Fast Fish

Slavo Hazucha
So, this is where life took me recently...

Working happily on my F-23, my boy (9) comes and says he would like to do a model together - he´d like a sub he says, after having a critical look at some smaller stuff as things with dad´s & their boys choosing go, we arrived at this 1m+ monster...

It was a fun project, I supervised the gluing, boy did a fair effort on putting things together & sanding. I then did all the airbrushing (yes, the black half IS airbrushed... (!) - bottom = can...) and we then did most of the weathering together - the passion for smearing oil paint over all kinds of surfaces seems to span through generations here... 😄

We agreed she should look old & weathered, not like a toy (9 year old boys don´t need kiddie-toys anymore..! 😄), we may have taken it a bit too far, now she looks like a neglected Murmansk fishing barge... But we both like it and next she goes up on the wall in his room. Should become the "submarine wall", with more to come (in smaller scale I hope...)

So here we are, me messing around in 72-scale... To be honest, now I think this fast & nimble US fish may need a Bear in the same scale to go hunt for her at some point... 😉

Łukasz Gliński
Probably the only 1/72 I ever wanted to get 🙂 Great job

Robin (WhiteGlint)
Great stuff!
Your son and you did fine work 👍

To me the weathered look gives the impression as if the sub was under water and waves cast their shadows on it. 🙂

Sven Schönyan
Hey Slavo, what happened! Have you joined the dark side?

Welcome in the wonderful world of ship modelling!

James C
That's awesome! you both did an excellent job on it. 👍

Lode Schildermans
Awesome Slavo. Congrats to your son. He did a very nice work under the guidance of his father. What a coincidence, we were both working on a sub together

bughunter
I guess it is not easy to bring such huge black pipe to live, but you manged it together!
There is also a RC diving set available for this kit, but not from Revell. But I assume that would also require to use different paints 😉

Augie
Looks cool 🙂 really nice weathering. Mine was done as per her fateful voyage.

Rui S
Congratulations to the modelers 😉

Spanjaard
congratulations to both, excellent job! great to get next generation into it!!

Slavo Hazucha
Thanks Lukasz, WhiteGlint, Sven, James, Lode, bughunter, Augie, Rui & Spanjaard!!

You make us really proud by stopping by and leaving such nice comments - I´ll relate to my boy that some of the black-belts of this hobby find his weathering attempts worth a word! 😉

We built the periscopes & antennas too, but we´ll probably not install them - with 10 different "sticks" it makes the sail look like a pencil-holder... I like the Skipjack better in pure form anyway and as was correctly pointed out by the younger generation - "they could break off..." 😄

@White Glint - yeah, in real life it would hardly look this worn, but it did look super-boring in plain black - happy it makes a positive association!

@Sven - thanks, I guess I´ll keep visiting this world every now & then...

@Lode - same topic - same scale 🙂

@bughunter - we saw it as we researched youtube videos, but doing that would take ages & it´s not the cheapest item... luckily my boy just wanted it built & painted - but the propeller spins and the planes move!

Dave Flitton
Awesome project! You and your son did an excellent job.

Ben M
I like it a lot - good for you for encouraging creativity

Konrad -
What a nice subject!
Awesome looking sub! Congrats to this nice project!

Łukasz Gliński
Is it just me who still reads "Fat Fish" on top of this page? 😄
Slavo, I honestly thought you managed the weathering, but in such case, hats off!

Neuling
Compared to what I produced at the age of nine this build looks very adult. Unfortunately I had no father "Slavo" but a father "Sepp" .......... 👍

Alexander
Looks awesome! Nice of you to "recruit" the next generation of model builders 😉 . Will certainly be an eye-cather in his room. 👍

Jim J
Yes! Well done Slavo! It reminds me of my first experience on an operational boat when I was in sub school. On a cold, windy, winter evening I climbed aboard the USS Shark in New London CT. Small, cold, damp, dirty and cramped are words that come to mind as I remember touring the engine room. I love your Skipjack rendition with the detail on the deck and weathering topside. I actually think the weathering is fine - it's amazing how worn the superstructure and deck can look up close with buckled surfaces, globs of non-skid, layers of paint and caked on salt residue. I can smell the cold, salty sea air...Congrats to you and your 9-yr old Captain Nemo.

Slavo Hazucha
Thanks Dave, Ben, Konrad, Neuling, Alexander & Jim! You make me & the boy really proud right now! 😉

@Neuling - rest assured I did have to be a bit persuasive at times to get the next stage on the boat done - getting kids away from electronic devices can be difficult sometimes...

@Jim J
Wow, that´s a story, I did not expect/hope to be judged by someone who actually had experience on one of these! 👍 We actually almost chose to do the shark, but Revell paint guide only provides the "red up to the waterline" option and we finally chose a center-line red/black pattern. Scorpion was a close call too, but in the end, little Nemo did not want to display a boat that met such a cruel fate... Thanks for your kind view on our work, did you actually sail on the Shark or was it a school object then?

Anyway, next project here may be something from the other side of the curtain (and definitely smaller scale...)

Jim J
Thanks - I think the Skipjack was the perfect choice. The Shark was still operational when I went aboard for training. I was assigned to a different boat when I went to the fleet—the John Marshall out of Norfolk. It was a Special Opérations sub at that point — Navy SEALs and mini subs, etc.

Peter Hardy
That's a seriously good build Slavo's boy!

David Taylor
The apple does'nt fall far from the tree.Big thumbs up.

Nathan Dempsey
That's a great team build! I hope I'm able to do this too 🙂

Slavo Hazucha
Thanks Peter, David, Roland & Nathan!

The 72-scale Skipjack is well over a meter long, so a huge canvas to work on - and just the right size for a 9-year old's "macro" approach to techniques 🙂 I airbrushed the black, we sprayed the red together from a can & then worked out the weathering method on some test-pieces - basically smearing on almost undiluted spots of oil paint, waiting and "massaging" it over the sub's surfaces... was all good fun!

Jim J - that kind of assignments sounds exactly like "where the fun was" compared to - what I imagine at least - to be the routine on a SSBN... Fast Attack may be interesting too, especially tracking the other side while keeping a low profile...

Do you know this dude's channel (ex-sonarman on a 688) - if so what do you think about his content?

youtube.com/c/SubBrief

Clifford Keesler
Very nice.

Black Baron
😄 Nice work. Huge sub! No build pictures? That must have taken a couple MRP bottles of paint. What airbrush did you use? It seems this "You paint it. I only want to build stuff" is normal at that age as it's the same thing with my son, who I've been trying to get in this hobby for a couple of years.

Slavo Hazucha
Thanks Clifford! - surely was "something else" 🙂

@Black Baron - nothing really interesting to report during the build... the ol´lady sports a rather good fit, actually excellent given the size and my usual cockpit tends to have more parts than this whole kit... 😄 project was in the "painting phase" before I managed to pull out a camera....

Precisely 2/3 of MRP black went on it, over a dark grey prime-coat in a somewhat cloudy pattern. Thought I´d need more, franky...

+ In my experience with the kids it´s really about catching the "window of interest" for a subject - then things go +/- smoothly...

Peter Hardy
Interesting comment re the kids. I think with younger kids it's more about the destination rather than the journey. As they get older the journey has some points of interest they look forward to. And really big kids only care about how many extra parts you can fit in a cockpit!

Jim J
That Sub Brief YouTube channel looks intriguing - I hadn't seen it before. I'll poke around at a few videos. Thx.