(Anti) Submarine Warfare GB 2010 *CLOSED*

Randy,

Ok then... I will gladly take you up on that challenge It would more than satisfy the need for some aircraft models in the group and at the same time it would be very interesting to see how we each approach our builds separately and observe the end results.

Getting very close to finishing the rusting up of my sub. After that i will try to make the below waterline area a bit more interesting and finish off with some chalks/powders. Pics soon to follow gents

Richard

Kermit I gotta vote for either the Avenger, the two very differant aproaches interests me or the GATO class sub would be an interesting build too. Dontcha just hate choices LOL

Ok ok so call me a trouble maker then

OOPS... forgot to mention...

There's also a number four (not purchased YET) option: the RoG 1:144th Fletcher class Destroyer.... really interested in that one too...

Richard

Thanks to all for their comments and advice/ thoughts It is very well appreciated.

Now that i am pretty satisfied with the initial weathering i have put on a spraycan coat of semi gloss and am waiting untill it is fully hardened before i divert my attention to the actual rust trails and the below waterline area. Update (pretty) soon to follow....

As this build is coming near to a finish i have started thinking about what to do next for this group... My stash provides me with basically three options:

1.) 1/72th GATO class sub (4 feet of modeling delight)

2.) 1/48th Italeri TBF/TBM avenger (ex accurate miniature kit, great great detail, extensive decal sheet with 6 possible finishes)

3.) 1/72th Revell (germany) S100 patrol/ flak boat. (something completely different with added ASW ability; speedboat on steroids if you will.../ lots of possible finishes)

All three options have my interest and i am equally eager to start on either of them if i haven't already done so...

What would you guys like to see? I know Randy is eager to start an Avenger of his own.. Maybe it would be nice to see two very different approaches...? Or maybe the 4 foot american beast is too tempting?.... German patrol boats look great too on the shelf.... choices choices....

Richard.

Kermit-

From what I've seen in drydock, under the waterline is a VERY light green (almost white) buildup. Imagine what you see build up on the shower, but in larger scale!

Richard your weathering skills never cease to amaze me, looking good my friend.

I remember seening documentaries showing pictures of most naval vessels at sea with plugs in the deck gun barrels on the history channel. Glad that helped you out. 

Richard – HobbyBoss subs are rapidly gaining a very good reputation at 1:700 scale, at a very reasonable price.  Check LuckyModel for the best prices on HobbyBoss (and Bronco) kits, even including the big hit on shipping. In any case, the HB offerings are better AND cheaper than the ARII offerings.

Nice work on your boat…  not sure if it’s the light, but maybe if you had a lighter background it will show better? Maybe a white sheet behind it instead of brown-ish?

In any case, your weathering looks nice. I have no clue how it would look under the waterline (wet? Lol). I remember a WIP thread in ModelShipWrights, let me see if I can find it…

Ok here is the walk round:

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=2243

It has been restored/painted over so no “natural state” of course…  hope it helps!

Cheers

Caribwill,

Just added you to the rollcall list. Welcome aboard and have fun. How's the detail on the hobby boss kits? Did a 1:48 scale wildcat by them once and was pleasantly surprised. Lots of bang for your buck, wonder if it's the same with their ship kits....

Ok, it has been long enough since i have posted a progress report on my VIIC/41...

Done some more "pre-weathering" and joined the tower with the hull. Also i have just added and rusted up the railings the last two days. The tower/ hull join isn't very good as yet but i hope to correct this once i have put on some CA and have the time to hold in my mitts while the glue sets

Btw, with "pre"weathering i mean the kind of rust that discolours the metal underneath, not the actual rust trails/ stains. I have tried to accomplish this mostly with drybrushing and some washes. Once i am satisfied with the results i will coat the sub with some semi gloss varnish befgore the actual rust will be painted on with (most probably) acrylic revell paints. Finally i will attempt to weather the saddle tanks some more with more washes and the use of chalks. Done some testing with this technique and i must say i'm very satisfied with it... Keep watching i'd say Hope you guys like my work sofar and enjoy the pics:

A total shot from the bow. You will notice some residue chalk on the saddle tanks. Handled the sub alot since my tryout so alot of it is gone. Looked great though

The stern... added a black wash to the screws and dive planes and subsequently drybrushed with some sky green to simulate copper oxidization effect. Sadly the light takes away a lot of the effect. Looks great and lifelike nevertheless.

