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Building the Revell 1:72 VIIC u-boat

Part 9: Wash trouble…

To make sure the decals would not get shiny, I first sprayed a gloss coat on the VIIC. I used Tamiya X-22 for this. After that, decals were applied with Micro Sol. I sprayed another gloss coat on the model and started weathering. The weathering I did was a number of washes on the whole u-boat. I used burnt sierra oil paint for this, mixed with white spirit. Also, while the wash was drying, I painted some rust marks with model masters rust on the u-boat (so before the wash had dried). I did this because the paint mixes with the not yet dried white spirit, with as result nice rust marks which are blended a bit with the u-boat colours. But I encountered some trouble with the washes: “circles”. Everyone who uses washes sure know what I’m talking about and on a large surface like the VIIC this problem comes very easily, so watch out if you’re going to “wash” you u-boat as well! You can remove “circles” by adding a bit of clean white spirit/turpentine on the “circle”. I finished the u-boat by spraying another gloss coat on the model. The model looked very “dead” after the washes were applied…..matt is not a good colour for an u-boat which is usually wet and glossy, so that’s why I decided to give my u-boat this gloss coat. I really like how it came out….but I think this last step is a real matter of taste!

Part 10: finish / conclusion...

I think it's already clear what my opinion on this kit is. € 60 euros is not very cheap, but you get yourself a huge and nicely detailed VIIC u-boat for that money, and above all, a lot of fun during the build! Recommended to all model builders who like the WW2 subject or just want to do something else, and highly recommended to those who just love warships. This one has to be in your collection!

Part 11: interesting aftermarket parts

I'd like to end this article with some interesting aftermarket parts you can get for this kit. I built it OOTB, because I thought the u-boat itself as already expensive enough, but for those who like detail, try these kits:
•Andrea WW II German U-Boat Crew (ANS12S01) - around € 18

•Andrea WWII U-Boat Deck Gun Crew (ANS12S02) - around € 18

•CMK U-Boot VII C Resin Command Section (CMK72001) - around € 60

Also, our fellow Armorama member Warvos was very kind to me by sending the Revell 1:72 u-boat crew set. I haven’t put these figures on my u-boat yet but they do look pretty good and are much cheaper than the resin kits…

Well that's it. I hope you liked reading my article, and of course watching my u-boat! I’d also like to thank some people who helped me during this built….
Steve (95bravo), Rui (skipper), Björn (warvos), Darryl (11Charlie) and not to forget Garry (garrybeebe), who, after all talked me into building this kit. I hope he can see what I made out of it! Martin Noorloos