Revell AG 1/125 U-99 U-boat

Type VIIC was a slightly modified version of the successful VIIB. They had basically the same engine layout and power, but were slightly larger and heavier which made them not quite as fast as the VIIB. The VIIC was the workhorse of the German U-boat force in World War Two from 1941 onwards and boats of this type were being built throughout the war. The first VIIC boat to be commissioned was the U-69. It set out to attack the allied shipping in 1940. The VIIC was a very effective submarine and was seen in almost all areas where the U-boat force operated. Their range was not as great as the one of the larger IX types but they were very maneuverable and relatively fast for a submarine of its time.

The VIIC came into service right when the merchant fleet was almost defeated and the good hunting days were almost over. The VIIc  was the boat that faced the final defeat to the Allied anti-submarine campaign in late 1943 and 1944. U-78's keel was laid down on the 28th of March, 1940 in Bremer Vulkan,  and then rebuilt in Bremen-Vegesack. It was commissioned on 15th of February 1941 and Captain Adolf Dumrese was its first commander. It had only one successful patrol from the 15th of February to the 6th of June 1944 when it was sunk by escorts in a convoy attack with the loss of 29 of its crew members. It had sunk 11 ships worth a impressive 78,072 merchant tons.

First of all the kit is really a type VIIb and not a VIIc but it took just a few cosmetics and it looked just fine dressed up as a VIIc.

I couldn't take all those flooding holes being covered up so I drilled them out. That let in enough light that you could see into the hull so I made a false pressure hull and painted it Panzer Gray. The hull needed to be bent back into shape. It had a bad warp at the bow that really affected its alignment. I had to use a lot of putty cleaning up the aft torpedo tube. I had lost one of the rudders so I scratch built two new ones using the survivor as a pattern.

The propeller shafts were poorly molded so I replaced them with plastic rod. The props took lots of clean up but were nice when finished. I painted them Testors gold then covered them with future then the different washes and stains then a flat coat gave them a weathered brass look that fit perfect with the rest of the ship. I got a bit crazy and drilled out all the flood holes in the upper deck. This took a long time and weakened the upper deck. It became wavy and hard to glue down. I did the best I could in getting it level but if you look down the deck you would probably get sea sick. I scratch built all the tie down points using tubing and a hole punch for the caps. The railing is not correct but I ran out of time before correcting it. It should not be a continuous rail along the tower. It should be a sagging chain area on the second section back. Check out your reference material to see what I am talking about.

I also cleaned off all the surface detail of the tower and replaced it with wire. The front gun lacks detail but doesn't look too bad with  a little work and some highlight painting. I used 2 lb fishing line with beads to simulate the HF antenna wires. It really helps the look of the kit.