Large Scale Lafayette Class Submarine

Lafayette Class SSBN Submarine

We created the USS Sam Rayburn, a Lafayette class submarine for a client. This page is meant to show the construction process and finished model. The model was turned on a lathe first to basic shape, and then hand sculpted to final cross-sectional form. Master copies of the planes and rudders were created using plastics and pinned so that indexing in the final model is instantaneous. Once we were ready with the CAD files of the boat detail, we lasercut the details into the masters and prepared them for molding. Molds were created of the masters after all details were engraved, and copies made from the molds.

Bow view of Lafayette Class Submarine — A bow down view showing bow fairlead, transducer, non-skid and other details

Full view of Lafayette Class Submarine — Full view of the Starboard Side of the USS Sam Rayburn model.

Name of ship on hull — Port Side name also showing stern casing beginning to blend back into main hull. Also noted is the fine detail for the deck serpentine rail, non-skid deck and the towed array exiting the stern superstructure at extreme right.

Starboard side of Lafayette class submarine — Starboard side showing Bustle just ahead of the name. Also note the missile hatch covers, serpentine rail, and non-skid deck.

Starboard Sail on USS Sam Rayburn — Starboard side view of the Rayburn showing draft markings, masts, ‘buick holes’ and other details.

Starboard view of Lafayette Submarine — Stern view showing the 7-bladed prop, towed array exit and control surfaces.

Sail of USS Sam Rayburn — Sail image showing planned mast locations pre-drilled for molding. Note Radio Sextant antenna dome center sail.

Master parts for the Lafayette class submarine model — Master Rudders showing assembly pins

Constructing the tail of USS Sam Rayburn — Tail surfaces in place for alignment test

Bustle of Lafayette Class Submarine — Another shot looking forward at the bustle

Bustle and top deck of Lafayette class submarine — Image showing the Bustle and a bit of the laser engraving on the top deck.

Buick holes on Lafayette class submarine hull — “Buick Holes” or ECM countermeasure holes just forward of the Sail location. Depth is shallow to keep molding simple. As it turned out, these profiles were incorrect and we corrected them in the final version of the boat.

View looking aft on USS Sam Rayburn — Looking aft from the bow transducer on the master. Note the forward casing transition to the front of the boat. It is very very subtle as on the real boat.

Stern planes of Lafayette Class Submarine — Horizontal tail planes. Note that towed array has not yet been added to the starboard horizontal at this point.

Tapered tail cone of USS Sam Rayburn — Tail view showing pin mates, and turned prop hub. Prop has yet to be built in this view.

Top deck without insert, showing the milled well within which the deck will lie

Stern Casing and Top Deck — Stern Casing and top deck. Top Deck is currently an insert as it needs to have intricate laser engraving best served as an off-model piece to be integrated later.

Sail Planes onboard USS Sam Rayburn Model — Sail Planes of USS Sam Rayburn

Starboard tow away of USS Sam Rayburn — Stern view looking forward showing draft markings, stern fairlead, non-skid deck and towed array sweeping back toward the tail out of view

Bow Casing on Lafayette Class Submarine — Bow Casing View from Starboard

The Fxmodels research network is quite extensive. For this project, Research Associate Paul Gonsalves in conjunction with the staff of Fxmodels carried out exhaustive and detailed fact finding in order to obtain not just a rendering of a Lafayette class boat, but of THE Sam Rayburn. Right down to mast details, we had a very complete packet of material and plans once we were ready to proceed. Such is the case with all of our projects. You will see more of Paul’s research work on future projects.