My dad is a former sub sailor Im searching for a kit that I can do for him. USS Houston (SSN-713), a Los Angeles-class attack submarine. Im not sure if they even make a kit for this boat but it would be nice to find one any help would be appreciated. This boat was his last duty station id really love to put something together for him.
No problem.
62 boats in that class.
Look at Freetimehobbies.com
Plastic, resin all there.
Your dad will be pleased I am sure
Pleased
Second the recommendation to check with Freetime
The Houston was a Flight 1 boat – no VLS and the fairwater planes on the sail.
Your best options may be Riich and HobbyBoss. HobbyBoss’s offering has options to do all three flights (No VLS & planes on the sail, VLS an.d planes on the sail, or VLS and planes moved to hull). Riich makes individual kits of each flight. DML/Dragon also made a 3-way kit sold as the Hampton.
Resin kits are good, but pricier. They were originally done when styrene kits were unavailable. But now that good styrene are out there I decline to recommend them as first options.
More:
Paint it shades of black over gray (no red hulls on operational boats) No hull number showing (they were magnetic stick-ons while in port) and no DSRV targets on the hatches. Your Dad will recognize it as home.
Go here http://navsource.org/archives/08/701/0871322.jpg
Navsource doesn’t allow hot linking of their content. You may have to go in through the top at navsource.org. . Navsource is an excellent site with photos & info on most, if not all USN ships
The red lower hull depends on era and on the particular boat. I served on six submarines between 1980 and 1996. All had red lower hulls. I also noticed several boats simultaneously had no red. Also, during that era, the masts and antennae were camouflaged with a mottled charcoal gray/black over light gray. They now seem to be all charcoal gray/black with no mottling. The only time I ever saw the DSRV markings on the hatches were when the boat was still owned by the builder.
Bill
I looked at the Hampton kit,did the Houston have the sail planes I did not see them on that kit?
As a Flight 1 688 class boat, Houston had sail planes. I would go with the Riich Flight 1 Los Angeles (SSN 688) kit over the DML/Dragon USS Hampton (Flight 3).
Bill
Thank u for all of your help im gonna this up right im considering putting this together with a tug
One more thing . . . I have seen many models of U.S. submarines with some strange painting configurations on the bow. Some paint the entire sonar dome area of the bow with a silver color while others paint the lower hull at the bow silver. THIS IS INCORRECT!!!
American boats, if painted red below the waterline, carry the red all the way to the bow with the black upper hull also carried to the bow. If the entire boat is black, it is black to the bow.
Bill
This gonna be my first attempt at somethin of this scale and complexity and I want it perfect
Let me tell you, I’ve been modeling fifty years and nothing has ever been perfect.
Your Dad would LOVE it if you painted it pink!
I built two models of the a/c that my F-I-Law crewed in the WW2 mess.
Did he think I got the colors right?
“Hell, I don’t know, I was too damned busy climbing in and out of the things”.
He’ll be charmed.
Thanx for the advice and help
If you google around for tugs at current USN sub bases you may find that most are modern double-end versions as opposed to the “classic” tub conformation which the ISW version represents
Closest commercial I’ve seen is the Roawangarth by Orange Hobby
It is also 1:350 scale, also available from Freetime Hobbies.
The problem I see is detail creep – sub without PE details required. Add to it a tug with added PE details, Next will be the docking detail and bridge crew. Next the mooring lines flaked out on the deck …
Less may be more!
Then there’s water…
Bill CyberHobby repopped the 1/350 scale USS Chicago as a Orange box kit and that has the sail planes along with both upper nose halves to build it pre refit to Flight II boat without the VLS hatches and Post refit with the hatches and missile bays. That might be the kit the original poster should go after.
Thanx for all the help and information
Mike,
Does the Cyber Hobby version still have the stabilizers on the stern planes and the little raised “bumps” aft of the sail? Also, the old DML/Dragon kit simply did not really look like a 688 boat. To me, the proportions were off. The Riich kits definitely look more like a 688.
Bill
Honestly I don’t quite remember but it had a new propulsion section added to the kit to replace the section molded onto the hull with a new 6 bladed prop with curved blades.
Mike,
I’ll check it out. I remember being very disappointed with the original DML/Dragon kit.
Bill