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The Mikro-Mir kit is supposed to be HMS M.1 - but as I already had a resin model of M.1, I decided to make HMS M.2 - before she was comverted into an aircraft-carrying sub. The only changes I made were to source the M2 decals from my spares box - white characters on top of black to get the 'shadow' effect. I also left off the deck gun - Internet photos show it not fitted.... The M-Class were nicknamed 'Mutton Boats' - because the 12in gun mounting looked like a leg of mutton. HMS M1 and M2 together...... This is another in the expanding range of 1/350 scale subs from Mikro-Mir I understand that they are planning to make HMS M2 with a hangar and floatplane - plus M3 when she was converted into a minelayer. Ken

Just received the latest in Mikro-Mir's growing range of 1/30 scale submarines - HMS M.1 The M-Class were conceived and built after WWI as gun-armed Monitor submarines - fitted with a massive 12in gun. This new kit from Mikro-Mir is welll executed with injection-moulded hull and superstructure, an etched-brass fret of smaller parts and a small decal sheet with markings for HMS M.1 in two different colour schemes. The box art shows her in the earlier 1920 disruptive scheme..... The kit contents..... Instruction Sheet..... .... and colour scheme/ marking options....... As I have already built a resin M.1 in the disruptive camouflage, I will be painting this new model in her 1921 scheme.... Mikro-Mir are planning to kit all 3 of the M-Class - HMS M.2 as converted into an aircraft carrier and M.3 when she was a Minelayer. Mikro-Mir seems to be ploughing a lone furrow with their continuing release of early British submarines - more power to their elbow. Ken

Chinese Jiaolong Manned Submersible Item No.: 07303 Scale: 1:72 Trumpeter will release deep submarine very similar to the Hasegawa Shinkai 6500:

Bonjour, CECI est ma petite Surcouf (1937/1942), je l'ai Construit il ya 4 ans

To add to my collection of US Navy early cruise missile subs....... USS Tunny.... .... USS Grayback.... .... and USS Halibut.... I decided to have a go at making the first of the breed - the USS Cusk. This was a Balao Class wartime sub converted to launch a US-built copy of the German V1 flying bomb - called the KGW-1 Loon. AFV Club to a range of Gato class submarine kits - so I selected the 1943 boxing - with its cut-down conning tower - as the nearest thing to a late-war Balao......... Apart from the upper hull, this sprue is common across all versions.... This lower sprue is unique to the 1943 boxing...... AFV Club include an etched brass fret for the propeller guards, railings etc.... and a 'generic' decal sheet...(but no 'USS Cusk' title for the rear decking) They even include a pressure hull inside - totally hidden from view.. All I need do now is build the model more-or-less as kitted, then add the hangar, launch rail and scratch-built Loon!! Watch this space.... Ken PS - The rest of my 1/350 scale submarine builds (including the US Navy Ballistic Missile subs) is here

Another one to add to the collection - Mikro-Mir's Project 673 design study for a small SSN.... It was never actually built - just one of a series of experiments.... Note the lack of a separate conning tower. A few more photos of the parts here Ken

I had some issues when building this kit. I do like the model, the castings really good and only needed a bit of sanding to get a good fit. My big issue was the photo-etch (again) and numerous repaints which led to some of the detail being lost. Anyway a British sub is always worth the time and I'm pleased with the result. Hopefully Micromir will bring out the K-class with the bow buoyancy tank I think they look great. If you want to see how good this kit can look check out Flankerman as usual.

This is a remodel and repaint of my previous entry HMS Safari. I filled in the hull sections and added some additional pieces to make HMS Sealion. I inspired by other modellers work and my recent visit to the museum at Gosport so I had a crack at a more unusual paint scheme. The picture is not in colour so I made an educated guess and I'm quite happy with the results.

