40-Years on the Shelf of Neglect -- USS Nautilus SSN-571

[billn53]

A little history....

 

USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear-powered warship, was launched in Groton, Connecticut on January 21, 1954. I was barely 1-month old at the time.

 

 

 

Nautilus was the brainchild of Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover, the irascible and uncompromising director of Naval Reactors:

 

 
 

[Side note: Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy”, Rickover's total of 63 years of active duty service make him the longest-serving naval officer, as well as the longest-serving member of the U.S armed forces in history. For more on Admiral Rickover, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover ]

 

In naval exercises with surface forces, it soon became apparent that nuclear power would revolutionize undersea warfare. Nuclear-powered subs could sustain high underwater speeds (greater than 20 knots) and remain submerged indefinitely.

Underway on nuclear power:

 

 

On August 3, 1958, Nautilus again made history by becoming the first vessel to transit the North Pole

 

   

 

 

 

 

In February, 1975, as a college senior, I was interviewed by Admiral Rickover and accepted into the Navy's Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) program. After being commissioned an Ensign, I endured six-months of intensive classroom instruction at Navy Nuclear Power School (Mare Island, CA), followed by another six-months of "hands-on" training at the S1W prototype reactor, west of Idaho Falls:

 

 

 

 

 

On completion of my nuclear training, I attended submarine school in Groton, Connecticut and then joined USS Nautilus in the middle of her 1977 deployment to the Mediterranean.

 

Nautilus loading torpedoes alongside a sub tender in La Maddalena, Sardinia (Summer, 1977):

 

 

My first assignment on-board was as Sonar Officer, which was followed by assignments as Reactor Controls Officer and Electrical Officer.

 

Operating out of Naval Submarine Base New London, Nautilus participated in numerous training exercises over the next two years, playing "rabbit" for US and Allied naval forces.

 

Nautilus in Halifix harbor (ca. December, 1978), following wargames with the Canadian Navy

 

 

She also performed fundamental research into underwater sound transmission. Here she is with an acoustic transmitter array mounted aft of the sail, for the Navy's "Mobile Acoustic Communications Study (MACS)"

 

 

 

In 1979, the Navy decided to take Nautilus out of service, and we relocated to Mare Island Naval Shipyard via the Panama Canal for decommissioning.

 

Nautilus arrives at San Diego's Ballast Point en route to Mare Island (June, 1979):

 

 

I formally earned my "Gold Dolphins" as a qualified submariner during the transit from San Diego to Mare Island:

 

Over the next nine months, Nautilus spent most of her time in drydock at Mare Island Naval Shipyard for reactor defueling and modifications for her future as a museum ship:

 

 

It was during this period that I built my first model of Nautilus, using the old Aurora kit.

 

Nautilus was decommissioned on March 3, 1980:

   

 

ex-Nautilus is now designated a "historic ship", and can be toured at the Naval Submarine Base Museum in Groton, CT

 

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

And now, for the model!

 

As I mentioned in my initial post, in 1980, while Nautilus was in dry dock at Mare Island, I built a model of my boat using the old (not so old, then) Aurora kit. I still have that model -- this is how it looks today:

 

 

 

I did many modifications to the Aurora kit to make it as accurate as I could (details, below). I had the advantage not only of being intimately familiar with Nautilus, but I was also able to go into the dry dock to examine the hull below the waterline.

 

My Nautilus model stood proudly on my desk after I left the Navy, until (a few years later) my young son found a can of spray paint and proceeded to... well, can see for yourself:

 

 

 

These are some of the mods I did to the Aurora kit, back in 1980:

 

First, the kit stern is seriously ugly and incorrect:

 

 

This is how the stern is actually configured:

 

 

and, my representation:

 

 

Note in the drydock pic above, the screws have seven blades. When I was on-board, we had these five-bladed screws:

 

 

This is the kit's sail (fin, for the British-speakers). Ugghhh!

