Thomas,

incredible work. Really lookingo forward to seeing some color on your master piece.

Dave

Hey David! Thank you for your constructive comment, I´m glad that everyone appreciate my work.

Best Regards

Now after the painters struck the boat evenly with Mr. Surfacer 1200 primer the whole looks to be ready for preshading. Never did it before but when I look at Jan Klaerbeck´s preshaded boat I want to give it a try too.

I´m glad that I made a good job with filling the wrong flood vents. Nothing of them can be seen at the surface anymore

I have riddle for the U-Boot hotshots:

AMP provided an air-recognition sign which was used "on some boats" during the early war stages. As my boat should be represented as one during the Invasion of Norway it could happen it also carry that one.

My question is if someone can tell me more about this air recognition (where was it exactly positioned on deck? Which colour? Was it in use during WESERÜBUNG too on the small boats?) Until now I was not able to find at least one picture of a U-Boot with this part. Maybe I should leave it off?

Today just a small update: Made the preshading and now prepare for the painting of the ships masked bottom with Deutsche Kriegsmarine Schiffsbodenfarbe dark grey from the LIFECOLOR U-Bootwaffe set

I am playing a little catchup here Thomas...nicely done so far!! Tidy work! Love seeing the pre-shade going down! Looking forward to seeing the color soon!

I will jump back to your post on the air recognition plate. Your call on whether that piece went in or not. Pretty sure AMP might have added the plate as an option and not a mandatory part.

It appears the part would be installed between the CT and deck gun mount. I found two clear shots where the plate was used; however, they are not the U-3...Typ IIB's





I could not find any information pointing to the plate either being installed or installed and removed. I did find two clear shots of the forward deck of the U-3...





I would think you would be good without it!



Keep up the good work!!

Hello Todd,

thank you for your help and the pictures. First time I see this air recognition plate on an U-Boot. I decided to keep mine off.

Can you help me with another question about this boat? Special Navy provided two different insignia for the conning tower´s front and I have no idea if they are correct for this boat, and if yes, which one is the appropriate one for its time as a Frontboot during WESERÜBUNG. The one picture you showed is obviously during its time as a training boat as it shows the insignia of 21. Flotille at Pillau. We need your help Obi Wan!

Well Gentlemen, the basic paint work is done . I used the excellent LIFECOLOR U-Boot Colors. After I did the lower hull color I sealed it with HUMBROL satincoat to be able to grab it safely when I do the upper hull without chipping the color again. It worked nicely. The stenciling on the Lifebuoy was done by hand as the Special Navies "decal" for it were just three plain gray stripes... I have no Idea if I´m correct with the light above the buoy but I made it with transparent orange over white. Now the lady starts to look nice. I especially like the tiny magnetic compass repeater on the left side of the bridge front.













Now the upper side gets a satin Humbrol coat. Then the decals will be placed and sealed. After this I can start with a washing and the detail paint.

I would say more of the Ja ja Binks....




As for the bootswappen (boats crest)...the U-3 was listed as having a possible 3 different ones actually, and I think could go as far as four possibly. Third being the Olympic Rings to signify the 1936 games and the fourth would be the marking for the 21st flotilla training school, which is actually on the CT of he boat the last picture of my previous post.

From the two choices you do have...I like the hearts torpedo myself. I guess for one reason above anything else...the U-3 was the only boat to support this emblem where the other(s) were on multiple boats.

Fine job on the 3!!! Love the shading and some great detail painting in the CT! While the deck was, in most cases, probably painted the same as the boat, but the contrast is excellent, I like it!! Well done!

Hi Thomas,

Very nice build...looking forward to some weathering.


Joe

Sorry Thomas, but my Flower would depthcharge you at any time
Just kidding, you've done a wonderful job on your Type II.
Jacob

Hi Thomas,
Great detail to date and I am also looking forward to the final outcome.

cheers

Michael

Herr Kaleu! Melde das Boot ist seeklar!

Sorry for the small delay in my blog. I did made the washing and fading with oil and pigments, applied the waterline decals and lefebelt decals from AMP and made a Seekriegsflagge out of a further whine bottles lead foil *hicks*. The waterline decals were not easy to apply as they are very thin and crumbled and/or teared apart after they left the carrier paper. To make matters worse my humbrol matt varnish did faded to white during drying and I had to mask off every waterline number and spray all that specific areas around them again...

As I wanted to show the boat during Unternehmen Weserübung I needed a Seekriegsflagge. I got it as a decal from a Peddinghaus S-Boot decal set and it set wonderful to the primed surface.



























I am quite satisfied now about the final outcome of the finished boat, therefore I decided to raise my budget further for this project and bought myself a showcase for it at ebay. This made another damage to my wallet of about 80 EURO for the showcase and 32 EURO for the glass. It is a real museum-like Eyecatcher now in my hobbyroom.





The story is not yet over, there are still some small improvements (gloss clear at the lanterns and at the periscope lenses etc.) and finally paint the crew for the conning tower now...



Thanks ahaed for your comments

Ahoy Thomas

Superb effort and what a great addition to any modeling room.

Outstanding work indeed.

I love the subtle weathering.

The figures look promising as well!


Cheers


Sean

Ahoy Sean,

thanks for your pleasant words mate; I will empty a bottle of beer for your honor tonight

Everyone line up at the quay! Men! Tonight a long hard work has been coming to an end! Our Boot is finally commissioned and ready to move out to the north sea to harass the enemy!

I would like to say thank you everyone for your support, help and constructive comments. It was my first U-Boot build and it is surely not my last one as I´m a little bit proud of the final results of my efforts.

As a small resumee I can say Special Navy did a pretty poor job in research for its mixed media kit as it will need a lot changes and TLC out of the great AMP aftermarket set to get a correct Typ IIA Boot. The plastic of Special Navy´s kit was also of medium quality, a little bit thick and some parts are just clunky. But, to be fair, I was also not able to use really all parts of the AMP kit just because some of them are so tiny that - even with fine tweezers - you can not grab them and, more difficult, glue them. For example there were some eyelets for the backside part of the conning tower. They were needed to build them out of two miniscule parts... I was sure that even If I would be able somehow to fix them they will not stay there for long time. But AMP really makes the difference for this specific kit!

But now enough spoken... Gentlemen here are the final pictures of this build blog:

Kapitänleutnant Schreiber, the Commander of the boat during WESERÜBUNG. His later boat U-95 (A Typ VII) got sunk in the mediterranean sea in the late 1941 but he and some of his crew survived this and went into captivity



A Matrosenobergefreiter from the bridge watch



A Maschinist (engine room sailor) snapping some fresh air and getting some sun



The crew finally onboard





















Thanks for your attention

THE END

Very - very nice

that is a really nice U boat..... makes me want to go out and get one!! great build and great build log.

Ahoy Thomas

One word - "Superb" - figures, sub, all of it!

Enjoying another beer my friend.


Cheers


Sean

Hi Thomas,
A fantastic finish to your sub and crew. I will use it for inspiration when the Silent Service campaign comes around.

cheers

Michael