With my motorcycle put to bed for the season, and my boathouse closed too, it's time to turn to my winter hobby again... modelling!

My model of U-625 has been doing well at the hobby contests... typically winning the Submarine categories and a few "Best Ship" awards. And at the last show (Ajax 2007) it won "Best of Show - People's Choice."

I am now back to work on my U-673 project, and have updated the U-673 website accordingly. At this stage I'm covered in plastic shavings and wearing my Darth Vader breathmask so as not to inhale all the sanded putty dust.

As always, is nice to hear feedback from y'all.

Cheers!

With all the snow this weekend (37cm I believe) it made for a good reason to stay indoors and work on my U-673 model. Since I've not added a lot of new sections to my website, it may seem like I've not made a lot of progress. BUT... that would be inaccurate.

For my model of U-673, I'm spending A LOT of time working on the surface of the outer hull. What is taking up most of my time these days is the additional weld beads and 'oil canning' effects. Lots of scraping & sanding, etc... and I have the cuts on my fingers to prove it!!!

Take a look at my site here and go to the "Hull Detailing" section.

Again, if anyone has any comments or questions, I'm happy to get your feedback and help anyone out.

Best regards, and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Thanks for the update, Glenn!

Very nice Glenn!

Gator

In the process of detailing the hull of U-673, I came up with a very quick & easy technique and tool to create fairly realistic looking weld beads.

Have a look HERE.

This should work in almost any scale on any model.

Very cool tool tip, Glenn...and yes I do agree, should work in any scale.......check yer pm's, mate.

hello Glenn,
thanks for the tip.i have wondered how good builders make weld beads,and now i know.
the sub is looking great,and please keep us updated with your work.
cheers,
Bruce

Update: December 26, 2007

You gotta love Boxing Day for [u]something[/u]... one day where no stores are open... so another prime time for modelling!

I hit an unofficial milestone today... and was jumping with glee!
On the starboard half of the hull, I finally finished ALL the texturing... all of the hull rippling is done... ALL of the weld beads are textured... drip channels added fore & aft... and most of the major reconstruction is finished. Whew!

Before I can actually JOIN the two hull halves, the following tasks remain:

Tasks for starboard hull:
* cut out the central drainage channel
* add internal saddletank ribbing

Tasks for port hull:
* hull rippling of the saddletanks and pressure hull areas
* addition of new weld beads
* texturing of all weld beads

I updated my U-673 site with newer pictures, and more detail in the Hull Detailing section (particularly dealing with oil canning, welds, and drip channels).

If you're reading this you're probably saying... wow, a blast from the past!

Motorcycle racing madness claimed me for a few years, and my work on U-673 took a back seat. Well, with my 2011 racing season coming to an early end in mid-August (due to a crash), I am focusing my attention on completing U-673 for our upcoming CAPCON 2011 contest on Sept 24th.

I have been posting progress on U-673 on the AMP (Accurate Model Parts) forum... here is the beginning of recent updates. I am working on the model daily, and have made incredible progress in the past few weeks.

http://models.rokket.biz/index.php?topic=67.msg9741#msg9741

Enjoy... and I'd love to hear form you!