Kilo Class B-808 City of Yaroslav 1:144

[sreinmann]

Greetings mariners. Taking a bit of a break from my usual satellites and rockets and while I work on a few half-abandoned plastic kits, I turn to Bartholomew Miazga's Kilo Class submarine. I'd downloaded a copy of this years ago from ecard and I'm happy to have dug it back out of my google drive. A well put together kit although I suspect I'm going to be doing quite a few cross checks to older builds as I go. The internal structure he designed is, intense, coming from the perspective of disc formers used in most rocket bodies. I've only ever built one other "boat" the 688 USS Los Angeles.

Ah, one word before I begin, my download included both a 1:100 and 1:200 scale images, I'll take the 1:100 and reduce it to 1:144. I did find two parts #4 and 5 that were not completely colored. This was corrected in my TIFF editor and I hope I won't have anymore.

I started as directed, building the bow section. The formers were glued to .7mm card. I'm not sure if they are over sized or undersized for the intended sections ... we'll just have to see. Then I cut out the section pieces. I tried my best to color match the edges using acrylic paint, but I suspect my greys are going to show once assembled.

[piginapoke]

Looking forward to seeing this build.
I've got the WAK Delta IV to make so interested to see the build process of a submarine.

[sreinmann]

So I cut the bow sections and their glue strips. Miazga hasn’t included tabs to connect the sides of the cones. So I offset the glue strip on the narrower nose pieces and on the larger ones either included it on the glue tab or added a separate narrow strip for the purpose.

[sreinmann]

Thanks Piginapoke. I hope I can keep this going for an entry in this year's Paper Modeler's convention.

Last week I continued working on the assembly of the bow. Connecting one section at a time made for a nice assembly line of sorts ... right up till I discovered that my copies of rings 4 and 5 were incompletely colored. The lap top with my photo editing software is in deep hibernation (and I'm not sure I will be able to awaken it), so I tried my luck using the standard MS tools. If you haven't used it before, it isn't meant for this level of work. I've included samples of the two separate parts files for example.

That fixed to my best ability, I went to the printer and found that it was out of ink.

Replacement cartridges and remastered images ... can you guess the result? Yup, the greys don't match at all. Further, looking over the assembled bow, I am seeing lines on the images that the 1:200 scale version doesn't show. I'm sure that this is more evidence of issues the designer must not have intended when he converted his original kit to the larger scale.

I'm afraid I may have to get some time on a PC with a good graphic program and recut and scale the whole kit. I just don't know what to trust anymore.

[Positive_Rate]

Nice job!

Like PIGINAPOKE I've also got the WAK Delta IV to make, but have built a small Screiber sub, U9 with some success.

Regards,
Alan

[sreinmann]

Progress was stalled there while I wrapped up a F-22 project and worked behind the scenes to correct the colors and lines on my copy of the 1:100 scale images. This required a few test prints and some back and forth, but I think I managed to fix things. I've also begun working on the internal structure. Since my originals were truncated to fit on the A4 page, they need to be stitched together I think I managed that fairly accurately, though time will tell. Also, I'm noting that my card stock is slightly thinner than the formers allow. This will have to be made up with paper shims once the assemble begins. More to come.

[sreinmann]

I hesitated a great deal before starting the internal structure. Not only because, due to the size changes I had several formers to "stitch together," but also because I wasn't quite sure I understood the directions. I was able to find a post here on the forum from someone who had a few photos of the interior that gave me confidence however.

One issue, as the directions indicate - and I think I mentioned before - the structural formers are expected to be of a certain thickness. I selected card stock to be thinner since I was making mine at a smaller scale, however I over cooked the calculation and made them too thin for the guidelines. No worries though, once I realized my mistake. I corrected my following cuts. I hope you can follow the assembly.

[sreinmann]

Some additional structure assembly

Here you see how the ribs are cut so that they fit into and are locked in by the spine and sides.


I used the sides to brace the ribs and keep the alignment right.

[piginapoke]

Very useful photos. The drawings in the instructions i get with a model are useful but photos like these are even better help.

[sreinmann]

Hey all, sorry for the sporadic posts. I got turned off by some of the changes to the file size and login troubles the forum is experiencing. Hopefully this can get me back on track.

Today I want to catch you up on the completed internal structure. The dry fit went relatively smoothly. But it did show a couple high points on my cuts that prevented a snug fit on the starboard horizontal side. Some of these I think I corrected enough that only a prying eye can see how the join of P3a and P3b aren't perfectly smooth. As the directions advise, I may have more sanding in my future as I begin to work on the skin. BTW, there is a post from 10+ years ago of the initial build here on the forum that was similarly helpful. I may try to dig it back up and link it. My glue up method was a fairly heavy dosing of white glue. Nothing fancy, I just painted the joining surfaces and smoothed it out once satisfied with the alignment in all axis.







Knowing that my cuts might be fixable on the hull, I wanted to be extra careful on the spine and connection to the sail (part K2) so this got some extra care in its cut and fit as it will be challenging to fix later I guess.


[IMG][/IMG]
Next come the deck ribs.