 

 

I replaced it with a new one carved from wood:

 

 

It is not commonly known, but Nautilus had two different sails during her career. This is the original one:

 

 

In 1969, while submerged at shallow depth, Nautilus had a little incident with the aircraft carrier USS Essex. This was the result:

 

 

The main difference between the new sail and the original is the profile along the top. There are other, minor differences as well, for example, the "windows" along the forward edge were not retained on the replacement sail.

 

Aurora's shape for the bow is mostly correct, but the kit’s bow planes had to be replaced and other details (e.g., anchor) added:

 

 

The oval-shaped spot on the top is for a French-built DUUG sonar intercept receiver, which I added to the kit but has been lost over the years:

 

I also added sponsions for the MACS acoustic array. These were permanently installed, even when the MACS was not mounted:

 

 

Also, as part of the MACS kit, we had a large sonar array on the keel:

 

 

In the above pic you can see how I inked-in the locations of the main ballast tank floods. These are only roughly correct, as I didn't bring a tape measure into the drydock with me (that would have been too blatant).

 

I added lots of detail to the upper deck (which was teak plank, by the way):

   

 

I used whatever transfers I could find for the boat's number and name. They are off, both in size and font, from what they should be:

 

   

 

 

(That young officer a few pics above is my former CO, CDR Richard Riddell)

 

So, what's my plan?

 

Originally, I had intended simply to clean-up, repair, and re-paint my 40-year old model. But, then I discovered another error in the Aurora kit. Namely, it is "box scale" and out-of-proportion. There is no scale listed on either the box or the instruction sheet. I have seen online that it is claimed to be 1/242 scale. I will prove to you this is not correct.

 

Specifically, Aurora's hull diameter is 1.625-inches. The full-scale hull diameter is 28-feet. This works out to roughly 1/207 scale. The big problem here is that the kit's hull is too short in proportion to its beam. The actual boat's length of 320-feet in 1/207 scale should be 18.6-inches. My 1980 build (with accurized, and slightly lengthened, stern) measures out at 16.5-inches. Thus, to achieve proper proportions, the kit's hull must be stretched by just over two inches.

 

As additional confirmation, I found these drawings on the internet (we didn't have that in 1980, by the way):

 

 

and enlarged them to match the kit's hull diameter:

 

 

Overlaying my 1980-built kit to the drawings reveals just far off it is:

 

 

So, what's next?

 

I intend to do a complete re-build. I'll take the same general approach as I did before (i.e., extensively modifying the Aurora kit), but this time correcting the length problem. To do this, I found two of the old Aurora kits on eBay and, for a princely sum, bought both of them. I'll sacrifice one hull to lengthen the other.

 

The first kit arrived today. It is the poster-child for "box scale", and even cruder than I remember:

 

 

 

 

So, that's the plan. I have my work cut out for me! I'd like to say that I remember exactly what I did in 1980, but it's been much too long! 

 

As an old Navy recruiting commercial said, "It's an Adventure".

[OutcastJoel]

I will follow this with interest, the real boat is such an inspiring piece of engineering!

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Talk about primary sources!  Definitely got my attention...

[billn53]

7 minutes ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Talk about primary sources!  Definitely got my attention...

This was my stateroom (much more tidy than it ever was). I had the middle "rack".

 

 

 

and, in case @Moa should find his way to this forum, this is for him:

 

 

[Martian]

When I saw the picture of what your son did to your model, for some, entirely unaccountable reason, this sprang immediately to mind:

 

 

Can't think why.

 

Martian 👽

[billn53]

5 minutes ago, Martian said:

When I saw the picture of what your son did to your model, for some, entirely unaccountable reason, this sprang immediately to mind:

 

 

Can't think why.

 

Martian 👽

It wasn’t just one model, either. I had an entire lineup. All got their share of paint. And the desk. And the wall behind it 

[Knb.1451]

How often did you hit your head on that lovely coffin rack? 

[billn53]

51 minutes ago, Knb.1451 said:

How often did you hit your head on that lovely coffin rack? 

Hah! Submariners are pretty intelligent... it doesn’t take many bumps to the head to learn how to avoid them. My rack was usually covered with technical manuals, I just shoved them to the side before climbing in. 
 

