Das Boot

[tcoat]

Need to take a break from cars so lets do a fun little build of this.









Using only the paints that came with the kit


It is 1:16PM on Saturday March 11 and I am cutting the first part off the sprue ... NOW

[Leon]

Nice, always like a nice sub build!

[mustang1989]

I'll be watchin' in on this one. VERY cool subject!!

[tcoat]

OK so it is time for the 4 hours of bench time (not consecutive hours) update.



Lower hull and decks assembled.



There were a couple of small spots where the deck just simply would not meet flush with the hull. Keep in mind that these small gaps are about the width of a hair not the trench it looks like here. Paint would likely fill them but I gave them a swipe with some clear parts cement just to make sure.





Now, let's discuss the elephant in the room!



This kit was designed and the molds built in 2006 (Thanks Scalemates) NOT 1966. They have completely beautiful, crisp, scale details. Just look at that deck above.



So why? Just why, did they feel the need to festoon the hull with massive (scale) rivets and raised panel lines? In scale those rivets are about 4 inches around and protrude about 3. The panel lines are more like 6 wide and 3 high. Not only is this sub going to lose about 10 knots on the surface and be almost immobile submerged it is going to make so much noise while underway that the invention of asdic would never be needed.



If this was not going to be a quick build I would have spent a couple of days sanding all that carefully molded detail off. You just would not see any of this in 1/144






Tower detail is nice. This is where some photoetch may dress it up a bit but not a lot since the molded parts are actually pretty nice overall. That tiny grating and wood bulkhead paneling will pop with a wash.





The rails are of course a tad overscale and need some serious cleanup but thing they will look good once done. Luckily the styrene is easy to work with being neither too hard nor soft. It would be Goldilocks approved.

[buddho]

Excellent breakdown of the kit and its good points and flaws. Good progress as well. Looking forward to the next posting and progress

[Steve Zuleski]

Excellent, Ruck On!

[tcoat]

Build done. Total assembly time 5 hours and 27 minutes. A fair bit of clean up on very tiny parts extended the time a bit. It was sort of odd because only one corner of one sprue has flash. The corner of the mold must not have bee closed completely. It wasn't horrid but did need cleanup.




First coat of kit supplied paint on. This paint brushes really nicely but of course I had to airbrush so took some time to figure out best thinner. It is more like craft paint than normal model acrylics and the only thing that will thin it is water. Just water. Trust me don't use anything but water if you use these!



Looked awful going on but once dry is a really nice flat finish.

[tcoat]

Lower hull and details painted. Those nasty rivets interfered with the masking exactly as It thought they would but that is fine. Technically it is "done" but if anybody thinks I will leave it like this they have surprises coming.

[Leon]

Looking good with paint on!

[mustang1989]

I like how this one is coming along. I meant to comment on this yesterday when I put a "like" in your post above and got busy and didn't come back to it. I've always wanted to build a U boat that was opened up to see the internals but this is pretty dang cool too. Can't wait to see the rest of the painting process Tony!!

[tcoat]

Mar 14, 2023 21:14:55 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

I like how this one is coming along. I meant to comment on this yesterday when I put a "like" in your post above and got busy and didn't come back to it. I've always wanted to build a U boat that was opened up to see the internals but this is pretty dang cool too. Can't wait to see the rest of the painting process Tony!!

Thanks!
I promised to paint it with the kit paints as a challenge and I did exactly that.
It could stay that way and be perfectly satisfactory but ...


I didn't research this a lot so not sure how accurate the colours and pattern are for real Uboats of that period but the kit supplied paint and instructions are bang on to the movie version.





At the start of the movie the paint was very pretty and clean much like the model currently stands.





Not so much when it returns (And anybody that has seen the movie knows it get's much, much worse in about 5 minutes)

[Steve Zuleski]

This does look good! Any water works in the planning for this boat?

[tcoat]

Mar 15, 2023 12:16:18 GMT -5 Steve Zuleski said:

This does look good! Any water works in the planning for this boat?

Nope. Just the nice stand.

[tcoat]

Stages.



Plain paint



to



Future wash



to



black wash to limber holes, guns and hatches only



to



Blotchy Agrax Earthshade wash to overall.

[mustang1989]

Beautiful paint work Tony. I've never heard of the future wash before but it looks like it's all working out rather well for you here. I partially envy you folks that can build this quickly. It takes me over 6 months to finish a dang car model let along something like this. I figure that this would've taken me the better part of 8 months to get through.

[Joe Rix]

Very cool subject Tony. You did this U-Boat justice with what you had. Really nice work.

[tcoat]

DONE!



Out of the box with the exception of antenna wires and insulators.



Total working time 10hours 39 minutes.

[`Boots`]

That is really rather splendid mucker......love it!!!

[mustang1989]

Mar 17, 2023 14:08:36 GMT -5 tcoat said:

DONE!



Out of the box with the exception of antenna wires and insulators.



Total working time 10hours 39 minutes.

You gotta be kiddin' me............under 11 hours dude??!! There aint no way.....no way...I could do this in that time frame.



Excellent work on this U-Boat Tony. I can't get over these results in the time frame that you spent on this. Pure excellence.

[Joe Rix]

Way to cross the finish line. Stunning work.

[tcoat]

Mar 17, 2023 18:42:27 GMT -5 mustang1989 said:

Mar 17, 2023 14:08:36 GMT -5 tcoat said:

DONE!



