Biber OOB

Mike Kryza
I'm in! - Have the "Biber" in my stash too. hink this is not the best kit from Italeri!

Bart Goesaert
Not the best, and very brittle... but it is a nice subject...

to fill the small hairlines between the halves of the torpedo's I use some shavings from the sprues mixed with Tamiya extra thin... works good, and I don't have problems with shrinking or sanding these out of the "grooves"

Lost_Erik
Great start!

Bart Goesaert
Thx, construction phase almost over, paint soon..

Greg Baker
Something about this inteigues me... might be the "not so good" comment. I love an underdog!

Kerry COX
Bart. 🙂 Those 'shavings' come in quite handy. 👍 I like using the 'waste' at times for those little spaces we come across from time to time. 🙂
But looking forward to the updates as you progress. 👍
A most interesting subject indeed mate. 🙂 👍

Spanjaard
Interesting 🙂

Christian Bruer
Yep interesting WIP, I'll take a seat 🙂

Bart Goesaert
and then there was a black out... decided to start with a black primer. I was a bit in doubt for the camouflage. I applied the black first to be able to search for blemishes. Some rough parts, but nothing serious... Then some blu-tack -> white, more blu-tack -> brown and finally grey. On the torpedo's there's more work, but luckily this is only on the side of the launch rail... the other visible side is good... to bad black is a sh**ty color to photograph.. will try to take better pictures in the sun

Bart Goesaert
Added more color, one more to go, hope it will je allright when unpacking

Kerry COX
Blutac. The miracle masking agent. Looks good but can't wait to see what's underneath. 🙂 👍

Lost_Erik
looking good

Bart Goesaert
me too... can't wait either... hope there will be few blemishes...

Bart Goesaert
And unpacked... Some retouches necessary, but it looks good so far...

Kerry COX
"Looks good". ??? What. ?
It looks much better than I imagined it would be. 👍
Well done. :-0

Bart Goesaert
Thx Kerry, still needs to get better then this..

Martin Oostrom
Well, I agree with Kerry. First attempt looks very good. Can only imagine what she looks like after checks and balances.

Christian Bruer
Interesting and bizarre scheme 👍

Bart Goesaert
Thx Martin and Christian. According to the instructions it should have been used in Norway, but It haven't found any reference pics of the original yet

Kerry COX
Bart. I am wondering if this helps mate. 👍 uboat.net/types/midget.htm

Bart Goesaert
Thx for the reference. Nothing about the Norwegian units, but interesting nonetheless... Just found out that the camo didn't stop at the upper hull, but extended to the lower hull to according to another paint sheme. Maybe I'll do a Kerry move, and build a second one, with the lessons learned from this one... And not OOB with a timeline of 4 weeks...

Kerry COX
Bart. Just how many 'variations' of the Beiber were there.? Not being familiar with the mark, I am interested in whic one your doing.👍
BTW. Buying two at a time, I have been doing all my modelling life, and mostly, it was because of the carpet monster or other little fingers to blame. when parts went missing 🙂
But it does limit the room in one's display case. hehehehe 🙂

Bart Goesaert
I know the feeling about losing parts. My girlfriend loves a lot smaller then I used to so I'll have to put my Stash elsewhere. That means a lot of transport, damage, lost Parts,....

With regards to the versions, I think there were 2 main versions, this one, and one with an extra snorkel/tube at the back of the cabin.

Just put up the final pics of this build with regards to the regulations of the build

Kerry COX
What a striking looking beast mate. ! :-O
There were some awfully brave souls around hey. !
A well done job Bart and you should be proud of your effort and results. 👍
Salute. !

Bart Goesaert
Thx, brave souls idd. Read about the history, reads like a story about Japanese kamikazes.

Due to their simple construction, there were also a quantity of flaws in the design, together with insufficiently trained personnel, which caused their added value to the war effort to be almost zero, despite 342 delivered units.

The hull was made of 3mm steelplates welded together, with a cast aluminium turret placed on top. This turret has 4 windows for visibillity. In the hull there were 2 diving tanks, one in the front and one to the rear. The rudders were made from wood. Controlling the sub was hard, because of a work overload for the driver (simultaniously checking direction, depth, periscope) and no trim- and compensationtanks to reduce some of the workload. The periscope was of bad quality, and useless in night attacks. These had to be done from the surface. A lot of drivers died due to CO-intoxication (a common problem for most mini-subs) when the snorkel was filled with water.

The drivers had missions that could last for 2 days. Therefore they received often a drug called D-IX or chocolate tablets induced with cafeïne to be able to perform without sleeping.

As armament there were either 2 TIIIc torpedo's which had a reduced battery compartment compared to the regular torpedo's, so that they were floating, 2 sea-mines, or a combination. These were transported in recesses underneath the hull, which reduced the total width. Therefore they were easy to transport over the roads on special trailers. There they were vulnerable from attacks by aircraft...

Operational value was minimal. In the first operation from Fécamp harbor (30 augustus 1944), 22 subs were launched, 14 managed to leave the harbor, and only 2 reached their patrol area...

By attacks in the "Schelde" (harbor of Antwerp) 22/23 December 18 Bibers departed, only 1 returned and 1 allied ship was sunk. By further operations, 14 Bibers were launched without result. All were lost... On 27 december a torpedo was launched prematurely, and by "friendly fire" 11 Bibers were lost, only 3 could be recovered and made operational. Further operations were more from the same, much losses, no allied ships sunk.

In januari 1945 an attack was planned on a russian ship "Arkhangelsk". Bibers were brought within reach from the harbor by their larger cousins. Due to vibrations from the diesel engines, the seals started to leak and at the moment off the attack, no ships were in the harbor. Thus the attack was cancelled.

Alec K
Very nicely done Bart, an interesting topic indeed 👍

Spanjaard
very nice history, and excellent result by the way. poor guys to be honest, cannon fodder....

Bart Goesaert
Thx,
Idd poor guys... You've needed to be pretty determined as a pilot...