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+++ FINISHED!! +++ USS Greeneville (Hobby Boss 1/350)


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Dear All,

 

While building my He 178 V1, which fought me every step of the build, I decided to build something really simple to have some breaks from the fight. I opted for a submarine.

 

So, here is the build thread of my first modern submarine: the Hobby Boss 1/350 USS Greeneville.

 

For starters, here are the mandatory pictures of the box art and box contents:

y4mnrAofVr8jhsuPX1cr_UbNnONtSQuZ-nP0v6-7

IMAG7236

 

Apart from the hull halves and stand, there are only two sprues:

y4myZ7VDkCowrBwaJz-7MgQDz19JyUhr4ab35LPB

IMAG7237

 

There's also a small PE fret:

y4mhSzv7vp4zhMyIgWNNe8RK9yjDJJl2Osn8d5vo

IMAG7238

 

Finally, a small decal sheet. However, according to the painting and decal instructions, decals 1, 6 and 7 are not used.

y4mFIIEA4uJZ-Qk_0Slm33-lUVdIJbzvyKb_gGgu

IMAG7399

 

The build started with the sail and the horizontal tailplanes:

y4mmjPRo-RFSm4fLwqDPr6uhj-y50YabDUO5Kgy2

IMAG7267

 

It was necessary to carve out indents for the foreplane. I overdid it, as only the curved indents were needed:

y4mKlCw_zopZpxPORelENbVeYP0t44Qceq9cdJ8a

IMAG7268

 

The foreplane was glued in place:

y4m7HNmYnTDQHqYYHJcQ-dfafl_WrX0pS6gvxUC3

IMAG7269

 

Indents were also carved out for the horizontal tailplanes:

y4mHFSxtIweo4pTd47rAqL_dh8fhAA5lZOlLpOy1

IMAG7270

 

The small submarine that piggybacked on the bigger sub was glued together:

y4mPDAckiFiyitCgm-oyyDTuS14N-4b_r5YrUEql

IMAG7271

 

A few holes had to be drilled out on the top hull half. These holes are for installing the pads on which the small submarine is installed:

y4mHxwZXnzneVvz8c9f8jIUIYAHX3mDec8ppFQTx

IMAG7272

 

The hull halves were glued together:

y4mssJRVxUdMRspVSIK0KPH5kUhFosXc6TRdGhPP

IMAG7273

 

There are a few spots demanding attention. For instance, this rectangular depression near the horizontal fin of the small sub needs a piece of plasticard:

y4mBhdmKyMsSxi4dbYxFkkjLJomUGPhsx_iaWMs3

IMAG7274

 

The areas around the foreplane also need attention, due to the excessive carving out:

y4mDQSStsxj2mzQLPePwHzTZ1ip_PAHafJbbjRfw

IMAG7291

 

y4mOWoR73pe7dfXs4KFiM-vMCZtU5UnSsAnGa-eC

IMAG7292

 

The sail was glued in place:

y4msYJxIDjanmjfhYlnm9Si3HUrafcmUW8nEL_JG

IMAG7302

 

The pads for the small sub were then installed, as well as the mooring bollards :

y4mRYDhYfGv10SKwU8lj1HSFfgN4cZPvtwmRRAoN

IMAG7303

 

y4mFJaUPeOj_zbyhXVcXYWL_WeIUcU1rr9WjjvX8

IMAG7305

 

Finally, the tailplanes were glued in place:

y4mKudNUP-v6QFnKI_nlw0TLLXN7FbfjH4WFAxrm

IMAG7310

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello again,

 

This kit is simple assembly-wise and there aren't significant fit problems. The horizontal seam between the two hull-halves was almost completely eliminated with sanding and polishing sticks. I had to use bits of thin plasticard sheet to fill in a few gaps I myself created when carving out the slots for the fins. The only gap due the kit parts was in the join between one of the tail planes and the hull:

y4mKVVaR62VOYzekbi4eRSLRCI-tkMpRP7Th26vO

IMAG7359

 

y4mt0BkkJKTQJkKeDsshzPr7PbxZnNqYRcy6IgQZ

IMAG7362

 

The narrower gaps and seams were taken care of with PPP:

y4mviQlkSMS0Ldxcf4BL1yXduVLOD8auQjFe1x2b

IMAG7363

 

The few PE parts were, then, dealt with. There's one for the propellers of the piggy-backed sub. Here is a comparison with the plastic version:

y4m4bhM6j14eDYlmIYS4aabcNsW79ZO0AQ_DGPhAIMAG7360

IMAG7360

 

