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  #1  
Old 02-28-2017, 07:39 PM
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MarkB. MarkB. is offline
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Comrades:

And now for something completely different: In an absolutely epic example of impulse buying, I picked up an old model Skipjack submarine for .99 on eBay along with an old F-100. The F-100 was a basket case and ended up in the recycle bin. But the sub turned out to be an original Aurora model that was missing both rudders and both fairwater planes (the fins on the sail). The periscopes were long gone and the weird three- bladed propeller broke off in shipping. The sub itself was glued to the stand -- at an angle.

So I cut off the stand, reglued the hull, filled the seams, made new rudders and planes from sheet styrene and puttied and sanded the area where the hatch for the reactor was. I decided to putty rather than try and open it up as: 1) I was likely to make a mess and 2) that's not where the reactor was anyway. I was able to source an aftermarket resin 7-bladed J-prop. Everything white in the picture, I added. I'm going to give it an Ocean Grey and Black over anti-fouling Red scheme. On the off chance anybody has one of these packed away somewhere, I'd love a scan of the decal sheet.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's a submariner or two on this site. Also, noting our demographics, I'm equally sure that an overwhelming majority of site members remember this kit from the Sixties or early Seventies and I thought you might like to see an old Cold War friend.

A fun evening or two of repair and more fun learning about subs on the Internet looking for paint schemes . . . .
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  #2  
Old 02-28-2017, 08:15 PM
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I didn't serve on Skipjack class boats. I served on 637 (Sturgeon class) and 688 (Los Angeles class) attack boats but this looks like a pretty accurate scale model, proportionally. I don't think the Skipjack class boats ever had a 3-bladed screw (the cavitation would have been too great.) The real propeller would have had 7 blades with each blade shaped like a wide scimitar and pitched clockwise (looking from the rear.) The real propeller would have been approx. 15 feet in diameter.
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Old 02-28-2017, 08:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkB.
Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's a submariner or two on this site.
Back in the day, we had a service tech for our Apollo workstations who had been a submariner in the late 70's / early 80's. He enjoyed talking about it. I didn't really understand the submariner personality at the time - I simply thought they were nuts for going down in them

Anyway, a couple hundred books later, I've come to understand well how much of the cold war was fought by the silent service. Some of the stories I've read are unbelievable. These guys were spooks extraordinaire !!
...
Kudos on the refurb .

Doug

.
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  #4  
Old 03-01-2017, 08:07 PM
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In the early 1980's when I was serving aboard the USS Flying Fish (SSN 673) as Sonar Supervisor, we conducted simulated battle ops in the Atlantic. After we "killed" the carrier USS John F. Kennedy and half of her battle group, the the CO of the Kennedy radioed our captain with the most epic compliment we could've possibly received:

"You sneaky bast***s. I hate you."

Ah, those were the days!
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  #5  
Old 03-01-2017, 09:50 PM
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JJ,

I have always wanted to make a flying rocket model of a submarine. I'm surprised that you did not do it! A submarine is a rocket that fly's underwater, right!
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  #6  
Old 03-02-2017, 05:04 AM
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I don't know why I've never thought of it either! I even have all the parts: a PNC-80B for the front sonar dome, an Apogee PNC-80 for the engine and machinery #2 compartment, hmm. The beam of a 637 class boat was 30 feet.

The only detriment to the aerodynamics is the sail and the fairwater planes.
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  #7  
Old 03-10-2017, 11:44 PM
olDave olDave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Sams
..... for our Apollo workstations who had .......


Now THAT goes back a few years. We had those monsters all over the place (well, it seemed like it) one day, and then seemingly overnight they were replaced with other hardware. Oh, well.
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  #8  
Old 08-30-2017, 06:00 PM
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Well, just to close out the thread. . . .

I ended up with three subs: the original Aurora Skipjack, the later, modified Monogram mold of Skipjack and a Renwal George Washington Polaris boat. All three were eBay rescues and it was a pleasant change from rockets.

As noted, the Aurora Skipjack needed fairwater planes and rudders. It ended up with the grey, black and anti-fouling red scheme from the early-60's. I used the Renwal 5 blade propeller from the missile boat as that would have been correct for this time period.

The Monogram Skipjack is the same model but the molds were modified. Instead of the engraved waterline on the Aurora kit, it now has circumferential engravings. The reactor is still in the wrong place but I sealed that up anyway. I added a really cool, resin, 7-bladed propeller called a "J" prop which would be correct for a Skipjack in the black and anti-fouling red from the 70's.

Last was the Renwal George Washington. This was the kit Admiral Rickover accused of revealing sub secrets to the Russians at a Congressional hearing. It didn't, but Rickover knew how to work the press. The started but unfinished kit I got was a basket case with the inside looking like it had been painted with a Q-tip. It was missing a lot of pieces, most notably the missile deck and the little spring-loaded Polaris missile. I decided to seal it up, omitting the interior. I made the rudders all-moving and scratched a missile deck from sheet plastic. I also moved the sail forward until it was flush with the front of the missile deck fairing. I painted it overall black and gave it a 7-blade "J" prop also, period correct for a George Washington late in her career.

They look pretty cool up on my small, designated area of the bookshelf. It did make me (briefly) consider making a Polaris or Poseidon model rocket . . . .
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I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7
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  #9  
Old 08-30-2017, 08:58 PM
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Joe Wooten Joe Wooten is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Sams
Back in the day, we had a service tech for our Apollo workstations who had been a submariner in the late 70's / early 80's. He enjoyed talking about it. I didn't really understand the submariner personality at the time - I simply thought they were nuts for going down in them

Anyway, a couple hundred books later, I've come to understand well how much of the cold war was fought by the silent service. Some of the stories I've read are unbelievable. These guys were spooks extraordinaire !!
...
Kudos on the refurb .

Doug

.


Working at nuke plants, I hung with a LOT of former sub sailors and a couple of carrier nukes and one who was on the Long Beach. By far, the attack sub sailors had the best stories. Everyone who was not a sub guy (attack or boomer) thought they were embellishing their stories a little bit until we got a group lead who was a retired sub captain who told us those guys were not exaggerating, if anything they toned down their stories quite a bit to stay within their oaths not to talk about classified information. The I read the Hunt for Red October and then a couple more non-fiction books that came out in the 90's and realized those guys that retired sub captain was right.
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  #10  
Old 08-30-2017, 10:14 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Wooten
Working at nuke plants, I hung with a LOT of former sub sailors and a couple of carrier nukes and one who was on the Long Beach. By far, the attack sub sailors had the best stories. Everyone who was not a sub guy (attack or boomer) thought they were embellishing their stories a little bit until we got a group lead who was a retired sub captain who told us those guys were not exaggerating, if anything they toned down their stories quite a bit to stay within their oaths not to talk about classified information. The I read the Hunt for Red October and then a couple more non-fiction books that came out in the 90's and realized those guys that retired sub captain was right.



As a SONAR supervisor on attack subs in the 70's and 80's I was privy to material that will be classified for the rest of my life. IMO, the best account of what we attack sub sailors did during the cold war is described in the book "Blind Man's Bluff". It's so accurate that it's close to being treasonous.

As for "The Hunt for Red October": entertaining--but mostly crap.
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