1/350 USS Barb SSN-596 (Mikro Mir)

I built this model for a friend I served with on the USS Barb from 1979 to 1982.  In 2020, while driving through East Texas, we stopped at his pizza place and he fed us with pizza and fried chicken while we talked old times.  When we visit him again, this will be his surprise gift in return for sending us on the road with full stomachs.

SSN-596 was the second submarine to wear the name, the first being USS Barb SS-220, which was famously skippered by Eugene Fluckey in WW2.  SSN-596 was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Mississippi and commissioned on August 24, 1963. She was originally designated as a ship of the USS Thresher Class, which was renamed to the Permit Class following Thresher’s loss with all hands during sea trials in April 1963. SSN-596 was decommissioned on December 20, 1989 and later recycled (scrapped.)  The Department of the Navy recently announced that one of the future Virginia Class submarines will wear the name Barb.

I built the Mikro Mir kit out of the box to represent the ship as it appeared during the time my friend and I were aboard.  The only additions were the vertical fins on the stern planes, which are not included with the kit.  These were made using .040 inch styrene.  You may note the model lacks the portside towed array.  At the time we served aboard Barb, she hadn’t been fitted with that yet.  That was installed during the shipyard overhaul in the early 1980s.  Anyone looking to build a mid-80s Permit Class model from this kit would have to scratchbuild this as the kit doesn’t include the towed array.  The kit’s hull detailing is nice but requires care not to obliterate details when assembling the hull.  Joining the hull halves was kinda tricky because they don’t align very well. The waterline and the border of the non-skid area are engraved, which might upset rivet counters.  The kit has small locating holes on the top of the sail and locating pins on the ends of the masts, but I didn’t like that flimsy way of mounting the masts.  I drilled out the locating holes and on the larger masts, I carefully drilled the ends and inserted a piece of styrene rod to help while painting and make it easier to install the masts.  I opted not to install the topside cleats, which are part of the PE in the kit.  I painted the lower hull with a homemade mixture of anti-fouling red.  The upper hull was painted Tamiya Flat Black acrylic and the topside non-skid area was painted  Model Master Panzer Schwartzgrau acrylic.

Gallery updated 3/24/2021

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