My model is in the livery of U-2336, which under the command of Kapitänleutnant Emil Klusmeier, sank the last Allied ships lost in the European war on 7 May 1945, when he torpedoed and sank the freighters Sneland and Avondale Park off the Isle of May inside the Firth of Forth off the English coast.
The Bronco 1/35 scale U Boat Type XXIII is not a difficult model overall. The fit between parts is generally good and it's overall pretty easy to assemble outside of some small detail parts. Mine is painted with Tamiya German Grey for the lower hull, Tamiya Flat Black for the water line band and Tamiya Medium Gray for the upper hull and conning tower. I added various rust and weathering details trying to be as realistic as possible. The only decals are the hull numbers, however, I was not entirely thrilled with them - they applied easy and all, but were difficult to blend well to the conning tower surface, even with MicroSol and clearcoat.
The kit has a lot of working features from movable dive planes, rudder, rotating screw, to opening torpedo doors with removable torpedos. The torpedo doors are designed to have repulsing magnets hold them in the closed position, but still allow them to open (think like a spring, but with magnetism). Only problem is that the magnets are too strong and the repulsive force was enough to crack apart the hull, even though it was securely glued together. That happened to me during my build and I damaged one of the doors, requiring that it be glued in place.
There is not much of an interior on the model - its namely what you can see down the conning tower hatch - a ladder, periscope, and hatch to the main deck. The model comes the two torpedos as well as a rubber raft and oars. The figures pictured are custom ones I made by repainting some of those Dragon CanDo Tiger Aces tanker figures. They look close enough to U-boat crew figures with the jackets, mackinaws, etc.
