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Bronco 1/350 USS Seawolf (Built as SSN-22 USS Connecticut)


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I felt like I actually needed to finish something.  So I broke out the Bronco 1/350 Seawolf for a breather.  This is ultimately more of a painting exercise given the simplicity of a modern sub.

You can't screw up a modern sub that much, but fit was not great.  Some filler was needed around the conning tower and some of the fins.

 

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I chose to build this as the Connecticut, as I was able to find some drydock photos proving this was in an all black scheme.  I used some reference photos of the Jimmy Carter (not quite the same boat, but close).

 

The lower hull got a coat of Tamiya XF-69 NATO black, and then streaks of a light gray (I think it was XF-19) sprayed along the edge of a index card.

 

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Very dilute XF-69 was then sprayed back over the hull leaving this somewhat translucent to show the streaking.

 

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The hull plating/streaking isn't seen in photos around the sonar dome/panels, so these were brush painted back to straight XF-69.  I normally airbrush almost everything, but the border wasn't very discrete, making masking hard.

 

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The "boot strip" was then masked to paint the upper color.

 

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This was then painted a base of Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black, before using the "salt method" to add some variation in the color.  Water was sprayed on...

 

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Salt was then loosely sprinkled and allowed to dry.  Light gray was then light sprayed in a patchy manner.  Some "plating effect" was also added to the conning tower at this time.

 

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The salt was rubbed off and diluted XF-85 used to lightly overcoat this now.  The conning tower was overcoated with XF-69 to keep tonal variations up.

 

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The final effect of the two blacks...

 

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The front sonar dome was then masked.  I find it helpful to use a circle gauge to be sure this is kept "true".

 

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And this was sprayed Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black.

 

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The screw was sprayed "brass" first, then misted with some copper to get a more realistic look...

 

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The light gray/dark gray of the scopes/antenna camouflage are supplied as decals, but these don't really fit at all.  So I hand painted them.

 

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Then gloss coat and decals...

 

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And then the final flat coat.  I decided to leave this as a fresh out of the dry dock build.  Partly because I couldn't find good reference for how this black weathered.  Partly because I was keeping this build simple.  

 

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At some point with all my final builds, I'll put this in a well lit photo tent, get the camera on a tripod, and take some well exposed, balanced photos.  But that day has not yet been today, so I'll leave this thread here for now.

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Well done :thumbsup:! Nice technique using the streaks of light grey. I think I'll give that a go on my Russian boomer when the time comes. Thanks for sharing.

 

Happy modeling!

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