Hobby Boss 1:350 scale U.S.S. Greenville.

Treehugger
I just realized that, spending some extra time with ship models, making sure they are primed well, so one can sand the primer smooth in places, is very imporant. I have some stuff to build, incl. a Liberty class freighter in 1:350 scale (the horrible hull in the Trumpeter kit, I have two of them, both, a little warped and annoying to fix).

Looks nice, what kind of gloss coat will you be using?

Treehugger
Tip: You can airbrush the stand + brass nameplate black, then very gently sand off the paint from the topside of the letters on the nameplate, then sealing it all with a gloss coat. Looks very nice. One can also fix scratches in the black paint with a small brush before adding a gloss coat, and it all will look smooth black anyway.

Treehugger
Btw, with ships and submarines, and planes, I like sanding the prop blades thinner. It is usually fairly easy, but one can expect a blade to snap off if not being gentle enough when sanding/filing. A good alternative to a thicker sanding stick, would be to use a sharp blade to simply scrape lightly over the surface multiple times, but make sure the blade isn't tugging on the plastic, or the plastic might snap around the weakest point.

Clifford Keesler
Thank you very much Treehugger. I will give your tips a try. I will be using Alcad's aqua gloss for the initial clear coat, then Tamyya's Semi-gloss clear after weathering.

John Ballman
Nice Build, G-Factor makes a nice 1/350 US Submarine Propeller. It's a generic 7 Blade the 688 class used.
Thanks for sharing your build.
JB

Clifford Keesler
Thank you very much John. This kit actually comes with 2 photo etch brass 7 blade propellors. And the kit plastic one is not bad either. Nice and thin.

Augie
Nice going Clifford!

Clifford Keesler
Thank's Augie. It is just primed, I have to paint and weather it yet. Hopefully it will turn out as nice as the first one. It is a lot smaller so I am having a harder time with it. LOL.

Treehugger
I build one of these Hobby Boss Los Angeles class attack subs, but gave it away to a toy store. 🙂 I painted mine with red onto black primer, and I remember my red paint was maybe properly thinned or too thin, so in trying to fix some overspray issue of black on red, I had big trouble fixing the red hull in one spot. 🙂

Btw, Dragon has an Ohio ballistic missile sub model in same scale, which understandably is a lot larger. I had to wait for a long while to find a kit that was reasonably priced unfortunately. The fit of the large upper deck is so so, a bit weird, and being a WIP still, I had to add some styrene to support the upper main deck to maintain the nice "open" line along the hull. I think I will add putty and remove the all the "rings" around the hull, or panel lines, which seems too deep.

Holger Kranich
Hey something completely different but very nice!

Bart Goesaert
these are nice kits. trying to build a Russian Yasen and Victor III, having some problems with the hull, and think some rescribing will be a necessity, but they have beautiful details. Now trying to figure out to make a "black" dark grey more lively...

Treehugger
I think rubber black (any sensible variant of it, not looking like a dusty tire) is a good idea, as having rubber like surface seems imo to make more sense than something plain black.

I suspect that streaking with a gray color on rubber black might look nice. Adding rust seems over the top for newer ships I would think, but perhaps something could be chipped here or there, unsure about that.

I personally think the Soviet Akula looks the best. Not to be confused with the Tyhpoon (Project 941 Akula).

Bart Goesaert
that Akula (Hunter/killer) is on my wishlist... but sold out so far in most shops I frequent.

Treehugger
I know that both Bronco and Hobby Boss has the Akula in the 1:350 scale. I have both. The Hobby Boss kit shows the wrong submarine on the box art. 🙂 The Hobby Boss model does have the large drop like shape on its tail, unlike its boxart. The Bronco kit apparently have a different tail, without the huge sensor array dome. I think the Hobby Boss kit looks better specifically because of its huge sensor array dome at the rear.

Bart Goesaert
Isn't that the towed sonar which is stored in there? I remember such a thing from either Hunt for the red October or Crimson tide.

Treehugger
Ah you are right, I messed it up. A towed array sonar.

Clifford Keesler
Thank you all for your kind comments and ideas. @Treehugger, I have been trying to get my hands on the Dragon Ohio class SSBN, but it always seems to be out of stock. I painted this one with flat black, as it has a rubber coated sonar dome on the bow which shows up very prominently. I will paint it rubber black. I will weather the rest of the boat with various shades of grey oil paint. My next sub purchase will be Trumpeter's 1:144 scale Russian Kilo class. I like the Hobby Boss 1:350 scale subs and plan on building the whole line they have.@Bart, you are correct on the towed Sonar array, and I think the Movie was Crimson Tide. I think, but am not sure the other Russian sub in Hunt for Red October was an Alpha not an Akula, but I may be wrong. LOL.

Treehugger
One thing I did with my Los Angeles sub, was to add a matte layer on the, presumably no-slip area on top of the deck. Not entirely sure if this is accurate though, I never checked. :|

Clifford Keesler
On the pictures I have looked at, that does appear to be correct. I planned on masking off the deck after I was done with decals and weathering and applying a satin coat to the rest of the sub and a flat coat to the deck, adding a little weathering with gray on the deck first. The anti-skid areas have a tendency to weater gray when exposed to sun and salt.

Bart Goesaert
Thx for that tip

Treehugger
Btw, the resulting matted non slip deck can be seen in photo four of my album here: Hobby Boss' Los Angeles Class Attack Submarine in scale | Album by Treehugger (1:350)

I remember making a mistake when rescribing some of the lines, I did not have any regular scribing tools so I used a photo etch saw, but I sawed too deep, and I also scratched the area around the torpedo doors. I also had issues with black overspray on red, beause I didn't use enough masking tape. 🙂 A little annoying trying to fix that overspray. I also used regular black or was it maybe a mix of black + nato black, for the sub iirc, as it didn't occur to me at the time that I could make it look more rubbery.

Clifford Keesler
Thank you James. You are welcome Bart. I got the hull red painted on this one today. Next is the sonar dome,then the deck.

Scott Dutton
Clifford, nice work, and yes it was an Alpha in Red October

Clifford Keesler
Thank you for your kind words Scott. I will not be able to finish it until around the end of March, or first of April. We will start moving into our new house next Friday and I must dismantle my workshop.

Clifford Keesler
I was able to get some work in on this today. She is all painted. Wating for the clear coat to dry and then it's decals. Guess I will get them finished before the move.

Nathan Dempsey
How did I miss these Clifford? Looking nice.

Clifford Keesler
Thank you Nathan. I finally decided to try something other than airplanes, now I'm addicted to the darn things. LOL.

bat-213
that looks very cool

Sven Schönyan
Very nice!

Clifford Keesler
Thank you very much bat-213 and Sven.