Kooklic Type VIIC/41 with torpedoes!

[vbsargent]

I wanted to do something with my brother that would both be entertaining to us and would also encourage us to get together on a monthly basis. So I decided we should build a model. But what model? Armor is too costly and way beyond our masochism limits. Besides, we really like 1/72nd scale. Aircraft? Well he was never really interested in modelling aircraft. Flying sims, sure, but modelling? Not really.

Well, then it hit me . . . we LOVE Unterseeboots. And we could build while watching Das Boot. True unlike U-96, Kooklic's is a Type VIIC/41, but it is a u-boot.

So there I am doing the model build thing with my brother. He's done plenty of plastic, and model rockets, but no paper. Of course what do I do? I use Kookliks uboot as his introduction. It's going to be a lot of hard work, but knives etc are very familiar territory to us.

We we're busy building the first substructure, the bow, and I was trying to decide if I was going to do the torpedo doors open or closed (I had printed the "open door" mod page).

I looked at the mod page and realized that the torpedo tube image was not round. I don't mean slightly not round, but VERY not round, as in seriously elliptical. That's when I decided: I'm not going to do the open door mod, I'm going to add tubes, outer tube hatches, torpedoes, and maybe even some of the support structure, if it will be visible through the open tube doors.

So, here's the initial progress pics of my Kooklik Type VIIC/41.







Now for the mods . . .
this is the third test build of the G7e torpedo.

the pieces:






fins and propellers cut out . . .






the pieces preformed . . .






Torpedo assembled


















I'm not satisfied with the nose, one side is decidedly flatter than the other due to how the concentric rings were laid out with the connectors all on a common side. Oddly enough when I initially unwrapped the nose they were all askew, but it built a more symmetrical shape. Oh well, back to the drawing board. I am also not satisfied with the textures on the tail fins, I need to verify that they were indeed wood, and I need to re-texture the rest of the torpedo. Add bronze texture to the nose and propellers. It would appear that there were several acceptable paint schemes for these weapons. I have seen examples of blue and off white, bronze tipped, dark green/grey tipped (as seen here), and a few others. I think I will go with either the blue and off-white, or the bronze tipped.

Well, that's it for now . . . progress on creating the tubes etc progresses at a slow pace. Now onward to version 4 of the torpedo!

"It's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go!"

[Rhaven Blaack]

It is cool that you are building this with your brother.
The frame work for the nose of the U-Boat is a good start.
The torpedo doe not look too bad and at 4 inches long, I would say, that it is pretty good.

I take it that you are designing the whole model, or just the torpedo?

[steavejohn1994]

i like these type of models i also have a model basically when i am in my high school my assignment is that ton make a ship model and that model was perfect made from my hand i had seen the pics from forum of these models i like it these are fantastic

[vbsargent]

I can't take credit for designing the torpedo, I am simply converting and re-texturing/re-painting a couple of existing 3d models to paper. I may design my own torpedo at some point as I'm not wholly satisfied with the existing one. The other contemplated interiors may or may not happen depending on a couple of variables.

[vbsargent]

Well this isn't the uboot, but it's opposition. Since I'm soring on the U-boot, I figured that I'd also do a destroyer. Looking at the records of U96 it seems that she narrowly escaped a run in with a Wickes class destroyer in 1941 (in fact it was the former USS Wickes herself).

So I found the only un heavily modified Wickes class model in the largest size that I could: GPM's USS Ward. Then I went about enlarging and painting it as the print from GPM seems a bit too dark grey. I am also goint to attempt to divide the hull shell along hull plates, which means creataing hull plates.

The long and the short if it is that I have to scan the model pieces, trace them manually to create line art, import into Photoshop, add color and texture, then finally print and assemble.

Here is a test textured piece of the rear upper hull, port and starboard.



I may well spin the texture as at present it kinda looks like it has a grain that goes up and down relative to the direction of the hull.

vbsargent

[zathros]

Those Hull pieces look great!!

[vbsargent]

Well, the U-boat is on hold until I get together with my brother again, so it's onward and upward with the destroyer.

I'm pretty happy with my progress on the upper hull skins. I've got some nice textures and a little bit of weathering discoloration, but no rust marking yet . . . . still not sure if I will add individual area rust/discoloration (ie below portholes, and railings etc) or not. I apologize in advance for the large size of the pic. but I wanted to give you an idea of the level at which I am working. In Illustrator I am editing at a 1/4 scale level tolerance (sometimes working on artwork at 6400 magnification), and in Photoshop each individual pixel represents approximately 1/4"x1/4". So you can imagine how intensive this work is.

Enjoy!


A much, much larger version can be seen here: http://s1266.photobucket.com/user/vb...tml?sort=3&o=1

vbsargent

[zathros]

Just so you know, you post these big pics, and the model will be essentially "uploaded", which would be very nice, but just wanted to make sure you knew. I like the big pics and don't worry about it. It does allow better viewing and honestly, I wish people would post them bigger. The forum software makes the pictures smaller if you upload them to the forum, but when you use an image hosting website, they can be huge. Excellent job. I'm not sure I would too many rust spots, during the actual war, the Navy was on top of those ships, as they men basically spent long periods in boredom interlaced with periods of sheer terror. When bored, they made then keep the ships up and they looked pretty darn good.

[vbsargent]

Well, since I am basically doing an enlarge/repaint of a GPM model, I won't be posting all the pieces or artwork. I may have to include a watermark on anything else that I post, just to keep on the up and up. Don't want anybody thinking that I'm trying to pull a fast one.

Just to give you computer savy guys an idea of some of the background info, the previous artwork is comprised of about 8 layers of art and when open the file measures around 650 megs. And I'm using a 10 year old computer with 512 mb of ram. Runing Photoshop on an emulator. It's a wonder I get anything done.

vbsargent