As many of you know, I have involved myself in the 1:72 uboat kit by Amati. During the course of the construction process, I had been considering making mine u-48, or at least some other u-boat than u-47. It may seem silly to some, but I do not really want a u-47. Not because I am not intrigued with Prien's exploits at Scapa Flow and elsewhere, but I guess because most everyone who is able to build this kit successfully builds a u-47. I want my wolf "cub" to be more distinguished. Besides this, the u-47 emblem is not nearly as interestig to me as the cat or swordfish emblems. (I am already looking forward to painting one of those exciting emblems by hand!)
Well, I sent an email to Rainer Bruns inquiring about this. As it turns out, the tower provided in tjhe kit is a version of Turm 1. U-48 had a version of Turm II, evidently a very peculiar one at that. The most immediate differences include opposite angle of slope on the aft end. In addition, the u-48 tower is more elongated heighth wise. (I wish there were a way to submit the wonderful photos Rainer shared with me) THe bottom line of this is that if I wanted my uboat to accurately depict u-48, I would have to build the tower entirely from scratch. (I had thought about cutting of the stern side, and building it, with the proper stern side angle and Wintergarten from scratch, keeping the bow half as is. But this could only be done if some Turm IIs--most definitely from u-boats other than u-48-- were not elongated in this way. So my first question is 1) do all Turm IIs share this elongated feature?

In all events, I would still like to have the classic tower with the anti-aircraft gun mounted on the circular Wintergarten. However, at the time of Scapa Flow, U-47 had the anti-aircraft gun on hte aft side of the deck. Because of the difference in the slope of the stern side of tower, I am thinking of finding a u-boat with a Turm I configuration that has that wintergarten. My understanding is that the only outside difference btwn a Type VII b or C is that the latter is only a tad longer, so that only the most anal-retentive "rivet counters" would know the difference in 1:72 scale. So I could do that, unless someone instructs me that this is yet another widely held misconception. One of the Type VII C u-boats with the famous swordfish emblem would be especially appealing.
In the event this elongated heighth applies to all Turm IIs, I was wondering how I might select a u-boat with a tower I configuration that would allow me to use the tower I do have, merely alterting the Wintergarten in the way I intend? As I indicated, I am now sort of leaning towards one of those Type VII C's with the swordfish emblem. IF anyone can recommend a book or other resource with the details of the different turm configurations, as well as the which u-boats featured which turm configuratison, that would be a godsend.



Best Wishes,

Einsamer Wolf