U-99 'Golden Horseshoe' - AFV Club 1/350 U-Boat Type VII B

C

Caledonia

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I am planning a Dio featuring the 1/350 Dragon Scharnhorst, and would like to include a U-Boat, the one I have chosen is the 1/350 AFV Club Type VIIB. 709 Type VII U-boats of all variants were built during the war, more than any other submarine type built by any other nation. 24 of these were the Type VIIB, which was the mount of several of the early war U-boat “aces” like Gunther Prien U-47, Schepke's, U-100 and Otto Kretschmer's U-99


It is Otto Kretschmer in U-99 I will be doing to remind people that he was one of the more humane U-Boat Commanders.


One of Germany’s greatest aces in the first 18 months of the war, Kretschmer had scored numerous successes – sinking more tonnage (almost 250,000 tons) than any other submariner in the war. On the other hand, after attacking lone unescorted ships; Kretschmer was often solicitous to the welfare of the survivors: He was known to frequently hand bottles of spirits and blankets into lifeboats, and to give them the compass bearings to the nearest land.


Trailing a convoy while submerged in 1940, Kretschmer was using his periscope when he spotted a lone man on a raft adrift far out in the Atlantic, using his shirt on an oar as a sail. He later spent half a day combing his trail to locate and pick up this castaway. This man was later transferred into a lifeboat from another ship the U-Boat ace torpedoed near Ireland.


Kretschmer’s career as a U-Boat commander ended on March 17th 1941 in a wild melee when a submarine wolf pack attacked Convoy HX112. The escort group for the convoy acquitted themselves superbly – sinking both U-100 (commanded by another of the great U-Boat aces Joachim Schepke) and Kretchmer’s U-99. Kretchmer’s boat was forced to the surface; where the crew abandoned her. The RN destroyer HMS Walker was nearby and put rescue nets in the water.


Kretchmer shepherded his men to safety, making sure that all those who had made it off the sinking submarine could swim to the British destroyer and climb up the nets to safety. But by the time the last of his men was rescued and his turn had come to climb up the nets; the chill of the North Atlantic had sapped Kretschmer’s own strength and he could scarcely hold on. Seeing his predicament, a Royal Navy seaman climbed down the nets and pulled him out of the ocean.


Here are a few photos of the Kit. The plastic is a peculiar Khaki colour, some photo etch is included, but to be honest, the plastic it is supposed to replace is better in my view. Some decals are included but non for U-99 although this is listed, also the colour schemes are wrong.


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spanner570

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Now don't you worry Derek, I'll be watching progress. The 1/350 U Boat I built made up into a nice little kit.
 

monica

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nice Derek,i will be watching this one as well i do real like U-boats and should do one


one day ;)
 
C

Caledonia

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Thanks for viewing my friends, plan to do it waterline, weathering at that scale might be a challenge. Cheers Derek
 
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spanner570

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\ said:
plan to do it waterline. Cheers Derek
Don't make the same mistake as me Derek.


I decided to make a sub waterline, and cut the hull along the waterline only to discover when I did the sea there were holes under the hull where the troughs of the waves were, so I had to mess about with filler!
 
C

Caledonia

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Thanks Ron, The kit above comes with the hull option of waterline or full hull. I was going to do it waterline, but I think I will do it full hull for two reasons.


1) Not absolutely sure I will be doing a dio. with the Scharnhorst, I would really like to but space is my problem.


2) The scale draft of the sub is so small, I could live with the full hull in a dio.


Thanks for the tip. Derek
 

spanner570

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I was forgetting it's a very small sub, The sunk one I did here was only about 9" long, about the same as yours I would think?


So you are right, a full hull would be quite easy to 'loose' in an 'oggin base! So yes, no need to do the waterline version.
 

spanner570

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Just look how young the 'Fender party' looks in the first picture....
 
C

Caledonia

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Here is a photo of U-99's Crew. As you may know Otto Kretschmer died in 1998 aged 86; sadly he was celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary by going on a cruise with his Wife, they were going for a meal aboard ship when he fell going down stairs. His injuries proved fatal. Derek


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C

Caledonia

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Finished the basic assembly. A strange way they did the Hull, they provided half of the pressure vessel Will fwd. and aft ends, which are completely hidden when the hull two halves are joined. As this is my first sub, I don't know if this is normal.


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You had to drill out the holes for the rudder posts, I used a 0.5mm drill.


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The hand rails were very fragile and several broke whilst cutting off the sprue and cleaning up. I had to use the four PE items you can see in the photos below as the plastic ones just disintegrated taking them off the sprue. You have to clean up the sprue attachment points after the items have been fixed in place as they are just too small and delicate to hold to clean up. The whole of the Rear Dive Planes, Rudder and Propellers were very fiddly to assemble. Looking at these enlarged photos I still have a bit of cleaning to do. Once that's finished I will prime paint, weather and rig the Sub, so will call this posting finished, and post photos of the finished sub in due course.


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Derek


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