1/350th HobbyBoss 688(i) - VertRep Diorama

After a handful of years desiring and attempting this project, I feel like I’m ready to take it on and I’ve figured out how to do one of the most crucial steps that will also be what makes this daunting.

In what feels like a weird mesh of a longstanding hobby and my day job, I’m finally getting around to making a submarine in scale. It’s a good way to get my feet somewhat wet (pun intended?) in the world of 1/350th ships, even though this is far different from building a surface ship.

The plan is to depict a scene quite like what’s on the box, a helicopter hovering over a 688 presumably dropping supplies or people.



Here’s the problem that I’m sure some of you are aware of. If you look closely at the third reference photo, there’s a tile-like pattern on the hull of the boat, that unfortunately, is absent from the kit.

This is where I lose my sanity.

About three or so years ago I picked up this same kit, and went at it with a scribing tool to the best of my abilities. My not-so-great scribing coupled with the fact that I actually needed to add material resulted in that kit sitting on the shelf for quite some time until I wrangled with how to do it properly.

I tried using masking tape or aluminum duct tape and with how small the tile pattern is, I couldn’t get the adhesive on either to cooperate well enough to see it panning out over the length of the hull and thus we arrive here.

This is the second iteration my jig to cut the little tiles out so they’re consistent. I didn’t plan the first iteration out well enough and wound up with a 0.10mm range between all the widths which just didn’t work out. Learning experience I suppose. Now I’m cutting 4 strips at a time and everything is nice and square and the blade is pretty much fixed in position so I can get consistent tiles.

I then check every one to make sure it’s within 0.01mm of nominal which some napkin math and “by the looks” says 1.60mm, but I’m not too worried about it, as long as they’re consistent.

A checked tile gets plopped into a well, and I move on to checking some more. Once I’ve checked out from checking, I’ll put some tiles on and call it a night. Rinse and repeat.

I use a 0.10mm piece of shim stock to make sure the spacing between rows and columns is consistent, steering clear of some of the molded in details for now that I’ll then come back and tile around.

At the end of all of this, the little 1/350th CH-53 will be a reward. We’ll see how long this takes and if I spill my marbles any more than I already have. Why a CH-53 instead of an MH-60 or CH-46 you ask? I like the look of it, even though it may not be that accurate and that’s a little ironic considering my level of effort to get the tiles looking somewhat right.

Thanks for reading along so far and if you have any good movie suggestions (non submarine ones!) please do let me know, I need something on in the background!

Cheers!

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Looking good. :+1:
While I do the like the homemade jig, a chopper would have come in handy for you. I don’t think it would be a wasted investment for you and your level of building.

H-46 variant used by the Navy was the HH and UH. Depending on the timeframe the difference between that and the Marine CH is the Navy had the small sponsons.

For the H-53E variant the Navy used the MH and the Marines the CH. The side sponsons are very different between the two. I think the model pairing is still probable but less likely. Just make sure the CH-53E says Marines and not Navy on the side and you should be good.

A little more research, you can have a Navy CH-53E and a Los Angeles class sub but 688(I) and Navy 53E is less likely, if any of that matters to you and your project.

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Hi Nick,

Your anechoic tile solution is looking great! Worth the effort, I think.

As for modeling background movies, I find it hard to model when a good movie is on in the room because I’ll stop to watch it! Music is nice, though… I like Andrés Segovia guitar, Bach concertos, even traditional Japanese music - something instrumental so I’m not tempted to sing along! :face_with_peeking_eye:

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Thank you for the research! Only Marines decals are included, although I do agree it would be somewhat unlikely that there would be a Marine heli resupplying a sub.

I’ll keep my eye out for a chopper, I had considered grabbing one years ago, but this build is the most scratch-build intensive I’ve done so far so I hadn’t had the need up until now. It looks like it would open up a lot of options, especially on the diorama side of things.

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I’m usually the same way with movies and I often just listen to some music instead, but I’m in a little bit of a rut so I appreciate the suggestions! I’ll have to give them a try, although I have been known to break out into a little karaoke session at the bench before :joy:

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This is the one you need, and the one on the boxtop of the sub kit. The MH-60S is the common vert-rep helo for the USN.

Trumpeter

Bronco

Or L’Arsenel Models 3D printed version.

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This is the kind of chopper he was referring to.

Yes, the H-60’s would most likely be used for a vertrep. A USMC CH-53E has been used, it’s a rare event.

https://news.usni.org/2023/05/31/marines-prove-ch-53es-can-resupply-ballistic-missile-submarines

This was a different class sub. Doesn’t mean other missions might not have been conducted: medical, SEAL delivery etc.

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Whoops, read the wrong type of “chopper”.

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This is what I had in mind. It’s highly unlikely, but not out of the realm of possibility. For me it’s simply because I like the look of the CH-53E at the end of the day though - I blame transformers :joy:

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Your work is going to payoff handsomely, That is insane. Not even I would attampt that. The plus is that you don’r have to worry about the hull seam. :grinning:

The Chopper is a staple in my “workshop.” Lots of scratchbuilding would have been way more tedious without it. Just know for larger stock (what you’re doing won’t be affected) you’ll need to alter the Chopper a bit, as its design causes it to cut thicker stock at an angle. Unless of course they’ve fixed it by now,

You must not have had your coffee yet. You might not have missed this: :rofl:

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I get it. She is a hoss of a helicopter and a joy to ride in. Transformers has led many astray.

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I decided to sort the 8,000 something rectangles I cut before proceeding further and after about 20 hours of sorting (argh!) all the pieces are sorted into groups that are toleranced to +0.00/-0.01mm.

After about three hours or so, I’ve made it this far from the last photo. This is definitely going to be a labor of love, but it’ll be very personally worth it to finish something I’ve schemed up for years now.

Cheers!

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Nick – wow. Beautiful, maybe you were a master mosaicist in a past (Roman) life? Next project Space Shuttle - only around 24,000 tiles on that.

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Definitely a labor of love. I thought I had it bad building up some of the multipart track links I’ve built in the past but this just blows that out the water.

Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

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The nice comfy padded room is just this way for your enjoyment.

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You said that you want to depict the box-top scene - does this mean a dio in a water setting? If so, you would have to water-line the model, and running the tiles all around the lower hull would not be necessary, saving a lot of time and work (and aggravation!). :hugs:
:smiley: :canada:

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We’ll see how much ends up showing through the resin, but it’s mostly for the pre-resin photos - especially with the cool weathering that occurs that I really want to capture.

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After about another 5 hours or so (5:15:09 to be exact, and yes I’m keeping track), this is where I’m at. Thankfully with the exception of the new section, I’ve done both sides. I’d hazard another 20 hours or so and paint can go on.

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Incredible work adding those separate tiles

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