Dragon 1/350 USS Hampton SSN 767

[Ernie]

Started on the USS Hampton kit, another of my Christmas presents. Considering the kit was tooled in 1990 and this version was released in '97, it is not too bad, but I will probably refine a few details.

The kit comes with a tail configuration that is not accurate for the real boat, as the kit was initially released as the USS Dallas from the film Red October. Conveniently Dragon molded a cut guide inside the hulls to aide in cutting off the sections to be replaced with the correct ones.

The kit also includes two different upper hull sections for the bow, one with the vertical launch tubes, and one without, The USS Hampton is 688i or flight 3 version of the Los Angles class subs and has the launch tubes as well as other improvements. A check of the fit of the individual vertical launch tube covers validated my suspicion that they would not fit well. Alot of filling, sanding, and rescribing would be needed to make those look good. I made the executive decision to use the upper bow section that did not have the hatches and will simulate the hatches with either decals or masks later at the painting stage.

With that, I joined all the sections of the hull together and let it dry for a day, then rough sanded the seams to level them out somewhat.

After this I slathered on a generous layer of Tamiya putty and let that set for a day so I can begin to sand and refine the seams.

One unique feature of the 688i class is that the propeller has an annular band around the prop tips. Fortunately, a seller on Ebay produces a 3D printed version of this prop, so Christmas evening I placed an order for one (as well as a couple others ) so those should be on their way soon.

 

[colin m]

A submarine, certainly not my usual prey in the world of modelling. However, no canopy to mask, and little or no decals, I’m seeing the attraction. I’ll bet there’s a few ‘tankies’ loving the idea of a trackless build.

 

[Ernie]

I have been making slow but steady progress on the Hampton; often I do not get significant time during the week to get to the bench, or if I do, not enough to make a lot of headway. So anyway, the upper hull of the kit is missing one hatch, the one that is there is not well represented, the deck bollards are not well rendered, and the anti-slip texturing is very pronounced for the scale of the kit.

I clipped off the bollards and made a pin mark in the center of where they were located so I can replace the detail later, then sanded off the hatch, remains of the bollards, and the anti-slip texture. I used a hollow punch to punch out some discs from sheet plastic for the hatches. These were glued in place and blended in with a couple of layers of Mr. Surfacer 1000 & 1500.

I noticed when comparing this kit to the Hobby Boss one that the lower vertical rudder was too long, so shortened it by about 3/32 inch, sanded it to blend the edges, and called it good. I also used a few discs of styrene to continue the hull taper at the stern until it matched the new propeller, that is the little white extension visible at the end of the hull.

At the bow I cut out notches for the hull mounted diving planes and test fit those. They will not be attached until part way through the painting process as I am sure I will knock them off while masking the hull. The bow torpedo tube outer hatches were the wrong size and shape, so they were filled with Mr. Dissolved Putty and sanded out. My scribing skills are not at the point where trying to rescribe the doors on the curved hull would yield good results for the time spent, so I decided to use two layers of decal stripes the proper size. These should show up faintly after painting, but enough to allow me to highlight the edges to help define them. It will be good enough to trick the eye into seeing a reasonable facsimile of the outer torpedo tube doors. This is just the first layer added, the second covered the ragged edge on the one door!

And lastly, is the new 3D printed prop I ordered to fit to the sub. It is just removed from its support base and need a little cleanup and then a coat of primer.

I must say, I am having a blast adding all the extra detail to this kit, so far it has been a lot of fun adding the various upgrades!

 

[papa 695]

Just seen this one Ernie, nice adaptations, coming along nicely.

 

[Airborne01]

Who'd have thought a cigar tube could be so much fun!
Steve

 

[Ernie]

I added the anhedral stern planes that are on the lower side of the hull between the stern planes. These were not in the DML kit, but were extra from the Hobby Boss LA Class sub kit I had, so these were added as the USS Hampton had them.

Next will be adding some deck details and then off to paint.

 

[Mini Me]

You are making a fine job of this Ernie......good luck with the paint. BTW what's the weather like back there in New Hampshire? It's been mild and mid 30's here in N.W. Montana.

 

[Ernie]

You are making a fine job of this Ernie......good luck with the paint. BTW what's the weather like back there in New Hampshire? It's been mild and mid 30's here in N.W. Montana.

Been pretty mild up until last week. We have gotten into a pattern of a snow every couple of days. Got about 12" Sunday night into Monday, right now it has been snowing off and on and is supposed to change to a mix, then rain overnight. Sounds like it might be changing to sleet now, my shift ends in about an hour, so wondering what the drive home is going to be like. We live in Southeastern NH, right on the line between moderate snowfall and heavy snow fall as you get towards the White mountains. If there happens to come a costal Nor'Easter we usually get dumped on. It has been warm enough that every storm we have had this winter has been wet and heavy snow that sucks to move I wonder if Sprue Bros. delivers to the Carribean???

 

[Mini Me]

Sounds like you have it a lot worse than we do presently.....that could change at any time though. We had a wet snow storm early in the season......bent and broke a lot of trees in the area and generally made a mess of things and then the temps dropped to the sub zeros and turned it all to ice......driving was a "hoot"! Hope you made it home alright and I'll be following your progress as it develops.