Making the Alanger Project 971

[Chock]

Thanks for posting the link

I have already got most of those shots, but there were one or two that I haven't seen, so it's appreciated. Incidentally, most of them reveal a lot more detail if your drop the darker tones with the curves palette in Photoshop, which is good for getting panel location info.

Chock

[Chock]

Two more shots in better lighting after some cleaning up of the initial reprofiling job reveal that it actually wasn't a bad first shot at things:





Extending the sail slightly to form the correct profile means that the raised detail of the deck safety line attachment rails has to go, but this is not a disaster as I intended to replace that with fine wire anyway, I think that will look much more convincing than the original molded on detail. Most of the other raised details, such as the oversized square hatch detailing is going to be going too, it would be much better represented simply by masking and painting it in at this scale, so that's what I intend to do.

One advantage doing this 'nose job' on the sail will confer, is that it will be easier to add the SOKS wake detection array to the front of the sail. There is no attempt to model this in the original kit, which is not surprising as it would be fairly tricky to do in plastic at this scale. Even so, it is very noticeable on most shots of the Akula, so I'm going to add it. Currently I'm thinking that the heads of either dressmaking pins or sewing needles inserted into the putty which forms the reprofiled sail front will make a pretty good lookalike, but in case that isn't as good as it sounds, I bought some very fine steel rods from a model shop the other day as a back up solution. I took the precation of filling the inside of the sail with modeling putty too, as all this sanding might end up making the sail's original plastic rather thinner than it was to start off with, and the tip of the sail where it nears the cockpit location has had quite a lot of plastic shaved off, so it will definitely be getting on the thin side at that point.

Had an email from Flagship Models yesterday too, letting me know that the replacement screw set I ordered has been posted, so that's good news. Since I will be displaying the completed model in a rather unusual way (watch this space!) which calls for the creeper motors to be in their retracted position, this gets around the problem of their two tiny screws having to be either corrected or replaced. Even with the close up photographs of these in Wayne Frey's book, I suspect they would be more guesswork that a true depiction of the real things as the casings and support stanchions don't look too accurate in the kit compared to the (few) pics you can get which show them for real, besides which, the screws for the creeper motors appear to be behind some sort of protective grille on the real deal, which I daresay would be impossible to emulate at this scale in any really convincing fashion, so I'm glad this is not going to be an issue. Shame you can't get those creeper motors on the 'Akula' in Dangerous Waters, that would be really cool!

Chock

[Bill Nichols]

Quesiton: Did you simply putty-up the leading edge of the sail to get the profile, or was there chopping involved? Also, from the pics you posted it looks like the trailing edge also needs some work, agreed?

[Chock]

Basically, most of the work is going to be achieved with the putty, so it initially just had a piece of that added, however, as you point out, it does appear to me that the very top of the front of the sail just in front of the cockpit requires a bit of minor shaving of the plastic original bit too. This is why I filled the inside of the sail with putty, so that if this proves to be the case, there'll be plenty of spare material underneath the plastic to allow that to happen.

Just before typing this, I added another very thin layer of putty over the thing to smooth out the reprofiled bit and allow it to blend smoothly into the deck, the more I can get this blending into the deck to work without having to sand and file it, the easier it will be, so that took a bit of deft work with the old fingers! Basically that was done in a manner not dissimilar to placing a pastry 'lid' over a pie in its dish, then smoothed into the deck and sail with fingertips. Messy on your fingers, but it looks pretty good so far, I'll post a picture of that when it has dried and hardened a bit so I can wash all the crap off it and make it easier to photograph. I also corrected a couple of molding sink marks in the plastic toward the back of the sail whilst I was at it.

I agree, the trailing edge of the sail does indeed need some work, as it it does not portray the attractive sweep downwards that the real thing displays, this is even more apparent upon removing the oversized antenna/mast doors that were on the original kit, but to correct this is going to be simpler than correcting the front, as it is not a compound reversing curve like it is at the front, which is quite good news!

In addition to these inaccuracies, when viewed from the front and rear, the cross section of the sail is in fact more akin to the Gepard than earlier versions of the Akula (i.e. not so blended into the decking, although still incorrect) so that's going to need sorting out too, as it is rather different from the pictures I have where the safety rail meets the termination of the sail about halfway along its length.

I did phone Vladimir Putin and ask him to sail one of his Akulas up the Mersey so I could get a good look at it, but for some reason he hasn't returned my call, so I'm stuck with Wayne's book and pictures off the 'net!

Guess I've opened something of a can of worms in attempting to make it more realistic, but then again, if it was easy, it wouldn't be a challenge, and I think it will be worth the effort. Of course one of the nice things about doing all of this is that the Akula (like many modern subs) actually does look rather lumpy and bumpy with its anechoic covering, so any very minor imperfections in all this tweeking will be okay, but at the scale it is depicted here, I can't rely on that too much to cover any sins. There is one big plus point to this kit over the more expensive resin kits though; It's a hell of a lot easier to open up the vents in the hull on a plastic kit than it would be on a resin one!

Thanks again for posting the link to that source for the replacement props by the way Bill, it seems they are on the ball when it comes to completing orders, as they are apparently on the way.

Chock

[U812]

Chock,

Get some Ever Coat Metal Gaze from the auto paint store. You will not find a better filler. Mixes like bondo, sets and 15 minutes and is ready to sand unlike Bondo. It also sands very easily. I was lost until I David Merriman turned me onto this product. You can fix anything with it. Build up anything in minutes with the material.

I only use spot putty or Squadron to fill deep scratches now.

Steve

[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