Dragon 1/350th scale USS Florida

[Skinny_Mike]

Hi everyone!

Finally getting settled in after the cross country move to the east coast. Been steadily watching everyone’s work and it’s given me the itch to pull out some kits and do some building! Well I have a temporary workbench set up in the apartment while my wife and I wait on our house to be built. I put together a small “travel box” of supplies before I had totally packed up the model bench, so between the tool box and a small corner of the desk, I’m going to spend a little time building. Unfortunately I don’t have any place to set up my airbrush, so painting will have to wait, but that’s ok, I’ve got plenty of things I can spend some time assembling in the meantime.

To the kit! In honor of my new home state I am building the 1/350th scale USS Florida.

Plan is to build it after the modification from a ballistic missile sub to a cruise missile sub and I’m going to include the components for working with the Navy SEALs. Here is the startup photo.

I’ve made a little bit of progress so far. First off I drilled out the holes to mount the completed boat onto the included base. I’m planning a base similar to what Adam Baker did for his sub. (Link) I needed to add some nuts on the inside of the hull that will allow me to screw it down to the base when I’m done. I used 3/16” nuts and they are secured with some silicone adhesive I had laying around.

I also attached the torpedo tube doors. Dragon offers parts to have these open or closed and I chose closed. Unfortunately the fit is pretty poor. If the insert was allowed to sit on the mounts as planned they are recessed into the hull which would basically be unrepairable. There are also big gaps around the outside of the parts. Nothing that some putty won’t take care of.

I’ve also started assembly on the island. It’s made of three pieces. A left side, right side and a top. The sides fit ok, but the top needs a little putty around the seam line. I’ll probably leave off the periscopes and the antennas until after paint, so I don’t break them off.

So there is the start. I haven’t built a ship model since, well since the first and second models I ever completed more than 30 years ago (Thanks Dad)! This should be fun, but wish me luck!

Thanks for looking in!
Mike
:captain

 

[Sherman 18]

Cool :skipper

 

[jknaus]

Okay, thats cool. Actually thats something I could get into. :hmmm

James

 

[moon puppy]

:captain

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Hi Folks! Back with an update.

I have really been dreading the next part of this build. To build this version of the sub, I needed to perform a little bit of surgery. The top part of the hull (I have no idea what the technical term is!) has a different shape for this version of the USS Florida. Dragon provides you with a piece to correctly model this new shape, but you have to cut up the 1 piece top hull and graft the parts together. This picture better shows what I mean!

Unfortunately the insert piece is not up to the same molding standard as the original either. Take a look at the comparison.

Panel trench much! :vmad Oh well, I’ll deal with that later. I got to measuring and cutting. Unfortunately I don’t have all my tools so I had to make do with a scriber and hobby knife, but a razor saw in a miter box sure would have been the cat’s meow for this work! Here is everything separated.

Now to reassemble. To complicate assembly the upper hull piece is only supported on the ends, so a butt joint just won’t do it! Here is a photo of the real USS Florida that I pulled from Wikipedia that shows the gap on the real thing (red arrow).

I presume the gap between this top hull portion and the main round tube, is for filling and emptying the ballast tanks. So I need to reinforce the join before I set out to eliminate the gaps, so it won't fall apart later. First off I drilled out the mounting points for the upper and lower hulls and mounted some plastic rod to use as guides. The plan was to use the mounting holes to help align the pieces during reassembly. Then I added three brass square tubes to provide gluing surface and support at the joint.

Then I reassembled the parts using a combo of thick CA glue and Tamiya thin cement. Once the primary joins had set, I added some strip plastic to add a backing the gap at the seams, and for some added strength. Hopefully this will all hold her together.

That’s where we are today! next step, fill, sand, fill, sand, repeat...

Thanks for following along.
Mike

 

[lupanzer]

It´s looking very good ... btw ,love subs :skipper

Best!

Luiz.

 

[Sherman 18]

Nice chopping!

 

[moon puppy]

And nice unchopping. Like how you got it supported. :skipper

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Thank you all for the kind words of encouragement! I’m back with a little bit of an update.

Seems I ran into a couple of speed bumps. To start off the assembly of the sub’s spine in my last post did not fare as well as I had hoped. After trying to mount the spine to the upper hull I discovered that the parts sagged at the join. So I pulled the assembly apart and tied again. This time there was a twist to the completed parts that I just couldn’t seem to get rid of. So I pulled everything apart and I tried again.

This time I tried a bit of a different strategy. First I drilled a hole in the four missile tubes located to the front and rear of the joint.

Then I glued the front of the front half of the spine to the hull with some Tamiya Extra Thin.

Once this set, I brushed some extra thick CA glue on the underside of the front piece of the spine, right over the holes I drilled into the missile tubes. Once the CA glue was on, I inserted some styrene rod in the two holes, from the inside of the hull and let the CA glue set. Once the glue was dry, I used the plastic rods to align and support the rear end of the forward section of the spine. Once I was sure that it was aligned, I locked everything in with a liberal amount of CA glue.

Once I was sure that the forward section was secured, I then glued on the aft portion of the spine. I let the forward part rest on the brass tube that I had left attached to the top of the forward section and secured that with more CA glue. The back part was glued down with more Tamiya Extra Thin. Then I used the plastic rods to add extra support to the front of the back section.

Hopefully this all makes sense! Anyway what was left was a fairly well aligned spine.

Next step will be to assemble the hull halves and then clean up all the seams and gaps!

Thank you all for following along!
Mike

:captain

 

[Hippy Ed]

 

[moon puppy]

Good clean building so far.

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Hi guys! I’m back with a quick update.

I spent the morning sitting around waiting on the maintenance guys from the apartment complex to come by to change the filters in the furnace/AC :vmad so I figured why not do some building!

Not a very big update, but progress anyway. Today’s challenge was assembling the hull halves. I started at the rear of the hull and started working forward using my Tamiya Extra Thin Cement. And now its really starting to look like a sub! :yipee

Unfortunately the seam left some unsightly gaps, and it seems that the top part is smaller then the bottom, leaving an awkward step. Here are a couple of close ups of the seam…

I am going to use some miliput epoxy putty for all the seams and gaps, but unfortunately I need to pick some up first. Then it will be on to everybody’s favorite step; Fill then sand then fill then sand! :tomato

Hope you like it and thanks for following. As always, any suggestions are more then welcome!
Mike

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Its been a while since my last update. I was really upset with the fit and well frankly; I had to put this thing aside. But I finally have made a little bit of progress. As you recall from my last post, the seam lines were terrible, plus I needed to clean up the gap from grafting the parts together. Out came the miliput and the squadron white putty and off we go….

Next step – sand sand sand!
Thanks for looking in!
Mike

 

[Swordsman]

Nice conversion. ........ Looking good ...... ldguy

 

[Hippy Ed]

 

[moon puppy]

Sand and repeat....

 

[Duke Maddog]

Keep plugging man, you'll get it. I know how it is when a kit frustrates me so. It's always good to step back and take a breath now and then. This is looking good. You can do it.