THE U-BOAT BUILD LIST - April 10 2023 blog update

This is my current build list for this UBoat project. It is a work in progress and may change as I learn more.
Here I will explain each build as an overview and then provide a link to the detailed post under my 'Silent running' section.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Thanks! Now I will look for a book or site that shows me exactly what to backdate (but the kits have two different conning towers so I may have lucked out).

Regards,

The AFV club model should need no modifying at all. If you want to check on the boat details and the typical details for a 7c matching the production period go to these 2 sites
https://uboat.net/boats/u438.htm - this link will give you overall production dates and patrols for U-438.

https://amp.rokket.biz/lib_uboats.shtml - This page has all the downloadable articles needed for any info on UBOAT builds.

If you need some more help just let me know and I can sort it out for you.

Ian.

 

[bob letterman]

This is a very interesting thread!!!!

Thanks for posting!!!

Bob

 

[Sharkmouth]

My other Type VII/C

Regards,

 

[Brokeneagle]

My other Type VII/C
View attachment 135217

Regards,

I thought you may find this interesting..........U-295 was a 7C/41 SUB that was fitted out to carry 4x Bibers on deck for a special operation in late 1944 or early '45. Notice the lower platform gun has been removed to probably assist the sub to maintain stability or equalibrium with the extra deck weight. The light stipe around the conning tower and missing tower armarment is usually associated with a boat being used for training (the training stripe was always light yellow), so this may also be a training mission.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Hi y'all.....back for a U-Boat update.
I have been going hard on the mk3 tank models/research and have been away from the subs temporarily but I knew I would be back.
A few of the new builds are

U480 swapped for U-953 - an early 7C with a slotted deck that was retro fitted with a snorkel and late tower for Normandy operations. It survived the war and surrendered in Norway with U863(9D2) at the Trondheim bunker base.
U1165 swapped for U-370 - a Baltic sea operations Uboat that is a late model with a large tower and planked deck but no snorkel and was retro fitted with an 88 deck gun to shell the Russian postions on the coast as they advanced towards Germany.
U1168 swapped for U-1009 swapped for U-826 - a late model 7C with a snorkel and external pipe set-up that surrendered in Ireland in May 1945[and transitioned through Lisahally] with another boat I particularly want to model in a surrender dio, U-516.

New boat - U516 - an early model 9C survivor with a snorkel and fast dive deck that surrendered in Ireland in May 1945. This was one of only 2 slotted subs to be modified with a forward 'fast dive deck'.

It's always unusual what the drivers are to model a particular subject and this next idea was a combination of contemplating some interesting surrender photos from 1945 (since mid last year) and finding a [free]small rectangular coffee table that struck me as perfect for a surrender dio display. I discovered the coffee table on a neighbors junk pile [for council collection] last week that was almost brand new except for a slightly loose leg. It is exactly the right length and width and only low so great for a display.
This discovery, matched with seeing some photos, 'fired me up' for a new bout of research on trying to derermine the Uboats and types that surrendered and where in 1945.
Once I had found this information I focused on images from these locations.
Ireland - Lisahally (transit port)

Norway - Trondheim U boat bunker U861(IXD2) & U995(7C).

These are all great photos and I am still sorting out the details with the Scotland boats all being in transit to Lisahally. I really want to model that look of the crew living off the moored Uboat at initial surrender with supplies and boxes on deck and washing hanging out to dry on the conning tower wires. I love it because it's so busy which is my style.
I just have to mix fact with a bit of artistic liscense as to which boats were next to who. I have found out that U1009 was the first sub to arrive and have matched up some other details but the actual boats seem to move around, which may give me room to move on the positions.

Stay tuned.......

 

[moon puppy]

These are all great photos and I am still sorting out the details with the Scotland boats all being in transit to Lisahally. I really want to model that look of the crew living off the moored Uboat at initial surrender with supplies and boxes on deck and washing hanging out to dry on the conning tower wires. I love it because it's so busy which is my style.

DO IT!!! That's exactly what I was thinking, that's got Ian's touch all over it.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Back again with UBoat stuff.
I have been doing further research looking into the surrender boats at Lisahally in Northern Ireland.
I have also just read a book on their surrender (last week) to fully understand the order of the boats that came in, when they moved and how, from Loch Eriboll to Loch Alsh, then on to Lisahally. This happened over a number of days (in Mid May 1945), as the boats were recorded as they arrived at Eriboll (Scotland), then the crews were moved off and a skeleton crew assigned to stay with each Uboat to Loch Alsh in western Scotland. There the torpedoes were disarmed and removed, then the UBOATS moved onto Lisahally in Nothern Ireland where the final clean-up of the stores and removal of the remaining crew would take place.
The majority of the Uboats stayed here for the rest of 1945, with more arriving from Northern Europe over the next month or so, until Operation deadlight, where they were taken out to sea and sunk in early 1946.
Some boats were issued to other countries as war booty.
I have a number of photos that I referred to in my last post, trying to ascertain where U516 was amongst all this information and after about 30 -40 hours of investigation, research and internet search's, I finally had a clear picture.
I finally pieced it together by understanding that some of the photos are from early May, some mid May and others from June and even July.
Here is a photo that shows the 3 boats I want to do in the first row and U516 in the last row (basically on the same day) :

I was finding it difficult to Identify the boats on either side of U516 but upon closer inspection I realised that the number for the adjacent boat(on the outside) can be seen through the railings of the tower of U516. It is not 100% identifiable but it was enough to compare it with the list of Uboat numbers I had for the surrender and what was left through my 'trial and error' investigation. The only one left in the row was next to the pier but I have only a guess for this one ,U255, as this boat surrendered with U244, (on the far right of U516 - see photo at the top, taken from the plane).

