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U-boat weathering

Folks.... just getting to the fun part with my U-boat: the weathering. I've never done a ship of any sort before, let alone one that's been in the north Atlantic for ten weeks. Real ships are few and far between here in the middle of England, and I have no colour pictures of U-boats. Sooo... any help with the following would be much appreciated:

1) What do "salt stains" look like? Where do they appear -- like a tide mark on bits that get wet rarely, a crust on the weather side or what?

2) I can clearly see the diesel exhaust staining on some B+W pix, but does it stop in a hard line at the water line, or a softer edge becuase of the trim of the boat changing and the water surface being wavy?

3) Do you get rust streaks from all the drain holes or just a few?

4) Is it likely that you'd get rust streaks fro the long slot above the saddle tanks?

5) Would there be patches of damaged paint and rust on the conning tower/upperworks etc?

Many thanks in advance for any guidance...

Best regards, Matt

Reply to
Matt Bacon
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I think one source would be the movie Das Boot. There should be scenes in the film that depict the effects water would have on the U-boat.

Reply to
ducky87

Depends on how close aboard the depth charges wentoff. :-)

Seriously, look as Das Boot and U-571 and the article on the U-571 models in Fine Scale Modeler (I forget the issue but their web site might help).

Remember, the smaller the model, the lighter the paint needs to be tinted to keep the model from looking like it was painted with Krylon flat black.

Jim Klein

Reply to
West Coast Engineering

...and keep in mind just how long the life of the particular boat you are modeling was; how many patrols it made it home from. I notice most of the boats on the ULAD sheet didn't make that many patrols before being sunk...weather accordingly.

Reply to
Rufus

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