Posted by Matty on August 15, 2013, 10:16:39 Edited by board administrator August 24, 2013, 18:02:18
--Originally Posted 8/15/13--
This will be the thread for all things pertaining to this, classic Cold War kit:
First seen on hobby shop racks (at least, by me) as Abraham Lincoln, at top, and IIRC as other early boomers (Patrick Henry, perhaps?), this model - or, more specifically its box art - were among several key early inspirations leading me to take up SCUBA diving and indeed, even to pursue a career in Oceanography. And, of course, to Dig submarines - Big-Time.
The original release had a detachable, completely plated-over starboard hull-half - later to be re-tooled with cutout windows, shown at bottom, and released simply as Polaris Nuclear Submarine. Judging from a decade generally observing eBay, it would appear Revell released just a ton of the original - and even more of the second version, which - other than the above cutouts - retained all and exactly the same features as the original, 1:250-ish scale mold.
Which, for the modeller, is exactly the Issue - as may already be apparent, just comparing the above artwork to the actual mold (admittedly distorted by the fold in the instructions). But, up close, in reality it's even worse:
Click on Image to Enlarge
The bow, looking from the side already more sausage-like than the Real Thing, also does not even have a circular cross-section. Instead, it's pinched from the sides into a vertical oval - most noticeable at the nose cone (left), but continuing back to (at least) the sail (right). Although it becomes perhaps a bit more circular after the missile compartment, here it begins to taper incorrectly, into a noticeably too-fine tail. Of the two problems, the one forward is by far the worse - further degraded by significant inaccuracy at the base of the sail, in the round-down of the turtle-back missile deck there.
Thus, the mold is sorely in need of substantial modification - even if only to fix the problems forward - before it can approach any decent portrayal of The Real McCoy. I have long had several ideas for such modifications/improvements to this model - and have by now run across other modellers who have been thinking along similar lines, though their solution(s) might take a somewhat different tack.
All of the above - including your own ideas/contributions - will appear as "Replies", below. I hope One and All will enjoy/get something out of these.
Cheers,
-Matty
A Bigger BUTT Is What You Need
Posted by Matty on August 25, 2013, 21:59:28, in reply to "Resuscitating a GEORGE WASHINGTON" Edited by board administrator August 26, 2013, 9:50:51
--Originally Posted 8/25/13--
We now consider the feasibility and benefit(s) reasonably to be expected of replacing this kit's entire tail - from the aft end of the missile compartment, clear back to the prop - with the after half of the Revell SkipJack:
How's that look - any better than the original Polaris Cutaway model?
If (as surely) you thought so, the explanation is nowhere better demonstrated than in the following comparisons:
Click on Image to Enlarge
Documented (top) only after the work described below, the kit tail was laid out, aligned with- and alongside that substituted from the SkipJack. Note the aft taper of these two molds simply does not match - to a very noticeable degree. Without question, the far more accurate - for either a George Washington, or the SkipJack on which it was based - is the fatter, more cigar-shaped tail of the (originally Aurora) SkipJack mold.
Just as in the forward hull-correction earlier, there is clearly an optimal point from which the tail of the Polaris Cutaway mold should be replaced: on the starboard side, immediately following the third-from-last vertical "cutaway window" frame - corresponding, on the port (and on the original, clamshell-hulled starboard) side, to a location 0.21" forward of the vertical (girdling) weld line immediately following the aft-most missile hatch.
On the SkipJack mold the corresponding cut would, of course, be most rightly determined by laying the build out against an accurate, (1/230-) scale drawing (which, remember, will differ in length for an Ethan Allen-, Lafayette- or Ben Franklin-class variant). However, for this quick tryout I again simply aligned the ends - actually, the aft stabilizers - of both molds (bottom), to certainly get within the ballpark (which again is going to be very close to perfect): as it turned out, on the SkipJack mold, exactly at the second-aft vertical (girdling) weld-line, following the sail.
OK, so the SkipJack butt is certainly what we want - but how well/easily does it install:
Click on Image to Enlarge
The first - and completely unexpected - thing that immediately jumped out, particularly when sighting down the hull (left), is the Polaris Cutaway hull is already narrowing - even before clearing the missile compartment - to substantially less beam than the SkipJack's - and thus narrower by the same amount from the start of the compartment, where the two matched perfectly. At the same time - with the keels butted flush - the Polaris hull remains still too tall for the SkipJack hull (center and right), as it would appear the vertical exaggeration has, if anything, increased. Remarkably, this pinching of the missile compartment aft remains visually undetectable, even when viewed from astern, as at right.
Of course, substituting from a narrower part of the SkipJack's hull, further aft, could alleviate the horizontal mismatch - but this would only exacerbate the vertical mismatch, and moreover would lead to an inaccurate LOA - also very probably with noticeably-undersized tail, which would begin to really defeat the entire purpose of the substitution, in the first place. On the other hand, the ideal solution (already proposed by my friend Rich), would at this point be to cut out from under the turtleback the entire missile section, and replace it with straight tubing - if you can come up with (including scratchbuilding) one - exactly matching the SkipJack's (maximum) beam. Cutting out the missile section would be easy to do. Obtaining the replacement tube - not so much.
