The Ship Model Forum

0872105 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

Hello everyone! I thought I would do a simple build thread for this as I should hopefully have it finished up in a relatively short time.

A little background. I went to visit Hawaii for my honeymoon with my wife. A family friend of mine arranged for me to meet his brother in law, Captain Lance Thompson in the USN. Recently, Lance was promoted to Commander of the Naval Submarine Training Center Pacific (NSTCP) on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Lance has been in the submarine force for nearly 30 years and held many positions. While we were on Oahu, Lance arranged for me and my wife to take a tour of an active Nuclear attack sub. We were thrilled, and we got to have a great time onboard the Virginia class sub USS North Carolina SSN-777.

During our tour we learned that Lance had been the CO of the USS Chicago from September 2013-May 2016, and she is also based in Pearl Harbor. He had mentioned to us that the Chicago was his favorite boat (obviously lol). So as a thank you for everything he showed us, I decided to build a model of the Chicago for him.

I started off with the Riich kit for the Flight 2 LA boats. At this point I have not done very much except for open the kit and organize all the parts. I've gotten the hull halves glued together and worked on the seam. At this point I am waiting to get some hardware for mounting the model when it is done before I go about fitting the upper hull.

20190707_185709 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

I'm going to a model shop this weekend to get some supplies, so I should hopefully have more progress to share next week once I get going.

Thanks to all for stopping by!

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this. Always liked the LA class.

I finished a USS Miami a few months back. It's a 688i so dive planes in the bows.

I used the Hobbyboss version and had a grand old time. Friend of mine bought the Riich edition and it looks like a nice kit also.

I can take some pictures if you are interested.

Strategos Augustus wrote:Looking forward to seeing what you do with this. Always liked the LA class.

I finished a USS Miami a few months back. It's a 688i so dive planes in the bows.

I used the Hobbyboss version and had a grand old time. Friend of mine bought the Riich edition and it looks like a nice kit also.

I can take some pictures if you are interested.

Sure, I'd love to see some pictures. I assume you did the Miami before the fire that ended her career?

Truth be told, I was never very interested in modern subs until recently. I always thought the real boats were cool, but never wanted to model them. After my trip and talking to Lance, I have much more appreciation for them and want to model a bunch of them.

hondaman117 wrote: Sure, I'd love to see some pictures. I assume you did the Miami before the fire that ended her career?

Truth be told, I was never very interested in modern subs until recently. I always thought the real boats were cool, but never wanted to model them. After my trip and talking to Lance, I have much more appreciation for them and want to model a bunch of them.

Reading about that fire was pretty crazy. Found out about it when I was researching the prototype. Seemed like a pretty dumb situation all told.

I've put up a post in Completed Models: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=198011

Didn't want to hijack your thread.

Yes, they are something I liked when I was young but I lost interest. I rediscovered them this past winter....was looking for a quick build and did the Miami. Had so much fun, I bought six more of different types.

Btw, how's the Arizona project? I'm sure you noticed I've started one here as well.

Strategos Augustus wrote:
Reading about that fire was pretty crazy. Found out about it when I was researching the prototype. Seemed like a pretty dumb situation all told.

I've put up a post in Completed Models: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=198011

Btw, how's the Arizona project? I'm sure you noticed I've started one here as well.

Seriously dumb on that guys part. Not sure what he expected to happen haha.

Your build looks good! I'm not going to do any weathering on this one, but I probably will on a future build. Just want this one to look nice for my friend.

AZ has been on a long and slow build plan lol. I've admittedly lost interest several times and as a result it has been 3+ years since I started on it. But I have made progress lately. I started working on getting the main armament painted up and assembled, I need to get some pictures posted of current progress. I set the AZ aside for the time being so I could get the Chicago done quickly, so hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be back on the AZ.

