THE KIT
Artitec provides a very clean, well-cast resin hull that required
only minimal sanding. The sail and deck gun came as separate resin pieces and
were easily removed from the pour rails. The photo-etch fret in the Artitec
kits is excellent. It seems a little think for the scale, but it provides extra
stability when shaping and cutting, a tradeoff of which I am in favor. They also
provide a small length of plastic rod for the propeller shafts and the
periscope, although I replaced both with proper diameter brass rods and the
periscope with the end of a guitar G-string. No decals are provided and the
crude stand is better replaced with the brass rod-mounting scheme that most subs
of this scale receive. The kit has excellent instructions that are helpful in
construction as well as paint schemes for u-boats of the type and period.
CONSTRUCTION
I did everything pretty much per the instructions...at first. I
did replace the propeller shafts with brass rods and the periscope with the
guitar g-string. After construction and after priming, I realized the rudder
control assembly was missing! I must have lost it during the trip between my
bedroom and the basement where I airbrush...After giving up hope of finding the
pieces, I scratch-built the entire assembly using brass rods and a piece of
aluminum. I used WOLFPACK by
David Jordan as reference. This was my first u-boat, so I did my best with the
rigging. I know it's probably not 100% accurate but it looks decent. This is not
a contest piece.
PAINTING
As I mentioned, I airbrushed the model with PollyS Light
gray primer. I then masked the top of the sub as per the scheme noted in the
instructions and painted the bottom hull a mixture of PollyS Dark Panzer
Gray and light gray. After drying, I masked the bottom hull with BLUE
masking tape, low adhesive, and painted the deck PollyS 63 Light Gray. I
then applied a wash of 2 parts dark gray, 2 parts NATO black, 2 parts dark brown
pastel dust and 10 parts water. The water and rust stains were done with
pastels. I thought at first it was too weathered, but an expert friend of mine
said there's no such thing as a "Too weathered U-boat".
Overall, this is a very nice kit. Artitec provides indentions in the
hull to show where pieces go, a guide for bending railing, and exact lengths of
rod to cut for the shafts. I've never found any of these things in a BWN
kit. I wish Artitec made more military based kits. At $21.95 this is a
steal.
Brad Crisler
Florence, AL
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
|
