the hull. Keep in mind that these small gaps are about the width of a hair not the trench it looks like here. Paint would likely fill them but I gave  them a swipe with some clear parts cement just to make sure.

Now, let's discuss the elephant in the room!

This kit was designed and built in 2006 (Thanks Scalemates) NOT 1966. They have completely beautiful, crisp, scale details. Just look at that deck above.

So why? Just why, did they feel the need to festoon the hull with massive (in scale) rivets and raised panel lines? In scale those rivets are about 4 inches around and protrude about 3. The panel lines are more like 6 wide and 3 high.  Not only is this sub going to lose about 10 knots on the surface and be almost immobile submerged it is going to make so much noise while underway that the invention of asdic would never be needed. 

If this was not going to be a quick build I would have spent a couple of days sanding all that carefully molded detail off. You just would not see any of this in 1/144. 

OH the wife needs me! More in a bit.

Edited March 12, 2023 by Tcoat

[Tcoat]

OK back at it.

Tower detail is nice. This is where some photoetch may dress it up a bit but not a lot since the molded parts are actually pretty nice overall. That tiny grating and wood bulkhead paneling will pop with a wash.

 

The rails are of course a tad overscale and need some serious cleanup but thing they will look good once done. Luckily the styrene is easy to work with being neither too hard nor soft. It would be Goldilocks approved.

 

OK Back to building

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by Tcoat

[cobraman]

Maybe the paint will help reduce the look of the rivets ??

[Tcoat]

18 minutes ago, cobraman said:

Maybe the paint will help reduce the look of the rivets ??

It will to some extent and weathering will decrease them even more  but it is still a shame that they are there at all. This is an otherwise outstanding kit. People would say these rivets and lines are way too much on a 1/48 aircraft so on a 1/144 submarine they are extreme.

I certainly wouldn't discourage anybody from getting this kit because of them but they should be aware they are there. I  am going to hide them with weathering smoke and mirrors this time but if anybody is doing an all out detail they really should come off or at least get knocked way down. 

[Tcoat]

Build done. Total assembly time 5 hours and 27 minutes. A fair bit of clean up on very tiny parts extended the time a bit. It was sort of odd because only one corner of one sprue has flash. The corner of the mold must not have bee closed completely. It wasn't horrid but did need cleanup. 

 

First coat of kit supplied paint on. This paint brushes really nicely but of course I had to airbrush so took some time to figure out best thinner. It is more like craft paint than normal model acrylics and the only thing that will thin it is water. Just water. Trust me don't use anything but water if you use these!

Looked awful going on but once dry is a really nice flat finish.

 

[Tcoat]

Lower hull and details painted. Those nasty rivets interfered with the masking exactly as It thought they would but that is fine. Technically it is "done" but if anybody thinks I will leave it like this they have surprises coming.

 

 

 

[cobraman]

Looks very good to me !

[Tcoat]

1 hour ago, cobraman said:

Looks very good to me !

Yep but...

Look even better when I am actually done with it. I challenged myself to paint using only the kit supplied stuff and that I did but I never promised to stop there!

I didn't research this a lot so not sure how accurate the colours and pattern are for real Uboats of that period but the kit supplied paint and instructions are bang on to the movie version.

 

At the start of the movie the paint was very pretty and clean much like the model right now.

 

Not so much when it returns (And anybody that has seen the movie knows it get's much worse in about 5 minutes)

 

[Tcoat]

Stages.

Plain paint

to

Future wash

to

black wash to limber holes, guns and hatches only

to

Blotchy Agrax Earthshade wash to overall. 

 

 

 

 

Next up will be a flat coat to knock off any remaining gloss and even things out.

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Tcoat

[Mike C]

Looks like a really good build. The kit looks like it has pretty good mold detail too. I saw that movies back in the 80's.

[SSNJim]

The limber holes look really good. How did you do it?

I've got a couple of Type VIIs and XIXs, along with a few Gatos in 1/350. They just don't look right without the work on the limber holes.

Thanks!

[Tcoat]

1 hour ago, SSNJim said:

The limber holes look really good. How did you do it?

I've got a couple of Type VIIs and XIXs, along with a few Gatos in 1/350. They just don't look right without the work on the limber holes.

Thanks!

The limber holes are done in the sequence above. Base paint. Then black tinted Future to start the darkening process and give a gloss base for the shade step. Then black shade paint dropped into the holes and the excess wiped off the glossy Future coat. I use a Citadel figure shade wash called Nuln Oil for this but any black wash such as panel line will do. Then the whole works get' a coat of Testers Dullcoat to knock off any sheen.

[SSNJim]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

[Tcoat]

37 minutes ago, SSNJim said:

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

I will be posting picture of the final thing later this afternoon. The holes will look much better after I get the flat coat on top of everything. Right now they are still shiny so the edges sort of blur but once flat they will just look like voids. It really beats trying to drill out hundreds of oblong holes.

This is the 1/350 I-400 with the effect in place.

 

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Tcoat

[David G.]

A very cool model and a nice change of pace. I too like to flex my model building muscles with something outside the automotive universe on occasion.

What' you've done so far looks great, I can't wait to see the finished pics.

It is a shame about the rivets and lines though.

David G.

[Tcoat]

10 minutes ago, David G. said:

A very cool model and a nice change of pace. I too like to flex my model building muscles with something outside the automotive universe on occasion.

What' you've done so far looks great, I can't wait to see the finished pics.

It is a shame about the rivets and lines though.

David G.

Cars are actually the minority of what I do but I was on a marathon for a bit there so needed to step away. Yes the lines and rivets do take away from the overall detail in my opinion at any rate. They are just so grossly overscale. I do however feel that once it is flat coated they will disappear somewhat into the weathering. If nothing else it will look fine as a 3 foot view range model.

Here is a survivor of a similar boat. Notice the complete lack of fist sized rivets and 2"x6" welded plate seams.

Edited March 17, 2023 by Tcoat