Propellers & Diving Planes

 

Propeller Shafts

As with my other U-boat models of the same scale – U-625 and U-673 – I selected not to use the kit propeller shafts. No matter how well you sand & polish plastic propeller shafts, using brass tubing always seems much more realistic.

I found that 4mm brass tubing was nearly the perfect size to replace the plastic shafts. However, since the brass tubing was slighly larger where it went through some parts, I had to drill out everything: shaft packing assemblies (where shafts exit the hull) and propeller supports.

 

Propellers

The kit's plastic propellers were replaced with cast brass propellers from Tehnoart.

I used a multi-step process to paint the propellers, which on U-190 were made out of steel (not bronze or brass):

  1. Blackened the propellers by surmerging in Blacken-It Weathering Solution for several hours, scrubbed with a toothbrush (in water) to remove any surface gunk, then dunked in hydrogen peroxide to halt any further electrochemical reaction. Dried with paper towel.
  2. Airbrushed various shades of Alclad II lacquer:
    • Polished Brass (ALC-108): light overall coat
    • Magnesium (ALC-111): lighter coat, concentrated on edges
    • Gold Titanium (ALC-118): super-light mist coat
  3. Rubbed a graphite pencil lead onto all edges, blade roots, and blade leading edges.
  4. Buffed & blended graphite with a cotton swap.

 

 

Rudder Support

The rudder support supplied in the kit is very simplistic. After finding some period photos that showed different supports, I decided to abandon the kit part and scratchbuild a replacement using 0.045" styrene rod.

 

Bow Dive Planes

The kit-supplied bow dive planes were installed with only 1 minor modification: the outer pivot pins were removed.
(There was no outer pivot on the bow dive planes of the real boat.)

The forward guards needed some work to remove the pivots.

  1. Filled the pivot cavity with CA glue, and allowed to harden.
  2. Sanded away the pivot.
  3. Drilled hole in tension cable eyelet.
  4. Installed guards, filled seams.