An old Lindberg kit. Been at sea for a while with a bit of weathering below. Once again, my own concept...........
And that was probably the best early Nautilus kit. Still don't know where the got the idea of white hull numbers outlined in red from. The teak wood deck covered up the centerline hull seem nicely, but always had that awful gap around the sail.
Exactly, and also I didn’t use those ridiculously large number decals for the sail. I did that freehand with a white magic marker. Although it should have been forward more but those running lights on either side (also Lindberg’s idea) prevented that. After I glued the decking to the top deck and looked at photos, (a little too late) I removed the rocket and deck gun which was not on the original. As an afterthought I should have taped off the hull and sprayed it flat black below the water line. I have another kit in the box which came the other day and I intend to spray the entire boat flat black, (which it actually was at one time and I believe it still is as a museum sub) perhaps remove some of the masts and periscopes, radar or whatever they are and just paint the screws brass. I guess it always helps to look at photos sometimes before assembly of a model.
Yes, that’s where the name of the boat came from. There was a Nautilus in World War II, SS-168 but was stricken in 1945. This SSN-571 was of course the first atomic sub. And navigated under the North Pole ice during the Cold War. Read “The Ice Diaries” by Captain William R. Anderson. “N” for nuclear.
There were also 2 other USS Nautilus - one was a sloop of war commissioned in 1799 & captured by the British during the War of 1812. The other was also a sloop, but used for hydrographic mapping in the mid1800s, seeing little action against Mexico.
One of my favorite wars because it's so obscure and yet it had so many big players from the Civil War. At Appomattox Courthouse Grant reminded Lee that they had met "in Mexico". Lee confessed that he didn't remember the meeting.
I received this same model kit by Lindberg for Christmas, so I thought I would have another go at it, sprayed with flat black modeling paint to look more as she did at one time. And as she is now as a museum boat. I used the smaller number decal for the sail on each side. That ridiculously large one that came with the decal sheet was thrown away. I did not want to take a chance doing it “free hand” again. So, just none left to apply to the bow. So be it. I read in the book where the crew painted over all the numbers at one point in her voyage to the North Pole so she would not be recognized as to which submarine she was when on the surface. It was actually a secret mission during the Cold War.
Thank you. I have a small diecast model of the Seawolf SSN-21. And about a year ago I built another Lindberg kit, a fleet submarine about 15” long that was supposed to be the Gato, but I put it on a wooden base and I renamed it the Cero SS-225. I suppose because I had the patch from the Cero and I liked that design better than the Gato’s patch.
She was the first ship on either side lost in the war. Fun fact, the last ship lost in the war was also named Nautilus, a British East India Company brig taken by USS Peacock in the East Indies in June 1815, four months after the war was over. Other Nautiluses - Nautili?? Robert Fulton's submarine built in France in around 1803, the first submarine to sink a ship, although it just a trial, blowing up a target with a towed torpedo. An ex-US Navy sub - O class? - used for an abortive polar expedition. She had her conning tower removed with the intent that she could "skate" on the underside of the ice pack.
Only by accident...The small navigating bridge was carried away in the crossing, and the 24 hours in port did not allow for it's reconstruction.
