Older Oscar Class project
Hobby Boss' Oscar II Class Missile Submarine

Another fun project for me, as I was a beginner using an airbrush. I use Vallejo acrylic colors and Humbrol Clear gloss coat (applied with 7 psi).

A trick for applying the water line for creating a more straight and a more level waterline, is to evaluate the water line during masking process, not from the side, but from aft to front, holding the model away from your eyes. Then it is much easier to spot if the masking tape for the waterline is actually a straight line or not.

I used this project as an experiment with Humbrol Clear, for getting the most smoothest gloss coat I could, and I think I managed that to some degree heh, but I ended up with a few issues. One mistake as I added more layers of the gloss coat, was that I had forgotten to remove the dust that was still on the model inside the panel lines, after gently sanding down the layers of gloss coat, before adding a new one. The dust was sealed in with the gloss coat and eventually clogged up some of the panel lines where the dust was.

Another mistake was (probably) not allowing the kit model to dry properly between each layer of gloss coat, and eventually, I could spot cracking in a few places. Not a big deal, but this can probably be avoided.

The crappy model stand in the kit, was improved by gluing on a piece of styrene, with the sharp corners rounded. Looks better than the default stand I think.

The nameplate was glued on, then I airbrushed on primer and black color, then I gently sanded the paint away from the brass nameplate, before sealing it with layers of gloss coat, and probably some satin varnish.

Working with this rather large submarine kit, was a bit tricky and I am sure I accidentally bumped the model into my spray booth a couple of times. I was very happy with the result, from the paint and masking work for the red and white thingy on top side towards the aft. Maybe an exit hatch, or a buoy, unsure.

I will try use a more rubber like black color when painting my submarine kits in the future.

Ah, one more thing, for the rudders, I decided to cut a hole into the model on each side, as I thought it would look better that way. Maybe a mistake.

I had difficulty figuring out how the waterline was supposed to go around the rear end. I strongly suspect that the kit has an inaccurate shape there.