Ship Sinkers Group Build - Submarines

Sorry have been away, catching up with other stuff!

kenjitak - Thanks for the pics! I was in SF many years ago, pre-digital camera time, dont have any pics from the Pampanito, so thanks!

AJB93 - Thats a great build!

GO NY GIANTS!

Ok, time to post pics of my sorry WIP. "Modern Submarine Series", ARII, 1:700. In short, do NOT buy these kits! So bad at many levels...

I started with the Japanese set of moern subs:

First thing, BOTH kits are EXACTLY the same, down to the Japanese words etched on the sprues. Seems what they did was to pack the same sprues in 2 different boxes with 2 different decals. Oh well.

You are given TWO subs per box, one full hull, one waterline. You are also given a "base" and a cheesy plastic "water" mockup, in case you want to display them au natural:

Construction is, well, 7 pieces, of which NONE fit. Detail is massively offscale (very big). The con tower has an extra set of holes:

Yes, a hole to put in the "water wings", an extra one to... ??? there is an extra "stick" (instructions unclear), maybe another mast thats inserted into the extra hole? if that is the case, the width of the "mast" is about 20-50x too large. I solve the issue by using that extra "mast" to plug in the extra hole, snip, and fill with tamiya liquid primer:

I also "scratchbuilt" (lol) some extra masts. The propeller is also off-scale (too thick, too large). Why did I bother finishing? I am using these ARII subs as experiments, testing various liquid putties and combinations of black/red modern submarine painting. never knew there were so many shades of black and anti-fouling red.

Cheers, james

Finally catching up on some modeling -- here is an update on my conversion of the Nichimo 1:200 Type IXC U-Boat to represent U-505 as displayed in Chicago.

I had to extend the wintergarten and decided to try planking the stretched area and rest of the bridge.  I used strip basswood.  I also got rid of some molded on detail (railings and such) and replaced them with 0.010" wire.

I'm still using an old camera without macro or real zoom, so the images aren't very good, I'm afraid, but you'll get the idea.

I used photoetch for the mail deck rails, but scratch-built the railings on the fairwater.  I also scratch built the 37mm AA gun.  The splinter shield is made from 0.005 styrene.  This was my first attempt at fabricating things from brass wire and solder and it wasn't nearly as hard as I had feared.  The anti-fouling lines are made from 0.005 tippet (fishing) line and the insulators are just drops of white glue (found it hard to make them uniform size).   I've still got to build the dual 20mm AA guns, and the radar and mount the periscopes.  Almost there...

Barry 

drdull - Barry, that is one gorgeous build! Im embarassed that my pics are before yours! :)  Love the planking, will save these pics for sure... looking forward to seeing the completion! Cheers, James

GO BIG BLUE NY GIANTS

Hi James, thanks.  After this experience with 1:200, I'm not sure I want to work on anything much smaller.  I can't imagine doing what you do with the 1:700 kits.  I'm working on the U505 radar today - I'm trying to build it out of left over photoetch pieces and brass wire.  It's turning out to be quite challenging.  The radar is about 1/16 by 3/16 by 1/4 and every time I solder a new piece on, one of the already soldered pieces falls off.  May need to stick these together with CA or something.  I'm waiting for some #33 gauge hypo tubing to use for the 20mm barrels.  My wife will be out of town this weekend and with any luck I'll be done in time to watch the game.  Though I'm a Bears fan, I wish the Giants well.

Barry

Almost done - got the hypo tubing yesterday and built the 20mm AA guns today.  Scratch-built radar is behind the periscopes.  The model still needs touch-up paint, dull coat and running lights.  I'm debating about weathering - I haven't done much in the past.  As displayed in the museum the boat is pristine (except for the holes left from the shelling during capture).  I do like the look of a nicely weathered model, though.  What are you all going to do with your builds?  Anyway, here is the 1:200 U505 as of close of work today.

Barry 

Barry, thats a very nice job on the sub.... Im a rookie, do not know much about sub weathering, but I remembering bumping into some web pages in another web site, let me find them...

index of a whole bunch of sub builds:

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=listarticles&secid=64

 http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=1319

Most have some streaks down the intakes and such.... some of the build logs cited above also mention how they are done... hope it helps!

Cheers, James

GO BIG BLUE NY GIANTS

squeakie wrote:

But do have a slight delima facing me. How do you weather the Nautilis wooden deck? Anybody have an idea? It looks like it's made of bass wood, and is very nicely done. But the question here is do you stain it or paint it? and what color is right? gary

Not being an expert here, but in my opinion you would have two options.

