About 12 years ago we took the kids to the Museum of Science and Industry in downtown Chicago. We took a tour through the U-505 submarine which was captured by the U.S. Navy on 4 June 1944. Back then I purchased the Yankee Modelworks 1/350 TYPE IXC U-BOAT full resin kit. This sat on the shelf for many years. I decided to finally build it as the U-505. While being full resin there is not a lot of assembly but there is a sheet of photo etches to detail it. I also have some details I need to scratch build and decals to make specifically for the U-505. I will also make a nice display stand as well.
To start with when I first purchased this kit there was a huge resin mold base along the bottom of the hull. At that time I used my jewelers saw to trim the base off and sanded the keel line. I started with assembling the rear screws and rudders. The screw shafts are brass rods and the rest is photo etch. I then added the front diving planes.
Next I started adding the deck details. One thing the instructions do not discuss is the mooring posts that are present on the deck. I used styrene rods and slightly heated one end to give them the mushroom top. These were then added to the correct locations on the deck per the reference photos.
I am now working on the conning tower. While there was no hull assembly since it is molded in resin the deck and conning tower still require some clean up of the details. I used a scribe and hobby knife to do the clean up. There is a couple of small mold imperfections on the conning tower so these were filled with putty.
Week two of the U-505 was spent detailing the conning tower with all of the kits photo etch parts. For the periscopes the kit provides brass rods. I use a file to flatten the area for the lens. As I was doing the conning tower I noticed two areas on the side where the resin had sunken in a bit. These were filled with putty. The kit did not supply the ladder rungs for the conning tower so I used some fine copper wire to make the rungs.
While the photo etch parts were drying I started to make the pedestals for mounting the submarine. I cut out three different size circles and then used a styrene tube as the post. The tube was notched to fit the keel line on the bottom of the hull.
Next I painted the submarine. After a lot of research I opted to paint the U-505 in the original tri-color scheme used on the IXC U-boats. The lower hull was painted Schiffsbodenfarbe III Grau RAL 7016, the upper hull was painted Dunkelgrau 51 RAL 7000, and the conning tower was painted Blauschwarz 58/2. The decks were painted with satin black to replicate the coating they typically painted the wooden decks.
The kit does not provide any decals so using the reference photos I made the “seashell” logos used on the sides of the conning tower and the U-Boat logo on the front of the conning tower. Due to the small size I matched the background of the decals to match the Blauschwarz 58/2 paint used on the conning tower. This made trimming and applying the decals easier.
I am working on the display base now. The brass etched nameplate from EnM Engraving arrived this week. I just need to sand and finish the wood base. Once the submarine gets mounted I can install all the rigging to complete the model.
Week three of the U-505 U-Boat I started off by assembling the display base. The stands were painted gloss black and then I used a gold paint pen to highlight the base of the stand edges. Once they were positioned I used epoxy to attach them to the wooden base. The nameplate was then attached and finally the submarine was attached to the stands.
Next I used EZ-Line for the jumping wires. I used some acrylic gel to create the cutters used on the jumping wires and then painted them matte black. This completed the model!
In review, working on resin models is interesting. The basic hull just required a little clean up. Most of the build time is adding the fine details. Also CA glue is what is used to attach the details. Regular model glue does not adhere to the resin. Due to the size the photo etch details required small tweezers and a steady hand to get them in place. The kit instructions were very good. The only downside to this kit is there were no mooring cap stands on the deck. Building a resin model is different but this was a fun build for me.
