Type VIIC Deck Railing Question

[Scorcher2]

Greetings!

Having nearly completed my Revell 1/72 U-552 I am stuck regarding the side rails fore and aft of the Conning Tower.   In all the photos I have seen the two railings are joined by two strands of what could be steel cable or rope.   I would appreciate any advice on what type was used and how to model it.

Thank you

Steve B.

[Greif]

Hi Schorcher, The lines are thin cable if I am not mistaken. 

Ernest

[TRM]

Hi Steve,

I new to the U-boat modeling game and I myself am still getting up to speed on all the details...with that said, the cables in question I believe were attached on while out to sea and off while in port, pretty sure I read this somewhere.  You just have to decide which setting the model is in.  As for making them.  I would say really thin gauge copper, somewhere in the 24 to 26 gauge range, try even 28.  Take three or four strands, put the ends in a variable speed drill on one end and clamp them on the other end in a vice or with vice grips to your work surface.  Try to keep the clamped side slightly separated, about an 1 in. (25.4 mm) apart in this configuration:
                                                           X
                                                     
                                                      X        X
 
                                                           X

Slowly turn the drill on keeping the wire fairly tight.  The wire will begin to wind up and appear in the cable fashion.  You could experiment with the end of a pencil where all the threads of wire come together as you wind.  By sticking the eraser end in to fan out the wire slightly allows the wire to lay more concentric around itself.  Google "Rope-walk".  There are small jigs you can actually make, with scrap plywood and/or pine in about 1/2 hour to an hour and create some nice cable.   Along with coils of rope for the deck and rope for flags.

Note :  Use nothing more than 12" (30.48cm)  The longer you go, the more chances of it breaking. Play around with it,  Don't go too fast.

All said, you may even be able to use "Stranded" wire and just tighten the wire a little so it doesn't become un-stranded when forming it to your desired shapes.

Hope some of this helps.  Good Luck!

Cheers!

[Siara]

TRM- nice one ladd. I actually use this technique to make the tow cables for models in 1/35.
In 1/72 the 2 wire rig will suffice i think.

[Pat]

Yes, as Ernest (Grief) says, the lines would be thin steel cable, thinner than the diameter of a pencil, perhaps 1/8"?. 

One end of the line would be attached with a grommet to the permanent rail, while the other would have a gooseneck, a sort of hook that can be undone quickly but would stay done up without moving a keeper of some sort (there are several different designs).

I've seen some pictures that also have this wire/gooseneck arrangement at the rail openings at the top of the ladders to the wintergarten, although it seems that not all boats had them.  Perhaps just those that were frequntly in rougher northern waters?

The reason for having the wires along the sides of the CT are so that crew can move quickly around the CT, but since the lifelines are flexible unlike the railings, they can be close in to the CT and not have to bluge outwards where they could get bent during raftups with their tender ship.  They could also be quickly removed if large numbers of people needed to be brought on board quickly. 

Putting such lines across the wintergarten openings would be to stop crew from falling through in heavy waves, but still could be opened quickly when needed.

[Scorcher2]

Thank you all for some great information.   I am in the process of attaching the new 2 strand wire I made using the techniques described.