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Building the Revell 1:72 VIIC u-boat

Part 4: it's beginning to take shape.....

After a few days with a lot of school, work, Easter, family visits and so on, I could continue on the u-boat again. Next step: the propellers, rudders, dive planes, anchor and the deck. I started on the rudders and propellers. The u-boat has two propellers and two rudders. All parts here have a great fit, not one single problem here. All parts do need to be cleaned up though (very little bit of flash on the parts), so I can't rush through this build. Now the dive planes. The u-boat has dive planes in the front and at the rear of the boat. They are used to change the depth of the u-boat while submerged, like aircraft wings do. Again I didn’t encounter any problems....this is a promising start! Last step in this stage: the deck. The deck consists of 3 parts. The parts go easily together and they fit perfectly in the hull. Again I used masking tape to keep the parts in position while the glue was drying. After the glue had dried I cleaned up whole hull. With the hull is closed and the rudders, dive planes, propellers and anchor assembled, the model really starts to take the shape of a German u-boat. Next step: the tower!

Part 5: periscope up!

A u-boat without a tower looks a bit odd. So, time to get the tower on the hull! The tower consists of a lower section and a top section. All parts here go together well again. The u-boat has two periscopes, one for attack and one normal. Also, an antenna and a 20mm flak gun dress up the tower. The 20mm gun is easily built. Those who like scratchbuilding could replace the barrel, the detail here isn't that good. But don't think this ruins the kit, you won't see it unless you take a real close look. This is also the first step where you really get to see the differences in the versions you can build. The tower I am building, an early version, looks a whole lot different than a late-war version. So, it's not just different decals that make the u-boat another version, you can really see the difference in versions.