U-552 by yvesvidal - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1/48 - PLASTIC - Type VIIC U-boat

[lmagna]

This is going to be a great addition Yves.

 

I have a question though.

In US subs it was the practice to replace the used fuel space with sea water in order to maintain almost the same total displacement as the fuel was used up on patrol. Was  this also done in U-Boats? If so then there would probably be seawater on the bottom of the tank and fuel floating on it. I would think they would be different colors. 

[yvesvidal]

On 3/28/2020 at 10:00 PM, lmagna said:

I have a question though.

In US subs it was the practice to replace the used fuel space with sea water in order to maintain almost the same total displacement as the fuel was used up on patrol. Was  this also done in U-Boats? If so then there would probably be seawater on the bottom of the tank and fuel floating on it. I would think they would be different colors. 

Yes, very true. You described the mechanism very well. Here is a picture to illustrate the concept: 

 

 

Yves

Edited April 7, 2020 by yvesvidal

[popeye the sailor]

really great progress Yves......the sleeping quarters and galley looks awesome  

[yvesvidal]

A couple more pictures to situate the action: 

This is the left over space in the hull that will accommodate the two compartments under construction.

 

View of the Control Room floor. Notice the hole drilled and the tube allowing the attack periscope to slide down in the guts of the beast: 

View of the main ballast, before any sea water is poured into it (below): 

The tank located under the control room *below): 

And the two ends of the rear fuel tank: 

You can notice the different appearance of the resin mixed at  (too) low temperature (left) and at correct temperature (right). Since these two sections are separated by the outside hull and not much of them is visible, it does not come as a blatant contrast. Still, I wish I had waited one more day before pouring that very sensitive resin. One day was in the 50's, the following in the low 80's.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Just a quick update. I am working on the rear bulkhead and will not glue or install the front bulkhead, until I am done with both of them. It is in fact really difficult to paint and glue all the small parts if you do not have a direct access to the bulkheads. So, the rear one is pretty much completed: 

As indicated, this fuel tank (picture below) will be painted after gluing the front bulkhead. Then resin will be poured to match the level of the front fuel tank, in the forward compartment.

Finally, more resin will be poured to simulate some sea water in the main ballast. All this "liquid" will do for a rather heavy module at the end.

 

Yves

Edited April 1, 2020 by yvesvidal

[yvesvidal]

For the aficionados of Type VII-c, here are a few drawings representing the Control Room being worked on at this time: 

     

The Tank view clearly shows how the various fuel tanks are arranged inside the pressure hull. The Control room is basically sitting on top of the fuel tanks and the main ballast of a capacity of 47.75 cubic meters.

 

On the top view, you can see the well for the attack periscope which is missing in the Trumpeter kit. The blue-print also shows the various curvatures of the control room and the fuel tanks. Trumpeter could have provided some convex bulkheads for that room, but they decide otherwise, to make the final assembly in the hull, easier. Too bad, it would have been an interesting feature.

 

Another blatant mistake from Trumpeter is the curvature of the Control Room floor. I have already mentioned that limitation and this is how it should have looked like: 

Of course, the entire internal arrangement of the hull would have had to be modified, but it would have been so cool to have this feature represented, at least partially (from left to a partial right on the drawing, as to allow the viewers to peruse into the compartment. I thought about doing it, but the modifications are way too extreme and decided against it.

 

Yves

Edited April 7, 2020 by yvesvidal

[7Youngs]

On 3/25/2020 at 7:19 PM, Katuna said:

It takes some searching but you can find 1/48 food. There are a few tin cans and a precious few bags and baskets of fruits and veggies.

Found these and ordered them for my build. Hope this helps....

[yvesvidal]

Thank you 7Youngs. I did find some details and will present them soon. That is a very nice set that you got.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Front bulkhead completed: 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

April's Fool joke: it would be quite an experience, if they could start the Diesel engine as well.....

 

[cog]

12 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

April's Fool joke: it would be quite an experience, if they could start the Diesel engine as well.....

