By Vladimir Yakubov
1/700 USS Annapolis SSN-760 (Scratchbuilt)
Saw an excellent photo of the USS Annapolis surfacing in the Arctic in March 2009 and was struck by the simplicity and the visual appeal of it.
Since I has a bottom part of the Los Angeles class submarine hull left over from a previous project and because it will not be visible under the ice anyway, a cut it down and used it. After that I covered it and the entire base in styrene sheet, cutting out the space for the sail and making the bear on the top of the hull jagged. Then it was time to make snow. To do it, I took baking soda, mixed it with the stuff called Snow-Cover (what it is exactly I don't know, picked it up at one of the Nats and haven't been able to find it online) to make the snow sparkle. Then the base was covered in the thick layer of white paint and while the paint was still wet I dumped all of my snow on it, rubbing it in to make sure it stuck. Once the snow was dry I made the sail by sandwiching plastic of various thicknesses and shaping it. All of the periscopes and other small part were then scratchbuilt.
This turned out to be the fastest model I've built in the last 10 years (only 4 days) and one of the most visually striking.