 

[billn53]

I was working another project the past couple of days, and didn't get back to my Nautilus build until this afternoon.

 

Something in the back of my mind had been nagging me since my last post, and I finally realized what it was. I had scaled everything to the Aurora kit's hull diameter. In particular, to the ship's beam. Based on that, I had (correctly) concluded that the kit's beam is too great for 1/242 scale, coming out more like 1/206 scale. But, that's not the only dimension to consider.

 

Comparing my earlier build to my 1/206 drawings, this is what I found.

 

Here's a side-on view of Nautilus's bow at 1/206 scale, and a comparison to the kit:

 

   

 

Not even close. From keel to casing top, the kit is considerably smaller than 1/206. In fact, it comes out closer to.... 1/242!

 

Re-scaling my drawings based on the keel-to-casing height, this is how the kit compares (any differences you see are mostly due to camera parallax):

 

 

 

The good news in all this is that I won't have to stretch the kit's hull after all, except for small amount at the stern. The bad news is that the athwartships dimension is off. According to my re-scaled drawing, not only is the beam too broad (by about 3/16 inch), but the upper deck is also too wide.  Should I ignore this, or should I try to fix it? I do have an idea for how to correct this, but it will be tricky to execute without screwing things up at the bow....

 

Stay tuned, this is going to get interesting.

 

One last thing... I don't recall exactly what I did way back in 1980 to modify the Aurora kit. I did a bit of dissection today to learn where I had added my replacement stern:

 

 

 

Turns out it is just aft of where the upper casing ends. That makes good sense, and I'll plan to do the same in this build.

 

 

[billn53]

Lots of good progress made since yesterday's post.

 

First, I lopped off that ugly kit stern:

 

 

 

I also strategically removed the bow. My reason for this will become apparent...

 

 

 

With the bow off, it's easy to see how the kit hull is "squashed", instead of circular:

 

 

 

The bump on the deck for the kit's sail must go away:

 

   

 

This is all I have to work with from the kit. It's a daunting challenge, but at least I know it can be done (because I did it 40-years ago):

 

 

 

Now that I know I won't need to stretch the hull, let's see if I can do something about the too-broad beam. My plan is to remove approximately 1/16 inch from either side of the hull, along the join. But I can't do that at the bow, because the bow would become too sharp. This is why I cut away the bow.

 

Here, I've used tape to mark the 1/16-inch to be removed from the hull (shown on the left). On the right is the corresponding bow piece. I'll remove a graduated piece from the bow, 1/16-inch wide at the join with the hull, and tapering to nothing at the bow:

 

 

 

A crosscut file and sanding block make quick, if dirty, work removing the desired amount of plastic from both halves of the hull and bow.

 

I then glued the slimmed-down hull together:

 

 

 

There is a problem with the rear deck (starboard side): the kit part is warped, creating a huge step along the centerline. I have some ideas what to do about this, but that's for later:

 

 

 

I added locating ribs at the front to help with alignment when I re-install the bow. They should also add strength to the join:

 

 

Before and after pics show how the hull cross-section is now closer to being circular:

 

   

 

The bow is glued back in place. It's a pretty good fit, considering the hull is 1/8-inch narrower than before:

 

 

 

View from above shows how well this worked out. There's a small step where the bow piece joins the hull, but nothing a little putty won't fix. BTW, I'm gonna need a bigger tube of Bondo 🦈

 

 

1/8-inch may not seem like much, but it makes the sub noticeably slimmer and better proportioned than before.

 

 

 

That's it for today! Let me know what you think.

[Knb.1451]

Fantastic work! As to my remark about the rack I certainly banged my head a time or two the first few times I went to a aircraft carrier. Dang 03 level under the landing area. 🙄 

[billn53]

The joint between the bow and the hull had some gaps to be filled.

