Rhino
Super Moderator
My friend Carl Musselman, proprietor of Back Aft Models in Millard Nebraska and esteemed model ship builder, was working to create a 1/700 diorama of the US Navy submarine servicing vessels at Holy Loch, Scotland. See pictured here, Carl's LPP hull and an awful white versatile plastic 3D print of USS Simon Lake.
His 1/700 waterline and full-hull floating drydock and US Navy Boomer kits are complete. The missing link was the sub tender. Carl got a solid start on AS-33 USS Simon Lake. He didn't complete the Master for medical reasons that are none of anyone else's business. A "Nun Ya". He was pretty close!
Carl asked me to complete Back Aft Model's 1/700 USS Simon Lake Master. How could I refuse such an honor? I needed to make more headway on TLAR's USCG Reliance class WMEC kits, but I am excited about assisting as my own project goes forward. Carl retired last year. He's on the "31-day weekend", so he wasn't in any rush, which fit my production schedule perfektly! He provided a USB drive with his plans and references on it too.
The 644-foot hull measures 11 inches plus a whisker. Exactly on the money! She's too long for my little pressure pot, but Carl's is twice the size of mine. My plan is to finish the hull Master and mold box, deliver it to Carl, where he will make the hull mold and castings in his big pressure vessel, and TLAR Models will make all the smaller molds and parts for the final kit.
Back Aft/TLAR joint 1/700 waterline model Sub Tender kit! What fun this will be!!
Here's a bonus. USS Simon Lake and USS Canopus, AS-34 were "classmates". Either US Navy Sub Tender model could be built from this kit.