I hope you all enjoy the pics of my 1/72 Type XXI. Any feedback welcome.
The model kit comes from
https://www.rcsubs.cz/. It is 3D printed and comes in the same 11 prefab sections that the actual U-Boat was produced back in WWII. The conning tower is a single piece, and it comes with the turrets, snorkel, and sky/attack periscopes. There is an extensive amount of photo etching as well. Beyond that, you are on your own. The kit is about 3.5 feet long. You also have to specify what Type XXI you want to build because the water venting hole pattern on the Type XXIs were in fact different. I believe there was at least 12 different pattern variations, and four different conning tower casings. The one I selected was U-2513.
In order to be as accurate as possible, I scratch built the barrels for the 20mm cannon, two antenna, retractable road aerial, and the railings. The inside of the conning tower comes hollow, so I had to scratch build the interior. I added an UZO and hatch from Shapeways, but I scratched built the rest of the interior section to include the two voice tubes mounted where the watch was posted when this U-Boat was surfaced. Now, what most people do not know is the underwater high-speed afforded this U-Boat by using its snorkel caused significant vibration in the sky scope (forward periscope) to the point that it was unusable. This was a design flaw that was caused because the original design for this U-Boat did not include a snorkel, so the problem was identified after it was retrofit and entered final testing. In order to eliminate the vibration a steel casing was constructed that was added after the U-Boat entered operational use. You will not find this feature on any U-Boat models produced by any model company . . . I had to scratch build that as well.
The paint scheme late in the war actually varied quite a bit for the type XXIs (some were a brownish color). However, the conning tower and upper hull were painted with Dunkelgrau 53 from Lifecolor's U-Boat set, which is in accordance with the 1944 U-Boat painting regulations. The lower hull was Rostoleum's Ultra Flat Charcoal. The deck and flat top of the conning tower were black. All the weathering, rust, water line and streaking was done in oils.
Now some historical background. U-2513 was commanded by the 3rd highest scoring U-Boat ace Erich Topp whose symbol was the "Flying Devil". Topp’s XXI originally had the “Flying Devil” painted on the conning tower, but they were quickly removed after commissioning because he was just too well known among the Allies. However, I opted to create shields with the symbol, just to break up the gray.
Cheers,
Aaron