There are PE parts for the hatch on the sail:

y4mipGxO-kc5inUEaJEpbOoQ0ma9ZR2JxzcgIdAZ

IMAG7364

 

And there's a pair of PE parts for the sub propellers. I guess they should be glued together for increased strength. So, I cut one off the frame and CA-glued it to the other:

y4m9jn625ETvITVHWeDgH-CGrLTDEYuMS2gII9GH

IMAG7365

 

Here's the end result:

y4mlV-HzuRCMgN08wRzPCefngpqePzVvlKbtby1X

IMAG7366

 

The smaller parts were cleaned of moulding marks and glued to toothpicks for painting:

y4mzklSpJ3Yxl1QDZ-wNpmibqxK3Z9jdzig6oyR0

IMAG7367

 

The sub and the smaller parts were all primed with Alclad's Black Primer and Microfiller:

y4mzqXWiCnFIvLgeEraUAxsq9nkVq97xxhdch1ap

IMAG7374

 

PPP was used again to tackle small seams along the hull joins. This wasn't very successful and in the end these seams were made to vanish with thin layers of primer:

y4mdOijCy0_X5fE3J6kOB1t_g5laZFZwK_Ks1N2Z

IMAG7376

 

y4m6-DUr3qQ0C4BiBtUt1DvTf9oRai7eKY5HEnaL

IMAG7382

 

The propellers were painted brass:

y4mpiyEsycFc2m0YX5wjrVTS-HfMMWAnQ2yk3uPN

IMAG7383

 

The same for the holders of the stand:

y4mjh_L8RndyIS8qMTuBGfA7U3DUKHh17syXxrMT

IMAG7384

 

Next, I used Gunze's Rousset to paint the hull:

y4m05SdzUjTNXciVwoubmirsSNNRk9vHVx32at_9

IMAG7385

 

The hull was masked using a combination of masking tape and kitchen cling-film:

y4mookTjZHlJNRGF8IBd6ogorPp2am4JYP3PTHDZ

IMAG7386

 

The rest of the sub should be black but a real sub is never like that. I used several pictures of the real thing for inspiration for the choice of colours. This was especially interesting for showing several tones of grey on the hull, walkways and sail:

uss-greeneville.jpg

 

I chose RLM66 for the lighter grey tones on the sail, Gunze's ocean grey for the walkways and Tamiya's NATO Black for the hull. I initially chose Gunze's Tire Black for the darker greys of the sail but it proved too dark for my likings and was painted NATO Black as well.

 

Here's the application of the RLM66 grey on the sail and ocean grey on the walkways:

y4ma7_gwev3pEv9QQADXA5F5-QFeZYXURBN7rqV3

 

IMAG7391

 

Next, I masked these areas before applying the NATO Black to the hull:

y4mMgko43oOmeK88lWxMKYPho2kU0piKV5q6XTB6

IMAG7392

 

y4mrDf6IFZfmC_PASwTcpaQp0MUX3fDMNykEZ05z

IMAG7393

 

The Tire Black intended for the sail proved to be too dark but I used it to cover the oversprays of rousset and greys before proceeding:

y4mxgWGZdv7jbBmImMZDN9RItqnY99Jrtc310i3W

IMAG7394

 

That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

 

 

 

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Hello again,

 

Continuing with the build, I took some time to think about how best to weather the model. I opted to keep it subtle and decided to create some tonal variation on the dark top half of the hull. For that, I applied a pre-shading layer using white, along the lines of water flow when the sub is floating on the surface:

y4mBi4ZJh0_a2KFOo0-fklSRSCej9e47SBJB9Da3

IMAG7395

 

This was followed by thin layers of NATO Black:

y4m8DDZvlsh1JH3CRcuCQ1czun54WhdrGE4EzjQd

IMAG7396

 

After removing the masking, I got this:

y4mrLf1F4EWLr5yVhRaDEeyh0xqDJ3l2pTz1e25R

IMAG7397

 

y4mSakzbUF4B6uCXWeJRWih5X6yRSvg2q_kBLGNy

IMAG7398

 

A microgloss coat was applied in preparation for the decals. Here's the setup for decaling:

y4mJ4y-UBkPGajSobWPujlWlCKxRM1Y3jy9otPSP

IMAG7400

 

There are few decals to apply, only the ID number on the sail and the water line scales on the bow and rudder:

y4mCKMhs0zTFBdEN7t8RBkyL9vVcwRqamhIieQEk

IMAG7401

 

I also decided to try and replicate a would finish for the base of the stand. First, I gloss coated the base and, next, I applied spots of dark brown oil, which were spread with a flat brush to simulate the wood grain.

