I finally got around to taking some pics of the very slow progress of my U-253. I got the hull together with the upper pressure hull kit and pieced the brass deck togther. I plan on using the metal deck pieces from Eduard on the bow and stern sections. I also plan on using the Eduard kit for the other details on the deck. You'll see that I sanded the areas on the deck where I had the Modelbrass details. I found them too thick and not accurately detailed unlike the Eduard.

The upper pressure hull is nice. But I found the mid section to be a little sway back and the pieces didn't quite match up with each other. Not that it matters since they'll be covered up anyway. It does give the boat a nice weight. I did add the conning tower to it and the housing for the sky 'scope, plus the ammunitions container. I didn't add the missing aft torpedo loading hatch. I think it may have not been there in the first place because you couldn't see it if it was there.

The brass deck is great. The attention to detail is superb. This is the only deck with the correct scale flood slots out there. It's a little bit of a pain to shimmy it and piece it together, but it's well worth it.

http://homepage.mac.com/jess13/PhotoAlbum62.html

Take Care,

Jess

Great pix! So nice to see detail and craftmanship (or is it craftsman"boat"?). The supports behind the long thin flood amidships are thin and nice, good resource for me. Every pic great.

Yeah, those supports are 1mm thin. That was probably the most dull part of it. But it needed to be done.

I'll try to take more pics of the CT too. I'm also going to sand the rivets and molding and add some welding like you did. I also thought of building up the area wher the pressure hull fits under the outer casings. I just don't get the feeling that they are 3 separate pieces like I see in photos.

Jess

ooh, more CT pix would be good. I've "dulled down" all the rivets just very slightly, and am going to make the added welds even thinner (being putty I'm afraid they will take a bashing while working on the model, so I'm waiting till the end). Speaking of bashing, this thing is so long I keep whacking it on something when I turn it.

Building up the p-hull/casings...yes, I'm going to do something similar - adding a curved piece inside along the saddle tanks, to give the impression they are real tanks against the pressure hull (using anatomy of a uboat diagram). Then slotting in the resin p-hull with some fixing and blending. I'm half-tempted to take off some of the good detail greeblies from the resin and put them on my own, not overly impressed with the resin p-hull. But only half-tempted, it might be easier to just grind away and try to fix up and figure a good mount.

Yes, exactly. Watch out with the upper pressure hull. Once the deck is on there's not a whole lot you can see. Unless you take a flash light and peek in. I'm really surplsed at how little you can see. Just gives a nice impression and weight.
I added the CT and sky scope housing and amunitions container to extend them up higher, giving the impression that they are connected to what's above the deck.

I thought of adding the air intake trucking that extends up underneath the wintergarten deck , but you can't see it through the slots. I will put them in under the wintergarten deck, though. Also, make sure you paint the inside of the area where the CT fits on the main deck. I saw one guy take a picture from above his model. You could see the shiny brass throught the CT deck holes. I know you're using the Nautilus deck, but you may still see something.

I also made the actual CT itself out of styrofoam and painted it black and fitted it under the bridge floor. I must try to take pics of the CT to show you. I may have another progress page coming soon.

Speaking of weight, I was wondering how much the model should weigh in scale of the real thing. I'm not great with math, so haven't figured it out. I think the real deal weighed over 700 tons and with water, over 800 tons.

Jess

Looks good so far, hope you keep us posted on the updates.

Yes, more CT info and pix please! Styrofoam? Hmm, intriuging!

I suppose you can't see much without a flashlight, but I don't want any unsightly gaps..I guess where it actualy matters is the stern. And the bow, wih the big drains. Going to try and do some detail on the stern (torp and p-hull thrugh the drains), and the bow torp hatches (leaving the port and starboard tops doors open).