Recent uboat pictures

[Von Hilde]

Ive been a little slow at the scrutinising of all these new pictures lately. "Every picture tells a story" so they say. The wide assortment of unusual weapons placement and guns has caught my attention. I have been researching the smaller calibre crew defense weapons that were on board. They had a small arms armory such as automatic pistols, a few Mauser bolt action rifles and some MP 40 SMGs for boarding partys and port security. The picture of U 601 with the guy in the arctic hat on the bridge shows the tower mounted MG-15 light machine gun. Thats an old WWI gun used early in the war. 600-800 round, single or twin Drum magazines They were upgraded to MG 42s in 1942. Most boats had at least two in water tite cans up on the tower with several, various mount placements. As the war progressed, they were found not effective for anti aircraft, and were discontinued as standard armorment. I am pondering putting one on my 1/24 type II since there are some available in 1/24th from military miniatures Armor accessories. I believe there are some in 1/35th as well altho on my type VII, I just mocked up the containers and put them in the corners of the ducting for the air intakes on the tower bulkheads. I didnt want to spend the money on a bunch of accessories for one little resin machine gun a whopping inch and a quarter long, with limited detail.MG-15

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

U1407. Captured at wars end and successfully tested and studied. With great effort it was not shared with the Russians. It was named HMS Meteorite. It was powered by a Gas Turbine powered by HTP(hydrogen Peroxide). It was designed to have two such turbines aboard. Here is some good reading material on it.http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Dits/Articles/meteorite.php

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

Notice the type 23 in the background of this one. Quite a size difference.

[Von Hilde]

U 646 with the elephant has the MG-15s deployed on the tower. I wonder if they were expecting trouble. Generally deployed when in neutral ports like coastal Portugal for boat security or when alongside questionable vessels. There is a rare picture of the twin Breda 13mm flak with top loading box magazines. Generally these weapons were belt fed from left the side. Initially, when the started mounting the twin 2cm c30 flak they had to mount the second gun on the right side, sideways to be able to load the magazine from the top. When they paired up the Breda for the navy mounts they converted from belt to box fed and turned both guns on the side so the mags top loaded. The Bredas were an attempt at up armoring the little 7 mm machineguns for close support. Basiclly like changing from a 30 cal brownings fire power to a pair of Ma Deuce .50s. Definately will knock down a plane or tear up a fishing boat.

[greenman407]

If you can hit it.:biggrin:

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

[Von Hilde]

somebody spent a lot of time on the CAD drawings. They look good at first glance. Too bad most of the details are incorrect. The deck looks like metal grillwork instead of wood planks with slots cut in them. Crews hatch forward is on the wrong side as well as the torpedo loading hatches. One would also wonder where the air ducting for the motors are on the tower. The DF antenna slot is always forward on the starboard side of the bridge on the type VIIs, just to point out a few. I would say the artist didnt pay attention of the details on the actual pictures of the boats he used for referances, but just drew his impression. Thats fine for artistic licence, If you draw or paint impressionistic work. But a CAD drawing should be a correct and accurate representation of the subject. IMHO

[greenman407]

Absolutely, why go to that much trouble to render something incorrectly? Maybe his subject matter was a drawing that was itself inaccurate.

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

Whats the world coming to? Without the internet or your computer....you cant do nothing. Anyway I have got get some pictures up on here.