Not a light, but an opening, Not sure of the correct term but something to tie a line to if necessary. The following photo shows S-170 Hai and S-171 Hecht, two Type XXIII boats in post war service. In the upper photo you can see that S-170 has a line wrapped around the conning tower (Turm) and passing through that opening.



There was also a cleat on the extension at the back of the tower that houses the muffler (photo at lower left). Bronco provided the football-shaped base but forgot the 'horns'. Some boats had a second cleat, located on the hull, aft of the tower, you can see it on S-171 at the far right of the upper photo. Hope this helps.
Al

Thank you! Your knowledge is so helpful as I work to complete the conning tower. The white navigation light is a detail that I cannot find much about other than the one you found. Other photos do not have the light in that location, but since I have one photo, I might as well add it.

Far from an expert, but glad to help out in anyway that I can Tom. Al

Tom, your question formed a concept!
On drawings in VOZM we can find this light on different types, but I could only find one pic - U-281.

Evergreen tube was used to build the lights housing and heated clear sprue to create the bulgy glas:



A polished part was clamped to the housing:



With caps glued to the housing, it looks like a little position light:



The missing brackets were added:



...and the now the light and the periscope, the cable will be added later:



Just another gimmik, but I'm pleased


Michael

The Mast Headlight is only used at night and is taken down the sail hatch at daybreak on US Subs. Modern mast headlights incorporate a horizontal light deflector of sheet metal to prevent the light from illuminating bridge personnel and spoiling their night vision. It also has vertical light deflectors; it's supposed to be a white light visible for 225 degrees forward, which means it can be seen dead ahead and back on each side for 22.5 degrees abaft the port and starboard beams, according to present day navigational requirements. A stern light, if present, is a 360 degree white light mounted atop the upper ridder.

The most important point is that the mast headlight's arc of light coverage is very tightly prescribed ... so mounting it to a rotating periscope is a NO-NO, at least in today's environment. Whenever transitting on the surface, the scope is in constant use for target and aircraft searching ... and that not only rotates the lamp but can also coil up the power line around the scope and snap it.

Short version: it looks like the periscope-mounted light would be used only 1) at night and 2) on the way in or out of port with the periscope set dead ahead and left that way, at least until the boat was away from heavy traffic.

Oh, and one other fine point: the conning tower cannot be seen on submarines. The conning tower is the pressure-proof cylinder located inside the sail or "fairwater", which is the outer structure which envelops the conning tower and streamlines it. Most sails (fairwaters) also incorporate a bridge at the top. Only laymen refer to the sail as the conning tower. On a U-boat, the German term for the sail was "turm" or "tower" ... so it IS appropriate to call a U-Boat's sail "tower", but not the "conning tower".

Michael, as usual, your fabrication work is excellent and well-executed. Beautiful job!

Yesterday I went to a pharmacy to buy some injection needles (0.9 and 0.45mm), very thin needles for acupuncture (0.3mm) I had in stock. But for what? There's a nice drawing in the VOZM booklet showing the small antenna (1.8m lenght) for the type XXIII bridge.



I removed the plastic, cut them to length and sanded the ends



The original antennas had 3 sections with diffenrent diameter, so my metal parts were fitted into each other and secured with superglue to bring this out. The Bronco parts are only 2 thin rods with 4(!) sprue connections that have to be removed...



I think my way is the better one; the parts in comparison:



And I found a new reason for U-2336s docking. The type XXIII boats were constructed with fins as guards in front of the hydroplanes. Later the front fins were removed to reduce the drag. As I built my boat without the fins they were lying in the box, still unused. So I tooled them with my Dremel to show some marks from a cutting torch. The badly grinded places on the boat were just painted by a docker...



The headlight got some paint and found its final place with a cable made of lead wire running through the "manhole". And the tape was chucked out to show the steel tube of the periscope:




Michael

Michael....Show off!
I really like the light on the mast! Thank you for your work.
Peace,
tom

Michael,
May I get a copy of the drawings?
I would be interested in seeing the different styles.
Also how many mm is your clear glass? I am using a 3mm LED for the port and starboard navigation lights and have one for this light too. I can either use a clear resin to add a bulge to the LED or hollow out a clear piece like the one you made.
Thank you again for your help on this. I will post pictures soon.
Peace,
tom

Hi Tom,
here are the cutaways. They are enlarged parts of the drawings in VOZM showing toplights of type IIA, IID and XXI boats, but not really useful! Only a little clue.




My "glass" is 6mm, I've used the original Bronco clear light parts as model. The dimensions of the housing are calculated with help of this U-281 picture. It's 11mm high and 5.5mm wide and I used an Evergreen tube for scratching. Hope I could help...


