1/72 ALFA Turnkey Build, Part-9

A Report to the Cabal:

The Soviet submarines present the model builder with a bit of a challenge. Until
recently (I'm old enough to consider 'recently' as a decade or so ago) it was the
Russian's practice to mark submarines with a distinctive white 'boot-topping' that
originates at the designed surface waterline. This white band literally girdles the
entire hull. Also, 'draft markings', consisting of horizontal short white bars, are a
prominent feature of the 'evil empire' boats, as are the white boarders that mark
the perimeter of deck access hatches and fittings.

How to represent these items on your model? One solution is to use either solid
white water-slide decal material (that you precut to correct width and length
before wetting) or to buy dry-transfer white strip (it very unlikely you will find any
commercial sheets with strips of correct width and length, nor enough of them to
mark out the entire model) and rub them down -- but such commercially available
markings are notoriously weak of bond and are easily damaged through handling,
even after a protective clear coating.

So, the obvious solution is to paint these markings on. Hand-brushing is out of the question, and lithographer pen and white ink -- though a viable solution in the hands of an expert -- is not something many casual model builders can do at all well. The surefire method, one most of you can handle, is to first mask off where the white markings go and to then spray-brush in white paint. That's what I'm showing off here: How I achieved the white markings needed to detail this 1/72 Thor ALFA r/c submarine kit.

The DuPont ChromaSystem black and anti-foul red paint went down first, I then wet-sanded the entire paint job with a hunk of #2400, making the surface receptive for the markings to come.

Not wishing to reinvent the wheel, I broke out my ALFA and simply lofted from it the location and style of the white markings I needed to produce for this ALFA turnkey I'm building for a client. See how boring the model is without those many white markings and weathering!

I've already applied masking to the deck. But, before I spray on the white within all that tape, I marked off the waterline onto the hull with the aid of this pencil loaded Machinist's surface gauge.

Tracing down the waterline requires a perfectly flat working surface (its surface is the reference plane), then adjusting the models pitch angle upon its holding stand so that the pencil tip will hit the bow and stern at the correct heights -- these points lofted off of either the working drawing or a photograph of a pier-side prototype (danger, danger ... Will Robinson! Russian boats are notorious for having nearly full bilge's because of lazy watch-standing while in port, don't always trust the trim of the boat you see tied up to the pier!).

The pencil, as the surface gauge is moved along the surface of the bard, lightly marks the entire hull, denoting where masking will be applied to achieve the girdling white band that represents the boats boot-topping.

Here you can just make out the pencil line being laid down on the hull. Once I have the entire waterline marked off, I lay down a narrow strip of masking tape which is a temporary (a place keeper) representation of where the boot-toping will be applied. Then, a wide piece of masking tape is laid down atop the waterline strip and another piece below. Once I have the entire waterline masked off the stand-in strip is pulled away, its job of insuring that the two pieces of masking tape are evenly spaced apart done. Wider pieces of tape are put down to catch overspray and the work is ready for white paint.

Here you can just make out the boot-topping stand-in narrow piece of tape being pulled clear of the work after laying down the upper and lower pieces of masking needed to paint in the white boot-topping. My ALFA model, painted, marked, and weathered was used as reference. Man! This must be my fifth build of the Thor ALFA kit!

Enough, already!

Note how two concentrically mounted circular tape masks (an inner disc, an outer hole) have been laid down atop the stern. Painting within the ring formed between the tape pieces becomes a white 'DSRV target marking' over the engineering spaces access hatch.

Small pieces of scrap plastic sheet are used as pallets upon which are cut specific shapes of masking tape, be they circles (cut out with punch or compass cutter) or strips. It's a good idea to de-tack the masking tape before laying it down on the pallet -- I do this by taking the fresh tape off the roll and then wrapping it around the massive waste of my shirt. The lint the tape picks up reduces its 'stick' to the point where it will be easier to pull off the model than if it went down virgin.

After painting in the boot-topping the masking and back-up tape is peeled away revealing the white band that denotes the designed waterline on this class of Soviet submarine.

We use the same paint system for markings as with the basic hull colors: DuPont ChromaSystem, a two-part polyurethane type automotive paint. Very quick drying, and tough as ... well ... auto-paint! Duh!

Rose removing the waterline boot-top masking from the model.

Masking tape is used like this: A long strip is pulled off the roll, de-tacked on my shirt, placed on a plastic pallet and cut to shape, the tape mask is then transferred to the model, additional scrap pieces of tape are place around the mask to catch any overspray coming off the spray-brush, the paint laid down within the masks, a brief period of time is allowed for the paint to dry, then the mask and back up tape is carefully pulled away from the model.

I modified a kids compass by sharpening one leg into a knife edge. This tool works much, much better than those X-Acto 'swivel knife' abortions working within the edges of a circle stencil for cutting masks. Smaller circles (and their associated discs) are cut using punch-cutters. A punch-cutter is nothing more than a length of K&S brass tube whose end has been beveled sharp with a knife and wet-stone. You can do the same with K&S extruded square tube for specific masking needs. Get imaginative, Damit!

I established the width of tape needed for the correct vertical spacing between draft marker 'bars'. Long strips of masking tape were cut out to this width on a pallet, and those strips cut to lengths slightly longer than the width of the longer bars (every fifth bare is twice the length of the others). Using the tip of an #11 X-Acto knife I lifted these the masking off the pallet and transferred them to the model.

Note that one face of the straightedge has had sandpaper glued to one face --producing a non-slip surface that won't shift on the work as I use it to guide the X-Acto blade over a big piece of tape.

Rose blasts some white ChromaSystem paint at one of the four sets of draft markings. I thin paint that will be shot through masking tape or stencils very thin and shoot it with the minimum of air pressure, about fifteen PSI. Note the larger pieces of tape placed to catch overspray, protecting the rest of the model from splatter.

Starting to remove the masking to reveal the draft bars near the bow. Lots of work to mask off these items, but the reward is a very distinctive looking boat. Soviet submarines are the sexiest killing machines on this planet in my not so humble opinion!