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Astute Class submarine - S210 HMS Ambush


Despy

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An attempt to build many submarines at the same time (read this never ending projects) here is an Astute class sub.

First a group pic of what is going on (all in 1/350 scale)

15405285411_423578c8f8_b.jpgModel kits by despot2010

It required a lot of putty to have a smooth join of upper and lower part of hull, maybe my mistake skills of gluing or maybe the kit is not perfect, I'm not sure.

15405293811_d923b0e2c8_b.jpgModel kits by despot2010

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I decided to prepare this Astute class as S210 HMS Ambush.

I also decided to make it in a diorama with only the fore photoetch parts (arrggggh, I don't know how they are called) sailing at level

15221839988_155ce16015_b.jpgModel kits by despot2010

And not all the parts on the conning tower are out, so I filled them with putty too:

15405249091_e570780c61_b.jpgModel kits by despot2010

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After the primer, the upper-lower hull joint isn't perfect but as it will be submersed, I wouldn't bother to correct it:

15385388456_2183f955bf_b.jpgModel kits by despot2010

And here is the fore part:

15221628329_306fc9f5dd_b.jpgModel kits by despot2010

BTW, I have no idea what that thing on fore hull is called and what it serves (beside some Freudian jokes), anybody can explain?

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The little lump on the forward casing between the fore planes is supposed to represent the Active Intercept Sonar array

Thanks for the info!

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Instead of painting all with a single colour I've decided to represent the anechoic tile of sail with some decals.

Based on reference pictures, on the sail, there are some parts which are clearly lighter in colour.

9397356415_75736ebb0e_o.jpg

So I masked the sail

15500819556_0bf380c65e_b.jpg[/url]

15523989315_0346e643c7_b.jpg

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And I said to myself, if it's done with aircraft, why not with submarines and decided to make some pre-shading

I don't know yet if it was a good idea

15337079859_423baeb7c7_b.jpg[/url]

Then put the first layer of dark grey (the same colour that ruined my Visby class build) which seems to work fine so far

15337220990_21e6ef7dc8_b.jpg

I'll paint a second layer and will see. If I won't like it, I'll add some anthracite to dark grey to darken it more.

15337367927_f9427d7d2a_b.jpg

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I painted it with antracite and that's it, I won't go any darker for the main color

15543360102_72eeecec88_b.jpg[/url]

And I masked the hull to paint the non-slip(?!) parts in darker tone. Here is with one of the reference picture

15518816946_8d5cb5e684_b.jpg

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I used tarr black for non-slip area. The difference from the main hull colour is too subtle but that is fine with me

15361987390_f38982796a_c.jpg[/url]

And voila unmasked

15548469852_6ef4ac6507_c.jpg

I hope the decals for the sail will do the job as now it seems too light colour compared to hull. BTW I'm happy with the pre-shading, it gave some difference along the hull, which is better than a boring one colour submarine.

I applied future before the decals

15361494638_2cc22375b2_c.jpg

15361496708_d8d6cbe813_c.jpg

Edited by Despy
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  • 2 weeks later...

Just before applying decals, when checking my detail pictures, I noticed Hobbyboss has skipped the detail around diving planes. After a long struggle of continuing as it is or adding these details, I decided to add the details from the scratch. It would be a good way to learn using Evergreen sheets.

14974573364_bf4478496d_c.jpg

And painted it with medium and dust grey and I've begun to apply homemade anechoic tile decals. First on the sail.

15571622606_651d827679_c.jpg

I continued with homemade decals. I prepared two sort of decals, one for smaller anechoic tile on the sail and one for bigger anechoic tile on hull

15625514916_8194d81f9c_c.jpg

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Not so bad for a first try. I liked the decal on the sail.

15029045703_292effe85d_c.jpg

There are some bubbles here and there but as it will be submerged in the diorama, I didn't bother to fix them.

15649212675_9b2585b2c4_c.jpg

15625512916_c2279d6300_b.jpg

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Added back the diving planes. I noticed MicroSol caused a problem on the decal at fore hull

15625492936_f31eb48ea0_b.jpg[/url]

And I fixed it as much as I could. Applied another coat of Future before applying some of decals that came with the kit.

15463639400_1b58a6bc9b_b.jpg

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How did you make the tile decals?

I had an A4 paper print for two different dimensions of tile. I asked a friend to make it (I'm no good at photoshop etc.) and it took 5 minutes to prepare a randomly colored (repetitive) tile pattern.

