Andrea Deck Gun

[Greif]

Thanks for the encouragement TRM, hopefully the stuff I ordered to make the improvements arrives tomorrow. 

Conus, ask and yea shall receive!  The attached picture should do the trick.

Ernest

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!

[Rokket]

looks great, nice to see some gun action!

Battle Stations Surface!

[Greif]

Thanks Wink!  I got the rivets today and got to work improving the kit ones.  I measured the distance between rivets, looked at a number of references and made a sketch to ensure when I sanded the kit ones away I would be able to replace them correctly.  I minute or two of sanding was all it took; I then marked the locations of each rivet and used a needle to make a starter hole.  I then drilled out the holes with the pin vise using a .35mm bit.  After that I placed each rivet in a hole after dipping the end in super glue.  I think the results speak for themselves.

The upper photo shows the kit rivets and the lower photo shows the aftermarket ones.

Ernest

[Rokket]

reelly very clean and nice, wonderful stuff. can you explain in more detail in the TIPS section?

[Greif]

Wink, I will do a short write in the tips section this week.  

I have finished general construction and primed the sub-assemblies.  For those of you considering buying this kit to build be forewarned that it will not fall together.  Rather treat it as a type of short production kit and be ready for the challenges that those types of kits generally have.  The kit will build into a nice and accurate representation of a Type VII Uboot deck gun, but you will have to work to get it to a high level.  The first picture shows one of the issues I ran into.  The holes in the deck for the deck railing are improperly drilled; I had to fill and redrill the third hole from the stern to ensure the railings fit properly.  The second shot shows most of the starboard side's new rivets that I installed.  The final picture shows off the excellent detail of one of the figures, which really came out when I primed the piece.

Ernest

[Pat]

Looking good Ernest.

I especially like the deck officer with the beard deatail.

One thing makes me wonder though.  On the pics with new rivets on the casing, there seems to be one row of rivets that's interrupted by a flooding hole.  that doesn't make sense as the rivets of necessity have to have a rib or other frame for them to go into, but said frame would be visible and probably block the hole and make it useless.

The rivets are in the correct location, since you can see the rib showing underneath in the long horizontal gap between the casing and the saddletank, so I think the flooding hole must be in the wrong spot.

[Greif]

Hi Pat, you are undoubtly correct concerning the flood hole being improperly placed.  To tell the truth, at this point I have put so much energy into correcting the many faults, which range from fit to improper moulding with nearly everything in between, with this kit that I am going to live with the error.  I was focused on getting the rivets placed correctly; this was the first time I have done a rivet job like this, and I failed to notice the fault you pointed out, good catch! 

I have to admit that I am disappointed in the quality of the kit, given what I paid for it - I could have bought TWO Revell uboot kits for what I paid for this one.  Oh well, live and learn.   

Ernest

Looking good Ernest.

I especially like the deck officer with the beard deatail.

One thing makes me wonder though.  On the pics with new rivets on the casing, there seems to be one row of rivets that's interrupted by a flooding hole.  that doesn't make sense as the rivets of necessity have to have a rib or other frame for them to go into, but said frame would be visible and probably block the hole and make it useless.

The rivets are in the correct location, since you can see the rib showing underneath in the long horizontal gap between the casing and the saddletank, so I think the flooding hole must be in the wrong spot.

[Helmut]

Ernest:

Great job with this kit!!! looks great!!! one cuestion, the rivets are made for you or are from some brand...? and if they are from some brand, where I can buy on the web??? I told you this because I bilding the same kit from Andrea.

Many Thanks!!!

[Greif]

Hi Helmut, thank you for the kind words.  The rivets are made by the firm Calibre 35, I used the 7mm sized rivets and I rodered them from an online store in Germany called Modellbau Koenig.  I am sure there is an online store in either Mexico or the USA that sells them.  Good luck with your build.  One certainly gets to work on alot of different techniques with this kit, that is for sure.

Cheers,
Ernest

Ernest:

Great job with this kit!!! looks great!!! one cuestion, the rivets are made for you or are from some brand...? and if they are from some brand, where I can buy on the web??? I told you this because I bilding the same kit from Andrea.

Many Thanks!!!

[Greif]

I have finished the base painting of the hull and deck and also got some painting done on the gun.  I am going to give the uboot and gun a medium worn look, or at least try to.  I sprayed the deck with a mix of Tamiya NATO black and Red Brown at about a 65/35 ratio.  I then lightly airbrushed a few areas with a lighter brown and finished by "dusting" a coat of the first deck color onto the brown areas to blend everything.  

Next I sprayed the hull sides DKM 50.  I then sprayed a portion of the hull sides with Schlickgrau 58 to give a bit of contrast to the overall scheme.  The saddletanks were sprayed Schiffsbodenfarbe III.  The slit, which as you all know, should be open was sprayed black originally, but the contrast was very strong and not at all pleasing.  So, I resprayed it DKM 52 which looks much nicer to the eye.  By the way, I wanted to open up the slits, but I could not figure out a way to do so and still have a stable base for the gun, which is fairly hefty.

Finally, the gun was sprayed DKM 50 and the dark area on top was sprayed a dark grey.  

Ernest

[conus00]

Looks very good, Ernest.

[FoxbaT]

Very nice 






Karel

[Pepper-mint]

I love this unconventional subject ! Enjoying a lot
Greif i'm just wondering how is the deck looking from under... Would you take a pic for me please ?

There should be a law against models smaller than 1/32    (don't kill me guys it's a joke...i think...).

cheers Mate,
Pepper.

[Pat]

Ernest, not sure if it's too late now or if you really do want to open up the slits in the side of the casing, but I've done similar projects before and found them to be quite solid.

Since you already have the location of the ribs marked by the rivets, you could just cut out the area where the slits are.

Then I'd use an appropriate metal 'rod' and drill or glue it in place between the saddletank and the upper casing at each row of rivets.  You should be able to find small brass angles or T's to fit.  Although it looks like the edge of a plate, the rivets actually have to go into a flat spot so those ribs have to be either 'L' or 'T' shaped to give a landing for the rivets and the casing and still have a projection inside to give strength to holding the casing in place.

Using several brass or aluminum 'ribs' on each side of the model should be strong enough, especially if they're well drilled and sunk into the saddletank.

Of course, then you might also want to drill out the flooding spaces in the deck too, and complete a section of pressure hull underneath since it would be VERY visible with this method and would make it much easier to show and explain how real U-boats were built.

[Rokket]

really looks nice, wonderful stuff and rivets