The Ship Model Forum

Hi folks,
after all this aviation stuff, time for something afloat



The Kit and the subject was often discussed in the web, so no need for hughe explanations.
Let´s get straight into the build.
Oh! One just one more remark: This build will not be a particular Seehund, this is more an "what if" model.
I collect some detail from various subs of this kind, and bring it together in one model.
So what we will get is more like a "average seehund", some kind of representative cross section.




Detailing the conning tower with the use of Archer dry transfers and some engraving work.
Note the little handles, near to the hole for the cupola.



Said and done.



There is one particular Seehund in Brest, nicely restored and presented as a museum.
This one shows some nice special detail, including a towing gear installation, with a option for internal release and
a modified main rudder. I am not shure if this was added by the french investigators after the war,
but it is entertaining at least and makes the model more interesting.



The towing gear proceeds from the hook....



....via an eye....



...along the outside of the hull.....



....to the conning tower. Now one can establish a tow, without getting wet.


To me this makes pretty much sense, considering the electric propulsion of the boat.
How to bring it under tow?
Its almost impossible to enter the upper side of the hull outside of a harbour, even when
the sea is very calm.
With this installation, one can drop the line to a towboat easy now. The towboat picks
the thimble with a boathook, fix it, and slowly pick up speed.
The cable flips out of the clamps and the connection is established.
Releasing the cable can be done from the inside of the sub, without even opening a hatch.
Here is a shot from the boat in Brest, which gave me the inspiration to render it on the model.




I was not very convinced by my first attempt, so i ordered some extra stuff at the hobby shop.
A better steel cable and smaller thimbles went in. Its more flexible and a bit thinner.


The second version of the towing gear.


The boat in Brest shows a modified main rudder.
Some extra blades are welded to the Kort-noozle, for better seaworthiness and steering.
Again, i hope this was not done by the french, but it also makes the model more individual
amongst all the other great built Bronco Kits.


Modified rudder on the XXVIIB at the Brest display....



...and at the model. Note the extra Rivets and rudder angle limiters....


...as well as the flexible mounted rudder....


...and the weld seams at the joints, made of stretched sprue and ethyl acetate.


The last modification was about the periscope. There are many pictures of XXVII B´s showing a
streamlined fairing of the periscope. This is one of those pics, followed by my approach to this detail.


Clear shot of a streamlined periscope fairing.



The fairing instantly changes the outline and appearance of the model.



Better then naked, imho at least.



Not shure if this shacle will stay there at the stem.
It´s the 1/35th scale, but seems to be a little overscale



I hope you find this little build entertaing and amusing. It would by my pleasure.
Next we go to give the seal his "balls" and make him ready for combat.
After the this the real fun begins: The paintwork.

Stay tuned

best

Alex

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

That looks fantastic!




Bob Pink.

Very very neat and sharp work Alex!

I agree that the shackle looks overscale-- shackles come in a variety of sizes in 1:1 scale....

Looking forwadr to seeing here develop--if its anything like your bi-plane--it is likely to be stunning!!!!

JIm Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

@Quincy
Thanks for your support!

@Jim,
thanks for the kind words!
The longer i look at that shackle, the more it begs for being kept off.
Yep! I will take it off!

Soon there will be development in this sbs. Currently i make the last little changes at the topedos.
Then we ´ll spill some colours all over the place...

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

Good evening, gentleman

The next update is about the Torpedos, especially its Propulsion and some detail around the warhead.
Bronco delivers the kit surely in a very good quality. Though there is always something to improve
in a plastic kit, and so its here.


The sharpedend torpedo propeller at the left, the raw material at the right hand.
Sanding sticks of different grit was used during the 3 stages of sanding.



The sharpened blades obtained a coat of Mr surfacer, followed by several thin mists
of TAM X-1 gloss black.




Mr surfacer works as a microfiller and it fills corners a little to make that thing look like
a solid single cast.



