Phil

You can guarantee i will find your build diary a great help.

Its been fantastically detailed and shows how you have managed some of the kit difficult areas very well.

Been well impressed with what you have done with this one.

Very impressive, loving all the extra detailing. Great job.

Graeme

Thanks Dave - I'm giving it 110% on this one. No detail will be spared! Yes, I'm going to fit a chip with a sonar sound on it, emanating from within the Control Room.

Thank you Alan for your encouraging comments. Much appreciated.

Hi Phil, oh yeah! Lots and lots of tiny details to bring each compartment alive!

I will make most of the parts from scratch Phil. There are some bits like the sink in the galley, buckets, saucepans etc I have bought from Duncans Models, but the majority of details I will make.

Kind Regards,
Phil W

Yes they are. Things like radio units, beds and pipework I will make.

Do you know what the most difficult thing to find? 1/48 scale figures!

I have sourced some good ones already, but the amount of time I have spent on the internet just looking for figures alone is immense. Because it's a U-boat you can't have any old 1/48 figures in there either; a Panzer Commander in full desert gear just doesn't go, do you now what I mean?

Speak soon.

Regards,
Phil W.

I was too! There's plenty in 1/72 scale and 1/35 scale but not many in 1/48.

Shapeways do 3D printed Kriegsmarine submariners in 1/48scale but i'm not totally convinced of their quality considering they're very pricey. Once I start adding figures i'll post some links.

Kind Regards,
Phil W.

Good Evening from 'The Dockyard'.

I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter break?

This weeks update on my build log of U-boat U230 will focus on the cut-out below the Control Room. This cut-out is an internal tank; No.3 Main Ballast Tank, used in conjunction with the other Main Ballast Tanks [MBT's] to dive and surface the boat. Within No.3 MBT is the Search Periscope Mast Well. This housing is where the search periscope retracts to when lowered. On this build I will be blanking off half of No.3 MBT, showing only one half of the search periscope mast well. This decision was made due to the restricted access if I had opted to show the full depth of the tank.

All the parts are made from scratch using plastic sheet and strip. I took my inspiration from a 1/72 model by Frank Dargies. I posted a link to his site on my first page of this build log. Frank has made extensive use of the AMP's available in this scale coupled with his excellent weathering. Unfortunately no such parts exist in 1/48 scale unless you buy the Trumpeter model and even then some of the detail is lacking.

So, to start with I had to temporary fit the Control Room deck to ascertain the centre line of the compartment and thus No.3 MBT below it. I also marked out the location of the Search Periscope mast well by drawing around the cut-out in the Control Room deck. As a side note I will be looking at the parts for the Control Room in a couple weeks.

The attached photo shows the deck marked out with the Control Room tread plate lying next to it.

Once I was happy with the marking out I could transfer the mast well centre line around and then under to give me the location of it underneath in No.3 MBT. I also marked out vertical lines within No.3 MBT to give me the centre lines with which to fix a frame. This frame is a support for the blanking piece I will fit to close off half of the tank. The frame was made from 2mm square strip, cut to suit.