Closeup of the tower...

Bow/ side shot. Notice the absence of any weathering below the waterline... Still trying to figure out what would look natural downthere.

Bow shot from above... Comin'atcha!

Thanks for watching and untill next time!

Richard.

P.s.Randy... Your remark about the guns being covered up with plugs was spot on... to be adressed in future Thanks for redirecting my thoughts there.

Please put me down for a 1:700 La Class and 1: 700 Akula.

Thanks

Kermit/Richard – cheers… I also like receiving feedback on my builds, only way to learn! : )

One way to bore small barrels is to use the tip of an Xcto blade and twirl until you get a tiny hole, then slowly turn the blade or barrel until you make some inroads; couple mm is enough to give it some depth perception.

Randy – Look forward to an “air-shooter”;  if I had the time (and money) I would get Trumpy’s Condor :D

Randy,

Thank you for the compliments and yes yes, i totally agree with you on the absence of aircraft in the group. So much nice subjects are eligible....

Might join you eventually with a TBM Avenger i have here in my stash. Beautifully detailed and lots of possible finishes oin this Italeri kit i have (ex Accurate Miniatures).

Looking forward to your start in the group here buddy! But.... all in your own time ofcourse.

Richard

Lots of great stuff going on here. I dont know much about subs but I sure enjoy following the builds. I am still trying to clear my bench so I can get the Avenger going for this group. Me thinks we need a few aircraft for all these classy subs ya know.

James,

Thank you for your suggestions and advice. Ofcourse you can express your opinion! I even appreciate it when you do. The seams catched my eye too and will be dealt with accordingly as well as the bulged gun barrel ends (which i failed to notice thusfar; thanks!).

Boring out gun barrels that are 0.5 mm in diameter however is something i am not very eager on attempting myself as my smallest drill is exactly that size. Instead i will compromise and tip the barrel ends with flat black paint. I kinda hope the end results will draw away some attention from these details. In fact, assembling the flakzwillings and 37mm flak gun was the hardest part of the entire build sofar.

Again, thank you for your comments. They are very welcome. Thanks for watching.

Richard

Richard - Looking good! I have one small suggestion, which I learned from someone else while building a PT boat couple years ago. You may want to (try) and bore out a bit the barrels of the guns. Not sure if you can do it now, post-assembly, but something to keep in mind. On the last pic of your previous post, you can see a seam on the guns, and a tad of a bulge on the end of the gun barrels. gently scrape the seam and bore the barrels, if you can (and want). Hope you take my suggestion as construcitve criticism :)   As I said before, I learned to fix the guns from someone else who pointed it out.  I do like the look of the wash... just make sure you rub out that fingerprint on the upper left side of the last pic. or CSI may get you! ;)

Can't help with any photo tips, my photography inefficiency is bigger than yours! lol I have to get my wife to show me how to use her fancy Dig cam.

look forward to the rest, cheers 

james

Hi guys,

Today i've spent working on the tower assembly some more. Applied a black wash all over afterwards (black watercolor thinned with water and rubbing alcohol). Results are very much to my liking

First one is taken in artificial lighting, second one with flash. Real life effect is much more subtle imho. Call it my inefficiency at modeling photography...

Next up will be some drybrushes with flat white and rust. After that i will decide whether to use a rust wash or just use my weathering powders. Hope you guys like it sofar...

Richard

Hey there,

Ofcourse anyone who wants to can join the group! The more the merrier. I will add you all to the first page first chance i get

Wanted to let you guys know i continued on the tower painting of my VIIC/41 sub tonight. The basic paint is now on there and the tower is waiting for some washes and drybrushes:

See y'all soon peeps

Richard

I just started to read and catch up with the forum GBs and stuff.. would love to join this GB. Was going to build a 1/700 LA Class for a GB at ModelShipWrights, so I will add a second LA Class for this one…  Both are ARII  1:700 offerings  (New York and Boston); do NOT get ARII modern subs! Get the new HobbyBoss offerings at 700 scale; better quality, better price! I will probably due one “on sticks” one in waterline.  If I have the time, I will also complete the USS Charles Adams cold war era destroyer, one of the DDs involved in “soviet sub hunting” during the Oct Missile crisis. It is, dunno, about 25% complete so it would not qualify as a first entry.

