10th Anniversary Special

Lest you get your hopes up on the Nautilus progress, I'm also working on another project for R/C which I have had on the shelf for a long time: a 1/96 USS Helena (SSN-725). This would be the boat in which I was fortunate enough to make a DVE - Distinguished Visitor Embark - back in March 2001.

I've had an old ThorDesign Flight II LA hull in the corner for several years. I also bought a Flight II sail from Matt many moons ago when I contemplated converting my Flight III boat to Helena. However, I sold that boat last year.

So far the hull is cut and mated together. The seam fits really well. Unfortunately, I don't have any stern appendages at this time. So I've turned to working on the sail. The image is of some light work on the forward vertical array. It was originally scribed as several parallel panels up the leading edge. However, on Helena it was one larger array. So I puttied them together and rescribed the perimeter, along with a shot of primer. Starting to look better.

Compare the above to this shot of the actual boat taken in 2001.

The boat and her men are still at it after all these years, fighting the good fight. The day I spent aboard her was one of the most memorable of my life.