Hello Kiddies....

Well, I went to a hobby store in Manhattan to get some basic supplies to finish up my Tiger tank. Was perusing the kits. I found some knock off of the 1:200 IX Nichmio kit for only $10.00. While contemplating the one law about being penny wise but pound foolish, I started talking about the Amati kit with the store owner.
As it so happened., he had it in stock, and was offering at the same price as model expo. I told him about the horror stories folks have recounted about fitting issues, and how that and the price cowered me a way a couple of years ago.
Well, he let me look in the kit box. I asked him some questions, and examine the parts with great interest,trying to discern what was so impossible about this kit. As I soon learned, he is a professioanl modeler, and does commissions regularly. He built the Amati kit. He said he built it in 50 hours, that for me would require 100 hours.
The kit is now in my apartment. I have begun constructing the bulkheads: a time-consuming process given the fairly intensive sanding required to make a good fit.
So.,.. now that I have taken this challenge head on, I was wondering what words of wisdom modellers might have. I see the bulkheads are about a half inch too long for the hull. A bit of sloppiness on Amati's part, but as far I can tell, simply clipping one of the beams to tailor the actual length should suffice to correct this. Beyond that, other issues I already now anticipate from more closer inspection of the kit include:

* the hull; it has NO detailing at all. Any tips on how to inscribe the torpedo tube shaft, other lines on the hull would be appreciated. Recommend a modellers knife to do it? If not that, what? Beyond that, how does one get parallel lines on both sides?

* the deck gun leaves something to be desired. This kit is incredibly beautiful. And whereas before I thought it was egregiously expensive, it is less expensive than pissing money down the drain on the Academy kit (whihc I thankfully receieved a refund for, it was so defective) and to a lesser extent even the Revell kit. But the deck gun is, as Jeff Herne points out, too small. He talks about bying a 10.5cm gun by Roco to replace the defiicent barrel, but the exact name of the kit was never mentioned by name. Curiously enough, there is a deuthsce U-boot fittign availabe at floating dry-dock, but it is in 1:96. Why that scale I cannot say, since I am not aware of any kit presently offered in that scale. Anyhow, I need guidance on this issue....

* mounting the machine gun on the Wintergarden. I want my wolf cub to represent the war tiem campaign in the Atlantic, not the pre-war cursor that immediately preceded it. That means the machine gun mount provided has to go, for, as far as I know, the mount used on the early war wintergarden was small and mauch dfferent. Any suggestions as to how to fabricate a machine gun mount for the wintergarten? I wuld like to do this without having to forego the railings provided--ie, I dont want to have to also make the railings. I want a gun on the Wintergarden while still using the railing provided.

* related issue--have not consulted plans yet, but just by eyeball reference and intuition, the AA gun also does not seem right, seems a little large. Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated

* beyond this, I dont have anything else that comes to mind, except that if any modellers have run into to some hidden trap, please advise me in advance as to what those traps are in detail. Fitting the side brass panels of the hull and the brass floor does not seem too difficult. But I have heard, a number of times, that this part of the construction presents unforeseen difficulties. Any enlightmennt on this would be appreciated.

This post, having come to more than sufficent length, should come to an end. However, I thought friends I have met on this forum and friends i have yet to make would want to hear this news. I can tell this will be the most formidable modelling challenge i have yet faced. But at the same time, given all the notoriety of this kit as being especially difficult and trying, if not impossible for anyone except the hardcore, professioanl modeller, I must say I am much less intimidated by it than I thought I would be.

Thanks in Advance,

Einsamer Wolf