Out of the box with the exception of antenna wires and insulators.



Total working time 10hours 39 minutes.

You gotta be kiddin' me............under 11 hours dude??!! There aint no way.....no way...I could do this in that time frame.



Excellent work on this U-Boat Tony. I can't get over these results in the time frame that you spent on this. Pure excellence.

LOL Thanks! Now  link

[ogrejohn]

That looks great!

[tcoat]

In another forum it was mentioned that weathering in this scale can be tricky. I figured my response might have some value here.

I have a sort of rule of thumb for weathering any subject. I take the scale and reduce it around 10% and consider that the distance I am viewing the subject from in feet. So the 1/144 foot uboat in this case would be weathered as if I was looking at it from 130 feet away. This gives a better effect when looking at a model as things are more in scale. For this example I used no actual rust tones since at that distance you simply would not see the actual colours it would just be botches that are different than the surrounding paint. If this was a 1/72 boat it would be a 60 foot viewing distance and you would actually see individual rust colors but they would still be blended and not stark against the rest of the paint. If this was a 1/24 scale boat (it would be huge of course) then you would see each steak of rust, chips, scrapes, etc since the "view" would be from only 20 feet away.

Does this make any sense at all?

[Whiterook]

Great sub build! I’m afraid the distance thing went waaaaaaaay over my head   …but I kinda get t(e overall premise…I think. Regardless, the weathering is superb! I’ve wanted to do a sub for a long time, but it’s that weathering rustiness that stops me in my tracks from trying; I just don’t get the process to achieve that look. Not ruling it out… I’m just not in that skill set yet.

It’s the detail on a sub that hooks me every time! What an amazing craft! As impressive as the modern day nuclear subs are, the subs from WWII are just so dang cool, in their almost ancient look!

[Steve Zuleski]

Final looks great!

[reserve]

Well done sir

A few years back I did the Revell 1/72 Gato class; it was a horror story of bad molding and warped parts. If I recall correctly there are a few sheet metal screws in the build to hold it to shape

[tcoat]

Apr 8, 2023 20:59:53 GMT -5 Whiterook said:

Great sub build! I’m afraid the distance thing went waaaaaaaay over my head   …but I kinda get t(e overall premise…I think. Regardless, the weathering is superb! I’ve wanted to do a sub for a long time, but it’s that weathering rustiness that stops me in my tracks from trying; I just don’t get the process to achieve that look. Not ruling it out… I’m just not in that skill set yet.

It’s the detail on a sub that hooks me every time! What an amazing craft! As impressive as the modern day nuclear subs are, the subs from WWII are just so dang cool, in their almost ancient look!

The weathering and rust thing is a matter f scale to me. When looking at a model your eye should see what it would in real life from the distance away that the model scale represents. Not so significant in 1/48 and larger as you would be viewing the subject from 40 feet or closer and of course everything is larger to start with so the finer details such as rust and wear are obvious. 
Once you get into scales of 1/1XX and smaller the distance of the view is far greater and details start to blend together. Find a nice rusty car to look at. In 1/24 scale you would be viewing it from around 20 feet so you can clearly see all the rust, emblems, and small details such as key holes in the door. Now say that you want that very same car in 1/100 scale. Walk around 90 feet and look back at the car. Do you still see distinct rust colors, emblems, key holes? Nope, the rust colors just become vague patches of discoloration, emblems a shiny but shapeless blob and key holes almost invisible. That is the effect I go after.
In the case of operational subs (even during WW2) you would of course get rusty spots and streaks. The problem with do these on a 1/144 model is that to do them in rust colours while keeping in scale means you have to be very careful that you don't have what would be 12 foot wide and 20 foot long glaring contrast rust streaks. Better to just make it seem like there is something there and let the brain fill in what it is. If this was a 1/72 boat them most certainly you will see individual streaks and different rust tones so the weathering can be more specific.

I have another 1/144 Revell Uboat VII C that has been sitting built with no paint for a couple of years that I will do up and finish with actual rust tones so you can see the difference.

[`Boots`]

It maybe over scaled detail wise but it don`t take nothing away from the excellent job you`ve done fella.....the weathering is really nicely done IMHO!, i get ya with the distance thing.......i`m a heavy weatherer for my sins and work mostly 1/35th and 1/24th so getting it right isn`t to much of a prob......if i try 1/72 i do find myself re-doing a lot due to over weathering it for the scale, the Ford Falcon was a perfect size and candidate to let rip on

[tcoat]

Apr 9, 2023 14:28:39 GMT -5 `Boots` said:

It maybe over scaled detail wise but it don`t take nothing away from the excellent job you`ve done fella.....the weathering is really nicely done IMHO!, i get ya with the distance thing.......i`m a heavy weatherer for my sins and work mostly 1/35th and 1/24th so getting it right isn`t to much of a prob......if i try 1/72 i do find myself re-doing a lot due to over weathering it for the scale, the Ford Falcon was a perfect size and candidate to let rip on

Yep there is a time for distinct rust and heavy weathering and 1/24 is it. Using my scale =  distance factor you would be looking at the car from about 20 feet away. You see all at that distance.

Much like my poor little Datsun pickup!



modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/thread/13908/1975-datsun-pickup-mpc

[`Boots`]

Now thats a crackin` pick up matey....love it!!!