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Good afternoon, all!
Aside from the Disney Nautilus, I have one all-time favorite boat... the Russian Typhoon-class subs. Honestly, I'm a fan of a lot of the Russian boats. They just look right to me, aggressive, sleek and dangerous.
Over the years, I've built 3 of the Engel Typhoon kits, and I love the size and presence that they have on and under the water. Ordinarily, with such a great product on the market I wouldn't even think about making something that is a direct alternative to it, but I've been hearing over and over that Engel is no longer replying to communication attempts by customers, and they certainly didn't react to any of my own inquiries about the possibility of buying a hull kit only from them after repeated attempts.
All that said, I've been taking a closer and closer look at an old Typhoon kit that I got from Germany about two years ago. The company is no longer manufacturing sub kits at all, so this is another source for these subs that has gone away. This kit is done in 1/100 scale, and, unfortunately, has a lot of major inaccuracies. The rear prop shrouds are far too small, meaning that the entire rear section needs to be reworked to accommodate larger parts and props. The deck scribings are way off, the sail is too far back and about 20% too small for the boat. It's also set up as a dry-hull boat, as many European modelers are wont to do.
In my mind, in order to make a good model of it, everything needs to be scrapped with the exception of the main hull shell itself.
Having decided to build the boat up anyway, I've decided that I might as well take the time to mold it up and offer kits. Now, I don't have the facilities (or the time) to do this in-house, so I've decided to engage the expertise of Bob Dimmack of OTW. Anyone that has seen Bob's products knows that he's a perfectionist, and his layups are of the highest quality. Together, we're going to bring this project to light.
My part in this is to completely re-build the master model.
The entire stock sail was pitched in the garbage. All of the hull scribings have been filled in. The stern has been cut up and completely rebuilt with larger, more accurate prop shrouds that will allow for 50mm, custom-manufactured brass props. I have plans to offer fully detailed missile hatch pieces that can be installed as functional doors. A full set of periscopes will be included. I'm also working up the engineering that will allow a pair of 3.5" cylinders to be installed side-by-side, exactly like the original boat. This will allow operational periscopes in the middle as well. No plans to render scribed anechoic tiles. In this scale, they are better represented via creative paint than oversized lines.
Will this be a hyper-accurate, bolt-for-bolt re-creation of the Typhoon? Nope. I've got to work with the parts that I have to work with. Will it be a slick model that will build into a beautiful representation of the boat. You bet!
At this point, I've nearly completed the re-work of the stern. The new sail has been fabricated and I'm currently sanding, priming, filling, sanding, getting it ready for paint and scribing.
I wanted to share the progress so far. If you have ideas, suggestions or (creative) criticisms, by all means, fire away!
Bob
Aside from the Disney Nautilus, I have one all-time favorite boat... the Russian Typhoon-class subs. Honestly, I'm a fan of a lot of the Russian boats. They just look right to me, aggressive, sleek and dangerous.
Over the years, I've built 3 of the Engel Typhoon kits, and I love the size and presence that they have on and under the water. Ordinarily, with such a great product on the market I wouldn't even think about making something that is a direct alternative to it, but I've been hearing over and over that Engel is no longer replying to communication attempts by customers, and they certainly didn't react to any of my own inquiries about the possibility of buying a hull kit only from them after repeated attempts.
All that said, I've been taking a closer and closer look at an old Typhoon kit that I got from Germany about two years ago. The company is no longer manufacturing sub kits at all, so this is another source for these subs that has gone away. This kit is done in 1/100 scale, and, unfortunately, has a lot of major inaccuracies. The rear prop shrouds are far too small, meaning that the entire rear section needs to be reworked to accommodate larger parts and props. The deck scribings are way off, the sail is too far back and about 20% too small for the boat. It's also set up as a dry-hull boat, as many European modelers are wont to do.
In my mind, in order to make a good model of it, everything needs to be scrapped with the exception of the main hull shell itself.
Having decided to build the boat up anyway, I've decided that I might as well take the time to mold it up and offer kits. Now, I don't have the facilities (or the time) to do this in-house, so I've decided to engage the expertise of Bob Dimmack of OTW. Anyone that has seen Bob's products knows that he's a perfectionist, and his layups are of the highest quality. Together, we're going to bring this project to light.
My part in this is to completely re-build the master model.
The entire stock sail was pitched in the garbage. All of the hull scribings have been filled in. The stern has been cut up and completely rebuilt with larger, more accurate prop shrouds that will allow for 50mm, custom-manufactured brass props. I have plans to offer fully detailed missile hatch pieces that can be installed as functional doors. A full set of periscopes will be included. I'm also working up the engineering that will allow a pair of 3.5" cylinders to be installed side-by-side, exactly like the original boat. This will allow operational periscopes in the middle as well. No plans to render scribed anechoic tiles. In this scale, they are better represented via creative paint than oversized lines.
Will this be a hyper-accurate, bolt-for-bolt re-creation of the Typhoon? Nope. I've got to work with the parts that I have to work with. Will it be a slick model that will build into a beautiful representation of the boat. You bet!
At this point, I've nearly completed the re-work of the stern. The new sail has been fabricated and I'm currently sanding, priming, filling, sanding, getting it ready for paint and scribing.
I wanted to share the progress so far. If you have ideas, suggestions or (creative) criticisms, by all means, fire away!
Bob
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