Dear Woody-

First, there is Jeff Herne's article, available at this link:

[www.modelwarships.com]

It is a very helpful piece. I also noticed the bulkheads did not fit the hull capitivity. However, when I noticed that the side panelling also were too long, I became worried. I was able to solve that by cutting an indentation into the side of the hull so that panel neatly fits in. I was going to trimn the brass side panels, but thankfully realized very quickly that this would have ruined the kit if attempted. This led me to examine the matter closer, and after a 8th or 9th review of one of two sets on instructions--in Italian, of course--I noticed, after the fact, that you are not supposed to trim the bulkheads at all. The instructions indicate that you grind the stern side of the cavity down, so that the bulkheads fit. Why Amati did it this way is beyond me, given that it woud take so much more work to do this. I imagine that as after the prototype was run to production, they learned of the discrepancy, and offered this as their solution. I think trimming the bulkheads might be a more time efficient solution. As things stand, the extreme stern piece of deck panelling had to be trimmed about a quarter of an inch--I was abloe to do this w/o detracting much at all from detail or contour. Dont think I did anyhting long, as regardless as to whether one trims the bulkheads or grinds out stern side of cavity, overall legnht of hull remains the same.
Anyhow, about the detail of the hull--what messed you up? Was it the drilling of the limber holes?. Or the apparently more pedestrian task of drawing weld lines? A fellow is producing a brass etched set of the detials. Most of it is just templates for the limber holes, torpedo tubes etc. He sentm e a word document of these templates at scale for the Amati u-boat. So detailing the hull should be much less of a chore for me. Drilling all those holes while ensuring uniformity btwn sides would have been an almost overwhlement task. Slight variation in my attempt with the Revell kit is what ultimately made me so disappointed with it--in hindsight I do not recommend drilling out limber wholes for the Revell kit--scale too smale, plsatic medium too brittle.
Anyhow--I seemed to have survived the bulkheand and brass panel issue. And someone just sent me a huge leg up on the considerabe task of detailing the hull.
I think i can continue this effort with Fahne hoch!

Best Wishes

Einsamer Wolf