5e. Conning Tower –
      Periscopes, UZO, Hatches, Antennas

Periscopes

Both periscopes — navigation and attack — are turned brass items from Steve Nuttall’s Model Barrels. They are finely crafted, but care must be taken not to bend the slender attack periscope.

The upper part of the attack periscope was fitted with a PE periscope stiffener (wake breaker) from the WEM PE set. Both periscopes had their top sections painted with medium grey enamel, and then both shafts were painted with Alclad black primer and then Alclad Stainless Steel. Afterwards the shafts were scratched to reveal the Alclad black primer beneath… mimicking grease streaks from usage.

The molded footrest rings were removed from the attack periscope base, and then the base was detailed with PE hand rails, footrest rings and angle-iron braces, and the protective guard and compass mount were made from thin styrene rod. The compass is a PE part that is thickened with styrene sheet.

UZO

The UZO — Uberwasserzieloptik (torpedo aimer) — was the most highly-modified part on the conning tower bridge.

Using the kit part as a rough guide, the new UZO was almost entirely scratchbuilt from styrene, with PE details added. The height of the UZO column was increased slightly, so that the top binocular mount would position binoculars above the top edge of the tower bulwark.

The UZO column was painted with the same grey as the upper hull (Gunze-Sangyo H324), the compass ring was painted bronze, and the top rotating binocular mount was painted dark grey.

Tower Hatch

The tower hatch was given exterior details in the form of a PE handwheel, brass rail, and a styrene mounting bracket added to the hinge area.

Ammunition Hatches

The small round ammunition storage hatches were resin items from the Nautilus set. The original cast hinge detail was removed and replaced with styrene details, and brass PE handwheels were added. The rearmost hatch behind the 37mm cannon was raised using aluminum tubing. All hatches were painted with the same grey as the upper hull (Gunze-Sangyo H324).

Antennas

Both the FuMO-30 Seetakt radar antenna and FuMB-7 Naxos radar detection antenna were taken from the WEM PE set, and are both very finely detailed. Both were painted the same grey as the upper hull (Gunze-Sangyo H324).

For the DF loop antenna, I cut off the plastic loop from the kit part and replaced it with a loop of 0.030" aluminum wire. The DF loop was painted flat black, ring base was painted the same grey as the upper hull (Gunze-Sangyo H324), and the telescoping shaft was painted bronze.