Greif's New Uboot Project

[Pat]

rokket, you ask "why don't wives understand?"

I can't answer the 'why', but I can give you a prime example.

A couple of years ago, a friend at my yacht club wanted me to build a model of her husband's tank for her to give to him as a Christmas gift.  He'd been a tank commander of a British Centurian Mk 5 back in the 60's in Europe.

My wife got upset with me spending so much time and money building the tank.  She kept on asking me, and couldn't figure out why, I didn't just patch up and old 1:35 remote control German, 1943 vintage, Pkfw IV Aus G that had been kicking around the house for several decades.  In her mind, it was already built and just needed some minor repairs, and it was a tank, so......

[billp51d]

     ..Wives, yes, bless thier hearts! The main interest especially at Christmas would be..What size bow are you going to put on the tank to make it look right under the tree?
                           Bill

[Pat]

Don't you think a tank with a bow around the barrel looks sort of...well...odd?

[Siara]

Ernest- good show my friend. Im only glad i didnt have the same inspiration, and cut open the hull- it could have taken me to retirement.

[Greif]

Ernest- good show my friend. Im only glad i didnt have the same inspiration, and cut open the hull- it could have taken me to retirement.

Thanks my friend!  We shall see how much I sweat when it comes time to cut up the hull.  The engine room is actually a pretty simple construction compared to some of the stuff you and I have done.  I am sure you could bring it off without any trouble at all.  By the way, how is your 1/35 scale project coming along?

Ernest

[Greif]

I hear what everyone is saying regarding our wive's understanding of our hobby.  To be honest though, my wife has many other talents that allow me to gladly overlook her blindspot when it comes to my modelling. 

Ernest

[Don in Cincinnati]

Sounds exciting! (Why donn't wives understand?...)

Wow! This question could spawn a dissertation for a master's thesis.

My take, for what it's worth, is that I think many women see military models as weapons of destruction, (Which they are, of course.) rather than as visual historical symbols and/or objects that have an aesthetic quality quit apart from their original use. Is there anything more sculptural than a Luger, for example? Or a U-Boat? (Almost forgot what Forum I was on for a minute. The plus to having a bad memory is that you can hide your own Easter eggs.) Perhaps the potential for destruction embodied in a military model goes against their nurturing nature.

In defense of the fair sex I might add here that my girlfriend took an active interest in my  build of the Kruppwerkes diorama (All three years of it) and was supportive enough to keep me going when I was ready to take a rather large mallet to it. I would only add to that that at the IPMS National competition last year the model got a lot of attention from the distaff side.

Maybe if we didn't bore them to tears with endless talk of details -and perhaps took an active interest in their hobbies- we might yet prevail?

(I'll believe it if you will.)

[Anakin]

Maybe if we didn't bore them to tears with endless talk of details -and perhaps took an active interest in their hobbies- we might yet prevail?
(I'll believe it if you will.)

You could be right... IMO i don

[Greif]

Well guys, I have an update today, the weathering, which consisted of a wash and some drybrushing is complete.  Unfortunately the weathering does not show up well on the photos. One of these days I am going to have to buy a better camera, build a photo setup and practice taking pictures!  Anyway, I used a medium to dark brown sludge wash on everything but the engine.  On it, I used a black wash.  After washing, I did a very little bit of drybrushing to bring out a bit of detail.  Again the pictures are not that good so bear with me here!

Ernest

[Greif]

Except for some cleaning up around the keel area, the engine room is finished.  Following are a few notesfor anyone who may be planning to build this kit.  It is very important to test fit everything frequently as clearances are very very close.  If you are planning on adding any detail be aware that the close fit will not allow you to position some of the items found in the real uboot in their actual location; in some cases you will not be able to place additional detail because it will not fit.  In order to place the center walkway fairly close to its actual location you are going to have to do some cutting and sanding.  About 2mm need to be removed from the stern end of the walkway, and about 1mm needs to be shaved off the joining location on the stern bulkhead.  Also, the engine supports have to be sanded off and a new support made for the walkway that allows you to position it at the correct height while at the same time ensuring that 1) the engine does not set too high and 2) the keel and bulkheads matchup at the bottom.  Naturally it is best to do this early in the build, which I did not do.  As a result a really sweat it out getting everything sanded and lined up without damaging too much of the paintjob.  I got it too work, though more than a few naughty words were spoken!  

Overall it turned out pretty decent.  I plan to start the galley/petty officers quarters soon, probably tomorrow.  Enjoy the pictures!

Ernest

[Greif]

Ready to begin construction of the galley/PO quarters.  As the picture shows there are several pieces, but no tiny ones as with the engine.  Some of the resin parts have minor warping which should be easy to correct.  A foresee two major challenges with this build.  First, the instructions are not very clear as to how the bulkheads, floor and rear wall are supposed to fit.  Looks like I'm going to be doing alot of test fitting once the parts are seperated from their resin blocks to make sure I assemble everything correctly.

More challenging is the fact that there is no sink, toilet or electrical box for the batteries.  I'm going to have to either find a 1/72 sink and toilet (doubtful) or make my own (probable).  The sink should not be terribly hard to fashion; the toilet is likely to cause much muttering under the breath however.  I should be a able to build an electrical box that is reasonably accurate out of spare parts and copper wire.  I will also have to build the water pipes  and faucets for the sink.  (Pipes=no major sweat) (faucets=we shall see).

The petty officers quarters are pretty complete as they are.  The only thing I think I have to scratch build is the overhead ventilation piping.  Shouldn't be hard.  To simulate the wood I plan to use the same technique I use to simulate plain wood on WWI aircraft.  I'll paint the part a medium tan color.  Once dry I'll brush a mix of burnt sienna, yellow ochre and umber artist oils over the tan base to simulate wood grain.

Should be exciting, stay tuned! 

Ernest     

[Greif]

Sometimes the moon and stars align and something I am scratchbuilding turns out right the first time.  I spent a couple of hours making the sink last night.  After alot of referring to photos and measuring, I shaped a piece of scrap resin to resemble the sink unit.  I then used my dremel tool with a small router head and routed out the sink, finishing it with a drilled drain hole.  The cabinet doors are thin Evergreen plastic and the knobs and hinges are small pieces of PE.  

Enjoy the photos,
Ernest  

[billp51d]

          Nice looking work, Ernest.. I have seen on another thread (Don't recall which one) that galley sinks had three faucets.. Not only "hot" and "cold" but also a third for "sea water". Wish I could recall where I saw but doe's it sound familiar to you? I'll look around at past postings. Hope this helps..
                                                                  Cheers/ Regards, Bill

[Greif]

Thank you for the compliment Bill!  I have a couple of photos from the sink in U995.  It has three faucets, and the connection for a fourth.  And based on the writing above the faucet connections I am sure uboat sinks had four faucets.  Frank Dargie made 3 faucets for his interior build.  I am planning on trying to fit 4 faucets; however space may only allow for 3 in the model.  I need to contact Frank and see if that was the case with his build; might save me some time and frustration.  If you can find the photo, I will be very glad to use it though!

Ernest

          Nice looking work, Ernest.. I have seen on another thread (Don't recall which one) that galley sinks had three faucets.. Not only "hot" and "cold" but also a third for "sea water". Wish I could recall where I saw but doe's it sound familiar to you? I'll look around at past postings. Hope this helps..
                                                                  Cheers/ Regards, Bill

[NZSnowman]

If I remember correctly from my research there was no hot water but it was 'grey water'


Here are the four labels

Waschwasser = Washing water
Gefiltertes trinkwasser = Filtered drinking water
Seewasser warm = Sea water warmly
Trinkwasser = Drinking water