U-552 - doing it my way.

[Rokket]

Mighty impressive bollards, never thought of brass. I must say, you have great imagination and skills, not the least of which is your soldering ability. When you start building mini roots to crew the boat, I WILL get nervous though!

[Siara]

Thanks Rokket.





TBC...

[Siara]

Modelbrass set has only 2 plates with holes pointing in different directions. The other 4 are wrong.
I have scratch build new set of plates for stern bollards.





TBC...

[Siara]

The most forward set of bollards:


One more at the stern, and i can start heeling my fingers.

[Rokket]

blod and skin - small price for the excellent work!

[Siara]

No blood yet, but will be sore in the morning.

Last set of bollards. Slightly complicated, because there was no plate under them- the deck is steel here enyway. Unfortunately the Eduard PE depicting the deck, had set of bollards already etched in- so it needed to be sanded carefully, not to damage the delicate antislip surface.
But it worked.


All the bollards have been completed today. Looks like Christmas work good for modelling.

[Siara]

Cooks hatch:














TBC...

[Siara]

TBC...

[dougie47]

Hi Siar,

Before I forget, you might want to research the breakwaters. When I designed photo-etch breakwaters (with help from Wink) for my intended 35th scale waterline U 47, I had to add small holes near the edge. These small holes allowed water to drain through. U 47's breakwaters also had a small lip along the edge. Here's a photo of U 47 -



There are really small details so they are difficult to see in photos. I'm not sure if the breakwaters on U 552 were identical to U 47. U 47's breakwaters were fitted in 1939, U 552 breakwaters were fitted later.

Keep up the excellent work you are doing.

Cheers,

Dougie

[Siara]

Thanks Dougie.
Nice picture! I know about the lip- in fact it runns all along the edge of the deck, but theres no  chance i can replicate it. As to the holes on the breakwaters i may be able to do something about it.

Cheerio.

[Rokket]

The hatch - for me, it's those types of "sub assemblies" (no pun intended, but puns are great) that are really fun and exciting. Yours looks very real and miniature.

The Lip - I know, if this were 1:48, I think do-able, but I could find no solid solution that wouldn't look stupid or cause problems. I wonder how many people tripp/slipped on the real one?

[Siara]

While studying the picture above, and the one you shown earlier Dougie i discovered few areas that need clarification.

Number 1 showing the half circular steel decking plate. Some U-Boots had it, some not. If im not mistaken this is correct for early U-552.


Number 2 pointing to some hatches on the side of the boat. This can be some repaired areas- im not sure.
Number 3 showing clearly the openings in the starboard side of the skirting. This opening is not visible on the port side of any boat, and only few had it on starboard side. What is it, and is there clearer picture of the thing?

Picture below is displaying the wooden strip on the side of the deck, just in front of starboard bollards. Im not sure what it was used for, but nearly all the bats had it. I think it was only mounted on starboard side aswell. Am i correct Dougie?


Thanks for your help in advance, and sorry to bother you so much, but i like to research this build in greater detail.

Siara

[Siara]

I just went through my stash of pictures again, and found interesting foto:

It shows the semi circular plate, and the plank of wood fixed to the port side of the deck.

[dougie47]

Hi Siara,

Some of your questions are more tricky than others but I'll try to help.

1 - the semi circular part was an air identification plate. Type IXs and IIs had it also, which is why we are including this piece in our Type II set. It is seen sporadically on U-boat decks. But since U 552 had it in your photo you should definitely add one.

2 - There were some panels on the side of the hull. I can't see any hinges for them but that might be because they would be so small. You can see the location and size of the panels on U 47's hull on my side profile -

http://amp.rokket.biz/waterlinebig.shtml

3 - I can't make out what this is. Normally I would say it was equipment associated with mooring the boat - when boats came in and out of port there was various parts strewn over the deck. But the openings do look rectangular in shape.

4 - The wooden strip was on both sides - port and starboard - so they need to be added.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Dougie

[Siara]

Thank you Dougie! Perfect answer- as always.