Lost in translation.

[Schmitty1944]

Remember the old Amati 1/72 static U-boat kit from the mid 1990's? I have a lot of nostalgia for that kit because it was the first really completely working static diving RC sub I ever made, in fact I made several of them. I still have one. Anyway, these days you can often find unbuilt kits pretty cheap on ebay (and other places). I bought this one for well under $100. It came with a note in the instructions I had not seen before. I believe it is a correction to the instructions regarding the wood structure that is meant to support the brass deck which I did not use in the RC conversions.

The kit is Italian and I think they didn't bother with an English speaking translator when they added this note:

Jason

[redboat219]

The Amati 1/72 U47 is a beautiul kit but I read the hull is solid resin.
How did you hollowed out the hull to convert it to RC?
Love to get details on your WTC and ballast tank set-up.
ca n you post photos of your work

[Schmitty1944]

Keep in mind this was the mid 1990's (30 years ago) and I was 25 at the time. Also this was quite a while before the Revell 1/72nd U-boat kit had come out. The Amati kit does come with a solid resin hull. I made a mold of it and made a hollow fiberglass copy. I then split it at the waterline and the bottom half was the dry hull type with polycarbonate lids and a central gas ballast system. A bit old fashioned by modern standards but they did and still do work perfectly.

The best thing about the Amati kit by far is the beautiful photo-etch sheets. There is a lot of it and it even includes the sides of the hull near the top so you don't have to hand cut all those limber holes. It also comes with very nice resin detail parts and it is a really early Type VIIB that you don't see often modeled.

Jason