Miko-Mir 1:350th scale Sturgeon class (stretch)

[ET2SN]

Now comes the tough part- which 637 to build and paint?

Back when I was a pre-Nub in school at Groton, I kept my fingers crossed for the USS Archerfish and her ESM suite. The 637's still carried a lot of cashe in the late 80's. They were the boats you wanted to go to if you saw yourself as a "hot runner" (which we all did.. ) and wanted to jump into the deep end of the pool. The 637's were also the only ticket to ride if you wanted to go under the ice (until the flight III 688i boats came on-line).

More importantly, the Sturgeon class were the cold war. While the 688's got the press, the 637's were data collection beasts and were designed to loiter on-station for extended periods of time. It wasn't until the Virginia class came along that the USN regained the ability to hover at All Stop as well as the 637's could.

Anyway, I've also been itching to paint another Pearl Harbor Special.
Seeing a boat at PHNSY that was ready to go back in the water always felt good. The paint jobs just looked B-A with the lower hull painted red, the lower part of the upper hull painted in a unique brown-ish dark purple, and the upper hull and sail in black.

Since I also knew some buds on the USS Cavalla, I think that's what I'm going to build.

[Murph89]

Wow, the detail of the models from this company is quite nice!

[ET2SN]

Some quick tips on basic paint for US boats.

If you want to build and paint something from the US side of the cold war era, these are some shortcuts I've found over the years to duplicate things like sonar domes, zincs, weathered stainless steel, screws, non-skid, and hull tiles. By all means, paint your project they you want it to look. These are just things I've found over the years that "look right".

Sonar, "painted" fiberglass and radio domes- Floquil Railroad Colors "Grimy Black". This paint may be tough to find (check stores that specialize in model railroading supplies) but it comes in a 1 oz. bottle so once you find it you won't need to restock for another 20 years. Floquil paints are something else. They aren't really enamel, or acrylic, or lacquer, or water based. I suspect they are some kind of alkyd/lacquer hybrid in some kind of really thin solvent. It is incredibly thin paint. You always want to be sure the cap is screwed on really tight before shaking the bottle or else half the contents will wind up all over your work area and yourself. It also has a bad habit of not getting along with anything besides bare plastic, especially when its still wet. Still, this stuff just looks right once it drys. The paint is thin enough that you can use a brush on fairly large surfaces without leaving brush marks and one coat is all you'll need. It drys to a very flat "charcoal black" shade (imagine flat black that has baked in the sun for years and faded slightly). You'll want to test this stuff on a scrap piece before you brush it on a kit. Give it a couple days to fully dry and cure and then paint some of your other enamels, acrylics, etc. over it and cross your fingers. If the new layer of paint doesn't curdle or crack as it dries, you're fine.


Upper hull (painted steel)- I remember reading somewhere that US subs are painted "Dark Navy Blue". Nah, its black. Industrial 100% carbon black. The actual finish of the painted metal is more of a satin/egg shell type. For a scale finish, use a semi gloss black enamel and you're done.
Its also worth pointing out, surface ships have Bosun's Mates. Submarines have Deck Div and Deck Div are not the most experienced members of the crew. If you find some imperfections on your black deck, non-skid, and the lower half of the sail.... congratulations!! Its actually more authentic.

Upper hull , steel (primer)- The color is basically Zinc Chromate Green. What it should look like is more a function of what kind of primer you were able to scrounge from the squadron. If its an epoxy type of primer then its basically any hobby enamel or acrylic zinc chromate green. The real epoxy type primer holds up better but its also more of a pain to mix and apply. The other option is alkyd primer which looks like dark olive drab green. Alkyd is supposed to etch into the bare metal (it doesn't) but its also very easy to apply and drys fast, which is important when the bright lights of the bars downtown are beckoning. So, guess which type we preferred?
The other use for zinc chromate hobby paint is to duplicate the older style (1970's to 1990's) radio masts. The masts were actually a kind of translucent plastic-y green fiber glass but zinc chromate green is a close-enough color.

Upper hull, tiled- Tiled hulls aren't that tough to replicate. The tiles usually weren't painted above the water line (something Deck Div really liked) so any type of rubbery or plastic-y black is fine (basically, semi gloss black), but the ONE kind of paint you really want is called Black Chrome enamel from Testor's (TES2735). Just brush it on and it will look right. If you want to try something different- get some black India ink from an office supply store and try brush painting it over semi gloss black enamel. You wind up with a kind of oily-looking effect which duplicates new tiles.