15641056866_7a34400c45_c.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Ex-FAAWAFU

So to finish the submarine, I used some of the decals coming with the box. But they were far too bright. The tile part on the sail was looking too bright too, so I decided to darken them by painting a thin layer of Dark grey. And for weathering, as the diorama would be about her just leaving for a mission, I decided to put some seagull art(?!) :D after some reference pictures. You know no submarine diorama is complete without seagull shxx. It came out out of scale but that's OK for me.

15787605542_508c494057_c.jpg

For my first ever diorama, I decided to use the Chris Flodberg method that I've come across here:

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=155661

IMHO, he has the best and most realistic naval dioramas. I'm pretty sure that my diorama won't come anything near, but it would be a good experience for later sea dioramas.

So I've built the pool for the oat sea :) and fixed the model with a glue gun as described in his method.

15786027135_540d6e2cb6_c.jpg

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And I've added the quick oat that I bought as bulk, formed the wave patterns and applied CA (again I've bought as a bulk because you need a lot) to fix the oats.

If you ever would decide to use this method, wear a full face mask and protect your eyes as the fume is very nasty. I felt like in an episode of "Breaking Bad" while doing this :evil_laugh:

15166083104_44b192be47_c.jpg[/url]

It seems, Chris updated his method and now uses oat bran rather than quick oat. Another good thing by making "Dukan Diet" (beside losing weight) is you have oat bran under your hand :giles:

15600608678_c1a76a1b27_c.jpg

I'm not sure if I'm gonna use that small boat in the diorama yet.

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The oat bran that I've used over quick oat, made it more realistic as it would be difficult to hide those big oat parts and the wavew would be too out of scale.

Anyway, I covered underside of paper towel with acrylic medium and placed over oat bran. I first tried to use CA over oat bran but the CA did not diffuse and stayed as drops making impossible to proceed. So I took those CA/oat bran drops off and I left oat bran non fixed/glued. I continued with covering with paper towel. If you'd try this method, it is important that you cover the underside of paper towel as much as you can with acrylic medium. In my experience the paper should be almost soaked so it is glued well over the oat bran.

15818079855_f465964cc8_c.jpg[/url]

I continued to use acrylic gel medium this time. It is more dense compared to acrylic medium. It helped me to hide the figures of paper towel and parts where papers overlap.

Than I cut the walls following the wave shapes.

I think the overspray of the decals works wonders. Little bit concerned about the gull poo though. Just how big are those birds?

Actually you are right. Some of friends saw the pictures and made a lot of jokes about how big some parts of those seagulls can be :winkgrin:

So I decided to make them thinner, I used permenant black pen to cover them (because I don't trust to my painting skills as I can't paint too thin as seen with white)

So now it is ready for painting the sea.

15819634862_38725425a6_c.jpg

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I painted the sea with Panzer Gray and added some white later to add some motion

15833089365_7d73c04121_c.jpg[/url]

Added some more shading on the sea and coated with future to give glossy appearance

15662390500_597671af8a_c.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tried to glue cotton as the method requires with really bad result in first try. So I froze the project for a while until I found a new inspiration to try again. And this time it worked better.

15974681352_a040809bcb_z.jpg

I tried to apply acrylic medium over the cotton. But all my attempt resulted in... well a look of soaked cotton. So I take them off and left without medium over cotton.

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I think the overspray of the decals works wonders. Little bit concerned about the gull poo though. Just how big are those birds?

I'd get rid of it too, it takes away from the rest of the build TBH,

I like what you are doing but get rid of the poo !

Dan

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Sincerely I agree with your comment. It's an overkill, out of scale and poorly executed after an idea once seemed funny.

This is the picture which gave me the idea:

9290327957_c3e5abbd8d_b.jpgNE130087 by FlarePhot, on Flickr

But I have a problem with finishing models, I have zillion of models which waits unfinished because I've lost my interest, was not happy with what I've done etc. and I decided to finish this one as it is.

I was not happy with how I applied the cotton in my first try and even that made me stop visiting the model kit work table for almost 2 weeks, so with all the present problems I accept as it is.

Here is the RFI link:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234972165-hms-ambush-s120-1350-astute-class-nuclear-submarine/

I'd get rid of it too, it takes away from the rest of the build TBH,

I like what you are doing but get rid of the poo !

Dan

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