Author Topic: U-45 WIP - Completed October 2019  (Read 103586 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline Mr. Bill

  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 274
U-45 WIP - Completed October 2019
« on: 05 Apr , 2009, 16:17 »
Greetings,

After many delays and interruptions, I have finally found the time to start a work in progress topic on U-45.  This is sort of a continuation of the earlier topic about the early Type VIIB decks, but I thought it better to start fresh.  I wanted to build an early Type VIIB and selected U-45 because of the excellent Bundesarchive photos taken on the commissioning day of U-45 on 25 June 1938.  This project will include parts from the Revell Type VIIC kit and the Amati U-47 kit, both in 1/72 scale.  Based on test fit, the Amati brass deck fits very nicely into the Revell hull with just a few areas requiring attention.  The flooding vent arrangements on the Revell hull and conning tower will be modified to an early VIIB configuration using the excellent material prepared by Dougie.  The Amati brass deck will be modified to match the early VIIB hatch arrangement.  Other details will be scratch built or adapted from spare parts.

U-45 was the first of the Type VIIB's and appeared as follows in June 1938:





A comparison of conning towers - Amati U-47, Revell VIIC, and U-45 (modified Revell tower):




The early Type VIIB tower is smaller in length and width compared to the Type VIIC:


The pre-war U-boats carried a bronze eagle on the front of the tower.  I tried to scratch build this item, but I am not entirely satisfied with the result.  I might to try to get one from the Special Navy Type IIA kit:



Here the eagle is dry fitted to the tower:



Based on photos, the pre-war early VIIB's had a differently shaped housing for the attack periscope.  My attempt at scratch building this item:



A clear plastic doll eye with a scratch built photo etch handle was used to replicate the scope cover.

The circular flood vents on the conning tower sides of the early VIIB's have a unique pattern and arrangement.  The part from the Amati kit was not very accurate and I had a very difficult time trying to come up with a solution until I found some old photo etch railroad grating that was an almost perfect match for size, pattern and arrangement.  I had to use stretched sprue to fill in the holes along the edge of the open holes to match the configuration of U-45 in June 1938:






A close up of the tower showing the "flexible voice tube" equipment. Please note that many smaller details are missing at this point.  Things like the hatch latch, life belt attachments, flexible hose, hand grips, ladder rungs, and other items all need to be added:



Some more views of the conning tower.  Much is only dry fitted at this point which results in some odd alignment which will be corrected when the items are permanently attached:





And the last photo for this session showing the modified Revell tower on the Amati brass deck"



My plan is to complete the remaining small details on the conning tower and then progress to the hull.  I am mainly using photos of U-45 and other early VIIB's as my references along with the usual publications.  I can't find anything so far that shows if a compass was attached to front of the periscope housing like the VIIC boats - does anyone know about this?

Many thanks to everyone that has helped me so far with this project.  Please don't hesitate to ask questions or point out problems - your comments are always welcome.  More to come.

Regards,

Bill
« Last Edit: 11 Oct , 2019, 22:00 by Mr. Bill »

Offline Siara

  • Admiral2
  • *
  • Posts: 888
  • Gender: Male
    • Master Models
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #1 on: 05 Apr , 2009, 17:35 »
Im so f***** excited about this project!
Good start Bill.
Im sitting in the front row, and watching with big bag of popcorn in my hand.
That is going to be fantastic project. ;)

Offline Rokket

  • Administrator
  • *
  • Posts: 2,362
  • Gender: Male
  • Submarine Enthusiast
    • AMP - Accurate Model Parts
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #2 on: 06 Apr , 2009, 04:59 »
Bill, really, really nice work, research, detail and execution! Oh, and like what Siara said!
AMP - Accurate Model Parts - http://amp.rokket.biz

Offline rabapla

  • Lt Cdr
  • *
  • Posts: 195
  • Gender: Male
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #3 on: 06 Apr , 2009, 05:59 »
simply great!
and so different!!!
Sincerely

Ralf

Offline dougie47

  • Administrator
  • *
  • Posts: 758
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #4 on: 06 Apr , 2009, 06:37 »
Hi Bill,

Fantastic work! All the details are excellent, particularly the attack periscope housing.

On the subject of the compass repeater attached to the attack periscope housing, I can't say for sure that U 45 would have had one in June 38 during commissioning. If I had to guess I'd say U 45 probably had one in June 1938. There are pre-war shots of U 46 with this repeater, and U 49 did have the repeater during her commissioning in August 1939.

Keep up the great work.