 Would be better if they just did start it ... shake them awake

[Kevin]

yet again the memories of the ballast/ fuel tanks came flooding back (see what i did there)

 

on the 1960 RN diesel boats numbers 3 and 5 ballast tanks served this purpose, giving a fuel capacity of 99,000 gallons of diesoil, enough to go around the world the fuel was taken from the top of the tank,  and went to the engines via seperators

 

[lmagna]

18 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

April's Fool joke: it would be quite an experience, if they could start the Diesel engine as well.....

With or without the engine it would be quite the night.

 

They offer a similar event on board the USS New Jersey battleship. Over nighters for kids and their parents. 

[yvesvidal]

A few more progress, on the underneath of the Control room. All the resin has been poured and cured.... 

The floor of the Control room is now ready for the delicate assembly of all the parts, provided on two large sprues: 

The main ballast has been filled with a little bit of sea water: 

And here is the front fuel tank, with level matching the forward compartment's: 

Overall, even at this stage, this is quite a heavy module with all this resin. I have dry-fitted both modules in the hull, and everything fits nicely and tightly. The resin, sometimes can enlarge so slightly the compartment and make it impossible to fit. Trumpeter did an excellent job at fitting these various modules into the hull. Matching and alignment is very precise.

 

Yves

Edited April 4, 2020 by yvesvidal

[BobCardone]

Wow.. Your bulkhead detail is exquisite, and the resin usage is genius.

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, look into Tamiya panel line accent color. Some judicious application on those bulkheads would really make them pop. The stuff comes in black, gray, dark gray and brown. The stuff works best over a gloss finish, and I use a finer brush than the one attached to the lid and let capillary action do most of the work.

Edited April 4, 2020 by BobCardone
add caveats

[yvesvidal]

Since, we are on the subject of describing the Control room of the Type VIIc, I thought it would be appropriate to publish a few pictures glanced and collected on the Internet. May their authors be infinitely rewarded in this life or a future one, for their generosity and skills.

 

The first "fish-eye" picture is particularly dramatic.... what a maze and intricacy of pipes, wheels, dials and valves. A true nightmare, when anyone of these hoses could have leaked, following an underwater explosion:

The right part of what is visible on this picture is actually not represented by Trumpeter. The two steering wheels are the diving planes controls and are not part of the kit, since they stand where the opening to the module, is located. The L shaped bench is provided in the kit. Also, note the well on the attach periscope has been plugged to prevent the U-995 tourists from falling or throwing things into the main ballast. This problem, as designed by Trumpeter, will have to be corrected.

 

The left picture represents the Port side and as such is correctly implemented in the kit. The right picture is of course, entirely missing, from the kit.

The Christmas Tree of red and black valves is also missing from the Trumpeter Kit. The periscope enclosure on the right is correctly recreated by Trumpeter.

Above is the Attack periscope, also nicely represented by Trumpeter.

The various compressors on the floor (for the cold enclosure - fridge) are also well depicted by Trumpeter.

Here also, Trumpeter did a good job with their bulkhead assembly.

 

Above, the torpedo computer, used to calculate trajectories and program the eels.

As we will see, the Port side is very well rendered in the kit.

 

The last drawing explains how the depth measuring gauges are working and how the submarine was controlled when diving or surfacing.

Soon, a few pictures of the model.....

 

Yves

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by yvesvidal

[yvesvidal]

Slow progress on the "Kontrollraum": 

There are plenty of little details and parts to paint and install.

The navigation table with a map of the Baltic Sea: 

German submariners did not use regular maps. Instead they had these coded maps with specific sectors defined, in which they were assigned patrol missions. Instead of using Longitude and Latitude like most ships and planes, the Kriegsmarine created its own Naval Grid System. The ocean area was divided in large sectors represented by two-letters. Each sector was further divided into a 3x3 matrix, resulting in nine small squares. Each square was itself divided into nine smaller squares, resulting in 81 small squares for a sector. This is what you see displayed on the map below. A so called patrol zone (a small square) was roughly equivalent to 6 square NM. Each little square was referenced by the two letters of the sector and by a four digit number. With only six characters, a submarine (or ship) could signal its position with a lot of precision.

