I've been eyeballing this kit ever since it was announced; the Type 9 was my favorite sub when I was a kid of 11 years just getting interested in all things WWII. My grandma was a bit of a WWII buff; she had actually lived through the war and I loved to hear all the war stories she had accumulated over the years. She had a book on U-Boats that was my favorite... when she passed away I inherited her book collection and I still have that book today.
In other words, this is a subject that is a bit nostalgic and emotional for me and therefore (hopefully) a good project to get me out of my "modeler's block", not to mention let me build a boat that I've been interested in for a LONG time.
I'm aiming to portray the U-505 a few months before capture. As usual, I'm going to throw the might of the aftermarket at the kit; I've got the 3 Eduard PE frets for the kit, the Griffon Model Type VII armament upgrade set (the same AA the U-505 was sporting) and am waiting for the delivery of a very impressive custom PE set put together by Oto Gerza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Ird8eYu48
I plan on cutting open all the vent holes and scratchbuilding the pressure hull like I did on my "excessively ambitious gato" too.
Anyway, my first impressions of the kit are good; Revell really went the extra mile on this kit when it comes to accurate shape/details. Every last opening on the hull appears to be there, I guess having the real U-505 available for close inspection helps!
I'm not so sure about all the molded on rivets though; they stick out too much and I will have to either sand them down to be less obvious or get rid of most of them altogether. The flood valves (somebody tell me what their technical name is!) on the bottom of the boat are also poorly modeled, but it's probably unavoidable due to their angle on the curvature of the hull.
So, I've wasted no time getting started... the first job is to redo those pesky flood valves.
Here's what they look like OOTB:
Luckily, the Eduard PE offers nice replacement PE valves (among other goodies!):
I ground out the centers and then carved the square openings out to match the PE as Eduard instructed but after looking at pics online I realized I could get a more realistic look by lining the openings with styrene strip. So, I recut the holes again slightly larger, lined them with .010 X .100 Evergreen strips and added the PE valve covers (Eduard etched them in pairs and threes but I cut them out for individual installation to make my life a bit easier). Here's the starboard side with some cutting and then with all the valves installed:
Finally, I got a stylin' display base going and taped together the hull pieces to get an idea what this will all look like... it's gonna be an impressive display piece provided I can stay focused and actually get her finished!
As usual comments, ideas, criticism (constructive or otherwise) are welcome!
More to come, thanks for looking!
go a small sractch go go Jason 
