Are the periscopes on the new Revell kit wrong?

[bill_c]

Working on a review for Model Shipwrights (part of the Kitmaker Network where I have been an editor, etc. for many years), and I'm concerned the RoG U-67/U-154 is inaccurate: to wit, the C model of the Type IX reduced the number of periscopes from 3 to 2, but the kit has three. Is this wrong?

[dougie47]

Hello Bill,

Sorry I did not respond to your post last year. You are correct about the third periscope not being present on IXCs and I can see you went with this in your review -
https://modelshipwrights.kitmaker.net/review/15195/index.htm

Revell erroneously added a third periscope where the periscopic rod aerial was on IXCs. There was never a periscope in this position on the port side of the tower bulwark on any IX variant.

Websites state that the third periscope was deleted in the IXCs, meaning that it was supposedly present on IXAs and IXBs. This leads to the question of where this third periscope was on IXAs and IXBs.

I can see that on the IXA U 38 there was a periscope housing (a vertical tube with a lid on it) on the centreline near to the front of the tower (in a very similar position to where the forward periscope was on VIIs). When they added the windscreen baseplate to the front of IXAs there was a round hole (with a removable periscope lid) so that the third periscope could be raised through this baseplate. The problem is that there was no removable lid on the windscreen baseplates of IXBs. Clearly there could be no periscope there or it wouldn't get through the baseplate. Nor can I see a periscope housing near the front of the tower on IXBs before the windscreen baseplate was added.

For these reasons I am now thinking that ONLY the IXAs (more properly referred to as original IXs) had the third periscope. Contrary to information on websites I don't think IXBs had the third periscope.

Can anyone provide any information to support or disprove this theory? Any photos of this third periscope on any IX variant would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Dougie

[falo]

Hello Dougie, hello Bill,

does the illustration help you a little?

https://dukmodell.com/images/product_images/popup_images/11449_0.jpg

Possibly you can download somewhere a construction manual of the model kit and see more details there?

Many greetings
falo

[dougie47]

Hi Falo,

Thank you, this is very helpful. I couldn't quite see it on this image so had a look at Flagman IXA / IXB and IXC images online and this gave me the clue I needed.

Looking again at the early Revell kit (and Flagman IXC) it does not have a third periscope on the port bulwark. I now realise that Revell have tried to add a periscopic rod aerial in this position, with their version having a wide shaft above which tapers to a point. In all the photos of IXCs and VIICs it does not look like this. The rod aerial when extended does not show any wide shaft below it. What could have confused Revell (and Flagman) is that rod aerial comes out of a large round hole around about the same size as the persicope shafts. It is also sometimes referred to as a periscopic rod aerial suggesting there was a wide shaft similar to the shafts on the two periscopes. It might be better to call it an extendable rod aerial.

On page 55 of U-Boot im Focus 15 there is a good image looking down into the tube with the rod aerial sticking out. It does not look like a wide shaft can be extended beyond the top of the bulwark.

Revell's rod aerial (part 133) is also far too wide at the tip but this will be to do with the limitations of injection moulded plastic.

So, to conclude...with the exception of being much too wide at the top, Revell's part 133 would be okay as long as we only extend it a little bit out of the bulwark and keep the wide shaft bit hidden beneath.

Cheers,

Dougie

[dougie47]

Hello all,

I have been studying early VIIBs and IXCs recently and noticed a detail in a photo which is relevant to the Revell periscopes issue. Here is the photo (from Luc Braeuer's second U-Boote! Lorient book from July 41 to July 42) -


Normally the pennant flags are flown from the attack periscope (at rear) but now and again from the sky periscope (at front). Here they are flown from neither periscope. On this image of U 155 the pennants are being flown from the port side of the tower. It is not from the commissioning flagpole as that can be seen starting from the commander's left hand. It would appear the pennants are attached to the top of the extendable rod aerial as there is nothing else in this area it could be.

I would like to correct my previous post. It would appear that there is a wide shaft below the extended rod aerial though it is very rare to see boats like this. Therefore Revell's kit is actually correct in this area after all. As mentioned previously it is too wide at the tip but this is to do with the limitations of injection moulded plastic which Revell.

I have also been hunting for photos of the third periscope on IXBs and found a photo of the IXB U 124 in 1940 with the third periscope in place. As things stand I think that some IXBs (perhaps even all) were built with the third periscope at the front of the tower but they were removed in 1940 or so.

Cheers,

Dougie