Michael

Outstanding sir! Thank you.
I think I am going to meld the Type XXIII and the U-281 - use a little artistic license.
So here is where I am at the moment.

Need to also add the cable connector at the front of the tower, Life Preserver holder, detail the snorkel (not crazy like you guys did), and add chart for table (there is a reason it looks like it does - not planned).

One of these monsters was entered in the MosquitoCon show in NJ last weekend. It's a VERY impressive build.

Thanks for the kind words Bill, that particular monster at Mosquitocon was mine. Al

This thread has some brilliant work.
I am being brought back to school as I try to make some attempt at copying the work you guys have done!
Speaking of that. How was the rust and weathering done on this:

I need lessons.....so well done.

The bollards were scratched using Evergreen. Let a first layer of Tamiya XF-9 Hull Red dry and use MiG pigments P024 Light Rust and P025 Standard Rust. The pigments have to be fixed with MiG Pigment Fixer. Easy!
The dock floor was airbrushed with XF-63 German Grey and got a MiG Cold Grey Wash. After drying weathered with MiG pigment P039 Industrial City Dirt as the the bollards, again sealed with Pigment Fixer by airbrush.


Michael

Thank you! I will need to go to the Hobby store. I really like the realism the bollards have. It also photographs well.

I thought the "underwater"-grey is too monotonous. So wavy cut tape was used with "Industrial City Dirt" and "Ashes White" pigments.



Applied with a hard brush first and than smoothed with a softer one:



Normally the diesel exhaust went out under water without any marks, but I think, they also let the engine run for trials while docked. Black smoke pigmet is very useful too and all piments were fixed with a thin layer of MiGs pigment fixer by airbrush:



Close-up views are cruelly, but I'm pleased with the subtile effect.





and Happy Easter
Michael

Michael: I would expect the crew to use the snorkel when running the diesel in the drydock to get the exhaust as high into the air as possible ... so as not to have to breathe it. The snorkels on modern boats can be fully lowered into the sail and still function fine with the exhaust venting out through slots in the after end of the sail. I believe that may be the function of the large holes cut into the sail on the 23 ... on each side of the snorkle: a set of intake holes to starboard and a set of exhaust holes to port. If anyone knows about this, please chime in.

I am, however, unsure of the ventilation lineup on the 23 ... and whether or not the snorkle can function in the lowered position because I think the only way the air intake port can line up with the ducting is when it's raised all the way. At any rate, they could certainly raise the snorkle fully whenever it became necessary to fun the diesel in drydock. I can say, though, that given the choice of exhausting down into the drydock or up into the air ... it would be a no-brainer. Less smoke to breathe and less noise to listen to. So, I would expect to find neither rust runs nor smoke stains below the waterline ... just a lot of dead algae and barnacles.

Nice work!

I did a study awhile back on Gato weathering. I erroneously thought they were kept clean. Then I found color photos/video and made them black and white.
As an example:


Then here it is in color



As you can see a lot of the rust disappears.

I saw your photo turned to B/W and yes it could be that way!
Wonderful work Michael.

Well, the build looked even better in person!

...just received my acryl-shelter to cover dock & beast and hope my more than yearlong job comes to an end in the near future...




Michael

Michael, Since you already have one boat and a part of the drydock, I think that you should keep going and replicate the bottom photo.



You would just need two more boats and to scratch-build the rest of the dock, piece of cake. Al

No challenge after this experience with dock and beast - too small, only 6 boats!
I want to build the whole Germaniawerft as on the first pic in 1:35, but my damned neighborhood around isn't about to sell the estates needed for this new little project...


Michael

Fallers lake foil was cut to get a first impression of the later docks entrée:







I'm pleased.


Michael

Do you think that water sheet could be set in place in such a way as to simulate rolling waves, Michael? More like gentle swells is what I'm looking for for a periscope depth/snorkeling diorama.

The Faller water sheet is made to create small lakes, rivers or pools for railway modellers in 1/87. Or to simulate "quite" water like in harbours, but not white water or rolling waves. Maybe in combination wth other special products an in a smaller scale...
http://www.faller.de/App/WebObjects/XSeMIPS.woa/cms/page/pid.14.18.39.47.108/lg.en/Gewässergestaltung.html
Or you are going to use a thick plate of "Styrodur", form the waves you want by a sharp knife or heat, paint different shades of blue and white for the wave tops. At last a finish with gloss varnish. Or acryl gel is a solution...


Michael

PS: here you can find some nice pics from my german forum; it's a VIIc boat in 1/350
http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=47144.0#top