U Boat waterline?

Any tips and/or references you could provide for your dio would be most appreciated, I've been toying with the idea of doing something similar. Thanks!

Graham 'Rip' Townsend

My main references are:

1. the Squadron in action book on U Boats;
2. the Andrea Miniatures "Das Boot" book on their own U Boat diorama;
3. a web site
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   that has great S Boat drydock, at sea clash, and U Boat loading at sea dioramas (among other fabulous dios);
4. the old VLS diorama of the U Boat being boarded by USN naval personnel; and
5. the old VLS diorama of the Corvette in drydock.

The drydock dio I'm planning would involve opening a lot of hatches and having food, stores and torpedos in the process of being loaded from rail cars and trucks while repairs made to the hull.

For at sea I'm thinking of two particular scenarios. I'd like to have a surfaced U Boat firing on an unseen merchant ship while other U Boat crewmen are filming a lifeboat full of British merchant marine crewmen. That's probably the easier of the two. The other would be an at sea replenishment dio. The dynamicdioramas has a great dio of supplies being loaded from a trawler. There's also a good photo in the Squadron book of "rare" cooperation between a Luftwaffe float plane and a U Boat.

I've ordered the WEM photo etch parts for the U Boats and the Andrea Miniatures and Hecker & Goros crew figures. I think they're much nicer than the CMK resin figures.

Mark Levine

Thanks Mark. I'm buying ref 1 but ref 2, although it sounds excellent, is a bit expensive considering I don't habla Espanol! Some great stuff at ref 3, had forgotten that site. Thanks again, good luck!

Graham 'Rip' Townsend

Graham,

The version of the Andrea book that I picked up has English text. It IS pricey but it's also quite nice with some good historic photos, excellent charts on U Boat aces and their boats, and most important of all, great color photos of all the details of their U Boat diorama. While not all of it is applicable to small scale modellers it does provide quite a bit of inspiration...and food for thought.

I'm also pursuing the Scenic Effects resin drydock kit. I've found out that the initial runs weren't up to par but a second run is taking place which, theoretically, will improve the product. It is also pricey but if it all it does is provides a good base and dry dock facility it might be worth it.

By the way, I plan on using the Design Preservation Models system for the building facades on my diorama. While they're HO they can easily be adapted by replacing the doors with Grandt Line S scale doors. Windows don't really matter, IMHO. Similarly there are some crane products from model railroading mfgers which could serve as a good visual diorama segue between the dock and the U Boat.

What are your plans?

Mark

Where did you manage to find an English language version? I did consider buying just for the pics & diagrams but $80 is a bit over the top for a book I couldn't read...

TRied finding that but again no joy - do you have a link to it? How much will they be resaling for?

The DPM stuff looks great - would make good low relief backdrop models to the diorama as well as full size buildings. You're right in that the model railway types are a good source of ideas and kit for this; I've seen some great layouts with photographic backdrops too. If done properly they can look very convincing.

My plans are pretty basic just now - haven't even bought my U-boat yet! I'll add the White Ensign and Modelbrass PE sets, also the H & G figures you mentioned come highly recommended. Then I was looking at a few trucks etc on the dockside, a travelling crane, maybe even incorporate a rail track with an engine and some wagons bringing in stores? The possibilities are endless really...

I can see this becoming a rather large and expensive project! Not unlike the corvette really, better not tell the wife just yet ;-)

Graham 'Rip' Townsend

Save a few dollars on your next project after these two and use the left over below waterline bits for the dry dock or factory construction site during the air raid dio.........

That way the wife can be impressed at how much money you are saving by making three projects out of two model kits!

Just don't tell her how much those three Lancasters cost!

Hope this helps, Peter