Valuable Resource for American SS, SSN, SSBN photos FaceBook , 'Death from Below'

[Albacore 569]

Valuable Resource for American SS, SSN, SSBN photos FaceBook , 'Death from Below'

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[Das Boot]

Seawolf SSN 575 bottom photo. I wish someone would do an RC sub of that one. USS Sargo, SSN 583, sister to USS Skate. Another RC boat I’d love to see done. There was a guy in Australia that did one, (Garry Gray?), but I haven’t heard or seen him in a couple of decades now. I would also like to see an NR-1 done.

[Albacore 569]

Seawolf SSN 575 bottom photo. I wish someone would do an RC sub of that one. USS Sargo, SSN 583, sister to USS Skate. Another RC boat I’d love to see done. There was a guy in Australia that did one, (Garry Gray?), but I haven’t heard or seen him in a couple of decades now. I would also like to see an NR-1 done.

Read my mind. I have stl Files for a 1/48 Sargo. I hope to build after the two French subs. Hard ot find drawings of the Seawolf same as Halibut because later both became special projects subs., Which is BS, I am interested in only before their changes.

I been trying to get more photos of SSN 575, it is wrong to assume it was just a nautilus with a different sal and bow. the stern arrangement wa different too. The rest of her (I think is the same after that. Sea wolf had a WW2 fleat boat conning tower control room in her sail too. Nautilus's elegant stern and Seawolf's. Like two sisters on a double date, Easy to see which is the ugly one, but both are interesting and in their contrasting designs.


Nautilus in later years and below a freeze frame I took of on a you tube long ago of Seawolf's launching showing the shaft struts, Different stern entirely.. Both boats had sharing twin 5 blade props.

[CC Clarke]

Seawolf SSN 575 bottom photo. I wish someone would do an RC sub of that one. USS Sargo, SSN 583, sister to USS Skate. Another RC boat I’d love to see done. There was a guy in Australia that did one, (Garry Gray?), but I haven’t heard or seen him in a couple of decades now. I would also like to see an NR-1 done.

I served aboard Seawolf in the early 80's. For our crew's reunion last year in Vegas, I took a half-dozen 1/144 models in both the pre-and post-Special Projects versions I designed and 3D printed (resin) in a mad rush to meet the deadline.

Due to the huge crew turn-out, (200 crewmembers) we plan to have another reunion next year. I'll be building the WWII Seawolf (SS-197), and Cold War Seawolves (SSN's 575 and 21) to give to the reunion committee to raffle off and help fund the event. One of the 575's pressure hull sections, (I have another in front of my keyboard) went for $575 last year. When I was the Parche Ship's Superintendent (after they switched homeports from MINSY to Bangor) I obtained about twenty pieces of Seawolf as she was chopped up at PSNS, twenty miles to the South, and disbursed those for years afterwards.

I'm in the middle of several builds at the moment, so the next fourteen months are going to be busy. Here's a shot of the boats just before I loaded them in the car for the drive to Nevada. I spent most of the first day adding decals and twin screws in my hotel room, after four weeks of eighteen-hour days to wrap up the design, print, and build everything. I still have one mod to accomplish before sticking a fork in her. In 1/72 scale, she would be huge next to my first conversion 1/72 Parche as she looked parked around the corner from us in our sperate compound at MINSY.


Since I knew we would have a couple of the original Wolf's crew there, I made an OEM model for them. The guy on the right cried his eyes out when he took his back to the table.


Ready to pack in the car for the drive.

An OEM Wolf with 1/72 Parche

Since then, I found adequate references to finish a complete OEM set of masts and antennas for the next build.

[Albacore 569]

There you go Das Boot.

[Das Boot]

That is an absolutely beautiful story. I have never seen a picture of this before. Is there any way of getting a duplicate? I remember Revell supposedly had a model of the Seawolf, but all it was was a duplicate of the USS Nautilus. How would someone get a copy of this? I can understand that veteran crying, because it’s an absolutely beautiful copy of the Seawolf.

[CC Clarke]

This is a better shot of the last (pre-projects) hull I shipped in February. The sail received a substantial makeover with clear bridge windows. I've since made a quarter "bubble" windshield that rotated flush to the bridge. A separate bridge with decking was another mod that made assembly much easier as the interior of the sail is white and the decking black. Separating the sail into two parts (sail and bridge deck/step for the lookout positions allowed both to be painted separately, before installation.

The old version also received its own masts and antenna suite (2X of everything since they'll likely be the first thing that gets broken when sticky fingers start touching everything, unless the owner opts
for an acrylic dust cover. I placed them in a little bag taped to the inside of the wood shipping crate which had four-inch foam on all six sides, and was placed in a larger carboard box with more foam for centering, then Styrofoam peanuts added for additional vibration isolation. I may use sorbothane for the crate interior next time. We used to ship multi-million dollar, delicate assemblies using it for maximum vibration dampening and it's good stuff.



Nautilus is similar, but different. The stern and bow are totally different, with the enlarged sonar window for the BQR-4 (a near copy of the German GHG design.) Nautilus had her BQR-4 in a different position and we had a true "chin mount" for the BQR-2 cylindrical array. We had an SQS-51 surface active sonar fairing topside with the transducers flipped vertically. Nautilus had hers mounted below the waterline.

Our sail was massive. I never saw one larger until the Ohio class came online.

In 1/144 scale, the boat (Projects version) is close to three feet. In 1/72, it would be ideal for RC, and display the topside deck details much more visibly. (And there is a lot of eye-candy detail-wise.) For RC applications, the interior would need a couple of major (though simple) design changes.

I need to make one more minor tweak to the bow, then put a fork in the design, locking it down. That needs to happen before I build any more.

Until I do, I have an aggressive design and build schedule for the foreseeable future with multiple classes of hulls to get done before I decide whether to monetize this hobby or just do custom builds for submariners at (materials) cost.

Wooden-hulled submarines made in the Philippines and painted in the US are available from some of the established model making companies. Advertised as "museum quality" they are anything but. One company charges $1200 for a 12" Seawolf model. In larger scales, the price triples, but they seem to stay about $100 an inch. One company charges about $425 which is where I steer people asking for a hull.

I prioritize design over production at the moment and cannot build even a small fraction of the requests I receive anytime I post photos online which is encouraging and very humbling. I truly appreciate your interest. Like many of you, time is the one thing I will never have enough of.