The attached photo shows the two main motor drive shafts cut to length. This length was filed until they just fitted inside the profiled support I made in an earlier post and the 2mm washers on the bulkhead. The drive shafts are 2mm dia brass rod.

The attached photo shows another angle with the main motor drive shafts in place.

More posts to follow soon. Thanks for looking in.

Regards, Phil W.

Evening Everyone. Again! I'm on a bit of a roll so I thought I would post the next part of this build; the casing [top deck].

As I mentioned awhile ago I will be planking the top deck using mahogany strips. Mahogany was actually used on the real U230 so i'm really looking forward to the point when I get to this stage as all the planking so far has been hidden by the plastic sheet overlay on the hull.

I bought the mahogany strips from Cornwall Model Boats for a very modest sum and the dimensions are perfect. The strips are 2mm wide and 0.5mm thick which equates to 4" wide and 1" thick in real life. Studying the photos of U995 the dimensions look spot on.

Before I can even consider fixing the planking I had to factor in all of the other features first so that I would know where to plank.

As the top deck has many hinged covers I decided to utilise the ones on the etched brass sheets supplied with the part-works.

I cut them out using scissors and then straightened them out in a mini vice as the cutting process made the edges curl up. When flattened I sanded the undersides with coarse sand paper so that the PVA would bond well with the MDF top deck.

For added extra detail I also filed out all of the recesses for the hinges.

Using the etched brass sheets as templates before I cut them up provided me with the correct locations for all of the hinged covers.

Marking out the locations with a pencil I could position the covers before the PVA began to take hold; which wasn't long as the MDF just absorbed it almost immediately. Once I was satisfied the cover I was working on was positioned correctly and leaving 30mins for the PVA to cure, I ran a bead of cyanoacrylate around the edges to bond the cover securely.

Once this stage was competed I made hinges using 0.8mm half-round strip. Cut to length then fixed in place with a drop of super glue. Needless to say the excess was very quickly wiped clear using my finger which had become rock hard after fixing several of these covers.

To cut-out, straighten, file the edges, file out the hinge recesses, mark out and then fix the cover and hinges took me over two weeks to compete. In addition to this and again using the etched brass sheets as templates prior to cutting I marked out all the holes that feature along the edges. In total I drilled out 96 holes measuring 0.5mm diameter.

The attached photo shows one of the hinged covers, prepped and ready for fixing.

The attached photo shows the covers filed and prepped and then positioned back in their original locations on the etched brass sheet to show from where they came.

The next photo shows a couple of covers fixed in place, but just important, I pencilled in the centre line which you can just make out on this image.

The next photo is a close up of the previous one showing the retractable bollards. In real life these would be pulled up and pinned so that the mooring ropes could be tied around. As soon as the boat had left harbour they were unpinned and lowered back down into the top deck as shown here.

A further photo showing early progress and again the centre line which will help me lay the first 'king plank'.

This photo shows the forward retractable bollard.

This photo highlights the numerous covers on the forward top deck. These covers when lifted would reveal the forward torpedo loading hatch and where the mooring ropes would be stored under the casing.