Neger

Building the
Verlinden

German "Neger"
1:35th Scale Resin Kit

by
Kenneth H. Goldman

History
Although development of small submarines capable of carrying two to three torpedoes was suggested as early as 1942, the idea was shelved until an Allied invasion of the Greater European Reich became a real threat. In December 1943, inspired by the successes of the Italian Maiale "human torpedo," Richard Mohr designed a craft based on the G7e torpedo. The "Neger", a pun on Mohr's last name which means Moor, sported a spartan cockpit covered by a perspex dome where the warhead would have been. It had sufficient positive bouyancy to run awash while supporting a second G7e, with warhead, slung below. The vessel had a range of 48 nautical miles at 4 knots and displaced 2.7 tons. The pilot navigated via a wrist compass and air was provided through a Dräager self-contained breathing device. He aimed his weapon by lining up an aiming spike on the nose with a graduated scale on the dome. Subsequently, a second aiming spike was added closer to the dome. It, however, made little difference as water washing over the dome made visibility extremely poor. A simple lever in the cockpit irreversibly started the torpedo and released it. Though not designed as a suicide weapon, the Neger would frequently become one when the torpedo started but failed to release and carried the Neger and its pilot toward the target. A slightly larger version, the Marder, was able to briefly dive to 100 feet.

Ready to go against the Anzio invasion it nevertheless proved completely ineffective. Success was slightly better off Normandy, where a total of 61 Negers attacked on two nights, accounting for three British minesweepers. Only nine Negers returned to base. Of the 200 delivered 140 were lost in action.

The Model
The kit consists of 54 parts of the usual Verlinden quality, including the two-part stand, a vacuum-formed bubble, and two lengths of what amounts to stretched sprue. Aside from having to fill half-a-dozen resin pinholes in line with the casting gates there was nothing to fix, assuming one merely wants to build it out of the box. Taking your time is the key to sawing the delicate fins and propellers from their gates and scraping off the small amounts of flash.

The kit is not, however, without problems. Even without measuring, it was obvious that the cockpit is too small to accommodate a pilot, unless he happened to be a double amputee at the knees. The necessary modification is a simple matter of razor sawing through the cockpit section a few millimeters in front of the opening, gluing in a 6mm thickness of some filler (I used Plexiglas) that roughly conforms to the cross section, and then puttying and sanding it smooth. Since this was no longer strictly out of the box, I decided to drill out the cockpit and add a wood plank seat.

The combination of the clear exploded drawing that is the instructions and the photograph on the box makes assmbly pretty straightforward. One little trick I've learned when assembling difficult to position parts with cyanoacrylate glue is to first attach the part with a tiny drop of Microscale Kristal Klear. This allows as much repositioning as you need without having to worry about flash bonding. Once the part is where you want it, a drop of CA makes the joint permanent. I used some of the "strecthed sprue" to connect the horizontal and vertical rudder extensions on the Neger but decided that .02 piano wire works better for the control arms.

I strongly recommend painting the Neger and the torpedo before joining them, although the torpedo cradles should be assembled and attached to the Neger first. I decided to stick with the box photograph for this one. The instructions call for Dark Sea Gray for which Polly Scale Grimy Black, a railroad color, is pretty much dead on -- especially when you factor in how many different batches of paint were applied to the things in real life. Testors Non-buffing Metalizer Brass gave me a beautiful finish on the after ends (click photo to enlarge). Though I masked around the main cylinders, I didn't bother masking the fins. It is a simple matter to touch them up with a brush after spraying the brass color. Since there is no fine detail to obscure, I opted for simplicity and finished it off with a coat of Krylon Matte Finish before the weathering step. Don't discard your dried out Buffing Aluminum Metalizer. Applied with a dry brush, it makes great scrapes across the nose and hull. I used a similar application of charcoal dust for overall weathering, using a damp brush gave me oil stains, and dry brushing red Conte crayon is about as good as it gets for rust. Another coat of Krylon completed the job.

Now is the time to attach the two supplied stands to a base. I drilled through a piece of oak and ran finishing nails clear through the wood and the resin stands so that a quarter inch of the nail protruded. These fit into matching holes drilled in the torpedo to provide a safe and secure attachment when I glued the torpedo in place. Once the torpedo is attached, making sure the vertical fins are just that, it's a simple matter to line up and attach the Neger after scratching off the paint on the torpedo cradle and where it will attach to the torpedo to improve the bond.

Problem number two became apparent after I cut the clear dome free and tried to fit it. Instead of fitting on the tube over the cockpit, it enveloped it! Major bummer. But then again, this is one of those situations where a little ingenuity makes modeling even more fun. I rounded over a wood dowel that was the right diameter, then dug a clear plastic produce tray out of the kitchen trash. Fix the dowel upright in a vise, soften the tray over low heat on the stove, then pull it down over the dowel, and... voilá, a new dome! A couple of scraps from my decal box provided the graduations on the dome, a strip of painted bond paper made the metal frame at the dome's bottom, and a piece of plastic cut from a U-boat railing long ago simulated the hinge, which goes under the rim to the rear. A good coating of Future Floor Finish made the decal film disappear along with any tiny scratches. .008 piano wire made a simple job of the two aiming spikes, and I was one step closer to completing my collection of midget submarines and "human torpedoes."

Oh No!
Actually, I said something quite a bit stronger. Feeling good about my finished project, I took another look only to find the dome totally fogged up on the inside and tiny beads of water forming. Since CA glue usually coats the inside of closed clear canopies with a white haze, I had used Microscale Kristal Klear to affix the dome. As it dried, water vapor collected in the now completely sealed cockpit. Once I calmed down, the solution was pretty simple. I cut a small gap under the dome, then aimed a drafting lamp at the cockpit. In short order, the cockpit was dry, and the dome was clear again. The little dab of paint to needed to seal and hide the slit was small enough not to repeat the problem.