[dhanners]

After building Seawolf and Jimmy Carter, I decided to try my hand at a Virginia-class attack submarine. Unfortunately, there aren’t any free card models of one.

The Virginia class is the submarine the U.S. government decided to build after realizing the Seawolf class would be too expensive. Visually, the two look similar, have similar sails and tail arrangements and propulsion. But Virginia-class boats are longer than the Seawolf and have a narrower beam. So I started thinking…. With some creative photocopying and resizing and cutting and gluing, why couldn’t I kitbash a Virginia-class submarine in 1/250th scale?

I got out the calculator and ruler and did some figuring. I’ve had trouble getting gray models printed at my local print store, so I thought, “Hey, these boats are mostly black. Why don’t I just print it on the black and white printer we have at home?”

I resized and repurposed the late John Bowden's private redesign of Jimmy Carter, which started out as Trent Henry's Seawolf. The results were so-so, and it ain't pretty, but I figured it could be considered built-in weathering. The early Virginia-class boats had hulls that were assembled of 10 sections, so I'm thinking that plays into the look.

The kitbash required some creative work and I had to scratchbuild a few items, but it looks like a Virginia-class boat, more or less, and will have to do until a professional designs one. I also scratchbuilt the Dry Deck Shelter (DDS), the compartment on the top of the hull that can carry SEALs and divers and various equipment. Several Virginia-class subs are equipped to carry a DDS.