Andrea Deck Gun

[Greif]

Its been a while since I did a uboot build.  Earlier this week the Andrea Deck Gun that I ordered in early December arrived.  It is 1/32 scale and consists of mixed resin and white metal parts.  The gun looks to be nicely detailed and I am guess I won't have to do a great deal of additional superdetailing through scratch building.  The figures are nicely posed with good uniform and facial features.

I plan to make a nice little diorama out of this as a stand alone model.  Andrea says it can be joined to their Type VII Conning Tower kit, but at over $450.00 it is a bit expensive for my tastes.  This should be a fun little build.

Ernest

[conus00]

Hi Ernest,
I've been tempted by this kit for a while. Good luck with your build. Please post a lot of pictures, I will be following this thread closely.

[Pepper-mint]

Hmmmmmmmm, very interesting. Great choice !

[Greif]

Dug into the kit last night and started cleaning up flash, resin stubs, etc.  I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed at the overall quality of the moulding and casting.  Some parts are very nicely done while others aren't done well at all.  Three example of the above are:

1)  Alot of the rivets on the hull sides are indistinct.  I am going to sand all of them away and replace them with aftermarket rivets.
2)  The raised detail on the deck strips which surround the gun suffer from the same problem as the rivets.  I am still considering options to improve them.
3)  The breech of the gun had some nasty casting seams and it had two sink marks which took quite some time to correct.

This model will assemble into a nice representation of a uboot deck gun, but you will have to work to get it to that level.  For $165.00 I expected the quality to be higher.  Good thing I did not lay out $450.00 plus for the Conning Tower kit and find it in the same shape; I would have been royally pissed!

Ernest 

[TRM]

Nice project Ernest.  Sorry about what you have run into already.  Seems to be par for the course sometimes.  I have found some of the resin aftermarket goods I have got, have more "fix-ums" than the kit supplied.  Still looking forward to watching the build, if anybody can correct the issues, I know you will.

Cheers!

[Greif]

Thanks for the encouragement TRM.  This will be an intensive project for sure.

After several hours of sanding, scraping and fitting I have finished the three major sub-assemblies of the deck gun.  The detail is nice, but there is room for improvement; l'll be doing a bit of super-detailing to add a few things.  The gun required a good bit of work to get it in presentable shape.  You can see on the pictures where a fixed the large sink on the breech side.  I also fabricated a new end for the muzzle, the moulded one was mishapen; and I drilled the barrel deeper while I was at it.  I still need to clean up a couple of shavings and the muzzle will look pretty good.  The rest of the parts were in good condition and construction was fairly straight forward.  Now I'm off to gather some odds and ends for the super-detailing.

Enjoy the pictures,
Ernest

[conus00]

Sorry to here about the troubles. I agree with you that if you spend that amount of money the product should be excellent.
Thanks for pics and keep'em coming.

[Pepper-mint]

... if anybody can correct the issues, I know you will.

I wouldn't have put it better myself ! The pics are showing a great start. keep them coming, it's a refreshing project. Following with great interest.

Stay on target !
Cheers,
Pepper

[rabapla]

I just like to reminde that there are some 60+ images of an original deck gun (deutsches u-boot arciv, cuxhaven) in the gallery.

[Greif]

Danke Ralf, ich hab die bilder runtergeladen.  Die sind sehr hilfreich!

Ernest

I just like to reminde that there are some 60+ images of an original deck gun (deutsches u-boot arciv, cuxhaven) in the gallery.

[Greif]

General construction and some minimal super detailing is complete.  Once it is cleaned up, the gun looks pretty accurate.  I only added a couple of hand holds, levers and a copper line or two, you can see them in the first few pictures.  The next couple show the completed gun.  I have on set the gun in the trunnions as I plan to paint the gun, carriage and base seperately.  I have also finished the figures.  They are extremely well cast, with minimum casting lines and the poses/facial expressions are excellent.  The went togerther quite well also.  As Andrea's bread and butter is figures I was not surprised that the quality was high.

Tomorrow I plan to the gun and figures.  I am waiting on a couple of things to improve the hull and deck so it well be a day or two before I start really working on those.

Ernest

[Gregor]

Nice very nice! I also want to purchase this kit  

how are you going to fill the gap between the arm and body?

[Greif]

Hi Gregor, I filled the gaps with thin superglue.  The filled areas don't show up well on the photos.  Thank you for the compliment.

Ernest

Nice very nice! I also want to purchase this kit  

how are you going to fill the gap between the arm and body?

[TRM]

Very nice progress so far!  Looking forward to seeing the deck improvements.

[conus00]

Great progress, Ernest. I'm still trying to put the kit into scale perspective: would you mind to snap a picture of gun/figures with some common household item (like lighter) or a can of Humbrol/Revell paint?
Thanks!