Kermit – Very nice start! I love that boat… but as mentioned by others, a tad too big from a practical standpoint. And I just read about your “score” lol… maybe you can hang it from the ceiling! Nice detail on your sub. Coming along nicely.

Stikpusher – nice little flotilla you have going.  Yes, the HB have more detail and better fit than the ARII offerings.

Lewbud – The Carter looks great. All these modern subs reminds me of the best Clancy novel… no, not Hunt for Red October, but Red Storm Rising!  And Ditto on the seawolf…   Yes, the Typhoons are a beast… shame I have the very VERY inaccurate Dragon 1:350 version : (  I read the Alanger is much better.. .and I am sure down the road Hobby Boss will make an even better one.

In terms of  “modern sub colors” you can try NATO Black (MM enamels), gives a different type of “black”. Some modern subs will have antiskidding deck, not sure if you will see it at 700 scale. Antifouling red…  as mentioned depends on how long since the last refit!  I play around with shades of red; this from a Gb from couple years ago (Ship Sinkers); two modern Japanese subs:

Aaronw – very interesting subject, thanks for the info…. I join GB to learna bit more about the machines , not only techniques.  Look forward to your build!

KERMIT-- I would very much like to engage in this ,but,I have a big problem.I have never been taught and can,t find anyone to show me how to post pics from me to here.I have a Subchaser that sure would like to be admired.        Tankerbuilder

Ok, I'm finally getting to this. I'll be doing the Anigrand 1/72 Bell XHSL-1.

This was the first purpose designed helicopter accepted by the US Navy for the anti-submarine mission. This was also Bell's first and only tandem rotor helicopter. Unfortunately while it was very powerful allowing it to carry the ASW detection gear, the noise level in the cabin was very high making the sonar operators job difficult. The final nail in its coffin was a fatal crash that killed an important supporter in the Navy's project team. The Sikorsky HSS-1 (SH-34) which had come in second place was selected to become the Navy's new ASW helicopter, and the 50 HSL-1's that had been accepted for service were instead used to test mine sweeping equipment.

The Anigrand kit is a full resin kit, but it appears to be very nicely cast.

Richard thanks for letting me know I can get away with most anything here  LOL. Oh good I can add the 1/48 Monogram TBF Avenger then so I will be building 2 for your group. I do hope your distractions from modeling let up soon my friend. I got going again and almost have one more done to add to my collection.

Kermit,

 I just saw the post over in the A/C forum and it caught my eye! This could be my motivation to finally do my 1/48th Widgeon! Yes, one (possibly more) did actually sink a U-Boat in US waters during WWII. A heckuva feet considering they only carried two depth charges underwing!!!

 So if you will please- sign me up?

Thanks,

 Don

Hi peeps,

As host of our starting up group i feel the need to apologize to all the members and people following it for my being away for a few days. Due to circomstances that are not very interesting to you i have been not that active on both the forum and modeling in general; a situation that i hope to correct soon. So please bear with me guys

Randy, you can do just about anything you want in my little group here LOL... OFCOURSE you can change your intended build and as the rules (very heavy word for the "pointers" i included in the first post...) clearly state that you can crossover to your hearts content, you can do your avenger too. I have a slightly started up TBM avenger by Italeri in my own stash thats pretty sweet and on my list for this group...

I really make it an issue to have as little rules and as much fun as possible as long as the builds fit into the specific category.

Richard

Lotsa nice sub building goin on here I have been enjoying watching the progress of all of them. Kermit as you know I have always liked your weathering style.

Time for me to be a pain in the  Richard. I need to change my build, I ordered the Italeri 1/48 SH 60B Seahawk as I told you but what I recieved was the HH 60B Seahawk. A huge differance between the two of them, turns out that the SH 60B was discontinued. So being the stubborne type ( I wanna built the SH 60 ya know) I ordered the 1/48 Revell/ Germany SH 60B Seahawk. Got it home and opened her up, WOW!!!! What a sweet kit it looks to be. Very sharp flash free parts with loads of fine detail, very crystal clear clear parts and, some very cool markings too. I just might have to start this one sooner than I had planned. I hope my excuse is good enough that is warants the change to the 1/48 Revell/ Germany SH 60B Seahawk. Might even have time for an Avenger if you will allow crossovers to shoot at the U-Boats here.

