TomDougherty

In the case of the OKB Grigorov kits, the only "building" is usually gluing on photo etch propellers. That's it. Most of the submarine kits I build are resin, now many also have 3-D printed parts. It's really not very complex, a few different types of cyanoacrylate glue (quick set thin, thicker and gap filing). The field is currently transitioning to all 3-D printed pieces, including hulls. So the older solid resin hulls are going out of style. To fill gaps, I recently bought some liquid resin that is UV cured and a 365 nanometer wavelength flashlight. Great for treating gaps in both resin and polystyrene kits. Put the liquid resin in (slightly viscous, remove excess with isopropyl alcohol, and hit it for 60 seconds with UV light. I paint with a Paasche VL airbrush and Badger Marine acrylic colors.

Thanks, Mark! OKB Grigorov had kits of both the Hotel I and Hotel II (Project 658M) in 1/700 resin. I'm not sure about availability of shipping these kits to the US, but it is still listed on their website (https://shop.okbgrigorov.com). Very pricey for a 1/700 scale; the Takom 1/350 kits is much less expensive. OKB Grigorov | No. 700069 | 1:700. €40.50 ($47.75 US)

The Soviet Union had both diesel (Zulu V, Golf I & Golf II) and nuclear powered (Hotel I & Hotel II) ballistic missile submarines. Originally, the Project 629 (NATO: Golf I) and Project 658 (NATO: Hotel I) submarines carried three R-13 missiles of short range (300 nautical miles) and had to be fired by the D-2 launch systems from the ocean surface. But units of both the Golf I and Hotel I class were modified and upgraded to Project 629A (Golf II) with the D-4 launch system, which allowed underwater launches of the new R-21 missile of 700 nautical mile range. The upgraded Project 658M (NATO: Hotel II) carried three R-21 missiles in its extended sail structure. The Hotel II class had two VM-A pressurized water reactors and twin propellers. The VM-A reactors were first generation and problematic, with a major casualty on the Hotel I K-19, as well as leaks. The Hotel II model is a 1/350 scale kit from Takom. I replaced a thin set of photo etch parts which were low rails on the aft deck. I modeled the submarine with one of the missile hatches open on the sail with an R-21 missile in the tube.

In the early 1970's, two submarines were modified to carry out covert missions to recover discarded Soviet missile pieces and to tap underwater cables in the Sea of Okhotsk. One of the submarines, Halibut, had a large hanger previously employed for Regulus Missiles. It was outfitted to tow and service a camera and sonar tow body, termed The Fish. It also received a saturation diving chamber on its stern to allow saturation divers to install cable taps and recover items at depths of 400-600 feet. A second submarine conversion was perfumed on USS Seawolf, the second nuclear submarine constructed by the United States.. Originally equipped with a liquid sodium cooled reactor (which had some unique problems), it was converted in the late 1950's to a pressurized water reactor. In the early 1970's, it became the second Special Operations submarine. In this case, the hull was cut forward of the sail, and a 52 foot hull "plug" installed. This section had both an internal saturation diving chamber as well as a compartment to service and launch towed body "Fish". The submarine also received fore and aft thrusters (installed between the upper deck plates and the pressure hull) and later a set of skids to enable it to sit on the ocean floor during cable tap operations. A prior incident in which the submarine had just "bottomed", ended up settling into the ocean floor, with sand and bottom creatures entering the reactor condenser seawater cooling openings. Hence the installation of the skids. Seawolf operated in this guise to 1986, sharing Projects duties with Halibut and later when Halibut was retired in 1976, with Parche, which received Halibut's saturation chamber. The 1/350 scale model is an Iron Shipwrights resin hull and 3-D parts kit which depicts Seawolf in her later configuration.

These are 1/700 scale resin kits produced by Ralph Ratcliffe during the 1990's. They represent the Sturgeon class SSN 637, the early 688 Los Angeles class, the later 688I (Improved) class, with bow planes in place of sail planes, VLS hatches for the Tomahawk missiles, a ring propeller to protect it for under ice operations, and stern anhedrals for stability and housing countermeasure launchers. The final submarine is the USS Seawolf, lead ship of what was planned as 29 new SSNs. The hull diameter was increased from 33 feet (688 class) to 40 feet, and equipped with a pump jet propulsor. The Seawolf class hull was constructed of HY-100 steel rather than the previous HY-80, and this increased the test depth of the Seawolf class. The Seawolf weapons load out was much increased and 8 torpedo tubes fitted over the previous 4 of the LA and Sturgeon classes. With the end of the Cold War, the Seawolf program was drastically curtailed. The only Seawolf class submarines completed were SSN-21 Seawolf, SSN-22 Connecticut, and the modified SSN-23, Jimmy Carter.

