Calling all WWI German U-boat fans

[herrmill]

Here's something you won't see everyday, a 44 minute propaganda film of U-35, Germany's most successful U-boat in WW1. It comes from the Imperial War Museum archives & was restored by Europa Film Treasures, an EU project devoted to saving old cinema.

March 31, 1917. Belligerents are redoubling their efforts to attract media attention. The submarine U.35, flagship of the German Navy left the submarine base of Kotor (in today's Montenegro) for a mission in the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Embedding a camera on board, the commander immortalize his exploits destructive.

During the thirty-six days, the U-35 sank twenty-three enemy or neutral buildings. Ten of these attacks are on film. Like the attacks of submarines present in the collective unconscious, enemy ships are sometimes torpedoed without warning. But in principle the artillery duels on the surface or the warning shots before the attack. Sailors can then jump into the lifeboats, but their captain is often held captive. A cannonball or a torpedo to sink enough then the cruisers. Between attacks, daily life on board resumes.

These images are a key document on the trade war (in German: Handelskrieg) raging in the Mediterranean during the First World War. An idealized view of the submarine warfare in the service of German propaganda.

http://www.europafilmtreasures.eu/PY/26 ... ted_circle

[HMS Zulu]

Picked up a Rod Langton 1/200 WW1 German coastal submarine - it's a beautiful model but can't work out which type it's supposed to be, looks like a UBI class but not sure if the conning tower matches?

http://www.rodlangton.com/ww1/ships.htm

[Guest]

hallo

looking for a type "mittle U " boat
special the type SM-U90
i have a drawing but not enough to build a boat from

if anybody has more of this boat contact me please
historical the boat was captured and after staing 1 year at the UK the boat was givven to belgium
thers were three boats to bring to belgium
SM-U90 ,SM-UC5 and the therd is stil ?????
i would like to build the U90 at a scale of 1/35
biuld al reddy submarines for 40 years
regards raf

[HMS Zulu]

Just noticed Combrig are doing a UC-1 Class submarine in 1/350, very useful and look forward to getting one. Regarding the Rod Langton kit I think it's a UB-II type, or at least to me it looks very much like one, handy as I'll finish mine as UB39 which shelled the Durham town of Seaham in 1916

[sirmaumau]

Hope to see more powerful and beautiful sm U-BOAT kits!

[BB62vet]

Here is a current Yahoo listing for U Boat photos from WWI - http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rare-glan ... 24742.html

[NickE]

I would like to hear from those who have an abiding interest in WW U-boats and are scratch builders at heart.There seems to be very few such people about which is a pity and quite disappointing.Besides anything else,there has been a dearth of plans and diagrams on the 47 or so series of U-boats grouped into 9 major types.That is until quite recently,Eberhard R�ssler's"Die unterseeboote der Kaiserlichen Marine"published by Bernard & Graefe verlag;ISBN 3-7637-5963-8.is most likely to be the best work done on WW1 U-boats,particularly in regard to the 48 or so pages of diagrams and official blue prints(albeit reduced in size)including cross sections and profile of U87-92.Not all will meet one's expectations but it is a very good start.A camera,computer and a commercial printer can render invaluable service in supplying the scale plans needed to work from.
A further nuisance for the scratcher is the lack of detailed information on what they are building often made more poignant by the passage of time.Several cases in point(A) On UB88's(one of the surrendered U-boats to the US Navy in 1919)conning tower,on the port side below the black cross and in front of the boats number is a cylindrical devise about 3feet long and about 4 inches in diameter sticking out of the conning tower pointing towards the deck.Any ideas?(B)Also on the same boat is a large painted(?) circle on the deck just forward of the deck gun. This circle looks like a giant life saver,its possibly 4-5feet wide with an inner circle of about 3 1/2 feet.Its position on the deck appears to depend on which U-boat has it.Again any ideas as to its purpose? (C)Usually close by or underneath the bow's net cutter there is sometimes an inverted bowl about 2 1/2 feet in diameter punctuated by many evenly spaced holes rather like an upended colander. Who know what this is for?
I hope this article may have nudged a few of you to have a go with early U-boats.As a matter of interest I have started to build a UE11 series mine layer @ 1/72.One thing that I did not expect was that the two builders (Vulcan and Blohm & Voss), presumably working from the same plans, managed to produce identifiable differences between themselves.In fact I would go so far as to say it is even possible to work out the boats number ,given a reasonable photograph of its profile.
So who knows what you may discover by scratch building a WW1 U-boat.
Until then,
Cheers,
Depthcharge

[sirmaumau]

Exhilarate news! Nick, I m eager to see your UE2 boat! These unique boats always entice me.But the materials are sparse especially their mysterious stern tubes! Hope to get your sharing! Thanks!

[GaryM]

Here Are some Photographs of the UE II Class U-117.

http://tsushima.su/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2364&p=62

[davidwaples]

Greetings all
I have a question about WWI U-Boat antenna masts, specifically for SM U-35. I'm planning on modeling this submarine on patrol for my ship club. I've noticed that while they are in dock, safe waters they raise these giant masts between which is strung some sort of antenna. While on patrol they are stowed on the side of the boat. I'm trying to find some information on how these antenna looked and/or worked so that I can display it correctly. The picture I've provided shows the boat with the masts in the upright position. But again I want to model it in the stowed position. Does anyone have any information or thoughts about this? It looks like they fold towards each other but I'm wondering what happens with the antenna wire and what the storage racks might look like. Any help is appreciated.
Dave

[GaryM]

Hi Hope these help with your project. Cheers

[GaryM]

Hi, Two More.