So, this is the propulsion of the torpedo, lets have a look at the warhead and the percussion fuse.
At this point the very few tiny PE pieces included in the kit, come to use.
The PE is for the percussion fuse is quite thin. Usually this is a good thing, but in this case it would have been cool
when they would be a little thicker.
The kit includes another little detail, namely the little passive propeller we can find if we have a close view at the
tip of the torpedo. This propeller is cast in plastic and naturally it is to thick to be ok.
This little propeller is a rangefinder, activating the detonator in a safe distance from the launching boat.
I browsed through all my little boxes and drawers until i found something to build this device of scratch.


Materials used for the rangefinders



The tip of the warhead. Again Mr surfacer was used to round down imperfections
prior to assembly.







The G7e torpedos, primed with gloss black, ready to be metallized.


Now we are closed to the beginning of the paintwork.
I will let the model rest for a view days to take my time to find out what else i could do.
I wont give my self too much time....

So stay tuned. Things are about to getting really entertaining now.


Best

Alex

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

Mister Mölders is back from shore
I stay tuned here, waiting for the paint

Hi Alex,

good to see you back with some naval stuff A clean build so far, I will follow your WIP to see how you start painting the sub!

By the way, the German Gamblers think about to join in to next years German Model Master. May we will contact you for some more information in the near future

_________________
Cheers,
Christian
_________________
AKA "Painter"
VMF'06 - German Gamblers
Veritable Modelling Friends 2006, Germany

Hey skipper!
Nice to read you at these forums again!
Lets stay in touch!
I think you aint have to wait that long....





Hey buddy!
Thats good news! I will be there for shure, the planning is in progress already.
Send me a pm with your phone number and lets have a talk about it.
The show is worth to be attended. The last two years was very entertaining
and sucessful. Lets have some fun there again!
Thanks for the kind words, Christian. Much appreciated!

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

Lets go on:

The seal now got it´s eels....aahhhh....balls i mean ))


I had some bad experiences with masking tape and Alclads. This time i was more
careful and used post its.





The black dot is a round shaped mask. I used Alclad transparent smoke for some variation of
postshading, followed by a misting coat of ALC 118 to blend everything together.






A coat of Alclad KLEAR KOTE GLOSS varnished everything and made it ready to be weathered
with oils. But this will be done while finishing the whole model at the end.


Ok.
The next update is about the boat it self.
More paintwork! ))

Thanks for watching

best

Alex

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

VERY SHARP!!!
Good metallized effect!!


JIM B

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

That "metal work" is gorgeous. I really like working with the Alcad paints, but it appears you've taken it to an art form!

How did you like working with the Archer rivet decals? I have some of those to use on a future project.

_________________
We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley

Looks very good - especially the metallic effect on the torpedoes! (never thought of using Alclad for this).
I've just bought this particular kit myself, and am planning to start it soon - but I'll probably be building mine straight out of the box!

_________________
Model Ship Kit Reviews

Gentleman,
thanks for the encouraging comments!
Very much appreciated!

@Jim
thanks buddy!
We ´ll see in the end, after weathering...


@Devin
These Archer stuff, als long as it is a wet decal, is truly an stable and solid solution, easy to apply.
The transport film is really thin and almost invisible after priming. It reacts positive and practicable
to setting and softing solutions as Mr softer/setter, allowing kurves and bends.
If the bending requires a kink to be adjustet, the film is thin enough to make these kinks barely unvisible as well.
Once i am really closed to the paintjob, i will check if another sanding is required along the edges to eleminate
minor imperfections.
If you ask me: recommended.
Worth the cash, imho.
Just give it a try.

@Edward
The kit provides everything needed to make a nice model, imho.
If you like, check out the following link for inspiration:
http://tf-stryker1.blogspot.com/search/label/Naval
He has made a very good job, straight out of the box, applying standard painting
techniques as preshading and highlighting in a pleasing manner.
Have fun, buddy!
Thanks for getting involved.

