Here is the box for pouring the silicone mould:
The poured silicone not jet cured:
The cured mould and the first cast of “Das Boot”:
The cast next to the Revell 1/350 VIIc:
You can clearly see the difference between 1/300 ( in the background) and the 1/350 model now.
pictures of the finished model soon! I will put up a notice when the VIIc U Boat is available for purchase.
The next ship or boat is ready to go into the silicone. I will do the mould today.
I am really a bit frightened about how the air vents will show up on the resin cast. We will see tomorrow.
If all works out well “Das Boot” will be available next week.
I did some more work on the Typ VIIc U-Boat lately. added the deck and the conning tower. now only a few little bits like the diesel exhausts and the deck fittings and the anchor are missing then it goes into the moulding process.
More to come!
The Type VIIC was the workhorse of the German U-boat force, with 568 commissioned from 1940 to 1945. The Type VIIC was an effective fighting machine and was seen almost everywhere U-boats operated, although its range of only 8,500 nautical miles was not as great as that of the larger Type IX (11,000 nautical miles), severely limiting the time it could spend in the far reaches of the western and southern Atlantic without refueling from a tender or U-boat tanker. The VIIC came into service near the beginning of the war and was still the most numerous type in service when Allied anti-submarine efforts finally defeated the U-boat campaign in late 1943 and 1944.
Type VIIC differed from the VIIB only in the addition of an active sonar and a few minor mechanical improvements, making it 2 feet longer and 8 tons heavier. Many of these boats were fitted with snorkels in 1944 and 1945.
Armament was 5x Torpedo tubes ( 4 to the front 1 facing aft), They carried 14 torpedoes. 1x 88mm naval gun with 220 rounds and various anti aircraft guns ( depending on conning tower typ).
Why, do you probably think, a submarine for Cruel Seas? the rules don’t include real submarine warfare as written. And Yes you are right but the “Boot” is so iconic for WWII naval warfare that i had to do one. I use rules proposed by David Manley in his rules for coastal warfare ( Action Stations). They can be incorporated or combined with Cruel Seas.
So there are quite a lot of U Boat models in 1/350 ,like the one below made by Revell, but they are not waterline and basically to small for my taste.
So I started building one from a 1/400 paper model. I enlarged the size with a photocopier to 1/300 and started cutting and gluing strengthen it at the same time to make casting resin copies possible.
The basic hull parts
the skeleton glued
adding the deck
and the sides. Here alongside the waterline 1/350 model by Revell.
You can see clearly how much longer and wider the model is in comparison .
Next step is to do the upper deck and the conning tower. I will build the tower version as on the Revell model but there will be other types of conning tower later ,too. There will be a Typ IX Boat too in the future!
wargamesgazette 