Hi guys,
I thought I would share with you the process of building the Type XXI u-boat. I am aware that Revell's kit is far from being an accurate representation of WW2 Type XXI but I believe that with a little bit of skills and some scratchbuilding I can get as close as possible.
There is no photo-etched set for this kit on the market so I decided to use some parts from Eduard's Type VIID. I also got machined periscopes from Schatton Modelbau.

Now the build.
I have decided to build U-2536 based on this photo:


This is the only picture of real U-2536 I have so with the rest of the build I intend to follow "general" pictures of Type XXI.
Based on this picture I have created a mock-up so I believe that the boat looked something like this:


The Revell kit completely lacks any interior in the conning tower so I decided to scratchbuild it. Along with UZO stand and access hatch.
I also created alcoves for the radar and the schnorchel which on the original model were too shallow and looked very unrealistic:












After I put everything together I decided to fix the front of the conning tower toward the front flak. This is probably the biggest mistake Revell made making this kit because the model is based on U-2540 (aka Wilhelm Bauer) and W.B. had both flaks removed and replaced with windowed bridge. When W.B. was restored back to become U-2540 again, the builders, during the restoration, just simply cut away the bridge and placed the flak guns back on without bothering to restore the tower back to original. There is also another very visible mistake: the rim at the front of the tower is being to "squarish" instead of being rounded. While making all those changes I also decided to "sink" the positioning lights into the tower and shave off the ugly rungs:






After I took all those pictures I realized that the side lookout doors and the trim on the front one are way too thick and look unrealistic so I shaved them off and also decided that the railing running around the tower had too go too:




Now comes the best part of the build (detailing and scratchbuilding):




Here is the list of modifications and detailing to the conning tower I've made so far:

1 rounded nose of the tower
2 aerial hook and whatever that hole is (?)
3 replaced barrels and created supressors
4 hinges
5 interior with UZO stand, access hatch, RDF loop opening
6 sky periscope assembly, thin lookout doors with hinges
7 radar and scnorchel alcoves, KM flag and the commissioning pennant holes
8 elongated conning tower fin
9 door hinges
10 ladder rungs
11 recessed positioning lights
12 proper tower transition
13 railing

TBC...

A most excellent job of bashing the sail on this one Libor.

I have seen the kit in the LHS and was thinking about adding it to the stash.. After looking at the work you are doing with it I may have to go back and snag one up just on general principles.

First update guys. Didn't have much time during Christmas to work on my modeling projects but I have managed to put a first coat on the sail. I opted for filling the flooding/draining holes with flat black to simulate "openings". I believe that after detailed touch-ups the result will be satisfactory.

Note: this is just a first coat so all the imperfections will be (hopefully) fixed by the second coat...

Wow,
Do I have alot of catching up from the Holidays....NICE work, Libor, and a great beginning to a detailed Build Log, my friend!

I've taken the liberty to tag this post as a "BLOG" (Build Log) so you can find it easier in the post jumble, by looking for the "little yellow gear" icon in front of the forum post, and it also appears on our front page under the active "BLOG" section for easier reference as well...these posts are fantastic learning tools for all modelers (and most become future Features for MSW as well! )...looking forward to following along the build!

Cheers,
~Gunny

That's a wonderful job Libor.

Kenny

Hi Libor!

I see that you take the deep plunge and attack the Typ-XXI in a very accurate and interesting way!
I am looking forward to see more progress on this project... Keep up and keep us posted


Rui

NOTE: I have removed the WIP from the title, since Mark as made this into a Build Blog

Splendid work so far - its a very attractive boat, too bad you cant get it in 1.72

Cheers/Jan

Guys, thanks for your kind replies. I found them very encouraging. I will get back to working on the model as soon as I have some more time. My new year started really sad: my girlfriend's Dad passed away on the January 3rd and we have been trying to take care of it ever since. Us living in Ohio and him in Louisiana just complicates things a lot.

Hi guys,
finally got back to working on the boat. After a careful consideration I decided to replace the 20mm twin flaks with smaller diameter wire. I think that the result is much more satisfactory. Also I have decided to scratch build RDF loop and the radar array because I didn't like the original ones: they were too bulky and unproportionate.
Here is the comparison to the originals:


I also decided to make some serious changes to the snort, because the original from the kit is not very accurate. I based the new one on this picture:


You can decide how close I got to the original:


I have glued all the pieces of the conning tower together, installed the Schatton's machined periscopes and the whole sail was painted second coat and weathered. I am gonna set it aside for now because I consider it done and start working on the hull (drilling holes).
Here are some pictures of the conning tower (BTW the flash and the proximity of the camera make the colors too sharp and the rust too flat. I real life the sail looks much MUCH better):

Quick update (this time without pictures): Started drilling out holes in the hull. I have decided to cut out just the rows of the "big ones" on the sides and (again) fill the smaller ones with flat black to simulate openings. I kinda like the way turm turned out.

Also I would like to ask for help here: Does anyone have a close-up of the main drain holes in the hull? I have gone through my whole archive of XXI pics (electronic and books) and this is the only picture I have found:


It seems to me that they were split in a halves with a small splitter inside? Also I need to find out if there were any sort of "ribs" between each one of them.
Any help here would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

Ok, guys.
Small update. I have finished drilling and opening the draining holes in both halves of the hull. I can't seem to find reference pictures for the "insides" of the holes so this is probably the road I will take: I have created a 3D mock-up and I will try to go with this following idea:


I'm still waiting for one more person to get back to me with some additional pictures so I will wait a little bit longer...

What do you guys think?

Nice to see that its still "alive", I can´t contribute further to Your search, heving been trough my meager referances on the XXI - but how much will be visible in that scale ?

