The Ship Model Forum

The 1/500 ‘R’ Class Battleship kits I’m working on at the moment are most useful for practice with photoetch and wood decks. But they are a lot of hard work to see through to completion. So I’ve made a start on something else to work on in-between and alongside the ‘R’ Class that hopefully will not require so much time and effort.

I have some 1/350 Alanger Russian Delta IV Submarine kits. I got them before Zvezda released their 1/350 Delta IV which has far more details and looks a much better kit overall. Plus it is has a waterline option. However I have the Alanger ones now so I may as well build them. I’m going to waterline them I think and depict two of them on either side of a Russian floating pier. As seen in many online photos of Russian submarines like here courtesy of http://www.military-today.com/navy/delta_iv_class_l1.jpg :



The Alanger kits I have came without decals. I’ll get around this by depicting them covered in snow and I should be able to scavenge some draught depth markings from other submarine kits for the areas not obscured by the snow. A significant error with the Alanger kit I think is the bow, it is far too round and hemispherical looking compared to photos. So I’m undertaking a quick fix here and amputating the bows and replacing them with the bows off the lower hulls of some Hobby Boss Akula Class kits I have. I intend to depict the Akula kits as waterline also so their lower hulls are redundant and hence can be used for this project. It won’t be anywhere near fully accurate but will be an improvement on the original I hope. See comparison photos below. Also the moulded on deck details are very crude. So I’ll scrape these off and will likely add photoetched railings and hatches instead. Here is the progress thus far. Bow amputated, hull mid-section added:







Again, it will not be an anywhere near 100% accurate job, but will hopefully prove a little quicker and easier than a 1:500 ‘R’ Class. I’ll work on it sporadically between other jobs so updates here may be a little intermittent. Try and clear a few boxes from my stash of kits!

Success with this project! I remember the type from a nice book I had in my youth:

Thanks, that's a nice little graphic. It has extra flood vents along the sides so it looks like a Delta III rather than a Delta IV. They are very similar though. In general the Deltas seem to get overlooked in favour of the larger Typhoon Class. Even though since their introduction the Deltas have largely been the reliable workhorses of the Soviet and later Russian Ballistic Missile Submarine Fleet. Many remain in service today awaiting replacement by the new Borei-A Class.

Anyway, some more progress today. I added the roof to the sails / fins and started filling and sanding the joint seams in the hulls. I have also waterlined the hulls by saw cutting aided by a line of masking tape. Then added a waterline plate from Evergreen Sheet. My saw cuts are not perfect but I'm hopeful the sea base will eventually spare my blushes there:

Some more progress. Missile hatch covers added and more filling and filing:



Also some mission creep. I had four Alanger Delta IVs in the stockpile so I've decided to tackle the remaining two now as well. Get them done and reduce the stockpile:



I'm not sure how I'll display the second two of them. Will have to have a think about it.

A potential diorama idea hot off the press today courtesy of the Russian MoD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkXbyklunp4



You can't see very much of the submarine though. Still, impressive to see three of them together.

Some more progress. Priming, filling, filing and sanding underway. The fit of the kits is not amazing so some work to do here. I used Humbrol filler for the most part but plastic putty around the missile silo hatches so as to hopefully fill the gaps but not obliterate the outlines of the hatches:

Some more progress. I decided to build a Bronco 1/350 Borei Class I had in the stockpile to go alongside one of the Delta IVs in a diorama. Here is the comparison:



I'll do one diorama with two Delta IVs alongside a pier, another with a Delta IV and a Borei Class alongside a pier and probasbly the final Delta IV Class at sea on her own or maybe with a tug?

Anyway, missile hatches added to the Borei and putty used to fill the gaps:



Also, the Alanger Delta IVs are pretty devoid of detail so I have a couple of these generic 1/700 hatches from Starling Models in the UK that I'll use to add some detail to them. Won't be perfectly accurate but better than leaving the hulls bare on top:



Finally, some detail added to one of the Delta IVs. Starling Models hatches as above, some 1/350 handrails cut down to form the toe level guard rails. I scraped off the kit moulded plastic originals as they were vastly overscale. The bridge windows on the real things have their frames painted in white which is quite distinctive. So I have added bridge windows using cut up photoetch ladder. The odd tapered at the centre lower window is a section of 1/350 handrail cut down, bent at the centre and rolled in a roller set to match the profile of the submarine's fin. Also added some circular hatch surrounds from Evergreen Sheet:



That's all for now. You would think a submarine would not need too many details but then you realise you need navigation lights, mooring bollards, flagstaffs etc etc. So much for quick and easy!

Great build and project overall!

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- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

Thanks pascalemod.

Time now to start thinking about scratchbuilding the floating pier. Google Maps is very handy here, the distance measuring tool allows approximate dimensions to be taken. Then won't be millimetre perfect but I can scale them to 1/350, compare them to the submarines and take it from there. Some Evergreen strips and sheet should do for the scratchbuild element.



From researching photos there seem to be a couple of different styles of floating pier, some larger than others. I'm going to do one of the older style ones, similar to that in the photo in my first post in the thread.

I did not get much done on these last summer, as evidenced by my lack of posts. And I had hoped to do some more work over the Christmas Holiday last year, but various things have got in the way since preventing any progress.

There is a gap in my calendar now though so hopefully some progress can be made. The missile hatches in the kits are quite ill-fitting. So I installed them and then had to filler over them along the hull sides to make it look half acceptable. But that obliterated any trace of them once primed. And in photographs of the prototypes they are definitely visible albeit very subtle.

So I added some thin styrene strips to the hull sides and scribed along the hatch outlines to try and make them more visible. Won't know for sure if it has been a success until they get another coat pf primer:



I still need to add some minor details like navigation lights, periscopes / masts etc. And detail the bridge section a bit more. Maybe install a photoetch timber grating for any crew figures to stand on. And also to begin work on scratchbuilding the floating pier sections.

Nice bow mods !

Nice collection! Great job so far

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The merchant shipyard

Thanks guys.

Primer coat now applied, so shipyard work is almost done. I just have to do the masts and periscopes etc. And then paint them:



I also made a start on scratchbuilding the Russian floating piers. They are done from Evergreen Sheeting and Strips. The ribs along the sides are model railway signal ladders turned sideways. Easier than cutting out individual ribs out of Evergreen rod:



Next up will be to prime and paint the submarines followed by more work on the floating piers.

Some more work on these.

Gave them a coat of grey as a primer and then some black pre-shading. The five:



Glad I modified the bows:



Pre-shading: