I've found out that the u-boat the model of which I'm building has shorter (height) flood holes than the ones I cut. So what can I do now to correct this issue and reduce their height in half, keeping in mind that the plastic is already thinned out from the inside? I'll try to post some pictures later.

Thanks.

ouch - sorry to hear this. I guess the best bet would be to back up the old holes with styrene and the putty up the old holes and start again - good luck with this.

I'll second this motion, mate. . .patch em up and start over. . .Jeez, that's a real bummer dude. . .
~Gunny

Ahoy Ion,

Can you post a photo of your flooding holes and will then look at the possible
solutions.


And remember...have a nice day and happy modeling!
Joe

Here are the pictures. Pretty much the flood holes that I have in a rectangle need to be half as tall. I wish I did my research a little better because I need to delete the other two groups of holes too, but those aren't that big of a deal. Luckily, this is not an expensive kit and I also have another one so if I mess it up completely, I can build the other one, but it will be a good exercise since this is my first attempt at drilling out these things, scratchbuilding parts and fixing mistakes too. Something I don't want to do on the big 1/72.

Anyway, I ordered some styrene sheets. We'll see what comes out of it. Thanks for all the help!


By the way, here is the boat:

.

The white U-2511 in the middle. At first I thought the front flood holes are just twice the size of my normal holes, and that would have been very easy to correct, but then I studied some drawings (if you look carefully on the picture, you can see the contour of the full opening, but it's only half that is opened up) and it's actually the rest of the holes that are smaller.

Ahoy Ion,

So I see the problem......actually most XXIs were configured as you have
drilled the vents.

I guess U-2511 was configured differently or probably refitted.

What I would suggest is to glue tiny strips of styrene along the length
of each vent, flush with the outer hull, as wide as you need to shrink
the vent and then rework with a micro file and sand.

Most models I have seen of of U-2511 don't even take this vent size
difference into account.

You have a very sharp eye and you will have a very unique model.

Have a nice day and happy modeling
Joe

Ion -Another way of refilling those would be to use thick putty like Miliput which sticks very well to plastic -you apply a not so thick coat on the underside of the hull, it will of course bulge on the other side through the opening, but you flatten it with a non-sharp tool, polish it with water, and then a bit of careful sanding..

Ion,

Both Joe and Jean-Bernard have put forward very sound ideas to assist you with your problem, in fact using both ideas but in a slightly different manner I would like to put forward the folowing solutions.

1) Glue a lenght of square section plastic rod (is this the correct term for square section?) along the inside of the flood holes, recommend the the rod be attached to the upper part and that it is fixed so that the lower part of the rod it is flush with the upper edge of the flood hole. Now place strips of plastic card stock of the correct thickness and lenght placed through the flood holes and glue them to both hull and square section rod, if you leave them proud of the outer hull you can sand and polish back.

2) Place a strip of plastic card along the inside of the hull along the flood hole line, the strip should be placed so that it blanks off the section of the flood hole that you do not want, ie reduces its height. Now using Miliput fill the step that remains on the outer hull, remember that Miliput can be worked well with tools dipped into water, it can even be smoothed using a paint brush that is wet, be warned it does get messy but has got me out of a tight spot many a time.

Hope this helps and look at it as an opportunity

Happy Modelling and good luck

PeteV

Thank you VERY much for your tips and comments, guys!

I am currently waiting on my styrene strips, so I will probably try Pete's #2 method as I have milliput and also have a little bit of experience with it.

The U-2511 is indeed a very odd animal.

If you notice the rear flood holes (4 semi submerged in water) on the boat (on the picture in my above post), look on top of them and you will see two rows of patched up flood holes that are present on my model and that I will also patch up (darn it! I've looked at these pictures so many times and didn't even notice this before I spent so much time cleaning up those holes and now I have to spend more time to patch them up too).

The other issue is that I really don't know and cannot find out what the pattern of those rear 4 flood holes are (ie, there are probably more under it, but how many and how are they arranged). Am I getting a bit too crazy this early in my modeling career?

By the way, thanks to the weirdness of this boat, I've finally established that this boat:



is indeed U-2511. Notice the circled 4 flood holes on the back, then the fact that it is white, then the same large flood hole pattern (some bigger, some smaller), then some other flood holes that are not present unlike on most other boats and finally, the same tower configuration (2nd revision according to the XXI anatomy book). The above picture is scanned from Squadron's U-boats book and the caption says 'A rare view of a type XXI on the surface, really out of its element seen here off the coast of Norway where all operational XXI were based'. Obviously, this is a mistake and the boat is not covered in snow/ice, but it is actually painted white. And on top of that, this unique white painting was done in two stages. First, the conning tower was painted (which is probably why it is more degraded than the rest of the hull) then, later, the rest of the hull EXCEPT the deck.

First stage:

(check out the dark looking XXIII on the left too. In shadow or is it actually painted really dark/black?)

Evidence of poor painting and/or paint quality:



Notice you can still see traces of the original white/yellow 'training' strip on the conning tower. So I will also paint it grey with a yellow stripe, then a thinned out white on top.

Anyway, back to work now. More later!

Hello Madwolf,

as far I could find out the boat on this picture is not U-2511 but U-2518 on the way from England to France.
The picture was taken after the war. In one of my books I found exactly the same.

Some interesting information about U-2511 you can find on this german site:

http://www.taucher.net/redaktion/18/Schneemann_ahoi__4.html

The reason for the white conning tower and upper parts is only a question of camouflage because the light grey was to dark in the norwegian regions. So Korvettenkapitän (the chief) Adalbert Schnee decided to paint his boat in white.

best greetings

Manfred

Manfred,
which book did you get this information from?
I have a number of pictures of U-2518 and while the general configuration is the same, the weathering and painting does not match the white boat picture.

Ahoy Ion,

After some extensive research, I can confirm that at least two Type XXIs had the flooding/vent configuration that you are presently modeling......

U-2502 ............Kptlt. Heinz Franke (1945)

U-2518.............Kptlt. Freidrich Weidner(1945)

Also:

Designed to operate primarily submerged, all Type XXI were delivered in
Dunkelgrau from the shipyards, to minimize visibility. Since we see many photos of XXIs with different upper surfaces and camo, I can only assume
that certain boats were repainted to suit theater of operation.

One color that may have been used on the upper hull and tower was
Hellblaugrau (Norway) giving the effect of a "white tower".

I have not yet found anything stating that white was actually used.

I am still trying to ID the middle boat in the photo



Hope this helps for now,

Later,
Joe

Thanks for your work, Joe. I actually am working based on U-2518 since I found out the same about it and I have pictures of its entire hull. I believe U-2506 also has the same configuration. It would be interesting if that was indeed Hellblaugrau and there is no way to tell based on the black and white pictures... On a different note, it would make sense for Schnee to want to paint it white since his last name means snow and he had a snowman as a mascot on other boats.

Thanks again.

Also, all my sources indicate that the middle boat is indeed U-2511. It is this boat that is uncertain:

Ahoy Ion,

I have many references to the boat with the deteriorating paint job on the
tower. They all claim that this could be U-2518 but none confirm 100%.

If it is, it would late in the war because other photo references of U-2518
distinctly show her in an over all Dunkelgrau.

Back to........research.....

Later,
Joe

Interesting. Here is U-2518 in '46 still in her German colors:



To me, she looks nothing like the white boat above, except of course for the same flood pattern and tower configuration.

Ion,
Indeed very interesting.......

Many photos that I have come across of U-2518, which are at war's end and
after she was turned over to the French and renamed, distinctly show her as
Dunkelgrau.

So those who claim that the photo of the boat with the deteriorating paint is
U-2518, are either wrong or we are looking at a U-2518 with a temporary
light camo applied.

That might explain the aweful condition of the paint on the tower......
it was temporary.

Back to.......

Later,
Joe