The decals were added over a brush coat of Future.

I used black ink to darken the depressions in the hull and around the placard lettering. The propellers and the name placard for the base were painted with SnJ gold. I painted the model with Polly Scale grimy black and Alclad II aluminum for the nose sonar dome. The angle of the rear strakes (14B and 15B) was not clear, so I made them horizontal. All of the small parts were left off until painting was finished. I had to use rubber bands to hold the top of the tower tightly in place while the glue dried. You could leave it out and fill the openings with white glue or Kristal Kleer. The front windows of the conning tower are molded in one large clear piece. These hatches should show prominently, so don't go crazy trying to work them down. 2B) fit pretty well with only a bit of cleanup. The missile bay sides also required some sanding and filling. Some sanding and filling was needed to erase the seam line between the hull halves. A basic stand with a placard is provided. My sample's small decal sheet was badly out of register. The instructions consist of only one sheet, primarily with Russian text, but the diagrams are enough to guide you through assembly. There aren't a lot of parts, but the forward diving planes can be shown extended or retracted, the hatches over the main missile tubes can be positioned open or closed, and the periscopes and other masts and probes can be shown extended or retracted. The full hull is split horizontally, so it wouldn't be too difficult to convert the kit to a waterline version. Zvezda's Kursk is molded in black plastic. This triggered a much larger explosion that ripped open the bow of the ship. The disaster was officially attributed to an explosion of one of the boat's torpedoes. A year later, a salvage operation by two Dutch companies raised the Kursk - the largest object ever brought up from the ocean floor. Bad weather prevented a quick rescue effort, and all 130 crewmen were lost. 12, 2000, as word spread that a Russian Oscar II-class submarine, the Kursk, had sunk in the Barents Sea.

In fact, it's convenient: The boat can drive onto the beach after an outing and requires no trailer to transport.The world held its breath Oct. Giordano also attached small wheels to the semi-sub's keel, so that running aground was no longer a threat. For wintertime, he affixed a blade to the bow that can plow through 4 inches of ice. 'Around here, once you hit the deep water, it all just gets green,' he says. (Should some malfunction pull the 3000-pound boat into too steep a dive, the rear prop would leave the water, eliminating thrust-and popping it back to the surface.)Īn electric snorkel cycles fresh air through the cockpit, and a video camera mounted on the top deck allows Giordano to steer when visibility gets hazy. If the boat drops below 3 knots, it loses the forward momentum necessary to force the craft underwater, and it pops back to the surface. The front half submerges about 8 feet, while the engine continues breathing air, guiding the sub through Auke Bay at a leisurely 10 knots. The 32-foot semi-sub, which is fashioned from an industrial buoy cockpit welded to the propane tank, dives by pitching its 4-foot-long bow planes forward. 'After drawing a zillion sketches, it occurred to me I could actually make this,' the longtime boat mechanic says. The Submariner Cal Giordano Juneau, Alaskaīuilding a personal submarine may seem as fanciful as a DIY jet pack-but Cal Giordano proved that with a little ambition, and a recycled 500-gallon propane tank, most anything is possible.

Personal submarine k350