In another thread I mentioned that I had built a uboot on commission this past spring/summer. I rarely build models between late March-early October as I prefer to spend my time either road cycling or in the alps climbing various Via Ferrata routes. However, the boss of a friend had one of the RoG 1/72 uboot kits and really wanted it built so he could display it in his office. After some discussion I agreed to build the kit for him, working on it from mid-May to early August. He wanted the uboot to be lightly weathered and to have a somewhat different paint scheme, the rest was my call on what uboot and the time frame it would represent. I had already planned to build an "artic" uboot and settled on U255. It fit the person who commissioned the build's criteria and it was an interesting subject. I used some aftermarket kit left overs to do some super-detailing, opened the free flooding vents added a figure set and made a base for the model. I did not go all out in the accuracy department because the fellow was not concerned with having a super accurate representation and chose not to buy the aftermarket kits needed to do such a project. He was very pleased with the end result, but was amazed it took nearly 10 weeks to build the kit. Just goes to show you how little non-modellers know about the amount of work it takes to build a quality kit, and this was not even a museum quality build. The photos were made in the gentlemen's office and are unretouched, so they are not perfect.
A little about the uboot and display. U255 was commissioned on 29 November 1941 and conducted 15 war patrols being credited with sinking 11 ships and damaging 1 ship as a total loss for a total of 56031 GRT. Somewhat surprisingly it survived the war being one of the uboots sunk as part of Operation Deadlight after the war. The display shows the uboot returning to Narvik on 15 July 1942 under the command of Kptlt Reche, after its second - and most successful - war patrol. The four pennants represent four ships sunk from the ill-fated convoy PQ17. U255 sank the SS John Witherspoon, SS Alcoa Ranger and the Olapana outright and finished off the SS Paulus Potter, which had been damaged by the Luftwaffe. The patrol lasted a total of 23 days and I thought that would fit will with the light weathering. The paint scheme is a bit different and pleasing to the eye without being complex. Well that is a short capsule summary of the uboot and the build - enjoy the photos.
Ernest
