October 2025
Astute Class Submarine
Royal Navy Submarine Service
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Astute Class Attack Submarine (SSN)
Royal Navy, Clyde Submarine Base, Faslane, 2025
3D printed 1/72
The Royal Navy's Astute Class submarines are widely acknowledged to be amongst the best (if not The Best) and quietest SSNs currently in service. Starting life as the Batch 2 Trafalgar Class, intended to replace the existing Swiftsure Class boats, and in due course, the original Trafalgar Class, the design evolved considerably from 1995 to the launch of the first boat HMS ASTUTE in 2007, with strong technical influence from the RN's Vanguard Class SSBNs.
Development was difficult, prolonged and costly, not least since the Astutes were some of the first ever submarines to be designed using purely CAD Software and this caused numerous challenges.
Seven hulls will be built at the BAESYSTEMS yard at Barrow in Furness, using an assembly method involving separate hull rings, initially placed horizontal, but now stacked vertically to enable more efficient construction, before being welded together.
Astute, Ambush, Artful, Audacious, Anson, Agamemnon and Achilles (originally Agincourt).
The first five of these are now in service, with the final 2 expected from 2026.
Powered by a Rolls Royce PWR2 reactor with a 25 year life between refuelling, the Astutes are reinforced to allow surfacing through arctic ice and can carry a "swimmer delivery" dry hanger on the upper deck to allow insertion of special forces on hostile coasts. Maximum speed is around 30 Knots, with worldwide range only limited by food supplies for the ship's company.
Armed with a mix of Spearfish anti ship/submarine torpedoes (approx. 30 mile range/80
Knots) and 1,000 mile range Tomahawk Cruise land attack missiles, key sensors include
the world leading Thales UK Sonar 2076 integrated passive/active sonar suite, using
bow, intercept, flank and towed sensor arrays. Rather than conventional hull-
The Astute Class are all based at the Faslane Clyde Submarine Base in Scotland.
This month’s build is a major departure from my normal modelling in every respect;
it’s huge (4ft 5in -
Link to Website Index:
Building an Astute Class in 1/72!
Sat in the depths of my “Loft Stash” there are 2 1/72 scale submarines, the Revell
Type XVIII U-
Cue my brother and a new 3D printer. Printed in PLA Resin, the model came in 9 major parts, plus some smaller details (rudders, hydroplanes etc). Additional detail (masts etc) was added using sprue, whilst the crew on the navigation bridge are generic resin figures.
Below -
This was a first attempt at 3D printing a large model, so there were a number of learning points. The first of these was determining what sort of glue to use. After considering a solvent (probably acetone), PU and epoxy, in the end I settled on CA Gel which proved reasonably successful, albeit not as easy to line up as I had hoped.
My second learning curve was trying to sand down the joints and general surface (which had noticeable printing ridges). Suffice to say that PLA resin is a lot harder than I thought and not easy to sand.
Below -
Finally, how to paint the kit. My brother suggested that PLA might be light sensitive, so a good coat of something robust was needed. Since I generally prefer enamels and hand brushing, this was the route I took. It worked well although the resin does seem to be quite porous, with the initial coats soaking in very quickly (most of the model had 4 coats on it).
Whilst I am calling the model finished for now, I would be keen to see it floating
and motorised sometime in the future, but the PLA is definitely porous and I am told
it may break down if it gets wet! We shalll see. There are a lot of additional
things I would like to do, for example adding the grilles to the hull valves/intakes/mud
boxes underneath the hull. I also fancy adding a swimmer delivery vehicle and hangar
to the after casing and although the current Astute class anechoic tiles seem to
be relatively robust and even coloured, I would also like to have a go at representing
the tiles, on the fin at the very least -
Tomahawk Land Attack Missile As well as its weapon load of anti ship/submarine
Spearfish torpedoes, the Astute Class are armed with the UGM-
Initially carrying the Block III missile, this has now been upgraded to Block IV and V (which look slightly different). With a range of nearly 1,000 miles, the TLAM is one of the UK’s primary attack weapons.
To go with the submarine kit (as a distraction whilst I waited for paint to dry)
I have scratch-
