Uboat Type II B (1943), Revell 1/144
Good day all,
As far as I can remember, I have always build airplanes, even when I modelled at a (much) younger age.
Recently I received an invitation to join the 'Naval ships and boats' group from David Kopielski @davids_models, thanks David.
Although having no modelling experience at all on floating vehicles, I really liked the idea of this group and headed over to the local modelling store to see if I could find something interesting.
To have a not so difficult kit I chose this tiny German submarine type IIB from Revell in 1/144 scale.
It 'just' consists of 55 parts, not counting the antenna wires.
Sprues look nice, except they lack numbers next to the parts, you have to look them up in the manual which has the sprues drawn and numbers indicate the parts. Ofcourse there are only 55 parts so you can easily recognize them.
Just a few decals which did came on quite nice, even the flag is a decal and did apply nicely after some fidling.
Advantage of building a submarine (at least this one) is that there is no interior which you have to work on, glueing the two halves together gives you alreay the main shape of the model. External parts however, like the periscope, are extending a lot and therefore fragile when applying before the paintwork. Therefore I build the main structure at first and get that painted before applying those fragile parts.
Colors used for the camouflage are a mixture of Vallejo acrylics which I have available, so likely not representing the real colors. I also did some weathering using Tamiya panel liner, Vallejo wash (rust) and pigments. Improvements that can still be done is the grinding, this is something which is not yet going well on most of my builds, not only this one.
Although boats are not really my thing, the invitation for this wonderful group build made me think out of the box. It was, like mentioned by our friend Erik (@airbum) a 'dive' into a different world.
I enjoyed building this Uboat a lot, fitting is nice and the number of parts is sufficient to have a first look into boat modelling.
What a fantastic result, John! Thinking out of the box yielded this amazing model that you must be proud of! I enjoyed so much the build thread as well, a joy to follow!
congratulations, my friend!
Thanks a lot my friend @fiveten. It was a nice 'simple' kit to get experience in boat modelling. Who knows it might be the start of a new era 😉 .
Looks great, John. You did a fine job with your first ship kit.
@gwskat, thanks Gary.
Great looking submarine, John (@johnb). It was a great trip following the build.
@gblair, thanks George, it was a pleasure as well to have you onboard.
Nice John. Building a ship now and then as a side note is not so bad. Sometimes easier than planes and gets the momentum going when stuck on other projects.
@bernardbedeur, thank you Bernard. It was my first parallel build as well together with an Me262. It is nice to be able switch between two builds.
Nice build, @johnb, and a great change of pace. I don't build floating targets either, but have always loved the 1/72nd scale subs and wouldn't say No to building one of them. Perfect for the mantle of my fireplace. You did a nice job on this and it would make a great display piece too! Got a fireplace?
@luftwaffe-birdman, thanks a lot Walt. This type II sub is just 30cm long. We did have a fireplace but removed it two years ago and beginning this year we even removed the chimney from the roof, so no option to rebuild the fireplace.
It does however look great in the cabinet as well.
Nicely done, You should build more boats.
@roofrat, thanks Robert, maybe an aircraft carrier to still have a connection with airplanes.
Fine work, John. Nice photography too. With this sub done, you can add a whole new skill set to your modelling resume. I think the paint work and weathering are right up there with the best output of the ship modeler set. The colors look just right to me. Like you, I hope more iModeler folks will be inclined to check out the Naval Ships and Boats GB and give ships a try. For submarines I have the big 72nd scale Revell U-boat partly done as well as the Gato. Since I am having my hesitations with etch in 1/350, I may work on these builds a bit with the inspiration you have provided. Thanks for the GB build tutorial as well as for posting this little gem.
@coling, thank you for your kind comments Colin, it was great to be part of this group build and, moreless, being forced out of the comfort zone to build something entirely different. It was really fun to build this kit. A vessel in 1/72 will indeed be giant, good luck in finishing that one. Looking forward to it.
A whole new world appears to have opened up for you, and you obviously really enjoyed it, which the main thing, definitely liked.
@chinesegeorge, thank you George, it was indeed an enjoyable build. And that is absolutely what counts.
Great build my friend, I couldn't tell you're mainly building A/P from these postings! Liked!
@michel-verschuere, thank you Michel, for some reason aircraft just attracts me more, but this build was a nice journey as well.
Very nice John. You have a whole new direction now.
You've inspired me to watch to watch "Das Boot" again.
@eb801, thanks a lot Eric, during this build I often asked myself how difficult and hard it had to be for those men to work in such a boat. The movie "Das Boot" really shows that.
That turned out great, John.
@j-healy, thank you John.
Great looking sub, John @johnb !
You’ve done a nice job building and painting it.
World war 2 Submarines are one of my interests in reading about & in model building.
Zvezda makes a fine 1/144 model of a Russian WW2 sub... you need it to keep this German company!
I´m going with the same uboat as you do, but from ICM with different color scheme than Revell. I didn´t like the kit very well. Some parts fits badly. For me became the most work of putty, Mr Surfacer 500 and lot of sanding. Soon I´m going to present my work of the Uboat here. Here's a preview (not finished).
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.