I like how your AZ is coming along. I'm a fan of doing the details like the hull plating even if they are over scale. Otherwise they just turn into smooth, boring hulls. I did a similar treatment on mine to the torpedo bulges, but yours came out much better. Keep the updates coming!

hondaman117 wrote:

Seriously dumb on that guys part. Not sure what he expected to happen haha.

Your build looks good! I'm not going to do any weathering on this one, but I probably will on a future build. Just want this one to look nice for my friend.

AZ has been on a long and slow build plan lol. I've admittedly lost interest several times and as a result it has been 3+ years since I started on it. But I have made progress lately. I started working on getting the main armament painted up and assembled, I need to get some pictures posted of current progress. I set the AZ aside for the time being so I could get the Chicago done quickly, so hopefully in a couple weeks I'll be back on the AZ.

I like how your AZ is coming along. I'm a fan of doing the details like the hull plating even if they are over scale. Otherwise they just turn into smooth, boring hulls. I did a similar treatment on mine to the torpedo bulges, but yours came out much better. Keep the updates coming!

Yes, I ran into a bit of headwind more or less immediately with the brickwork. But it is not the most accurate hull to begin with anyway. I'm all about improving the aesthetics of the final product. Everything is secondary to beauty except precision: I like to labor at my seams and such.

Anyway, I'm trying to bum rush this build which is difficult because of our Fall show in two months and I dislike having projects hang around. I've got about three dozen ships in various stages of construction......

The deck fittings are all complete save for the guard rails. Now I'm figuring out my 5"/51's.

You planning on doing the Bull decal on the bow of the Chicago?

Strategos Augustus wrote:
You planning on doing the Bull decal on the bow of the Chicago?

No, not planning to do the bull on this one. I was aiming to make the ship look as it was while he was the CO, but admittedly that means it will just look like a basic/plain LA boat. I will probably put the 721 decals on the sail just so it stands out as the Chicago.

Ran into some house issues that cost me more modelling time and a delay in getting supplies form my hobby shop. Now that I have them I can make progress again. Hopefully will have an update coming this week or weekend.

Finally got around to doing some work on the Chicago!

Not much at this point, but I got the mounts built into the hull. I just used some of that knead to activate epoxy putty stuff to secure the nuts in there, works pretty good.

20190821_174458 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

20190821_174454 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr


These are what I use for mounts, lamp shade risers from Amazon. Cost something like $10 for four of them.

20190821_174849 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr


I also filled in the dimples on the sides of the hull. Putty should be dry today so I can sand them down.

20190821_174841 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr


And I got the sail together so I can work on the seams. Sat it on the top hull so I could see how it fit.

20190821_174628 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr


It's starting to look like a boat!

Hello!

Steadily making progress on the Chicago. I got the upper hull glued on and worked the seam until I was happy with it. Took a few applications of putty & primer. Cleaned it off with some alcohol and sprayed the bottom red. I used the Tamiya TS-33 "Dull Red" rattle can that I've used on everything else so far, I like the way it looks.

20190906_134108 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

I also worked on the sail and the stern planes. Got the planes in primer, ready for a quick scuff and paint. I am still doing seam work on the sail, should have that ready for paint soon.

20190906_134119 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr


Currently I have the sonar dome masked off for paint. Hope to get that sprayed in the next day or two so it can dry and I can mask it for the main hull paint. Should hopefully have a painted hull soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's looking very good. Thanks for the update!

Not too much to update here other than the Chicago is effectively done!

I didn't really photograph much during my final effort to finish it. I let the project go on too long and just needed it done so I knocked it out.

Here's a few pictures as she sits now:

20200502_131650 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

20200502_131652 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

20200502_131701 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr

20200502_131712 by Nelson Wallace, on Flickr


I've got a few touch ups I need to do, but not many. I built a base for a box out of walnut wood, and made an acrylic box to cover it. The acrylic did not turn out like I wanted, so I'm going to redo it. once I've got that done it's ready to be sent to it's new home!

I'll have more pictures when it's all done!