USS Archerfish submarine 1/350 scale

**Draco** · #1 06-08-2014, 11:43 AM

As you know, I've made two battleships and a destroyer (unfinished) at 1/700 scale. But the shortest practical limit rest in the HMS Onslow, at 105 m or 15 cm.

So, for shorter ships, like this balao class (95 m), I selected the 1/350 scale, giving me a full lenght of 27.15 cm

So far I just have the resized shets of the squeleton pieces. As soon as I print them over cardboard and assemble, I'll start to release the pictures.

As allways, I'll rework some pieces, joining some, removing the original colors to hand-pain them, hollering the flood-holes in the casing and so on.

**Draco** · #2 06-22-2014, 03:22 PM

At last I have a bit of time to print the squeleton and assemble it. The pieces are based in a comercial model, but changing scale, joining some parts before print them and removing the inked coloring.

I use to paint my ships while asembling them because the printer ink tends to desapear with time, because sometimes the printer leaves white lines, because sometimes the color scheme I want to apply is not the same reflected in the assembling kit, and beacause I enjoy it more.

There are two points of interest. First: the bow of the real ship is full of holes to allow free circulation of the water inside and under the deck. I'll perforate the bow of my paper model, and thats why the bow has been painted black. Second: I glued four small pieces of lead near the keel to prevent the submarine for "capsizing" when I place it over it's base in a future.

The Uss Los Angeles in the first picture is at the wrong scale, it must be bigger. This year I'll do it again at the right 1/350 scale

**southwestforests** · #3 06-22-2014, 04:21 PM

Hey, that lead is an idea, I wouldn't have thought of it.
"because I enjoy it more" is all the reason required to do so!

**Draco** · #4 07-13-2014, 05:47 PM

Placing the "skin" of the submarine. The water holes in the bow look geat and let see the inside of the ship side to side, just like the real one did.

It looks bumpy, but once all the pieces are finished, I'll apply a layer of varnish, a first layer of paint, sanding, another layer of varnish, another sanding and the final layer of paint. If you want to see the process, you can see my Schanhorst or my Missouri.

I'm thinking about making some relieve parts over the deck, because the paint is going to cover some of the printed details. I'm going to cut the varnish layer with a knife to improve the deck details. it's very probable that the results won't be seen with the cellphone camera that i'm using, but I will see it, and, once I have a real decent camera, I'll include actualizations of all my ships.

**zeawolves77** · #5 07-13-2014, 08:37 PM

Yay, one of my favorite subject: submarine. Nice build.

after USS Archerfish, put one Shinano model next to it to shows Subs superior to the mighty carrier :D

**Draco** · #6 07-14-2014, 10:45 AM

Thanks, zeawolves77.
Making the Shinano at 1/350 scale... means a 76 cm model against the 27.15 cm of the Archerfish!
Maybe i'll do it at 1/700 scale, it will be just 0.63 cm shorter that my BB-63 Missouri!

**zeawolves77** · #7 07-16-2014, 06:13 AM

Yep, Shinano will dwarf over Archerfish :D

I you got the time, and the place to display it, 1/350 Shinano will be a great display of power of what a 'tiny' subs can do.

anyway, will wait for your build of 1/700 of her :D

**Draco** · #8 08-10-2014, 11:38 AM

I've been working in the sub, but my cellphone is damaged. I've applied a layer of varnish and the first layer of paint in wathever color I have available, just to see better the imperfections on the surface.

The submarine includes the torpedo loading holes, the front ladder in the deck, the front planes and the anchor carvings.

Next comes another varnish layer, on deck and upper hull, sanding, the carving of the water holes and deck, the assembly of the lateral knels and heel and so on.

Hope to have a better quality pictures the next time.

**southwestforests** · #9 08-10-2014, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draco

Hope to have a better quality pictures the next time.

Oh, just label these clandestine spy photos.

**Draco** · #10 08-17-2014, 06:43 PM

Just finished the last layer of varnish and sanded.

Then I proceeded to cut surface lines with a used knife, to mark the joins betheen metal plates and the change between the wood part of the surface and the holed one. After that I proceeded to use a pin to hole all the "metalic" surface of the deck, and started to apply the final layer of gray-almost-black paint.

The effect is wonderfull: the deck is full of holes, plates and wooden boards. Unfortunatelly, it's the kind of details that my current low-tech camera can't show. I'm begging to have a good one leased the next weekend. Until then, no pictures.

The aft torpedo tubes were closed at the begining of the war, and open at the end of it. The bow torpedo tubes were flat at the begining of the war, and with a depresion at the end. Without pictures of the real ship at the time of the sinkink (and I'm talking about pictures in dry-dock) there is no way to know which ones do, so I elected to left the aft tubes open and the front ones flat.