Antwerp, Belgium. November 2017. Crisis wargames show. The Purchase.
It was an annual event, a pilgrimage if you like, that we would depart from our respective countries and converge on the Belgian city of Antwerp on the first Saturday of November. Actually, if truth be told, we generally arrived sometime on Friday afternoon in order to book ourselves into the Holiday Inn Express and then go out to sample the local atmosphere. Without fail, this atmosphere seemed to consist mostly of alcohol with various amounts of local cuisine thrown in for good measure.
The day being spent chatting with friends not seen in a long time, and generally taking the piss out of each other. This particular year was no different. Before we managed to become completely insensible, we did bait a trap for Mischa. Mischa is not a wargamer, in fact, his only reason to come to the show is for the social side of the weekend away. However, Mischa has a weakness for a couple of things. One of those is the Stug III. One year we'd found a trader with Cobi kits, a sort of Lego, and one of them was a Stug III. Mischa was primed and duly fired towards the trader. Three trips to the trader later, he had a collection of nearly 300 euro's worth of kits. It was great the way each of his friends took the opportunity to point out yet another really good model they'd seen at this trader.
How is this relevant to this actual story? Well, his other weakness was for u-boats. This is the guy who suggested we buy a barge and convert it so that it looks like a surfaced submarine. Then we could dress up in Kriegsmarine uniforms and sail around the local canals in our u-boat. Brilliant idea. 
This year, one of the traders had released a 28mm u-boat. And the scene was set. We entered the trading hall and directly in front of us was the trader in question. And there, at the back of the stand, was the 28mm model of the u-boat. There was no holding him back. Not only did he buy the model, but he also bought the crew figures for it too. What's so strange about that, you ask? Well, Mischa isn't into making or painting models either. Something he finally realised on the Sunday as we sat outside a cafe having a drink.
"What the f*ck am I going to do with this? Why did you lot persuade me to buy it?"
Oh, what jollity we had ... until he handed the box over to me and said, "There you go, you can make it for me."
Below are some photos from a couple of web sites that we used to entice Mischa into his purchase. 
The parts are just tacked together so you get an idea of what it looks like and how big it is, 73cm long.
And the crew figures, not part of the kit but available as an extra. Also available as a special offer at the show. Sold to the man.
© Photos from Empress Miniatures, Beasts of War and Karwansaray Publishers web sites.
And thus began the saga of the Great U-Boat build.