 

 

 

I didn't want to use regular putty, as it has no significant strength to it and the last thing I want is for the bow to fall off! So instead, I used the old CA + baking soda trick. First, I applied masking tape to either side of the gap (see above pic). This helps constrain the thin CA glue and keep it from going everywhere. Next, I filled the gaps with baking soda:

 

 

 

I then applied extra thin CA to the soda-filled gaps. The baking soda acts as filler and causes the CA to set up almost immediately. It is important to do any required sanding as soon as the CA sets -- if you wait too long, it becomes rock hard and is very difficult to sand. I repeated the process until all of the gaps and joins had been treated. Here are the before and after pics:

 

   

 

Next, I tackled the droopy after deck:

 

 

 

I used a chisel to remove the kit "detail" and create a uniform surface:

 

 

 

I glued styrene strip to the starboard deck where it needed to be raised even with the port side:

 

 

 

After the glue had dried, I used a file and sanding block to even out the deck, followed by detail work with a scraper and straight edge to ensure the added decking was straight:

 

 

 

There's more work to be done, but this issue is well on its way to resolution.

 

Last item for this update concerns the hull shape at the stern:

 

 

 

The cross-section here should be circular. Unlike the situation with the hull, here the side-to-side measurement is good and the problem is in the vertical direction, which needs to be increased to be accurate. This kind of work is not for the timid, and I haven't yet committed to it. But, as the expression goes, "In for a penny, in for a pound".

 

Stay tuned!

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

I’m loving this; proper problem solving, which for me is arguably the most fun bit of our hobby

[Terry1954]

Just picked up on this one drawn in by your fantastic introduction and material

7 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

which for me is arguably the most fun bit of our hobby

As Crisp suggests, a build like this, proper problem solving and correcting things as they should be, is a hugely enjoyable part of the hobby. I either missed the part, or lost the plot entirely when you talked of scale....... So you are modifying an alleged 1/242 kit which in some dimensions is actually 1/206, to become an accurate 1/242 scale. Did I get that right?

 

I'm following this one with much interest and enthusiasm.

 

Terry

[billn53]

55 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

 So you are modifying an alleged 1/242 kit which in some dimensions is actually 1/206, to become an accurate 1/242 scale. Did I get that right?

 

 

That’s the idea! We’ll see how it turns out

[billn53]

I was out of town the past few days, hence the lack of progress reports. But, I'm back now and this evening I spent time on the mis-proportioned after hull. The photo below shows the problem:

 

 

 

The kit's keel rises too quickly aft of cross-section "F". At cross-section "I", where I had lopped off the stern, the difference is a full 3/16-inch. My approach was to cut away the lower hull aft of "F" and tilt it down to make the shape more accurate. I used masking tape to mark out my cut lines, then went to work with my razor saw.

 

I glued narrow wedges to the upper hull (upside down in the pic below), to add the needed 3/16-inch at the rear:

 

 

 

The lower hull portion broke along the centerline join when cutting it away, so I had to glue it back together. I added a reinforcing strip and a sprue spacer to mitigate against it breaking again:

 

 

 

Here, the lower hull has been reattached. Rubber bands hold it in place while the glue dries.

 

 

 

Before and after photos show how much I've deepened the after hull. The pics also reveal a significant bulge in the upper right quadrant of the hull (recall, that's where the kit part was warped and I had to re-do the after deck). I don't expect perfection, but I do want to do something about this bulge. Fortunately, the plastic there is thick enough to allow for some serious re-shaping.

 

   

 

My next task will be to break out the Bondo and try to get the hull more presentable, after all the abuse I've given it.

 

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Lots of good vacuum form modelling skills being applied to this injection moulded kit. I'm a little late but shall follow with interest now

[dafi]

Simply great!

XXXDAn

[billn53]

6 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Lots of good vacuum form modelling skills being applied to this injection moulded kit. I'm a little late but shall follow with interest now

Welcome aboard, Jamie, it’s good to see you here.

As to the kit... a good vacuform would be a lot less work.  

[billn53]

I took a file, sanding block, and scraper to the rear hull to shrink the bulge mentioned above:

 

 

 

I also spent time scraping the deck to get it straight and flat:

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a bit of plastic was removed in the process!