Cheers,

Dougie


vonbulowfla

  • Guest
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #5 on: 06 Apr , 2009, 09:35 »
yes i must say its going to be a great looking model . its refreshing to see a early  type 7 b . i was wondering other than the conning tower was the rest of the boat (  drains and main flood patterns )as that of a mid war type 7 b  ?:oif so one could make different boats early or mid war just by changing the conning tower and such . in any event great build and cant wait to see more!
« Last Edit: 14 Apr , 2009, 19:15 by vonbulowfla »

Offline Mr. Bill

  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 274
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #6 on: 10 Apr , 2009, 12:38 »
Thanks everyone for your help and kind words.  I am not certain, but I think that U-45 may not have had the small hatch on the port side of the conning tower.  I think this is the deck gun ammunition pass through hatch.  It is visible on the starboard side photo, but I can't see it on the port side photo. Maybe just a trick of light or camera angle?  I was about to remove this hatch from my build, but was reluctant to do so at this point.    What do you think:






Thanks!
« Last Edit: 25 Jan , 2015, 11:05 by Mr. Bill »

Offline Mr. Bill

  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 274
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #7 on: 10 Apr , 2009, 12:59 »
Hello vonbulow,

Regarding the question about the hull flooding patterns, I highly recommend that you refer to the excellent material prepared by Dougie on this subject.  I will be using this along with photos of U-45 to modify the Revell hull parts.  Generally, I believe that using the Revell VIIC hull for a VIIB mainly involves filling some existing holes and drilling new ones.  Certainly, there are probably other smaller differences also and there are several people here that know more about this than I do.   I think that in reality the hulls were not the same dimensions, but the Amati VIIB deck is nearly an exact fit with the Revell VIIC hull! There is at least one major problem which is where the kit part saddle tank on one side would have to be modified in order to accommodate some of the needed flooding vents.  The VIIB's had a long top row of forward flooding vents which will overlap with the kits saddle tank.   Either major surgery to modify the saddle tank or accepting a compromise to accuracy is required to overcome this problem.  Don't know what solution I will take at this point, but my skills as a styrene surgeon may not be up to the task.

Bill
« Last Edit: 10 Apr , 2009, 13:08 by Mr. Bill »

Offline NZSnowman

  • Admiral4
  • *
  • Posts: 2,419
  • Gender: Male
  • U-1308
    • U-1308 - Wikipedia
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #8 on: 10 Apr , 2009, 13:21 »
Hi Bill

I no export on the VIIB but looking at your picture of U-45 I think you are right, I can not see any hatch on port side also.

Offline Siara

  • Admiral2
  • *
  • Posts: 888
  • Gender: Male
    • Master Models
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #9 on: 10 Apr , 2009, 13:28 »
The hatch in mention was used for passing the shells from inside of the boat to the guy, whos job was to walk them to the loader. Theres the hatch on the starboard side- maybe they only needed one hatch. On later baats 2 hatches were present.

Offline dougie47

  • Administrator
  • *
  • Posts: 758
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #10 on: 10 Apr , 2009, 13:56 »
Hi guys,

Interesting...there doesn't seem to be a hatch in that U 45 photo. Certainly Siara is right about it being present on later boats, with U 46, 47 and 48 being examples. It could be that it originally wasn't on U 45 and was added at some stage.

Although my U 47 modifications and colours article is available online, the accompanying drawings aren't. As U 45 and U 47 were similar you might refer to them.

There are full hull drawings for seven stages in the boat's career. Here is the first -


This is the tower comparison one -


This shows both sides -


Quality has been lost when posting these drawings. If you need better quality versions send me a PM.

I wish I had those U 45 photos when doing these drawings - they would have helped A LOT!

Cheers,

Dougie

vonbulowfla

  • Guest
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #11 on: 11 Apr , 2009, 05:25 »
 mr bill ...............thank you sir for the information. i think i have the number of flood holes problem licked. i will post the solution a.s.a.p . in any event your information has been most helpful .also thanks to dougie for his type 7 b info. :D

vonbulowfla

  • Guest
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #12 on: 05 May , 2009, 06:11 »
oh no mr billllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. how are you bill ? well i hope anyway i finally got my computer going right so i posted some photos of my deck . i will post some of the solution i came up with for the forward main floods in a few days .how is the the  7 b coming along? ;D

Offline Mr. Bill

  • Commander
  • *
  • Posts: 274
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #13 on: 06 May , 2009, 22:11 »
Hello Everyone,

Not much progress on U-45 in the last several weeks.  I have been fully occupied with home repair and improvement on a property that I lease out.  The structure is almost 30 years old and the last tenant seems to have done everything in his power to abuse the property.  As a result of neglect and tenant abuse, I have had to strip it to a shell to repair water damage and dry rot.  Electrical, plumbing, cabinets, doors, walls, windows, baseboards, paint, flooring, and so on all need repair and/or replacement.  I am doing almost all of the work myself, so it is taking me a long, long time.  At least a few more weeks needed to complete the job.   I am really nackered and need to take a day or so rest, so maybe I can spend some time on U-45.  Looking forward with great interest to the flooding hole solution from vonbulow............

Regards,

Mr. Bill
(Rapidly becoming an expert in home restoration)

vonbulowfla

  • Guest
Re: U-45 WIP
« Reply #14 on: 07 May , 2009, 06:38 »
mr bill' good luck with the house. and i have been working many hours myself. i will post my project this weekend and see what you think . in any event take care and happy building . :)