Hi guys,
I’m wondering how the rubber,noise reducing “Alberich” coating could be replicated on REVELL’s 1/72 Type VIIC/41 U-boat.
Your thoughts/ideas/advice are greatly appreciated.
Since all we are discussing is a rubberized coating, in that scale I’d say that a coat of paint in the right color would be effective…I’m not sure that any “texturing” would be visible or accurate…If I’m not mistaken the rubber was applied to the steel then the paint was applied so IMO it just isn’t anything that you need to model—just say its there…
How thick was a coating of rubber - would there be a ridge of some kind around access panels or hatches?
Looking at pictures I’ve collected of the IJN I-400 the decking looks normal.
One way you could show it as having the rubber tiles is to have some of it peeling off, most of the pix of the I-400’s are in really bad shape with the rubber peeling and missing an much of the surfaces.
Did some digging and found this.
Alberich
Alberich consisted of synthetic rubber sheets of about 4mm in thickness which had sound absorbing properties. The material was Oppanol which was secured to the outer hull with adhesives, much like an outer skin. Although no conclusive tests were performed, but it was claimed that the echo reflection of a U-boat with Alberich was reduced by about 15 percent. In addition, it also acted as a sound dampener, containing the U-boat’s own engine noise.
Although the principle was a sound one, problems were encountered with the adhesive coat which was not strong enough to adhere the rubber sheet to the hull. This resulted in the sheets being partially washed off, which flapped in the wake of the ocean current, causing hydrodynamic resistance and noise. Further research into more reliable adhesives were conducted, but up to the end of the war, only a few U-boats had received this treatment. A further contribution was that treating the hull was a time consuming and laborious task.
The first U-boat to receive Alberich was U-11, a Type II coastal boat for trials on its sound absorbing properties. On April 1940, the first operational U-boat was treated, U-67 a Type IXC which was just being laid down. Thereafter, problems with the adhesive prevented further treatments until late 1944, when U-480, a Type VII was tested again using a new adhesive. The results were satisfactory enough and it was decided that all new Type XXIIIs and XXVIs would receive this coating, but ultimately only one Type XXIII, U-4709 had been completed with the coating.
Tarnmatte
This was a radar absorbing material used to coat snorkel heads to shield them from allied radar. It consisted of a compound of synthetic rubber and iron oxide and was claimed to have 90 percent effectiveness in reducing radar signature.
Found the link in this interesting thread on SubSim.
Thanks for the info guys! [:D[
Wouldn’t the tiles obscure the hull detail (weld lines,etc…)?
Since this is going to be a “what if” project…Could “Tarnmatte” (theoretically) have been applied to the conning tower,and upper hull surfaces?
Check out the skins they where working on in the SubSim link I posted, there is also a photo in that thread.