atic: 1:35 Bronco XXIII with interior

[goshawk823]

I watch every day for your updates on this boat. I can’t wait to see it with paint. Just awesome work.

[DrSchmidt]

Allot of work went into filling and sanding the hull. Building it with interior does not necessarily imply that you can assemble everything in the best sequence. This I had to put quite some work, especially in the keel. But now it's all pretty much were I want it. Then I added plenty of little details. The threaded studs next to the anti skid rails, poller, cleats, the grating above the aft vent valve, the steps up the sail (3D-printed as I neither liked the ones in the kit nor the ones from rcsubs), the mount and the ceramic isolator for the wire antenna....so it's about 90% there and I can start thinking about painting the hull.

[DrSchmidt]

These boats were made at the end of the war when resources became increasingly scarce and time for manufacturing also became shorter and shorter. Looking at many photos I came to the conclusion that no two boats were the same. Antennas, steps, skid rails, location of limber, hatch for pressure tight compartment, all that could be different. So I basically work on the version that later on became U-Hecht (S 170), the first sub of the Bundesmarine (the German Federal Navy).

[redboat219]

Note this Type XXIII with short intermittent deck rail.

could it be that the wooden deck in the Bronco kit was based off this particular sub? You could just cut off the wood grate and use the rails in the kit.

[DrSchmidt]

That was m,y guess too. Fixing points.....that will go on as well, but at the stage when I add the final fine details. In the moment I'm filling and sanding the keel. Too much danger to rip stuff off.

[redboat219]

Found this. Looks like those tube are on the outside the wooden deck to keep it from sliding off.

[redboat219]

Found these photos of U-171 (ex-U2367) on Pinterest

There seems to be a small locker next to the vent grating.

With the closeup of the deck you can see there are short tubular stand offs. There must be some pins underneath the wood deck that plug into these.

The twin capstan at the bow are also offset to the left. On the model it's molded exactly midline.

[DrSchmidt]

Could be space issues.....here's the internal structure of the ballast tank. The round plate in the upper middle ist the valve. I guess there was just not enough room in the middle. of the roof of the tank. That said, the valve is off center, but reaches over the center line, so the tank can be vented completely.



Here's the grill in on the real thing...

[redboat219]

Any idea why the ballast vent grating is offset from the midline?

[DrSchmidt]

I continued with correcting the battery loading hatch. In the original there was a rectangular hatch in front of the sail, that was screwed shut by numerous bolts and that was protected against damage by encasing it in a welded housing. The housing of the kit is O.K., but the hatch itself is too large and the bolts are indicated by dices. Not good enough. So I cut the hatch part out of the housing. Prior, I marked the position of the housing on the hull, as the now missing hath also provided the positioning. The housing has two gaps (front, rear) that don't belong there (hidden by the wood deck when built out of the box). I filled those using styrene sheets, filled and sanded the gaps. Then I adjusted the size of the hatch opening again using styrene and finally I glued the 3D-printed hatch with bolts in its position. Better....









Then I installed the grating that protects the bow vent valve (missing in the kit), The grating is again a 3D-printed part. I removed some material below to give the whole affair some depth.



Finnaly I installed the anti skid rails on the bow section. I made them from 1 x 1 mm^2 square styrene rods.





Getting somewhere....

[DrSchmidt]

The Bronco kit provides a nice basis for building a proper model right out of the box. But in many cases, the kit designers have sacrificed details for the ease of assembly. For example the deck. Every XXIII kit I know displays the boat with a wooden deck in front of the sail. Theses decks existed bit were only installed at port. For operation, these decks were removed and then only two welded-on steel rails provided a rest of footing on the front of the boat. I want to display the boat without the deck in operation mode. Unfortunately the kit has recesses in the bow section to help installing the deck. Good for easy assembly but without deck simply wrong. So the recesses had to go. I cut strips of 0,5 mm thick styrene sheet and glued them into the recesses. Once dried I filed them into shape. Filling and consequent wet sanding....recesses are gone. Next fix will be the loading hatch for the batteries.

[DrSchmidt]

There is the "Vom Original zum Modell" about the XXIII that contains pages with the above plans and there is alos a more extensive book about the XXIII that contains lots usefull info, e.g. th water piping plans, electric plans, ventilation plans....I used it extensively for the interior of my model.

https://www.amazon.de/U-Boottyp-XXIII-Eberhard-R%C3%B6ssler/dp/3763762361/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=2WUU6QC022DL6&keywords=XXIII+R%C3%B6ssler&qid=1677134054&sprefix=xxiii+r%C3%B6ssler%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1

[goshawk823]

A big help is the excellent set of plans by Rössler & Köhler that provides detailed drawings of almost every piece of external equipment. Highly recommended...

https://www.vdmedien24.de/Roessler-Koehler-Planmappe-Uboot-XXIII-Planrolle-Modellbau

I’ve got the Vom Original zum Modell on several U Boats, including the one for the XXIII. Great references as well.

[DrSchmidt]

A big help is the excellent set of plans by Rössler & Köhler that provides detailed drawings of almost every piece of external equipment. Highly recommended...

https://www.vdmedien24.de/Roessler-Koehler-Planmappe-Uboot-XXIII-Planrolle-Modellbau

[Das Boot]

Don’t know what I could add. Definitely a build for envy.