Brian da Basher's Sinky Thing for the Floaty GB

[Brian da Basher]

By 1942, the U.S. Navy had become desperate to achieve the upper hand in submarine warfare. To this end, they enlisted commissioned Nikola Tesla to come up with a new technological marvel that would save the day. I bet you never knew Tesla was a Navy man.



Tesla developed his famous coil to propel torpedoes at incredible velocity. Tests of his prototype Tesla coil torpedo launcher seemed promising so the good folks at the Puget Sound shipyard got to work building a submarine to field this new weapon system.





Ground-breaking technologies often take time to get all the bugs out and it wasn't until the war was over the SS-471 U.S.S. Eel was finally ready for service.



Perhaps the most notable feature were the large bulges which housed the Tesla coil torpedo launching system. Close proximity to the sea was necessary due to the weapon's voracious cooling needs. Smaller bulges housed the Tesla coil amplifier-repeaters for the aft torpedo tubes.





But the U.S.S. Eel's fire-power didn't stop there. She was the lead boat of the proposed Heavy Dreadnought Submarine class and was further armed with two six inch rapid fire deck guns. There was also anti-aircraft capability in the form of twin .43 mm Oleocon auto-cannon mounted just behind the sail.



With little fan-fare but high hopes, the SS-471 was launched in the spring of 1946. While this wasn't reported in the media of the day, the launch didn't go by completely unnoticed as this long-lost grainy government film shows.



However, the Tesla coil torpedo system had been built by shoddy sub-contractors on the cheap and was so unreliable the U.S.S. Eel's crew referred to them as "Guess-la" torpedoes as it was anyone's guess if they'd work or not.



As if this wasn't enough, it was soon discovered that exposure to Tesla coils caused temporary insanity so the U.S.S. Eel was hastily decommissioned and scrapped in 1948. While the Tesla coil torpedo turned out to be a technological dead-end, the six inch rapid fire deck guns would be the fore-runner of the armament aboard the famous Harley-Twerk class light destroyers decades later.



To this day there are naval experts who insist the U.S.S. Eel never existed and must be a figment of the imagination. While the Official List of U.S. Navy Submarines seems to back this up, if you ask me, it seems more like a cover-up.



I wonder what else they don't want us to know about...



Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

This all began with a 1/48 AMT Henschel 129:



As luck would have it, all I had left after robbing this kit for parts was the fuselage. What to do? Those deep gun troughs reminded me of something. Flip it upside down and it looks a bit like a submarine.



Of course, that huge hole of a cockpit would need covered.



A couple of 1/72 T-33 drop-tank halves were used to conceal the wing root and became an important part of the Tesla coil torpedo launching system.





Additional smaller drop-tanks were used for the aft amplifier-repeaters and also covered up where the horizontal stabs are supposed to attach. A well placed cut of the tail created a passable rudder and the landing gear parts did duty as the prop shafts.





I added two left-over dive planes up front and stuck a nameless conning tower on top of another drop-tank half. The guns were scratched from small bits.



I had a lot of fun with the props which were photo-etch parts stuck on 1/72 scale rockets. I ended up losing 2 of 6 prop blades and had to make do with replacements.



The carpet-monster gave back one of the lost photo-etch blades after I took these pictures. Here's another shot of those props, this time after painting.



Speaking of paint, the model was finished with the old hairy stick in acrylics, Model Masters Light Sea Gray on top and Cockpit Interior Black on the bottom.



The various greeblies on top of the conning tower were all spare bits too. The U.S. flag is a tiny decal. Here's a close-up.



The 471 was rescued from the decal dungeon and probably belongs on an OV-10 Bronco.



It took me five days to build this model and dig up the archival reference photos.



I'd like to thank Artoor_K for leading this group build and everyone who's playing along.



I hope you enjoyed the covered-up story of the U.S.S. Eel and reading a little forgotten naval history even if it's all wet.



Brian da Basher

[AXOR]

Sir,you did a great job there!
Hs-129 you say?Good call,fits perfectly the subject! :)

[The Big Gimper]

From Tank Hunter to Ship Hunter! You are the master of slight of styrene Brian.

[GTX_Admin]

Wow! :)

[kitnut617]

 

When I viewed your first post Brian before you posted the next one, I had absolutely no idea you used an aircraft fuselage,

I'm gob-smacked        it's brilliant

[Jeffry Fontaine]

No submarine is safe when Brian is at his work bench :)

Great looking submarine and as usual, an excellent back story/history to accompany it!

[deathjester]

Brilliant work mate, truly inspired and I never would have guessed it started out as a plane!

But a 'sinky thing', in a 'floaty thing' GB??

...Only you mate, only you!!

[Claymore]

Awesome build mate and truly inspired use of parts - aircraft to submarine - get out of here! As always, your backstory had me in stitches. Bravo good Sir.  :)

[jcf]

 :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

[Tophe]

Seeing the first picture, I told myself "alas, this is a submarine, no relation at all to an airplane... let the marine lovers appreciate, but I prefer aircraft, no need to say it..."
How wrong was I! This was a derivative (incredible! nice!) of actual Hs-129 aircraft! Thanks for the detailed explanation!
And congratulations for the result, so perfect to make me completely wrong.

[ysi_maniac]

From Tank Hunter to Ship Hunter! You are the master of slight of styrene Brian.

Agreed! just brilliant!  :)

[finsrin]

Such a visionary.  BdB sees multi dimensions in multi directions, even upsidedown all at same time.
From Hs-129 to submarine envisioned and executed. :)

[ericr]

the upside down fuselage is a real fantastic idea !
and it works convincingly !