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

MöLDERS

Magnificent metallic effect!!great job on the Seehund !I make the same ( Without your talent) , is it is really an exelent kit


I am going to follow with interest your post
regards
Nicolas

_________________
https://ladiagonaledubosco.blogspot.fr/

@Le bosco
pretty cool model indeed
Nice preshading.
Thanks for the kind words!


@all
Well things went further on this simple project.
As mentioned above: More paintwork!

But before.....
JB sent me some pictures where i found a detail i overlooked as yet. I took some....




...stretched sprue, to render weld seams, at the canon tower joints to the hull.





Very common in AFV modeling techniques. I used ethylacetate as glue and softer.





But now....yeah now my favoured job was up.
Gimme that brush, bro!






Standard preshading as an incremental approach to the job. Don´t ask me about
that dark grey panel. It aint got no sense.





Slightly superimposing via an bright grey misting coat.





Breaking the monotony with bright brushstrikes



At this stage i decided to apply a bright cammo to he model.
To have more contrast to the ground, i darkened the model
with a layering coat of Tamiya smoke.



Darkened and now showing an element of depth in appearance.




And voila! There it is. The cammo as one of the most significant aspects of this project.


I was a little unhappy with the blending of the cammo into the surface.
I was forced to apply a (bright, grey, misting, thin) coat as some kinda acrylic filter for more blending,
causing loss of some depth in the final appearance.

I just startet to recreate some of the effects again, but this time over the cammo.
Holbein Inks in brown and black, as well as Tamiya smoke came to use.
So, thats what we got now:














I guess this will be a pretty cool base for
weathering effects and some filters with oils
and some more of these "dirty tricks" to bring
live and character to that model.

Wish me luck, thanks for your interest and:

CU next time!

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

Very beautiful paints MöLDERS
Nicolas

_________________
https://ladiagonaledubosco.blogspot.fr/

Lots and lots of skill being used.

Painting eh...?!!-- you make it sheer technology.-- fascinating to watch!


JIM B

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

Exquisite work on the painting. I'm hoping to employ some of those techniques on the 1/96th scale ironclad I'm building. Never tried pre-shading. I love the look of shading it and giving it a light coat, then bringing it all down with the clear smoke coat.

_________________
We like our history sanitized and theme-parked and self-congratulatory, not bloody and angry and unflattering. - Jonathan Yardley

Thanks for the kind words, Devin.
The 1/96th surely is a scale where one can work with this techniques, without having to adopt them
for the use in smaller scales.
The Tamiya smoke works as a acrylic filter. I often use this kind of technique, even it´s
a filter made by oil colors, instead of acrylics. The best way is to combine everything for
various effects and vivid surfaces.
To me it´s pure fun. I really do love all this various stuff, and i am always hungry to learn more.
Sometimes i build a model just because i find the rendering of it´s native materials challenging and interesting.
But thats another story...



Thanks Jim!


And on we went...:
A friend sent me a small little set of interesting pictures.
One of these shows a "Seehund" (Seal) hanging on a crane.
Its shows a interesting camouflage, and the sub´s torpedos seem to be
equipped with exercise warheads. The source describes the boat
as U-5049, even when the number is not clearly visible.
If i had to built this boat again, i would pick exactely this
exemplar. Bronco´s kit is just perfect for this.
This project has advanced too far already, but again i picked
the detail i like the most.





The whole model was brought ti high gloss again, to be prepared for
washes and the transfers. The transfers are dry transfers in this case,
amd again made by Archer Transfers



Rubing and srcrubbing carefuly the transfer to the clean and plain surface.
The transfer is fixed with tape to gain more control over the whole process




The transfers in place



Note the bluish tone of the hull. Thats the impact of an blue oil filter.
Washes and drybrushing enhance the level of detail further.



Products used.


Iam really nosy now, how this one will appear together with the
torpedos...i really am.
Currently they are parked in a safe box.
But before i have to dull down the gloss and
care for little more weathering.
Not much...just subtle and decent...

_________________

www.uschivdr.com

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http://gemimodelleri.blogspot.com/