SSN-21 Seawolf

[dhanners]

Niki’s excellent build of a Los Angeles-class SSN reminded me I’ve got a couple of submarines in my virtual stockpile that I’ve never gotten around to building. One of them is Trent Henry’s Seawolf-class Fast Attack Sub so, inspired by Niki's fine work, I decided to give it a try.

The model comes in 1/200th but I resized if to 1/250th. It was a fairly straightforward build. The “big tube” hull is made up of 21 pieces; suffice to say that makes for a lot of seams to line up. The bow is made via petals. It isn’t my favorite method for making these parts but, hey, you build what’s on the page. I glued the petals, rounded them as best I could and then smeared glue on the outside, let it dry and then sanded the part. I then painted it flat black.

The rest of the model was built as is, but I added detail to the sail. The model’s pump jet housing seemed too short and a bit small compared to photos and drawings I found online. Also, it continued he split gray/maroon color scheme as the rest of the boat and I couldn’t find anything showing the housing was anything other than gray -- and a different shade of gray than used on the hull. I used a shroud calculator to come up with a template for a new housing and cut it out of dark gray cardstock, formed it into a truncated cone and I had my housing.

I offer the following with the admission I have never designed a model in my life, but.... My one complaint with the model is that except for the sail, there are no location marks for the rudder, stern planes, dive planes, etc. You have to eyeball their placement as best you can.

Seawolf and its sister ships, [i]Connecticut[i] and Jimmy Carter, are now all black, but in their early years all but Jimmy Carter sported the two-color scheme.

[nikischutt]

Nice Seawolf! The larger diameter hull of the Seawolf-class vs LA-class is immediately apparent.

Also not a fan of the petal assembly, but you've done great work on the nose. I'm tempted to try and build this one. (Also, thanks for the kind words).

Niki