Bill Nichols
04-20-08, 02:03 PM
Having watched with awe the amazing job Siara is doing with his 1/72 scale Type VIIC U-boat from Revell, I decided to build one of my own. Unfortunately, I can't afford the room needed for the big boat, so I'm going to build the more manageable 1/144 kit instead.
Here are the pieces as they come out of the box:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/175/uboat20apr081jm1.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr081jm1.jpg)
I'm always impatient to get an idea of what my projects will look like when finished. Below you see the two hull halves clamped together. The deck is a prototype wooden, laser-cut item produced by Nautilus Models and gratiously provided to me by Siara. In the background you can see another of my unfinished projects, Heller's 1/100 scale HMS Victory.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5821/uboat20apr082hj9.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr082hj9.jpg)
One of the first things I noticed is that the free-flood holes need to be opened up. The plastic is quite thin behind the holes, as this somewhat blurry photo taken with a strong backlight shows.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7237/uboat20apr083au4.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr083au4.jpg)
Instead of drilling out the holes, I experimented with grinding out the holes from behind. Here's what it looks like:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6420/uboat20apr084mf9.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr084mf9.jpg)
I'm quite happy with how my experiment turned out:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3871/uboat20apr085xx8.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr085xx8.jpg)
You can also see in the above pic some of the surface detailing (rivets, weld lines) in the kit. It's well out-of-scale and I'm going to have to do something about it before I'm done.
More to follow...
Here are the pieces as they come out of the box:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/175/uboat20apr081jm1.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr081jm1.jpg)
I'm always impatient to get an idea of what my projects will look like when finished. Below you see the two hull halves clamped together. The deck is a prototype wooden, laser-cut item produced by Nautilus Models and gratiously provided to me by Siara. In the background you can see another of my unfinished projects, Heller's 1/100 scale HMS Victory.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5821/uboat20apr082hj9.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr082hj9.jpg)
One of the first things I noticed is that the free-flood holes need to be opened up. The plastic is quite thin behind the holes, as this somewhat blurry photo taken with a strong backlight shows.
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7237/uboat20apr083au4.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr083au4.jpg)
Instead of drilling out the holes, I experimented with grinding out the holes from behind. Here's what it looks like:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/6420/uboat20apr084mf9.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr084mf9.jpg)
I'm quite happy with how my experiment turned out:
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/3871/uboat20apr085xx8.th.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uboat20apr085xx8.jpg)
You can also see in the above pic some of the surface detailing (rivets, weld lines) in the kit. It's well out-of-scale and I'm going to have to do something about it before I'm done.
More to follow...