by Christian Bruer
1/350 DKM U-552 Type VII/C (Artitec)
Many words have been written about German U-Boats, especially about VII/c Boats. So I will only give some information about the Boat I chose to build – the famous U-552 – the Red Devil Boat- under command of Oblt. Z. See (Lieutenant ) Erich Topp. U-552 was commisioned on 4th December 1940 in Hamburg by Oblt. z. See Erich Topp. Erich Topp commanded the Boat until 8th Spetember 1942. The Boats emblem, two red devils where brought along by the commander from his former Boat U-57. When Topp left the Boat, Kapitänleutnant Klaus Popp took over the command of U-552. He commanded U-552 until 10th July 1944, when the Oblt. z. See Günther Lubbe came on board. Lubbe commanded the Boat during the last month of the war and he and his crew sunk the boat on 5th Mai 1945 during operation “Regenbogen” in Wilhelmshaven.
Artitecs Typ VII/c in scale 1:350 is a full hull resin model. The kit contains only 7 resin parts and a small phot etched fret. The model is easy to build, there are only some gaps to fill around the coning tower. I choose to build the Boat as a waterline model. Sanding the lower hull was easy to do and a quick job! I have added some extra parts on the deck gun – hand wheels, telescope, gun barrel etc. and new periscopes on the coning. The 2cm Flak was made of scratch parts and some sprue. Before I paint the model I add the photo etched parts. They are not as fine as WEM or GMM but still ok. I paint the whole model with WEMs Colorcoats KM01 Hellgrau. The deck was painted with mixed Valejo Acryl in blue gray. The emblem – a red devil on each sie of the coing tower was hand painted. The weathering was made with oil colors in different shades of grey and brown. There are not many details on an 1/350 scale U-Boat either you do some work around the Boat like a harbour scene or a repair scene in dry dock. I finished the model for the Lübeck model show in April 2008 and dicided to make a small display with the Boats gun in action. Some Preiser and L’Arsenal crew members are on station on deck and conning tower. The water was made of silicone with some cotton wakes.
Building and painting Artitecs VII/c was pure fun. I have two more kits of it and some interesting ideas for other small scenes.
