by Paul Helfrich
1/350 USS Philadelphia vs. Alfa (DML)
This is the DML 1/350 kit of a Los Angeles class sub (described as USS Dallas, to capitalize on the book and movie "The Hunt for Red October") and a Soviet Alfa.
As a long-time and long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles fan, there's no way I'm building anything named "Dallas." So I built the American sub as the USS Philadelphia, SSN 690, the third of the class, commissioned in 1977. She is the sixth ship in US Navy history to carry the name Philadelphia.
On the Alfa class, I copied the light above/dark below scheme from the box art. It probably should be the other way around - DML's painting guides usually specified a lighter gray below the waterline. However, I understand that red below the waterline or all black or gray may have been or now be accurate for certain submarines as well. There is a certain amount of guesswork with Russian subs, since photographs usually show them running on the surface with most of the sub hidden from view.
Anyway, these are great kits and a lot of fun to build.
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