Managed to visit our house and storage over the weekend so dug out most of my stash down there.  Now have the Airfix Leander at hand and wondering whether I should order some PE from White Ensign.

I've been a bit delayed getting started but I hope to get the HSL started in a day or two, about time too, I see the subs are running amuck.

lewbud

You're kinda limited to black, black or black-ok a really dark grey that resembles black. 

Sounds like Henry Ford built them. The line for the Model T was "you can have any color you want as long as it is black."

That's unusual that a waterline model would have a missile launching option, since US subs always launched underwater. The Soviets had missile subs that could launch on the surface, but I don't think US subs would even be able to because of how the firing sequence works. Nice work though, I like it!

I got the SkyWave SSBN-598 George Washington done ... not that it was hard, being 1/700 and all. Still need to figure out the scheme I want to do for the Neptune though.

George Washington, Neptune and Phantom all pre paint.

George Washington with a Polaris A-3. I might try and paint the A-3's black markings.

Side view of SSBN-598 George Washington.

I really wish there was more I could do with it but being so small and all there really isn't anything I can think of doing. If anyone has any suggestions throw them at me because I wouldn't mind touching it up.

And just to clarify, the Neptune's are both 1/700 scale and the sub is a George Washington class submarine. It was the first GW class sub developed.

Josh

Thanks for that info! I did actually see that picture. Masking 1/700 might be a tad of a pain, this kit is small but it has some small details that would take a little effort to mask around. (Lazy ... eh, for a sec, lol.)

Josh

Josh,

You're kinda limited to black, black or black-ok a really dark grey that resembles black.  I used Tamiya's semigloss black from the can on my Carter and Seawolf, but that's because I really hate mixing paint and cleaning the airbrush.  If you don't like the straight black, you might try aircraft interior black, it's a really dark gray rather than a pure black.  As to the hull red in the pics, that comes and goes depending on its last refit.  If you want to do something truly colorful with a sub, take a gander at this pic www.navsource.org/archives/08/0859805.jpg   Navsource is a great resource and I'd bookmark it if you plan on doing a bunch of US ships.

Josh,

That first would suggest a brick red undersides as a sort of antifouling but i am in no means an expert in modern subs and their colours. Maybe one of the other members would have a solution for you....? Ofcourse, putting in some effort and googling/ image googling the george washnington would give some result at least?

Hope you will find some answers soon as i eagerly await your progress pictures

As for my little (...) german WW2 sub i have promised you guys some update pics...:

As i have told you my acrylic undersides color (revell 77, dust grey) ran out so i put on a second coat with my last enamel number 77..... was juuuust barely enough (note from builder: if you buy this kit, expect to use a full bottle of paint on the undersides/ antifouling). After drying i proceeded with a lighter shade of (revell acrylic) grey on the upper hull.

The subsequent instructions told me to spray the deck in revell's number 69 granite grey. I chose to deviate from the instructions here as this shade was particularly greenish grey. I suppose this was to simulate some kind of algea growth on a worn deck.

Reading on the subject though i found out that the germans used to use a very dark (blackish) protective coat/ varnish  on the wooden deck structures and recoating them after every patrol. Furthermore it is a fact that algea tend to make a deck rather slippery and hazardous for the crew to traverse during patrols so it would be highly unlikely for a uboat captain to allow such algea growth to accumulate during a given patrol. This coat would get a lighter shade as time progressed...

To simulate this kind of deck i have chosen to use my own mix of leather brown (wood colour) with a lighter brown and some medium grey to simulate the coated deck. After drying i used a black wash to accentuate the seams between the wooden slats on deck and leaving some of it on various parts of the deck as to simulate the coating to have not worn of fully yet.

After this i have drybrushed some of the non wood panels and hatches in a gunmetal (humbrol enamel) grey and after that a drybrushed a layer of revell's number 83 (enamel) to simulate worn old rust on the deck panels and hatches and also the various flood holes on the hull.

This (in my eyes) finishes the hull and deck for the subsequent weathering with lighter shades of rust and white for accentuating.

Next up will be the painting and finishing of the tower and its gun emplacements...

Hope you guys like my work sofar and i am always open for your suggestions ofcourse

Richard