Merit 1/35 x-Craft

Hi There,

Whilst Innis and I were building his Mustang, I was building this as a side project for myself.

I didn't mean to get right into it but after taking it in to work on a Sunday evening to drill out the flood holes it got the better of me and the fit of the hull pieces was so good I had to get going with it.

It was primed with UMP black primer, shadow coated with Tamiya flat white.

The Hull was painted with Lifecolor Dark Admiralty Grey and the deck with Tamiya Nato Black.

Weathering with oils and finished with Galeria Satin varnish.

It sat for about a week while I summoned the nerve to weather it and I hope it's not overdone, but it looks good to me.

A wee bit of back story.

My dad was a Submariner during WWII and was quite guarded about the stories he would tell. If it was remembering the good times he was happy to talk but that was usually it.

In one unguarded moment he told me about a mission where they were towing an X-Craft out to take it to it's operational area and when they surfaced to transfer the operational crew there was no sign of the X-Craft. A search was mounted but nothing was ever found. This still bothered him.

In my meagre research regarding this I have come to the conclusion that the X-Craft would have been X-9 and this would place my Dad on HMS Syrtis as part of Operation Source against The Scharnhorst.

This gave me a personal connection to this kit and as such I had to make it.

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.