My little adventure modelling a very unusual object without any railway relevance is now over. The 1:35 Biber submarine is ready to be transported to the scrap merchant. Having undergone technical evaluation by the British all the miniature submarines at the German air base at Mellemaaen were ordered scrapped. In the photo below the sub still awaits pick up by a heavy lorry.
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| My model of a German Biber submarine. Positioned on an old track panel it waits for its fate - the flame cutters. The propeller has been taken care of already. Being made of precious nonferrous metal it represented a high value. |
Before I primed the model I masked the 'cockpit' windows with Humbrol Maskol. What looks as oversprayed windows in the image below isn't quite so bad. The Maskol peels easily away when all painting is finished.
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| The sub with a cover of primer. Here posed on two narrow gauge flat wagons. |
I air brushed a medium grey over the primer and hand painted a dark grey disruptive scheme. I only painted dark grey areas on the upper surfaces, leaving the bottom without camouflage. The weathering is a combination of washes with thinned oil paints, pastel chalks and a little gloss varnish for the wet oil spots.
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| The Biber with basic painting done - two dark greys and a little red for primer under the missing covers. Decals are from the spares box - probably from a tank kit. |
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| Denmark July 1945. A member of the resistance forces inspects a German mini sub of the type Neger. The sign says 'No admittance. Violation will make the guard open fire'. Judging from other photos from the site it seems you were welcome to check out the subs if you were female and young. |
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| August 1946 north of Nystrup. A British soldier looks at a mini sub. The sergeant major is obviously not close judged by the soldier's relaxed clothing. |
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| One last look at the submarine. The British painted yellow numbers on all the subs at Mellemaaen airfield. |
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