Good evening from 'The Dockyard'.

More progress this week. The attached photo shows the rear set of guard rails painted, weathered and fitted.

Front set of guard rails.

I could then make these lengths of wire into the temporary guard rails that would fit between the front and rear sets of permanent ones.

The attached photo shows the wires fitted. They are held at each end by a 3mm length of brass micro tube. The steel wire was threaded through the tube, then around a stanchion, back through the tube and pulled taut, glued in place and trimmed.

Wires shown connected to the rear set of guard rails.

Conning tower fitted as well as the front antennae wire and insulators.

Drum roll please! My 1/48 scale model of Type VIIC U-boat U230 IS NOW COMPLETE!!!!!!!!!!!

From above.

That concludes this week's post and also the final weekly post of this build!

The plan is to make an oak plinth, with engraved brass plates for mounting the model on. Once done, i will take a load of 'proper' photos and post these in the Finished Build Gallery.

I will then see about making a display cabinet for the model and once done, i'll post some pics. I'm thinking this will be late March /early April.

So, before i sign off, i thought i would end this post with some stats, so here goes.

Model Space
Total pages: 138
Total replies: 4,729
Total views: 1,393,665

Some selected costs from the total project.
Tread plate: £167.57
Glue: £125.28
Crew: £204.39
Embossed decals: £360.29
Paint: £467.33
Total cost of project: £3,249.44
Total time: 7 years, 5 months and 6 days. Approx 2,700 hours, based on an average of 7 hours per week.

Thanks for all your kind comments of support throughout this build, it's been an inspiration at times, especially through stages of ' just grinding it out', when it seemed so daunting!

A few beers for me tonight to celebrate i reckon. Have a great weekend folks and happy modelling!

Regards,
Phil W.

I bow to your expertise sir.



This build diary has had me engrossed for so long that I fear I may get withdrawal symptoms now its finished.

I don`t know how, or with what, but I hope you have something else in the pipeline for us as I will miss my weekly visit to the dockyard.

High Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Thank you Del! It seems strange to write these replies knowing the build is done. I do have another project underway, but not a maritime project!

I put myself under a lot of pressure to ensure i posted on a weekly basis, but after a while i enjoyed it and saw it as a way of closing out each week of progress. It will feel odd not having to worry about next weeks post at this time. I will be starting new projects and new build diaries, but can't guarantee these updates will be weekly. Thank you for your support, much appreciated.

Regards,
Phil W.