hey guys....
well i'm currently taking a little break from my usual armor modeling to work on something completelly new to me. Yup i've picked up this model sub and am enjoying the model so far alot. I have a couple of questions regarding the modeling and another paint question.

Firstly i descovered my hull halves to be slightly warped making the process of getting them seated a tricky one. I have now gone back and cleaned up seems but in the process have sanded a few details away. also i have had a look at the conning tower detail and feel theat the hand rails are a bit oversized. I'm wondering if anyone has any reference photos at all of this or any other viib model sub that could help me out here?? I've looked on a few sites including uboat.net without too much success.

Second question is to do with painting and weathering. On the box there are pictures of the kit weathered in such a way that rusting is clearly visible. I have seen a couple of other modelers also do this. I am just wondering how rusty these boats actually got during service??

thanks for any help you can give me
powerlogik

I like U boats too

Ships at sea are constantly being scraped and repainted because of the rust problem. Sea water and salty air play havoc with the steel hulls and superstructures of ships. U-Boot crews were not able to spend as much time if any scraping and repainting as the crews of the surface ships were able to, so they probably got fairly rusty and weathered looking while on patrol. Cleaning and repainting were probably done back at the U-Boot base.

thanks for your help Selrach.

Matt,

I wrote a lengthy article on building the Amati 1/72 Type VII U-boat on my site, www.modelwarships.com. There's alot of information in the article, including blueprints, references to colors, etc. Although they're different scales, it's the same boat.

It's in the features section.

Regards,

Jeff Herne
Modelwarships.com

wow didn't even notice Angry_Ensigns replay here....sorry for the delay mate. Thanks for the link....you've got a great site there. Given me lots of info to go on with so thanks alot