Making the Alanger Project 971

[Chock]

Quick update just before I need to dive on a choo choo train to London to train someone in Photoshop (don't you just love it when work gets in the way of fun?). Here is the sanded and cleaned up nose job, it looks like one more minor correction will see that bit completed, god bless Milliput and steel wool; Number One, rig for silent sandpapering:



Chock

[HunterICX]

thats a fine correction

HunterICX

[Chock]

Back from the grim windswept wilds of London and the joys of staying in a Travel Lodge hotel watching England get hammered by Croatia and consequently knocked out of the footie competition, so I can get back to working on the model again.

No recommendation for Cross Country Trains by the way, the train back from London to Manchester was absolutely freezing cold (one of those crash-o-matic Pendolino jobs), I even hauled my suitcase down from the rack, opened it up and put a fleece top on, it was that bad, and the food in the buffet car was crap too, as was the tea, which tasted of plastic. This train was 20 minutes late too, pretty poor service for a ticket that cost 70 quid. Avoid this train company at all costs.

My replacement etched brass 1:350 submarine screws from Flagship Models arrived today, they are very nice indeed. Not bad sevice either, they made it from Edmund, OK, USA, to the even more grim and windswept wilds of Stockport in dear old Blighty in less than a week, so, in sharp contrast to Cross Country Trains, I definitely recommend Flagship Models for speedy, quality service.

More pics shortly.

Chock

[Kapitan]

Blimey i could have got you home faster, i can do london to manchester in around 2 hours 35 minuets driving !

[Chock]

Update: Examination of yet more photographs reveals the rear decking where it fairs into the sail and middle of the hull, is from the W.A.G. school of modeling (wild-assed guess), not surprising since the kit was probably put together originally when less data on the Akula was available. So, more corrections are needed; I was aware that some work would need to be done in that area of the model, but I thought it would be a lot less than what it turned out to be! Here are some (slightly blurred) pics of the remodeling in progress and the main picture of a real Akula upon which this remodeling work is based:







Chock

[Chock]

Two shots of the reprofiled deck nearing completion of the sanding, some minor filling is still needed, but the profile of the deck where it blends with the sail is now correct, all the raised detailing is also now gone and the rear deck profile is much more like the real deal instead of being a wierd (read: innaccurate) hybrid of the Gepard and earlier ones such as the Pantera and Tigr:





That's the back end of my computer mouse in the shots, which gives and idea of the model size.

In case anyone else is modeling this boat, here is a great shot I found on the 'net of an Akula being built, which is very handy to see the sail profiling ribs and stanchions. The missing bit in the middle of the sail is where the crew escape module goes, the big hole at the front, near the top of the sail is the location for the panel containing the SOKS wake detection array:



Chock

[XabbaRus]

That's a cool pic. Where did you find it, there are some touchy people on the web about photos of Russian subs and I don't mean the KGB.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by Chock

Chock

Wow, that's quite a complicated model building system you have. You really take your building serious! I just use the kitchen table