One of the submarines in the last class (Benjamin Franklin class) of the 41 Polaris/Poseidon ballistic missile submarines. In 1979, the Bolivar entered overhaul and conversion of her ballistic missile system to support Trident C-4 ballistic missiles. She patrolled along with the early Ohio class SSBNs. Bolivar continued to make deterrent patrols, undergoing occasional refits at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia. Bolivar successfully launched a Trident test missile. SSBN 641 continued to make deterrent patrols until 1994. The model is a resin and metal kit from the now defunct Yankee Model Works.

Following WWII, the US had a large number of relatively new diesel fleet submarines. Although these were very successful in the Pacific War, the technology and development of the German Type XXI U-boats pointed to a future in which more capabilities would be necessary. The US Navy embarked on a program to modify and upgrade some of the newer fleet submarines. The overall program was termed Guppy (Greater Underwater Propulsion Program, with the Y added). This meant streamlining the submarines by removing deck guns and adding a "step sail" in early conversions, upgrading batteries (and in some of the modifications such as Guppy II, doubling the battery cells) and adding a snorkel. The snorkel meant that the diesels could be run while submerged, recharging the batteries. These conversions (Guppy I, Ia and II) were carried out in the 1950's. With a lag in nuclear attack submarine building in the early 1960's, a small number of Guppy II submarines were selected for a further upgrade, termed Guppy III. These submarines already had the doubling of battery cells, and as an initial step, a new sail, termed the High Atlantic sail was fitted. This was an improvement on the earlier "step sails" which had the bridge watch crew at a lower level (see my earlier build of Becuna on this forum). In Atlantic storms, crews on the step sail would get soaked with cold water from waves coming over the bow. The Atlantic sail got the watch crew up higher off the deck. In addition, the submarines were cut apart forward of the sail, and a 15 foot long "plug" was added to create space for a dedicated sonar room. Also added was the BQG-4 PUFFS passive ranging sonar, which are the three "fins" on the deck. With PUFFS, the length of the submarine was used as a baseline to triangulate a bearing to a target by the time of arrival of the sonar signals at the 3 PUFFS sonar receiver units. The GUPPY III submarines filled the gap for patrols until the SSN program accelerated with the Permit and Sturgeon classes. In the early-mid 1970's, all of the diesel GUPPY III class were retired, some 30 years after they were initially built as WWII fleet submarines. This resin kit was from the now defunct Yankee ModelWorks. It depicts USS Clamagore in its GUPPY III configuration. Clamagore was the last remaining GUPPY III and was a museum boat in South Carolina. However the museum could not maintain upkeep and it was scrapped in 2022. I was fortunate in visiting in 2018 and took plenty of photos with my Nikon DSLR for reference.

This is the Iron Shipwrights 1/350 scale Richard B. Russell. It was the last numbered Sturgeon class submarine built prior to the Los Angeles class. In August 1977, the Russell was fitted with a large housing ("bustle") attached to her hull just aft of her sail, containing a tethered antenna buoy. Russell was one of the later "long hull" Sturgeon submarines, stretched from 292 feet to 302 feet in length. Russell was equipped as a Special Projects submarine and operated with other Projects submarines (Seawolf SSN 575 and Parche SSN 683) out of Mare Island.

This is the Iron Shipwrights kit of the last Seawolf class submarine. The Jimmy Carter had an additional 100 foot section added amidships for "ocean engineering". This gave it the capability to [classified], [classified] and [classified].

So you know what the terminology and acronyms are like to monitor mRNA levels using MuLV reverse transcriptase and Rnase H to convert the RNA transcripts to DNA for NGS with Illumina. To say nothing of editing with CRISPR-Cas. For what it's worth, my main complaint was about the light gray type & the use of IUJ. The format didn't bother me.

Didn't have to dig deep for the journal reference. I just retired from the Department of Microbiology at Harvard Medical School. Multiply drug resistant pathogens are a major issue in both urological and gynecological wards, and we did molecular biology and drug development on a couple of those pathogens. One of the journals where such cases are reported was the IUJ (science journal). And we would monitor articles and the journal was referred colloquially in the field as the IUJ, just as we referred to Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy as AAC (where I have been on the editorial board for 20 years). So as soon as I saw IUJ on the cover of the new format, the urogynecology journal popped into my head.

I just put up a separate posting on the almost unreadable light gray (grey?) print. IUJ is also abbreviation employed for the International Urogynecology Journal published by Springer Publications.

I just received the first issue of the revised (??) Journal (now termed the IUJ. The article print is extremely light. Light gray on a glossy page. Many of us are long time model builders (hint, we're old guys) with aging eyesight. There's a reason why so many of us have Optivisors. Trying to read light gray print on a glossy white page is difficult, to say the least requires strong light to make out the minimum contrast of the print with the page. See attached photo of journal page and note the contrast between picture captions and the article text. Could you turn up the text contrast for later issues; like maybe dark gray?? BTW, the IUJ is already the abbreviation for the International Urogynecology Journal. Unlikely the two will be confused.. Update I started to read the articles (which seemed quite good) but only got to the Bearcat build before the eye strain was too much. I did go through and look at the photos, and noticed that as mentioned by someone else, the photo sizes were all over the place. On page 41, there is a caption about an F-105F Thunderchief Wild Weasel build, but the photo is of a B-52. I have an F-105F in my collection and was interested in seeing the build, as I had just finished reading Dan Hampton's Hunter Killers. I note that the SIGS on page are listed as IUJ SIGS; I thought we were IPMS SIGS, not tied to the Journal?? I hope that the editor(s) take the comments by several members into consideration for future editions.