This was all very satisfying and very rewarding after all of the research done.
U516 will be modeled separately at sea prior to surrender in 1945.

Follow the link below for more on this build/project

PART 6 U-BOATS SURRENDER AT LISAHALLY (IRELAND), MAY 1945 1/72 DIORAMA

I have been doing further research looking into the surrender boats at Lisahally in Northern Ireland. I also read a book on their surrender to fully understand the order of the boats that came in, when they moved and how, from Loch Eriboll to Loch Alsh, then on to Lisahally. This happened over a...

modelersalliance.org

So there you go. As usual I have too much on my plate but I will persevere. I figured to ease into all of these complicated dioramas I should start with my U505 sinking in the Atlantic as this will involve using water and lost of figures but with a reduced sub size. This will allow me to experiment a bit before the big ones!
Stay tuned folks!

 

[Iron Mike]

This should be EPIC! Go Ian!!!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Very interesting Ian! Never knew there were so many U-boats and didn't know that they surrendered and were docked all together like this. The photos also show them much how they looked rather than the ones with extra markings.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Very interesting Ian! Never knew there were so many U-boats and didn't know that they surrendered and were docked all together like this. The photos also show them much how they looked rather than the ones with extra markings.

Thats right Paul, they were painted in similar colors but the amount of weathering and peeling paint depended on how long they had been at sea before they surrendered. In the book I read last week, 'The grey wolves of Eriboll', the first hand accounts talk about how rough and weathered a lot of the boats were. One particular boat that arrived at Eriboll, U532, a type 9C/40 long range deep sea Uboat, arrived directly from sailing from Japan, loaded with raw materials and stores. This boat was sent on the next day to Loch Alsh, then Liverpool so that the 'booty' could be unloaded at a dock that had the right facilities. This boats appearance was described as totally rust covered in peeling white and grey paint!

 

[Steve Ski]

Awesome, got this bookmarked! I had never found that one site when I was working my gun deck, excellent intel!

 

[moon puppy]

U2326, the more modern TypeXXIII? I thought those were so much larger than the earlier types but I guess not. Very interesting Ian, can't wait to see this come together.

 

[Brokeneagle]

U2326, the more modern TypeXXIII? I thought those were so much larger than the earlier types but I guess not. Very interesting Ian, can't wait to see this come together.

MP, thanks glad you are enjoying the ride.
The Type XXIII was the smaller model Coastal Boat) and was completed and used on patrols in the second half of 1944, before the Type XXI was ready. Basically the Type XXI was a great design but suffered from going straight into production without prototypes or testing. The testing was carried out on the first boats to come off the line and consequently suffered from lots of issues that then had to be resolved on the next boats being made.

 

[Iron Mike]

Rock on!

 

[Brokeneagle]

U1168 swapped for U1009 - a late model 7C/41 with a snorkel, that surrendered in Ireland in May 1945[and transitioned through Lisahally] with another boat I particularly want to model in a surrender dio, U516.

Well, I changed my mind on this build due to not having enough external snorkel pipes, as well as it being too similar to some others. It also won't be part of the surrender dio now so it is not needed.
U1009 swapped out for U1108 - a late model 7C/41 with a snorkel but NO EXTERNAL PIPE, that surrendered in Horten, Norway in May 1945[and transitioned through Lisahally a few weeks later] with a number of Type 21's.
This is also an interesting subject, as it is one of the very rare Type 7 subs that was fitted with a twin 37mm anti-aircraft gun that were nearly ALL exclusively fitted to the 9C/40's because they were found to be a liitle ungainly on the skinnier Type 7 models. I have only found 2 photos of this Uboat, so it is a hard one to find details for but an expert on another forum gave me some good oil and I can now do it.
As an aside, this particular photo below has been captioned incorrectly in a number of publications , as well as all over the net as U1168, as a result of this incorrect labelling. This made research quite difficult until I got the correct number, after which i could actually start finding out the details to model it acurately.

 

[Iron Mike]

 

[moon puppy]

That's a lot of stinger on that thing.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I liked the photo with the two type XXI subs side by side.

 

[Brokeneagle]

I liked the photo with the two type XXI subs side by side.

Yeah, its quite a rare one and there is actually 3 x 21's side by side, with a type 9c/40 and the 7C/41.

 

[Brokeneagle]

So after a little more research(again) I have changed some builds.
U-67. (Revell Kit #05166) changed to U-507
I realised that if I was going to build U-67 using the deck from the model It was going to be incorrect. Even though the kit is issued as being U-67 or U-154, the forward deck pattern is incorrect. Now, you make think I am being a bit of a 'wanker' but these deck patterns are distinctive and make modelling a number of U-Boats fun because it gives them all little differences.......just like Mk3 panzers or different Sherman tanks etc.
This boat was built by AG Wesser in 1940 and had different details for the deck in front of the coning tower, specifically some of the access hatches were offset from the centre line. The model kits deck matches early U-Boats built at Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg. These boats had decks without the offset center, forward hatches U-507 was also built in 1940 and as a very early model should have all the same early features that I wanted to model on U-67, with all the hallmarks of a typical 9C U-Boat in the early stages of the war - 10.5 cm & 3.7cm deck guns, small tower, wave breakers on the f'ward deck sides and one across the deck in front of the deck gun. These details will make this build a markedly different display to the later 9C builds, which is what this is all about.