U540 - Refurbishing a KRICK type VII U-Boat

[salmon]

Ok, how do you do this? Are you CNC, later, or hand fabricating these?
Seriously good work sir.

[steveuk]

Hi Tom, thanks for the compliment. I am fabricating my slotted deck sections by hand. (old school). Using Slaters (or Evergreen) pre cut polystyrene strips. This is the process - I lay a long strip on the glass against my metal rule. Then I use a dab of normal Revell poly cement to cement the tiny fillet pieces into place. The fillet spacers are little squares which I chop to size on my adapted hand held guillotine tool. When a complete row of spacers are glued in place another strip of polystyrene is glued against these. Repeat the process until a large area of of pre fabricated slotted deck is made. I generally go to about 5 or 6 strips. This can be cut down to fit major deck slot areas by transplanting them in. But for deck hatch covers the slot spacers are of different size. This is because of the underlying metal frames on the real thing which give rise to the typical 'X' type pattern. So I do the same process but chopping the fillet spacers at different lengths to suit. The model makers guillotine tool is a neat tool to have because it cuts dead square. If you don't have one I thoroughly recommend getting one. There are different types on the market. All essentially use a Stanly knife blade (box cutter blade US) on a hinged handle and have a cutting fence to keep the cuts dead square. This pic shows a finished set of 6 'planks' width, you can see some of the tiny white square spacer fillets also.

[steveuk]

New Keel -

Having removed the lead bar keel as previously mentioned I had to build a new keel for her. Took more time than I thought. But I am happy that I did it. Here are some pics I took whilst building it. You can see I have also started cutting out the main ballast tank inlet vents out of the hull. I have since filled it with pieces of the lead bar and filler and it is now attached to the model.

[steveuk]

update - New keel has now been fixed onto the hull. Some of the original lead bar is inside it. Also I have finished making the Main Ballast Tank inlet vent frames and door mechanism. These are now fitted too.

pic left - shows making box section for the vent frames. Styrene sheet is glued around tool steel which just happened to be the right size, and is nice and square section. Box section then sliced into the 8 individual frames.

pics middle and right - show the mid keel section with MBT inlet vent doors. I wanted these in the open position because I find them interesting.

[steveuk]

Step 14 - Anchor well

Now that the keel is replaced I am continuing with hull cladding. All the forward section is now covered and ready for the final riveted panels later. I noticed the Krick anchor well is very shallow. So I decided to fix this by replacing it. I made a simple push mould tool from wood offcuts and heat formed a new deeper anchor well. Hot air gun supplied the heat to soften the plastic sheet. The heat form process took seconds. Making the tool and frame took hours. But I will be able to use the frame to heat form other things of similar size in future. So, the new anchor well is now glued into the hull. Finally I marked out and cut the anchor well along the hull separation line. Still needs a bit of neatening up, and I will build up the outer rim detail once the final riveted side panels have been glued in place.

[salmon]

Learning more each day. This is great information. Thank you for taking the time to share!

[steveuk]

You're welcome, Tom. I'm glad you're along for the ride. I expect much of what I am doing will not be taken up by others wishing to improve their Krick model. Hopefully some of this info will be helpful though. And its a neat record of my journey with this. This model has particular value to me because of its history. I bought her off a very good friend after she spent a week on the bottom of his local lake. So this is really giving her a nice overhaul and re-lifing. He is enjoying what I have done with her so far. There are lots more surprises to come.

[steveuk]

A little more progress. Main hull weld lines were drawn in and then 0.10 thou styrene rod glued in place. The company who makes this fine rod is Slaters. For some reason the rod comes in red. Makes it nice and easy to see I guess. I also scribed in some round inspection hatches.

[scott t]

Looking good Steve.

[steveuk]

Thank you Scott. Working on the stern control surfaces atm. Mostly engineering work, which is not my specialty. Still, rudders are now relocated in the right place now and working with full throw. Next is to relocate the stern planes. I will get some pics when this is done. Also been marking out 0.10 thou plasticard sheet for the new detailed upper hull panels with drainage slot and rivet line positions. I think I will have these finished soon.

[scott t]

So is this the .010 styrene rod you are using? I have heard of others using thread super glued for panel lines.
What might the pro / cons be with each?

[steveuk]

Hi Scott, yes those are the exact ones. Great for weld seams. The Krick hull I am working on is styrene and so are the rods, so I can use styrene cement to glue them on. Styrene cement melts and fuses the two together. This gives me some fudge time to adjust/slide them into position if they don't go down exactly along my pencil lines. Using thread would also work, but would need a contact adhesive. Superglue would be my normal choice there, but no fudge time with that. Plus Superglue has a habit of sticking me to the model! There's probably a method of holding the thread down and then applying the superglue. I would be wary of holding onto the thread because of the wicking effect. (Been there done that).

[scott t]

Thanks for the information. Makes sense doing it that way for the maneuvering time.

[Ben Brigham]

My god, what an enormous amount of work! Well done, steveuk!!!

[steveuk]

Cheers Ben. Got a little more done today. Stern planes are now in and function well. Working on the prop shaft A frames today. My gosh, there is so much happening around these prop shaft bearings. Very demanding to get the angles and joins right. Six separate pieces of thin brass bar have to connect onto 2 brass tubes! Using the line drawings I have made a jig to hold all the pieces in place whilst I attempt to silver solder. (Silver solder has defeated me twice so far.) Hopefully the proper flux, Borax, will make this work. Photos tomorrow, hopefully of success!