Photos of the Iron Shipwright's kit of the USS Glenard P. Lipscomb, SSN 685. The Lipscomb was a modified design Sturgeon class submarine, which had turbo-electric drive in place of steam turbines. This was another effort (along with the previous Tullibee) to produce a quieter running submarine using turbo-electric drive. Steam was provided by the S5W reactor to drive turbo-generators. To accommodate the large DC electric drive, the SCB302.68 design resulted in a displacement of 6,400 tons and a length of 365 feet. Much more displacement and length than the contemporary steam turbine Sturgeon class of 302 feet and 4640 displacement. As a result of the longer hull and increased wetted surface, the Lipscomb, while quiet, was notably slower than the Sturgeons (Lipscomb submerged 23 knots, Sturgeon 26 knots, top speeds). As with other Sturgeon class submarines, a towed array deployment system was added subsequent to launch, with the reel in the forward ballast tanks and a curved cover running down the hull to a supported deployment tube on the port stern fin. Lipscomb was in active service as an SSN, but was retired after only 18 years of service. The Iron Shipwright's kit features a resin hull and 3-D printed sail, planes, rudders, accurate J-screw and masts. It is one of a number of new IS kits of postwar submarines recently released.

New Iron Shipwrights kit Background: The USS Narwhal, hull number SSN-671, was a totally unique and experimental nuclear-powered attack submarine and one of the most successful boats of her era. Her unique design made her the quietest attack submarine in the U.S. fleet in the 1970s. The Navy challenged Electric Boat to build a quieter submarine. A unique design under project SCB 245, Narwhal was her own class. Forward of the reactor compartment she was broadly similar to the contemporary Sturgeon-class submarines, but with a slightly larger diameter to accommodate the natural circulation reactor setup. Electric Boat identified reduced sound signature improvements. The first was the main reactor coolant pumps. These large, high-pressure pumps spin under heavy load and can be the most significant acoustic source of any nuclear-powered submarine. General Electric designed Narwhal’s unique S5G power plant with the reactor vessel situated low in the submarine’s hull and the two steam generators situated above the reactor, cocked slightly to fit into the hull. This arrangement facilitated a natural flow of the reactor’s primary coolant. This pressurized-water reactor (PWR) design heated its primary loop in the reactor and convection moved the water into the steam generator near the top of the loop where energy is exchanged into the secondary loop system to generate steam for propulsion. After heat transfer, the primary coolant flows back down towards the reactor vessel in a return loop. Both initial low power conditions as well as when high power for maximum speed require the reactor coolant pumps. However, there is a wide region of power between these two conditions that allow the main engines and turbines to run normally without the main reactor coolant pumps working. To address acoustic noise from the the standard propulsion turbines which required a large reduction gear system to slow the propeller to usable, efficient turns, a revolutionary, direct-drive main engine turbine that was mechanically linked to the shaft was installed. This system operated at a lower RPM and was larger than the original reduction gear design, 12 feet in diameter and 30 feet in length, resulting in a slightly wider submarine than the Sturgeon class design, on which Narwhal was based. The main seawater intake system is used to cool and condense the expended steam from the main drive turbine. Two unique seawater scoops were added to the stern planes that would force water into the main seawater system as the Narwhal moved forward. During low speed, slow approach operations these scoops moved enough water to cool the condenser loads. Also, new ship service turbine generators which operated at a lower RPM(quieter). In a subsequent overhaul, sonar was upgraded to the AN/BQQ-5D spherical bow array system along with a long line TB-23 towed sonar array was added on the starboard side, with a deploy tube on the upper stern plane. The natural circulation reactor design was incorporated into the Ohio SSBN S8G design, as well as the Seawolf class S6W and the Virginia S9G reactors. Other aspects, such as the direct drive turbine were not repeated in subsequent classes. Also, the condenser cooling scoops violated SubSafe principles by having long internal piping runs under sea pressure, so short direct runs with pumps were employed. The Kit: This is a prototype kit (all 3-D printed) of USS Narwhal, SSN 671, developed by Jon Warneke of Iron Shipwrights. The kit depicts Narwhal in her post overhaul configuration with added TB-23 sonar towed array deploy tube. The final kit will feature a resin hull and 3-D printed sail, masts, planes, rudders and propeller. The propeller is an excellent rendition of the 7 blade J-type damped screw on the Polaris SSBNs, and the Skipjack, Permit and Sturgeon SSN classes. The kit should be available soon from Iron Shipwrights.