Here is another beautiful diorama by artist Ken Hart, featuring the XXI U-Boat in Dry Dock! The fine details and wethering on this piece is staggeringly fantastic! Not to mention the excellent photography of it! Beautiful!
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Here is what Ken has to say…
Here’s another one – a WWII Nazi Type XXI U-Boat in drydock.
It was an interesting diorama project, and a bit unusual. Again, I’m not happy with how the slides didn’t scan so well onto the computer, but they’re all I have left, except for the magazine they were featured in. Attached are the photos, and below is the text.
— Ken Hart —
Type XXI U-Boat in Drydock diorama
Instead of another peirside diorama, I decided to try something a little different with the then-new Revell (Germany) 1/144 scale kit No.5081 Type XXI U-Boat. This kit was retailing for $20.00 back in 1993. (Revell also offered kit No.5078 with a cut-away hull to reveal the port side interior.)
It was a really nice-looking model kit, quite unlike most of the older American Revell plastic kits – and the Type XXI had sleek hull lines, which I didn’t want to cut down to a waterline form. So I went with a cut-away drydock scenario.
A 28″ x 16″ base board was fitted with a “L” shaped riser to form the cut-away basin, upon which stand the drydock’s support buildings, cranes, and effects.
Preiser brand N-scale model railroad figures are 1/160 scale, but close enough. Once the Type XXI U-Boat model was completed and weathered, I had some fun creating the rest of the effects. After I’d cut open the bay doors on saw-tooth roofed machine shop, I fitted the interior out with a complete I-beam support structure using Plastruct I-beams, and even fitted it out with an electrical bus system, conduits, HVAC ducting, a 3-phase overhead gantry crane, and a few floor machine tools.
Model railroad stores are treasure troves for diorama builders. Those guys are the kings of scenic settings, plus there’s all kinds of photo-etched train detailings that work well elsewhere.
This diorama was built in 1993-94, and was featured in Scale Modeler October 1996 (Vol.31, No.10) Part I, and December 1996 (Vol.31, No.12) Part II. Then it was featured in FineScale Modeler January 2006 (Vol.24, No.1).
UD1 – Starboard view of Type XXI U-Boat in open drydock setting, circa late 1944
UD2 – Stern / starboard view of U-Boat in drydock
UD3 – B&W stern / starboard view of Type XXI U-Boat
UD4 – Stern oblique view of U-Boat in drydock
UD5 – Oblique forward view of U-Boat in drydock
UD6 – High oblique view of U-Boat in drydock
UD7 – Starboard oblique view of stern half of Type XXI U-Boat
UD8 – Closer view of starboard stern of Type XXI U-Boat
UD9 – Close view of starboard conning tower and hull
UD10 – Close view of front of conning tower and forward deck
UD11 – Starboard side of bow half of Type XXI U-Boat
UD12 – Closer view of Type XXI starboard bow
UD13 – High oblique view of port side stern end of U-Boat
UD15 – View of side of machine shop building
UD16 – Another view of machine shop building
UD18 – B&W view of front of machine shop building
UD19 – B&W high oblique view of U-Boat
UD20 – B&W high oblique forward view of port side of U-Boat bow
UD21 – B&W view of conning tower
UD22 – View of entire open drydock with Type XXI U-Boat.
UD23 – View of systems installations inside machine shop building
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