Therefore I took a look at yet a third possibility - a compromise, as usual, but a good one, in several respects:
Click on Image to Enlarge
Expand the incorrect Polaris hull's beam (left) - beginning by scribing/cutting most of it loose from the turtleback, under the aftmost 6 (of 8) missile hatches, on each side. A solid wedge (white plastic) can then expand the hull (bottom, at left) - then to be plated-in with an expanded keel (not shown) - such that the beam now matches the SkipJack insert (right). Note the vertical mismatch still remains - now, if anything, increased - however, with the hull now mostly free from the turtle-back, should now be easily correctable.
In fact, if the keel and just lower half of the hull are secured first, then - after these are fully-cured - the entire turtle-back could be completely removed, to facilitate mating of the upper hull "flaps" and any (minor) plating-in required to fill gaps - both here and also forward, where likewise required - as well as cleanup/reconstruction of the limber-line, and correction of the forward end of the turtleback, under the sail.
The resultant, overall hull form will be a quantum improvement:
Undoubtedly far closer to a real Polaris - or, again, to an Ethan Allen, Lafayette and/or Franklin - than the original, Polaris Cutaway mold.
Bet you never thought you'd appreciate how much better a Fatter Butt could look, huh?
Cheers,
-Matty
RIGHT on The NOSE: enter the Aurora-Revell SKIPJACK
Posted by Matty on August 24, 2013, 15:54:15, in reply to "Resuscitating a GEORGE WASHINGTON" Edited by board administrator August 24, 2013, 18:25:17
--Originally Posted 8/24/13--
Any serious thought of how best to correct the bow of the Revell cutaway George Washington, will inevitably lead to the following kit - a contemporary, and (even more renowned) classic, in its own right:
Originating with legendary Aurora (top), this model - and again, this specific box art, above - was one of- if not the single biggest inspiration for my own interest, circa age 8, in modeling and submarines in general. And clearly I was not alone, as the mold - later retooled by Revell (bottom), to include (pretty tasteful) weld-lines, and other surface details - has been in almost continuous production, in the nearly 60 years since!
And likewise, many of us - including my new friend, Rich (hey, Buddy!) have had the idea to convert this kit into a George Washington (or similar Polaris/Poseidon) class SSBN, pretty much exactly as was done on the Real Deal: insert a missile section, and beefed-up sail, amidships. Now, along comes our consideration of the Revell cutaway Polaris mold - in 1:250 scale, only (exactly) 8% smaller than the above SkipJack's 1:230 - with the former needing a better bow and stern: as perfect a match between two project ideas as imaginable!
For this, the Auro-Revell SkipJack is also uniquely optimal as it is - by far- the most accurate of the original, classic nuclear sub molds, with only minor- or easily-corrected flaws, mainly in a slightly too-blunt tip of its nose, a foredeck lacking the slight flattening on top ahead of the sail, and an (unquestionably national-security-obfuscated, highly-) inaccurate 3-bladed propeller.
OK, so to give this idea a try, let's put Rubber to Road:
Click on Image to Enlarge
At, again, only 8% difference, we can certainly get at least well in the ballpark of where to cut the SkipJack hull, to optimally fit the George Washingtion mold, by simply aligning the ends of their bows, as shown (top). When we do, we find that the maximum beam of the SkipJack coincides pretty much exactly with the second "window-frame" on the cutaway boomer, as shown by the arrows (magenta). The idea being to leave this frame intact, as an optimal, starboard-side attachment for the SkipJack bow section.
As shown by the closeup at bottom, the corresponding point at which to chop the SkipJack hull falls right in the middle of a "divitt" - appearing on the port-side only - in Revell's (very basic) depiction of the safety-line track, as also indicated by arrows. Note the horizontal (girdling) weld-lines on either side: to precisely locate this spot - on either side - measure exactly 0.66" forward from the aft weld-line, which is the second one aft from the sail.
If you do exactly the above, you will get exactly the following:
Click on Image to Enlarge
A perfect match at the beams, port (top) and starboard (bottom) - proving, first (and most surprisingly) of all, that the Polaris hull is not pinched, so much as exaggerated vertically. Which mismatch can - with the keels aligned flush, as done here - all be forced to the top, where, with the limber-line sufficiently cut open as shown, the offending upper corners of the missile section can be forced inward, to butt flush with the SkipJack hull. The resulting visual impact might well be already negligible - however, (yet more incredibly-conveniently) any undesired remaining artifact(s) will be well-hidden - substantially, if not entirely - underneath the required turtleback modification (not shown), dropping the missile deck casing further down over precisely this area of the hull.
This is most definitely going to work!
For the above I did not cut up my pristene SkipJack hull, but instead used a perfectly-suited spare that I already had available:
Click on Image to Enlarge
At left, I had already cut up a spare hull (not at the right location - do not go off of this pic, in any way) - sufficient to at least suggest, at right, just how successful this union will be. That's the Good News. The Bad News (if you want to call it that) is, the corrected bow only accentuates the inaccuracy aft - the too-finely tapered, skinny butt - of the tail.
However, if you already have a spare tail - one much more accurately-shaped - from a SkipJack you've just chopped in half, then of course you're going to want to use it to make a correction astern, as well, right? Certainly, that's exactly what I will do - and let you take a good look at - in the next post.
