The Ship Model Forum

I've enjoyed a few of these Mikromir submarines so I thought I'd have a crack at their USS Nautilus. This might be the easiest build so far: everything seems to fit without a lot of filling and smoothing and even the PE metal deck looks as though it doesn't need any sanding flush after gluing it on.

Hi Donald,

the fitting of the PE'd deck looks great. Any tips you can share for gluing the PE and avoid a possible later detachment/warping of the brass deck? Which glue: CA, acrylic/white or epoxy glue? Any particular preparation of the receiving plastic hull (scribed grooves/sanding) to improve adherence?

Cheers,

SG

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I used Loctite Super Glue Power Flex for this one as it is a bit slower to bond which gave me a few more seconds to place it properly on the plastic hull. I haven't had any problems with warping or expansion with brass on PS plastic. I find with CA glues I don't need to score the bonding surface - as long as it's clean and dust free.

Thanks for the tip Donald. Will stay tuned for updates.

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That's the model painted although I had problems with the very narrow waterline load line number decals. Luckily, I've got some decal paper so I can revisit these when I get my printer sorted out. This is a fairly straight forward kit that could be an afternoon's build and spray. The only tricky bits are the photo-etched screws which need to be bent to the correct pitch. I couldn't find any good photos of the actual sets so I made one left-handed and the other right-handed.

Well done! Are you planning any weathering?

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'Donald', that boat looks NICE!!

Good work on her, my father was a submariner on old 'Fleet Boats' and 'Guppy II'-class boats, he once made a trip to NAUTILUS when she was decom.....it brought some good memories of my Dad and his stories he told me about this boat.

ALSO......thanks for pointing out on how to attach that Long strip of PE onto a model. I am a model ship builder and had the opportunity to attach, maybe not as long, of a piece of PE onto the side of an island of a modern LST of the JMSDF. It was a bit of a problem, but now I'm worried that it could "pop-off" later. IF, I had to do the same thing on another model, I'll follow your advice.

Again, Nice Work like the colors and the screws look good!!

Mario

I won't be adding any weathering as all the photos I've seen of this boat show her in tip top condition. The Royal Navy's Resolution-class subs would be a better subject for depicting worn out paint jobs as they've been tied up for years now.

The UK's first nuclear sub, HMS Dreadnought, is still in storage at Rosyth docks. It would be nice to see it preserved in the same manner as USS Nautilus.