The attack periscope is getting some TLC. The lfat surface is drilled with a semi-spherical hole of 3.5 mm. A steel ball is inserted into it, to give the impression of a lens and to create some reflections as if you were seeing the ocean. The plastic pin is truncated and replaced by a steel piece to augment the realism of the device.

That pin will go through the deck and get to the bottom of the periscope well, inside the main ballast. There are still plenty of small details to add and paint, as this compartment is very rich in tiny parts.

 

Yves

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by yvesvidal

[G.L.]

Yves,

When looking to the real sub pictures of the previous post, the control room seems me a very complicated compartment to realize. 

The chart on your chart table has an English inscription 'Baltic Sea'. Did the Kriegsmarine use charts with English lettering during the war?

[yvesvidal]

5 hours ago, G.L. said:

Yves,

When looking to the real sub pictures of the previous post, the control room seems me a very complicated compartment to realize. 

The chart on your chart table has an English inscription 'Baltic Sea'. Did the Kriegsmarine use charts with English lettering during the war?

Very good point..... 🙂 I'll have to remedy this. 

 

Yves

[Yvonne]

I have this model but have lost the instruction manuals...could anyone upload a copy or email me a copy please

[Katuna]

As to the naval grid system, if you're AR like I am about details, you'll see how the system can pin point a location. Just take a look at my signature line.

 

Yves-I don't recall, were you modeling a specific boat or are you building it as U-552? When I started mine, I picked a number at random then dove into the research. It turned out to have a fairly long career, by U-Boat standards at least. Your build is looking fantastic.

 

I loves me some research. I think I missed my calling.

[yvesvidal]

Katuna,

 

I am modelling the U-552.

 

Yves

[BobCardone]

17 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

A steel ball is inserted into it, to give the impression of a lens and to create some reflections as if you were seeing the ocean.

A nicely creative touch in the "heart" of the boat. Little elements like this (and the magazines and posters from a previous post) are taking this build to an amazing level.

Your skills, attention to detail and exhaustive research are really paying off.

[yvesvidal]

The ceiling/hull pressure is finished. Lots of small details which unfortunately will be very hard to see, once the lid is on. I suppose that if I wanted to display some work, I would have not chosen to build a submarine... 

Et voila.

 

Yves

 

[Canute]

Lots of nice details. 👍

[yvesvidal]

The Kontrollraum is pretty much finished. I just need to populate it with a few sailors. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of it: 

As you can see, the front of the compartment is completely devoid of details, to allow some view into the back wall. It is a little bit unfortunate that Trumpeter did not push the efforts to include the diving stations (two sailors sitting on the bench) and the Christmas tree of valves.

 

A couple of views through the hatches: 

What you see in the center, is the computer used to calculate and program the torpedoes trajectory. In fact the computer is composed of a lot of parts, but the keyboard to enter the data is what is being shown here.

 

More pics of details and what will no longer be visible, once the roof/pressure hull is assembled: 

The bench is covered with fine lamb skin.... just kidding. The two cabinets under the navigation table, are also part of the Torpedo Trajectory calculation computer.

Picture above: The equipment seen on the top right corner is nothing more than the compressor to produce cold for the fridge on the other side of the wall.

Verification that all compartments fit into the hull: 

As you can see, the fitting is not too bad for such a large and complex model: 

Yves

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by yvesvidal

[BobCardone]

It is satisfying to see the modules and hull come together. It gives a real perspective of how busy and cramped these boats were...

Your workmanship is stellar.

[mtaylor]

This has my curiosity, Yves.  What's missing if anything in the piping?

 

 

[yvesvidal]

Yes, good catch. There is a large piece of machinery attached to the ceiling (go back a few posts). The cut in the pipe is to allow that large piece to slide down. The ceiling has to be inserted vertically/parallel to the floor because of the periscope wells and towers. Once in place, you will not be able to see the cut in the piping.

 

Yves

[Katuna]

Yves-I believe what you are referring to as the refrigeration compressor is actually the Main Bilge Pump. The reefer compressor and condenser are located further outboard of the pump and the associated valves that Trumpeter did not include. Here is a pic according to Don Prince and Mr. Tore.