Type 25 classe Räumboote
Last May I decided to build a companion model for the s-boot I had built in 2021. I like companion models, they make great comparisons. It also fits with my small WW2 coastal forces navy that I've been constructing for a few years.
There were only two problems:
My almost complete lack of knowledge or reference material for the Kriegsmarine; and
A total lack of commercially available plans.
The challenge with 1:48th scale is you need a huge amount of information to do a subject justice. It's a very unforgiving scale as you can (should) build down to the rivet.
Countless hours on search engines plus a couple of lucky breaks; 10 new books for my naval reference library; a Russian model forum; and last but not least some very helpful people on a German naval forum turned my meagre cache of 4-5 pictures into to an astonishing 150 images of the type. I still didn't manage to find a good drawing of the R25, but enough others and some assumptions plus a bad lines sketch was just enough to produce my own 4 sheet set of plans. It's all tentative, but I've done my best to align dimensions with drawings I trust and photographs. Thankfully I don't count hours modelling, but the plans alone probably took over 300 hours before I was happy to start the build last September.
As with my other models, this is a working boat during wartime. It is dirty and chipped with algae and oil on the waterline.
