Calling all Kriegsmarine U-boat Type XXI fans

[Jimmy Conway]

This class is a must in design, some years or decades beyond others........

Here is a good reference for this class:

Other reference here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=89152&p=451323#p451323

[Jimmy Conway]

There are some nice and good kits for this class in 1/144, in some variety, manufacturer is Revell:
The most common

The Wilhelm Bauer, with mod in the conning tower:

The one with visible interior:

[Jimmy Conway]

Image from the site:

http://www.heiszwolf.com/subs/plans/plans.html

[Jimmy Conway]

This link takes to one 1/48 model:

http://precisionpattern.biz/subs/sub_xxi.htm

[Jimmy Conway]

Here some in 1/350:

From AFV

From Yankee Modelworks

[Jimmy Conway]

Type XXI U-boats, also known as "Elektroboote", were the first submarines designed to operate primarily submerged, rather than as surface ships that could submerge as a means to escape detection or launch an attack.

The key improvement in the Type XXI was greatly increased battery capacity, roughly triple the Type VIIC. This gave these boats great underwater range, and dramatically reduced the time spent on or near the surface. They could travel submerged at about 5 kn (5.8 mph; 9.3 km/h) for two or three days before recharging batteries, which took less than five hours using the snorkel. The Type XXI was also far quieter than the VIIC, making it harder to detect when submerged.


Type XXI U-boats in Bergen, NorwayThe Type XXI's streamlined and hydrodynamically clean hull design allowed high submerged speed. The ability to outrun many surface ships while submerged, combined with improved dive times (also a product of the new hull form), made it far harder to chase and destroy. It also gave the boat a 'sprint ability' when positioning itself for an attack. Older boats had to surface to sprint into position. This often revealed a boat's location, especially after aircraft became available for convoy escort. The new hull design also reduced visibility via marine or airborne radar when surfaced; whether this was a goal of the design or coincidence is still debated.

They also featured a hydraulic torpedo reloading system that allowed all six bow torpedo tubes to be reloaded faster than a Type VIIC could reload one tube.[citation needed] The Type XXI could fire 18 torpedoes in under 20 minutes. The class also featured a very sensitive passive sonar for the time.

The Type XXIs also had better facilities than previous U-boat classes, including a freezer for food.

Between 1943 and 1945, 118 boats were assembled by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, AG Weser of Bremen, and F. Schichau of Danzig. Each hull was constructed from eight prefabricated sections with final assembly at the shipyards. This new method could have pushed construction time below six months per vessel, but in practice all the assembled U-boats were plagued with severe quality problems that required extensive post-production work to fix. One of the reasons was, as a result of Albert Speer's decision, sections were made by companies having little experience in shipbuilding. As a result, of 118 Type XXIs completed, only four were fit for combat before the war ended in Europe.

It was planned that final assembly of Type XXI boats would eventually be carried out in the Valentin submarine pens, a massive, bomb�hardened concrete bunker built at the small port of Farge, near Bremen. Construction took place between 1943 and 1945, using around 10,000 concentration camp prisoners and prisoners of war as forced�labour. The facility was 90% completed when, in March 1945, it was badly damaged by Allied bunker buster bombs and abandoned. A few weeks later, the area was captured by the British Army.

Characteristics:

Displacement: 1,621 tonnes standard
2,100 tonnes full load
Length: 76.7 m (251 ft 8 in)
Beam: 8 m (26 ft 3 in)
Draught: 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in)
Propulsion: Diesel/Electric
2� MAN M6V40/46KBB supercharged 6-cylinder diesel engines, 4,000 PS (2.9 MW)
2� SSW GU365/30 double acting electric motors, 5,000 PS (3.7 MW)
2� SSW GV232/28 silent running electric motors, 226 PS (0.166 MW)
Speed: Surfaced:
15.6 kn (28.9 km/h) (diesel)
17.9 kn (33.2 km/h) (electric)
Submerged:
17.2 kn (31.9 km/h) (electric)
6.1 kn (11.3 km/h) (silent running motors)
Range: Surfaced:
15,500 nmi (28,700 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Submerged:
340 nmi (630 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h)
Complement: 57 officers and men
Armament: 6 � 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tubes (bow), 23 torpedoes (or 17 torpedoes and 12 mines)
4 x 20 mm cannon


Source: Wikipedia

[BB61]

Thanks very much for this particular thread; just what the doctor ordered, so to speak. I've become a very big fan of the type XXI lately. I have one of the Revell 1:144 kits, and it's not bad at all.