1 You want to depict a "wet" sub that just sufaced : in that case I would suggest staining the wooden deck (and since it's "wet" you will want it rather dark) and giving it a gloss- or semi-gloss coat.

2 you want to depict a "dry" sub, in that case you should observe the deck of flat train wagons on a hot day, you will see it's grey, difficult to explain in text what kind of grey to use, but the best thing you can do is just look at dried wood and simulate it with oils (in my opinion the best kind of paint for this job because of the long drying time that allows you to blend in all kind of variations) 

However, always check your references, it just might be the case that the specific sub you want to built had  painted deck 

DanCooper wrote:

squeakie wrote: But do have a slight delima facing me. How do you weather the Nautilis wooden deck? Anybody have an idea? It looks like it's made of bass wood, and is very nicely done. But the question here is do you stain it or paint it? and what color is right? gary Not being an expert here, but in my opinion you would have two options. 1 You want to depict a "wet" sub that just sufaced : in that case I would suggest staining the wooden deck (and since it's "wet" you will want it rather dark) and giving it a gloss- or semi-gloss coat. 2 you want to depict a "dry" sub, in that case you should observe the deck of flat train wagons on a hot day, you will see it's grey, difficult to explain in text what kind of grey to use, but the best thing you can do is just look at dried wood and simulate it with oils (in my opinion the best kind of paint for this job because of the long drying time that allows you to blend in all kind of variations)  However, always check your references, it just might be the case that the specific sub you want to built had  painted deck

Dan,

I think I got it figured out now. May just go ahead an stain the deck beforehand, and then give it a semigloss. Actually a dark primer would be close, and then hit it with Future.

gary

Hey Gary,

 I haven't seen the Nautilus wood deck for the 1:72 models, but I did use one when I built a Gato-class sub from the old Revell Lionfish (1:178) kit.  I found used a wood sealer first to try and avoid warping and also reinforced the underside with strips of styrene.  I was really afraid that it wouldn't stay flat when I painted it.  The model I was building was painted in Measure 9 (all black) - after sealing and painting (basically with a black acrylic faded with a little white) I just did a little dry brushing.  It turned out alright, but you could still see the grain in the original basswood piece coming through the paint.  Its kind of hard to see, but here is a photo.

 Barry

I need a break from armor building,I would like to participate by building Tamiya's 1/350 I-400

thanks

This is my contribution to the Ship Sinkers Group Build.It is Tamiya's 1/350 I-400,built OOB with Tamiya paints and lightly washed to highlight deck and hull details.It was a very enjoyable kit to build,thank you for looking !! 

anthony2779 - Looks very nice and big... 1:350 a nice size for that sub, I am halfway thru my 1:700 modern subs, on hold till I finish up other GBs. The kit came with the flag? Very nice job again, thanks for posting and sharing! CHeers! James

JMart wrote:

anthony2779 - Looks very nice and big... 1:350 a nice size for that sub, I am halfway thru my 1:700 modern subs, on hold till I finish up other GBs. The kit came with the flag? Very nice job again, thanks for posting and sharing! CHeers! James thanks for looking,no the kit came with a paper flag,I used a flag decal from a IJN flag decal sheet I had, maybe from WEM

Very nice! I'm glad to see the sub build come back to the front pages. Great work!

Okay, I'm surfacing to charge my batteries and send a status report. My 1/144 Gato is moving along; here are some shots of the deck guns and some PE work. These are from White Ensign.

Here's a 4.5 inch deck gun:

A 40mm Bofors and some conning tower bits:

and finally, one of the 20mm AA guns:

Now if I can just get that CA out from under my fingernails and my fingers unstuck... 

Seems the GB owner closed or moved his photobucket pics, that is why I download the GB badges onto my own photobucket account and link from there.

Here is the badge, save it to your account and link from there:

Believe it or not, I am still working on mine lol.. here after painting antifouling red (2 different shades), massive bleed thru on the masking:

and then I played with the bases, trying to make them look like wood. best part of this whole project lol :

bases have been Future-d and the subs masked to be AB-ed with semi-gloss black.

Cheers

Ok, im done with this one, for what its wortH! :)

final paint coats:

Decals and done!

second sub

I still think the bases came out the best lol  cheers

Well, 2 1/2 weeks late but I 've finished it! Here's my contribution to this GB and I hope it's not too late. My Trumpeter 1/144 Gato 1944. Hope you like it!

very nicely done! that white must have been a pain to paint...cheers!