Cheers/Jan

Jan,
the holes are fairly large with surprisingly big amount of interior showing, that's why I'm making such a big fuss about it.
I have already spent a lot of time cutting them out and I would like to get as accurate as possible.

Great work and great detailing... this thread is like a "Walk Around" series Thanks for sharing, cheers,

Ok, here we go...
I apologize for not keeping this thread up-to-date but I'm going through some personal problems right now which do not leave too much time for modelling.
Enough said, I have gotten back to working on my build of U-2536 recently so here's a small update:
All the flood holes are dremelled out, I have decided (due the lack of the references) to put the splitters in draining holes #2, 4 and 5. Time to paint the holes and weather them....




Next step is to build torpedo tube(s)...

Here's another small update.
Torpedo tube finished (I decided to open just one and keep the others closed).


Build the linkage of the bow diving planes. Decided to get rid of the "toyish" Revell option and glued them in fully-open.


The same part painted (Please note that, yet again, the camera makes the "rust" look too flat and outlined. In real it is actually very subtle and looks like a real rust.)


Getting close to gluing both halves of hull together (as soon as all dries and I figure out how to mount the boat on the pedestal).
Later.

Nice work - I think I´m going to follow your lead on the diveplanes on my version.

Cheers/jan

Jan, let me show you couple pictures which might help you (you might already have them in your database):
This is the only picture I had before I built the planes' linkage:


Recently, and unfortunately after I already built it I found much better:


Both pictures are U-2518.

Obviously (according to the second picture) I didn't do very detailed job. I will test fit the planes' assembly into the hull and see, how much of it is actually visible and maybe rebuild it
Cheers.

Thanks, the last picture is in the Vom original zum model book, and is splendid - I have been considering doing the planes retracted - but lets see what time brings.

Cheers/Jan

Allright, I have both hulls glued together, figured how to mount the model on the custom stand and have been doing some more research on painting the boat. Unfortunately here I ran into a small glitch: I may have made a mistake while creating the mock-up of the paint scheme.
I would really appreciate your take on this.
Looking very closely on the original picture (in the starting post of this thread) I have found out that some of the lines are way too straight to be just wear on the paint (highlighted in yellow here):


Doing further research I have found out that there was actually a color scheme including a combination of yellow and black stripes on the school boats. Here is Revell's paint scheme of U-2514

and picture of the real U-2514:


So I figured that the revised mock-up should look more likely like this:


Another two facts supporting this theory are that the little symbol next to number 2536 is Frontreif badge (painted on the school boats when they were ready to leave the school for combat) and U-2536 never went on a single patrol. It was part of the 31. Flottille (training) under the command of Oblt. Ulrich Vöge between Feb 6th 1945 - May 3rd 1945.

Kinda sucks to find right now because I picked the U-2536 for the reason that it did not have yellow training stripes (at least according to Revell's instructions) but I have spent way too much time on this kit already to make factual historical mistake

I would like to hear your thoughts on this, fellas.
THX!

Just a quick update to let you know, that this thread is still alive. This time without pictures, though.
Everything is glued together and after tons of putty and countless hours of sanding (yeah, the two-piece deck and the rest of the hull aren't exactly perfect fit) I am painting and weathering....

Every detail is already on the boat, it is only missing the propellers. Which brings a question: The Revell's instructions call for brass color but I have read somewhere that towards the end of the war the Germans were running out of precious metals and brass and copper were getting really scarce. According to what I read the Germans started to use iron for the propellers. Can somebody confirm this?

Also, a very nice touch: I was able to find Frontreif emblem small enough to perfectly fit 1/144th scale (from one of the Flagman's 1/350th u-boats). Big thanks go to Peter Trukhin (Director of Flagman Ltd) who was kind enough to send me two decal sheets in the mail free of charge.

Thanks a lot, Peter!!!

Stay tuned for the next update (maybe the final one) this time with pictures.

-L

The boat is weathered and IMO looks really good. The last three things left to do are rigging the aerial antennas (still not decided if I'm gonna go with safety railing, too) painting, weathering and installing the propellers and, of course , taking pictures for you guys.....

I am also really pissed off, because after I put on both Frontreif emblems (which were REALLY hard to obtain) on, for some weird reason one of them didn't stick and (to use Ron White's saying) "fell the f**k off" and got lost before I could put last clear coat on the sail.
We are talking about decal approximately 1.5 x 1.5 mm and I have spent about an hour looking for it....
Hopefully I would be able to obtain another one......

Model is pretty much finished, just waiting for the decal, last clearcoat and a sunny day outside so I can snap some pictures without flash.
Just to give you a lil' teaser, here is a couple of pictures but I really don't like how the flash is making the 'rust' looking too sharp and outlined...
It is much more subtle and realistic looking on the model itself...




There are two last things to take care of:
Find some bevelled pine board (approx 4x16 inches), stain it mahagony and find somebody to engrave a polished brass plate with the description.
So far I have failed on both counts....
Does anyone (living in the US) have a source for those? I would really appreciate your help!

Great build, great references, great documentation... just a great thread! Very inspiring.... bookmarking this one for sure..cheers

PS As for the brass plates, maybe try a trophy/awards shop? I also recall (??) seeing an ad in the Buy/Sell section..let me check... i cant find it sorry cant be of more help!

Thanks for the praise!
I am still waiting for the decal and still looking for wooden base.
I have been playing arund with the brass plaque. I am pretty much decided on the text, but would like to include an engraving of Reichsadler too (it's the exact copy of stamp used on silverware and clocks).

What do you guys think, which one looks better?