Here are some photos of my collection of U-class submarines. I really like these small submarines and i'm keen to build more. Not 100% on colours but i haven't found much in the way of reference material. I'm building more and more world war 2 subs now, although Id prefer to build the British designs. Alex

Really nice kit, the moulds are great and it goes together nicely. Shame its all black but it doesnt look too boring I hope

I scratch built this small sub out of a piece of dowel and plasticard. I wanted a model of this sub after building the micromir kit, I just couldn't get the larger kit to look good so I concentrated on building one in my favourite scale. Heres a bit of info from Wikipedia. The Project 1910 Kashalot class submarine (NATO reporting name: Uniform) is a class of research andspecial operations submarine constructed by the Soviet Union during the late 1970s and early 1980s.[1] Two boats of the class were constructed, AS-13 and AS-15, with the first boat of the class being laid down in 1977 and commissioned in 1986, the second being laid down in 1983 but not commissioned until 1991.[1] A third class boat, AS-12, reached the fitting-out stage before being cancelled in 1998.[1] Displacing 1,580 tons submerged, the Kashalot class was constructed using a single titanium hull design, and is powered by a nuclear reactor; they were the first Soviet nuclear-powered submarines to have a single hull.[1]The boats each have a crew of 36 officers and men.

My internet has been down for the last 3 weeks so i've had to wait to post pictures of one of the most fun builds i've ever made. This kit is fantastic, the detail is great and the flash minimal. Everything in the kit was quality and I thoroughly enjoyed building it. Painted with humbrol acrylic spray and revell acrylics.

Just finished this simple build - HMS Meteorite was a captured Type XVIIB U-boat (U-1407) - used by the Royal Navy to test the Walter High Test Peroxide closed-cycle engine that required no external air.... This is the Mikro-Mir box art.... The kit is the same as the existing MM Type XVIIB - with the addition of a new sprue for the revised conning tower and a set of RN decals...... The build is very simple....... here's the finished model ...... all of 12 cm long! I put a crew member on deck for size comparison.... It isn't the best 1/350 scale sub I have ever made - but it fills a gap in the collection. Ken

Models from left to right: British T class, IJN I19 with Kaiten, Type XXI Uboat, Type XXIII Uboat, Wilhelm Bauer, Type 212, 033G Wuhan, USS Menhaden.

I've always been keen on british subs, after seeing the fantastic efforts of other modellers on here I decided to have a go at a T boat. All parts were scratch built, and i learnt a lot during the build. Unfortunately i had some issues when priming the model which led to the paint cracking and ruining the finer detail. However like most of my scratch builds I plan on rebuilding them once my skills have developed. I may also fork out for the loose cannon waterline kits to improve the overall quality. Cheers Alex

Subs from left to Right: USS Cusk. IJN I14, IJN I19, IJA Transport Submarine, HMS Graph (Type VII C u-boat) I19 Fujima kit with scratchbuilt hull.

