Hi All,

I've been working on this 1/35th old figure from Warriors of a U-boat commander and felt it would only be right if I placed him in his element, aboard a U-boat. Given his casual dressing and a need to have a 360 degree view of the figure I thought of placing him on the wintergarten of a VIIC.

I need some help on how best to recreate the slat flooring of the wintergarten without using PE if possible. Not sure if there's even PE available at 1/35th. I should be able to manage the railings using styrene rods.

My other question is would I be able to use Tamiya's 20mm flak gun as the base for the single 20mm. flak found in the early VIIC's with minimal modifications to the gun itself. Of course I'll need to scratch the pedestal mount, hydraulics and the shoulder guards. I know Accurate Armor has the sub's AA gun in 1/35th but its a bit costly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ahoy, CK!

Well mate, think you're going to have a bit of a tough time finding exactly what you need in 1/35...Accurate Armor may be your only outlet for these goodies...you may have to rely completely on your scratchbuilding skills (which will undoubtedly produce a better finished product anyhow).

Personally, I would gather as much photo reference that you can on the subject, and jump in feet first and get busy!
Cheers,
~Gunny

Thanks Mark for the speedy reply. Apart from several books I do have a fair bit of pics on the wintergarten. Looks like I'll have to keep my eyes open for something that looks similar to the grating when I check out my usual haunts (hardware stores and household sections of supermarkets) when scrounging for dio materials.

There is a 35th scale Uboat kit made by ANdreas....of course it is somewhere around $2000. But, there was a section of just the conning tower made. I think it runs a couple of hundred. You might be able to check into it and get some photos of built ones to use as a guide to help you.

Hi all...

The Andrea CT section has five figurines (excellent poses btw)
The Accurate Armour has a waterline VII-C, but also sells the armament separetly - which could be a good way of having the gun.
If you want to use a Tamiya model, than use the Flakwierling (four barreled) and you can make a unusual 1/35 U-boot CT. This and some more work would create a nice seting.
You can also make a CT without armament, an early VII-B...
Check Doug Martindale feature article for reference.

Hope this helps (although a "little" late)
Skipper

I assume you know www.uboat.net.

next to that, this forum might have a few bits of reference
http://s181686668.onlinehome.us/phpBB2/viewforum.php5?f=37
this is the forum of www.subcommittee.com, site of builders of R/C subs

hope this helps !

Thanks for the feedback Steve, Rui and Ronald. I actually have a fair bit of references ranging from Andrea's book to U-boat VII Anatomy of a ship to a lot of stuff I downloaded of the net from various u-boat webpages including a RC one too. What would be nice is funds to buy the Andrea or Accurate Armor's tower or even get just the PE for the wintergarten slats.

Nevertheless thanks guys. I've made some progress doing it the hard way. Not sure if this approach will help anyone crazy enough to scratch part or all of a wintergarten but here goes. Its posted in the HF forum where the U-boat commander figure was first posted.
https://hfmodeling.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=forums/107723&page=1#893791

Thanks.

Hi CK

You have managed to solve a problem with some good scratchbuilding - As a surprise, I tend to like more the fact that you only have a partial of the Wintergarten, so, the figurine will still be the highlight of the scene, not the Wintergarten
Liked the small details that you put on the railling too.
You have done an excellent job!

Please keep us posted with your progress!
Congrats,
Skipper

Thanks for the encouragement Rui. I wish my scratchbuilding skills were better and someone actually made punchers with slightly under 1mm. square holes. Then I may have a go at my dream project of reproducing a cut-away conning tower at 1/35 similar to the super expensive but beautiful tower cutaway by Andrea.

As it is with my poor eyesight, 2 gratings was all I could manage so the fact that it ended up this way was by necessity. Old guy, shaky hands and poor eyesight.

I recently did the revell 1:72 U boat ,and for a reference for the flak gun I used a kit of the flakpanzer I by Dragon....it has a perfect replica of the gun they used ...about $50.00....but I think the flackvierling would be fine if you scratch a bit on one side..