 

 

 

Lastly, I applied a generous layer of Bondo to the hull joins. Not the first layer that will be needed, to be sure!

 

 

 

You smell that? Do you smell that?

Bondo, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.

I love the smell of Bondo in the morning!

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

After a couple of Bondo sessions, everything was looking pretty good so I sprayed a coat of Mr Surfacer 1200, thinned with Mr Color Levelling Thinner, to get a better view of the situation:

 

 

 

There were only a couple of areas needing attention. For example, there was a rough spot running down the side where I had inserted the wedges to deepen the stern. A little more work with the sanding block sorted that out.

 

 

 

Happy with my re-shaping of the hull, my next task will be to re-do the casing and deck. I need to fill in the limber holes and fair in the edge of the styrene strip I added to the aft deck:

 

 

 

The shape and configuration of the limber holes underwent a number of changes early in Nautilus's life, but were eventually eliminated:

 

 

 

I'll add some styrene sheet to fill in the gaping hole where the kit's sail would have gone:

 

 

 

Likewise for the kit's bow plane attachment points. I'll also add a recess for the anchor:

 

   

 

 

 

[billn53]

I've begun work on the casing. I conveniently found a piece of styrene strip that would fit in the bow plane holes, and ran it in one side and out the other. After gluing it in place, I filed it even with the casing sides and applied a coat of Bondo. I also am using Bondo to finish leveling top of the casing.

 

 

 

I'm using sprue gloop instead of Bondo to fill the limber holes, thinking it will be less likely to shrink over time. I used Bondo when I built this kit 40-years ago, and you can now make out the limber holes where the Bondo has shrunk:

 

 

 

I'm hoping I can build up and detail the teak-planked deck off the model, then laminate it to the casing top when I am done. To simulate the planking, I will use N-scale train siding from Evergreen. The Evergreen spacing is very close to being in-scale with Nautilus's deck:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

My repair to the rear deck left a step along the outboard edge, which needed to be blended in with the rest of the casing. To accomplish this, I applied Apoxie Sculpt two-part epoxy putty along the edge. I'll give this a good 24-hours to set hard and then sand it to shape.

 

 

 

With further work on the casing delayed while the Apoxie Sculpt hardens, this seemed like a good time to build a replacement for the kit's ugly stern that I had lopped off earlier. When I first built this kit, I carved the stern and sail from balsa wood. Balsa is easy to carve but doesn't take detail well. This time around, I decided to try basswood instead. I printed out drawings of the stern and transferred these to my basswood block:

 

 

 

Much elbow grease later, I had the basic shape cut out:

 

 

 

Initial shaping consisted of rounding off the corners and creating a "plug" on the front end to fit into the hull opening:

 

 

 

 

 

I intentionally oversized the stern piece, intending to do final shaping once fitted to the hull:

 

 

 

Voila! Here she is, epoxied in place and sanded to near-final-shape.

 

 

A wee bit of wood was removed in the above process:

 

 

[billn53]

I've been continuing to work with the wooden stern insert and after deck. For the stern, I used Bondo to fill in the seam and blend the wood piece with the rest of the hull. I'm also using Bondo to seal and surface the basswood:

 

 

 

Once the Apoxie Sculpt on the after deck had fully hardened, I sanded it to shape and used Bondo for final finishing. I'm calling this job done:

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

I'm not done with the casing yet! I need to finish filling the limber holes, and then I must create a "ridge" where the casing meets the pressure hull. On Nautilus, the free-flood casing sat on a structure over the hull, leaving a gap that allowed water to flow out of the casing.

 

Nautilus's forward casing:

 

On the Aurora kit, however, the casing blends smoothly with the hull and there is no gap.

 

Aurora's forward casing:

 

 

The fix for this is really quite simple, and is the technique I used when I first built this kit in 1980.

 

My forward casing (1980 build):

 

 

If you're wondering how I'm going to do this, stay tuned and I'll show you!