1/350 USS Michigan (SSBN-727); accompanied by a Veteran Models 1/350 SH-60 Seahawk (painted as a USCG MH-60 Jayhawk), Mark 48 torpedo, UGM-96 Trident I ballistic missile, and a custom display stand. Watercraft is not my wheelhouse (haha...), but I was asked by a family friend of mine if I would be interested in painting the submarine he served aboard during his time in the US Navy. I immediately said yes for a number of reasons, primarily because I have no experience with watercraft and I wanted to broaden my horizons and also because I enjoy making something that has special meaning for someone. This kit is the Cyber-Hobby 1/350 USS Chicago painted to match the Michigan as it appeared during my client's time aboard her (it has since been converted to a guided missile sub). The kit was fairly straightforward, though I was concerned when I found that the missile deck didn't sit flush with the rest of the hull so I modified it so it did. It was only after I got it glued together did I notice in some of my reference photos that the turtleback sat off of the hull. I decided against trying to fix it because I thought it would be too much of a hassle. I decided to try and re-scribe the the recessed panel lines and it turned out okay. However, I saw another build of the boat where the modeler filled all of the panel lines. I rechecked my reference photos and found that to be accurate so I did the same thing, using Tamiya putty. After about six cycles of sand-prime-sand again, I finally got the hull relatively smooth. For the hull colors, I used Tamiya Hull Red with a thin coat of Flat Red for the anti-fouling paint and Tamiya NATO Black for the top half. I used Tamiya Rubber Black for the anti-skid surface on the the missile deck; it provided just enough of a color difference to noticeable and the effect was quite pleasant. The screw was painted with VMC Brass and the masts/periscopes were painted with a mix of Tamiya Ocean Grey 2 and Flat White with the camouflage pattern done with a mix of VGA Sombre Grey and Black. I used the kit decals for the depth markings and 1/350 WWII Cruiser & Destroyer numbers from Total Navy for the hull numbers. The kit helicopter was pretty poor as far as detail goes, so I used the SH-60 Seahawk from Veteran Models as a replacement. My client requested the helicopter to be painted to match the USCG MH-60 Jayhawk. I inquired as to why he wanted this helicopter to be USGS and USN. He told me one of his duties was communicating with helicopter crews when they were surfaced and where he was based out of (Bangor, Washington) the crews he worked with were USGC and not Navy. I managed to find a decent piece of pine at Hobby Lobby that was perfectly sized for a display stand. I found a lady on eBay who makes challenge coins so I bought one and used a forstner bit to make hole and mount the coin and bought a custom made brass nameplate from US Brass Shop. The wood was given two coats of Gunstock stain and a coat of satin polyurethane to seal it. All and all, I enjoyed this model and I feel like it turned out pretty good for my first maritime model. She didn't fit in my photo tent so the pictures didn't turn out as well as I would have like, but they'll have to do. Most importantly, my client was extremely pleased with the end result! He told me that when he was on the boat, he had a model of it someone made while serving. It had passed down through a couple of different people after they left and he wound up with it. When it was his time to get out 16 years ago, he contemplated keeping it but instead found someone to pass it on to. He had wanted one to replace it since he left the Navy and he just happened to see my models on Facebook and asked me to make it for him! He will also display the model in a case in the gun shop he owns in Culpeper, VA, which is pretty cool!

My first waterline diorama, I used a picture frame and lots of pva for the water effect. Pity about the helicopter stand still standing a little proud but i think its a good start. Alex

Really nice kit very happy with it.

The next in my series of Thunderbirds builds in going to be a quickie... The Bandai Thunderbird 4 kit! Its a very simple and quite small kit Its almost totally lacking in cockpit detail - well its got this piece but I don't think that counts as "cockpit" So we'll have to scratch build one, just like I did with the UFO Interceptor last year! Thankfully there are plenty of references available, especially in the areas of the inter net where I tend to hang out I'm going to have to source a figure to make Gordon, but the rest is all scratch buildable. This kit scales out to be about 1/60 scale (TB4 is supposed to be 30 feet long, this kit is 6 inches long) but a 1:72 scale figure will have to be acceptable. I've made a start on the cockpit: Now this is not a complicated build, so lets see if we can make it more complicated... So for a start these things sprint to mind: along with these pieces: So if we are going to ladd LED lights to the lighting erm... thingy, then I need to get power to them somehow. As you can see from the upper photo, I can use a very thin copper wire along the arms back into the main hull. Then from the hull to the base that will hold the battery we have an arm so we need a socket in the bottom: Then for the support arm I'm going to use a pair of thin brass tubes each with the plug end of the connector at the end then the socket part will fit inside the tubes embedded in the base of TB4 Thats the story so far...

This is a repaint to try and replicate the anechoic tile finish of the Trafalgar class SSN's. I used halfords rattle cans and some non-slip matting from a pound shop. I don't think it turned out too badly.

I hasten to please another upcoming new product https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_submarine_Zaporizhzhia