[wefalck]

You can find many detailed (contemporary) drawings in here:

TECHEL, H. (1922): Der Bau von U-Booten auf der Germaniawerft.- 103 p., Berlin (Verein deutscher Ingenieure Verlag).

Here is a small reproduction of the UBII-class drawings in the above book:



Techel was one of the pre-WWI and WWI U-Boot designers. The book is quite rare, but its drawings have been reproduced in various later publications, e.g. here:

R�SSLER, E. (1997): Die Unterseeboote der Kaiserlichen Marine.- 232 p., Bonn (Bernard & Graefe Verlag).

Not sure what they did with the wiring, but the masts were pivoted and could be raised by a winch and a steel-rope that acted on them like a cantilever, which then also served as stay.

You can see this on my 1995-interpretation of the Langdon-kit (http://www.maritima-et-mechanika.org/ma ... /ubii.html) in 1:200 scale (sorry for the pre-digital quality of the images).







I added a deck of the right shape, the gun and conning-tower cladding that I have seen on a photograph of an UBII-class boat - it seems that modifications were made in the field.

[biggles2]

This may not be the best place for this question, but I�ll give it a shot anyway. On many photos I�ve seen of German U-Boats (mostly B&W), there often is seen blotches of a light (grey?) color all over the conning tower in random fashion. Are these salt stains, or worn/chipped paint reveling primer beneath, or what?

Thanks,
Kevin

Excellent question. I'm surprised it has gone ignored! I've also seen several B/W pics like that. At first I thought it was a camouflage pattern, but realized it was paint worn off. If the lighter exposed color is primer, what color is it? Can't be red primer - it would appear much darker, almost black. Is it exposed bare metal? If so, is it light, like aluminum color?

[davidwaples]

Those are indeed helpful photos. I'm working on the U-35 and the mast head frame seems to be a U shape with supports. I've seen photos where the radio wire appears strung in place ready to pull up and some where they look like they are just laying along the hull. In most cases it looks like a spaghetti mess waiting to happen.

The type 31 boats seem to have this winching up system for the radio mast. However I've seen some late war photos where it looks like they got rid of the mast all together. The earlier class just had smaller poles that the crew just stuck into the top of the hull.

Thanks guys for sharing the photos and your wonderful models.

Dave

[peppe]

some foto of U111
ciao peppe

[bmkerr]

I would like to hear from those who have an abiding interest in WW U-boats and are scratch builders at heart.There seems to be very few such people about which is a pity and quite disappointing.Besides anything else,there has been a dearth of plans and diagrams on the 47 or so series of U-boats grouped into 9 major types.That is until quite recently,Eberhard R�ssler's"Die unterseeboote der Kaiserlichen Marine"published by Bernard & Graefe verlag;ISBN 3-7637-5963-8.is most likely to be the best work done on WW1 U-boats,particularly in regard to the 48 or so pages of diagrams and official blue prints(albeit reduced in size)including cross sections and profile of U87-92.Not all will meet one's expectations but it is a very good start.A camera,computer and a commercial printer can render invaluable service in supplying the scale plans needed to work from.
A further nuisance for the scratcher is the lack of detailed information on what they are building often made more poignant by the passage of time.Several cases in point(A) On UB88's(one of the surrendered U-boats to the US Navy in 1919)conning tower,on the port side below the black cross and in front of the boats number is a cylindrical devise about 3feet long and about 4 inches in diameter sticking out of the conning tower pointing towards the deck.Any ideas?(B)Also on the same boat is a large painted(?) circle on the deck just forward of the deck gun. This circle looks like a giant life saver,its possibly 4-5feet wide with an inner circle of about 3 1/2 feet.Its position on the deck appears to depend on which U-boat has it.Again any ideas as to its purpose? (C)Usually close by or underneath the bow's net cutter there is sometimes an inverted bowl about 2 1/2 feet in diameter punctuated by many evenly spaced holes rather like an upended colander. Who know what this is for?
I hope this article may have nudged a few of you to have a go with early U-boats.As a matter of interest I have started to build a UE11 series mine layer @ 1/72.One thing that I did not expect was that the two builders (Vulcan and Blohm & Voss), presumably working from the same plans, managed to produce identifiable differences between themselves.In fact I would go so far as to say it is even possible to work out the boats number ,given a reasonable photograph of its profile.
So who knows what you may discover by scratch building a WW1 U-boat.
Until then,
Cheers,
Depthcharge

Good morning,

I've just found your post as I'm doing some research on I-124 which is a IJN ocean mine laying submarine that was sunk to the north of Australia. I was told that this vessel is similair to the UE 2 class. Since there is no kits I need to scratch build it. Do you know of any plans that I can use.

Can I use a 1/700 type VII kit as a base kit and back date it.

[GaryM]

I have some details on the UE-11 Class of boat you are welcome to. Drop me a PM with your Email. Cheers Gary

[Dan Banks]

Anyone make a German BII coastal WWI sub, I saw the Langton in 1/200, looking for 1/350?

[drasticplastic]

Model completed -

What manufacturer is this, and is it still available? I've been looking for a WWl Uboat to place with my Vulkan sub recovery ship.