Hi Cash,
That sub brought back some memories!
I got wun o dem U Boats๐
Won it in my 1st (and so far only Ebay auction) several months of Sundays ago.
Basically you get 4 planks of wood ca 2cm thick, two vacuum drawn conning tower halves and a bag of brass sheet, rod and tube, fine black cord, split-pins and a few other odds and ends to make all the deck fittings. With instructions to 'get on with it! Admittedly you did get a moulded deck with all the flood slots precut, albeit a bit over-scale.
Instead of using the supplied plywood to cover and seal the interior I made mine out of 5mm plexiglass. Also made two plexi watertight bulkheads; one astern for the engine room and one in the bow for the radio room.
Radio is 40MHz, antenna comes up through the deck near the bow and runs over the conning tower and down to a stanchion at the stern - as per original.
With dive planes according to plan I never got her to dive. She threw up a splendid 'Walrus moustache' of water but wouldn't go under.
I spent an afternoon in the Deutsches Museum here in Munich (where they have the original U1), bought a book about U-Boot designs WW1 to WW2 wherein I discovered that the dive planes were too small. I also reworked the rudder assembly according to what I found in the book.
I also found that the hull shape wasn't quite right; so out with the chisels, files and spokeshave again to create saddle tanks.
Maybe she'll get another chance to show what she can do this summer - when I've repaired the damage from a collision ...
with the work shop floor๐ญ
At least she has a crew now.
Original Captain transferred from my old Airfix Afrikakorps. She'll also get a new deck gun this summer.
As you can see in the pics I already had the contemporary opponent, an H Class destroyer HMS Hotspur. Both originals were constructed in 1936.
Her crew transferred from my Airfix British 8th Army.
Both are 1/72 scale so the crews 'fit' perfectly. U25 is 107cm LoA. Hotspur ca 135cm.
Congrats to your mate for getting her to dive, looks great on er under the water๐
Cheers, Doug๐
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