[codythecatt]

has anybody done the Revell cutaway model (80-5078)?

[Tom Dougherty]

I have one of the Revell 1:144 kits, and it's not bad at all.

Depends on your point of view. Some of the features are either outright wrong or inaccurate, as Revell used the postwar Wilhelm Bauer for reference, and it was modified after it was raised in 1957. I have a whole list of minor corrections done years ago by Walter Cloots for the SubCommittee. Overall, it's not a bad kit, and it depends on how much work you want to put into correcting it.
Here's a nice build article: http://models.rokket.biz/index.php?topic=393.0
I have the kit with the interior in my stash (as well as the old Yankee Models version). Here's a nice build of the XXI with the interior:
http://modelingmadness.com/review/misc/ ... type21.htm

[codythecatt]

One link that was on the ModelingMadness site, and I didn't see here was

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2 ... .htm#links

with a set of excellent pictures.

[Tom Dougherty]

Found the Walter Cloots Type XXI article in the SubCommittee Report (issue 17). It goes item by item through the Revell kit with corrections.

BTW, the post war analysis of the two Type XXIs by the US Navy highlighted a number of shortcomings. A major problem was that large sections of the hydraulic system and lines were placed between the inner and outer hulls, where they were inaccessible to the crew. And, hydraulics leak...it's a law of nature. Also the snorkle system never worked properly, and the two diesels were underpowered and took too long to recharge the batteries. Yes, it was an advanced design, but at the end of the war, the Type XXI was not really eady for prime time.

[codythecatt]

Just got my Revell 1:144 cutaway #5078. (1992 package)

Some good ... some bad.

Good: the molding is nice and clean.

Bad: As some reviewers have found, the hull parts have some minor warping to them.
Also the instructions are next to worthless. They obviously took large scale drawings and 'zapped' them down to a dinky 7"x10" booklet (that would fit in the box) printed on a grayish newsprint paper. As a result everything is just mush and pretty much an unreadable, useless mess. (must be why it has a 5 difficulty rating?) The online instructions (from 2011) are just copies of the 1992 booklet. Revell should be embarrassed by the trend of their instruction sheets!

But it should make for a fun build when I get around to it next.

Tom: you said you had the modification list? Could I get a copy?

[Tom Dougherty]

Hi Cody,
Sure, zip me an email. I will send you the Cloots SCR correction article and an article I wrote for the SubCommittee Report on the Type XXIs.

Tom

[codythecatt]

Thanks Tom!

[krgf15]

Is the dragon 1/350 kit the same as the newer afv kit?

[Admiral John Byng]

Is there a good book about the Type XXI including development and operational use? I know only one or two made limited patrols but it would be interesting to read an analysis of them.

[thebunkerparodie]

any good sources regarding the type XXI variant?

[thebunkerparodie]

wich part of the Uboot were considered for the alberich beside the schnorkel?

[Vepr157]

I don't think Alberich was necessarily applied to the snorkel (you may be thinking of the radar-absorbing coatings that were). Alberich absorbed active sonar, so the entire hull would have been covered. Since the snorkel is so small compared to the size of the hull, it would not have been particularly important to cover it in the Alberich tiles.

The book at the beginning of the thread is a good reference for the Type XXI. I can also recommend R�ssler's U-boottyp XXI.

Jacob

[thebunkerparodie]

Thanks, I also got the anatomy of the ship on the typ XXI.

https://uboat.net/boats/nc_3535.html
https://uboat.net/boats/nc_3536.html
https://uboat.net/boats/nc_3537.html


Here is the non commissioned typ XXI list from this site, and I got source saying that the russian may have build some because they got enough material to build at least 6 or 8 submarine ,wonder how those russian typ XXI would've look like (some equipment lmissing? no flak turret?)