 

Here's the mahogany-painted and microgloss-coated base:

y4mOQzMJe7LbPp7-blZO5xqwOYP5OYABmP8kmIo1

IMAG7402

 

After spreading the dark brown oil:

y4mC8K5OciCvYI4LCcDtunsF116mg5OqoRxTCkoy

IMAG7414

 

y4m7xi4H7-APDTXYDm_aHctGRrzBsSGEioAPnaoL

IMAG7415

 

I still wanted to weather the model a bit more, in order to reproduce the weathering below from the waterline, as seen in this picture:

800px-USS_Greeneville_(SSN_772)_-_dry_do

 

My first approach was to use a grey wash by Vallejo. Here's the set-up (the model had another microgloss coat to seal the decals):

y4mbsiJFH6F0FgXQgAV_q_H7EY_Jg7IsDxZ3nsKn

IMAG7416

 

Before applying the wash, I applied masking tape along the waterline:

y4mg_Ma2iAUmNASNIhFHxWRAZ9ruZxgV9d70s-Ch

IMAG7417

 

The tape was loosely held to the hull, in order to allow the wash to spread unevenly below the waterline.

y4mXHwgfXOrmyq8Z29M_Fsst8_QvrUkeeh7RKWvd

IMAG7418

 

The wash was applied vertically from the walkway to the waterline. The excess was removed with damp cotton buds shortly after. It worked but the wash tone was too dark and didn't stand out from the top hull's tone. In order to produce a better result, I decided to apply highly diluted Sky with a sponge over the matt wash. I didn't remask along the waterline.

 

Here's the tool:

y4mNntUDYt8f1Dk2ROksSRRSmOHNYtp1m3E4yH9E

IMAG7421

 

The resulting weathering:

y4muOzRXr_kPGsHJWIIZ45zBnpeYOdmhah37AvPy

IMAG7422

 

A flat coat (Alclad) was applied to the model, mini-sub and small parts.

 

Next, I glued the propeller of the mini-sub:

y4mrcHw8VlqsXhGHQR3RwQ8vySX14nNUEVLMzFno

IMAG7423

 

The same for the main model:

y4m-ixgXgOvxdSrTLGLesD72xWcwtsNLTNYO2T0X

IMAG7425

 

The pointy thingies where glued in place on top of the sail:

y4mVQFbihunGbJT5xfMpxNhQxr0lKFgAVi93Uwru

IMAG7425

 

Finally, the mini-sub was piggy-backed on the submarine:

y4mUMbrOyndhISJuecf8F87xSShpl2tsrj0rwOJJ

IMAG7426

 

The completed model on the stand:

y4mjFbeMamxATTGwHC42ipaQJx3KilLecNMGhcx0

IMAG7427

 

I'll post better pictures latter in the RFI area.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

 

 

NOTE: the RFI photos can be found here.

 

 

 

Edited by jrlx
Added link to RFI photos
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51 minutes ago, S-boat 55 said:

Very nice weathering, great build imo

Thank you very much. Much appreciated!

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Gidday Jaime, this has come up very well, the weathering near the waterline, and also the display stand. It definitely looks like wood to me. When I saw that first photo in your last post I thought "They have a REAL problem with very big seagulls in that part of the world"😁 But like I said, she looks very good. Regards, Jeff.

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Thanks Jeff! Much appreciated!

 

I couldn't find much information on weathering submarine models,, so I had to improvise in order to try and reproduce what I saw in the pictures of the real thing.

 

Cheers

JR

 

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Tha's a very realistic finish JR.

 

24 minutes ago, jrlx said:

I couldn't find much information on weathering submarine models,, so I had to improvise in order to try and reproduce what I saw in the pictures of the real thing.

 

Unfortunately the links to the images are broken but Pierre's @Kagou RFI thread gives a good descripton of the materials and techniques he used to weather his submarine models and @Roger Newsome also applied a very realistic finish to his Alpha Class build.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Richard E said:

Tha's a very realistic finish JR.

 

 

Unfortunately the links to the images are broken but Pierre's @Kagou RFI thread gives a good descripton of the tools and techniques he used to weather his submarine models and @Roger Newsome also applied a very realistic finish to his Alpha Class build.

 

 

Thank you very much Richard, and thanks for the links. I'll take that into account for my next subs. I have the Zvezda 1/350 Kursk in the stash for a future build.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

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  • jrlx changed the title to +++ FINISHED!! +++ USS Greeneville (Hobby Boss 1/350)

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