Hi
I'm building the Revell 1/220 Lionfish for the Hollywood at Sea group build as the Pink Sub in the film Operation Petticoat & I have a couple of questions.
In most of the pictures that I've seen of subs there are 1 or 2 rows of different shaped holes along the hull which I presume are for taking on & removing the ballast water, my questions are
1 these holes do they have a door or cover on the inside.
2 does the configuration & amount vary from sub to sub as some of the reference pictures that I've found seem to show this even for the same class of sub.
Reason I ask is that I dont want to drill all these holes out on the kit hull if I dont need to.

Quick answers:

1: No - they allow freeflooding and escape of water from the upper casing

2: Yes - not two boats are entirely alike, that be Gato, Tang or Baleos - not only did they vary from the yard, but every time they returned from a warpatrol they got e good overhaul at the yard, including improvements from the yard, the navy and whatever the boats CO deemed relevant - so not 2 boats are entirely alike, but single boats allso changed after each patrol - it might only be subtle differences - but they are there...

So, imaging a boat like Barb going on 12 warpatrols - thats at least 12 different configurations + whatever happende after the war ... After each visit at the yard the changes were photografed and changes were identified on the pictures - these photos might be accessible somewhere ...

Anyway, the best you can do is pile as many referances on the boat in question and do your best - good luck !

Ah - the free flood question - let see there are about a ks billion correct answers- while researching my Gato I found some interesting facts - as the war progessed the skippers of the boats seeemed to add more and more limber hole LOTS they also started cutting awat more and more othe the sail (conning tower- for you land lubbers and sand crabs) Different yards did different things and different boats did different things - very few boats kept the screw guards as they feared that they would get them tangled up in nets or that the japanese could "hook" them with grapples.Basically with all classes of WW2 pig boats it's a matter of pick a specific boat and a specific date and go from your research- I have the bad luck of picking the Peto not a lot of reference for her and she is a manitowoc boat so it gets worse! BTW good luck on accurizing that kit ! I tried - it won and it became a generic Gato /Balao/Tambor thing



ps- yes I know that the red anti fouling is wrong this one was made a long time ago with no decent references!

Hi John
Thanks for the info. Yeh I figured that there was a lot of difference between boats as the pic's that I've been finding showed so many variations on the same class. Have started my build. I've sat through the film Operation Petticoat about 1/2 a dozen times now just to pick up points of interest for re modelling my build.
In the film there are no guns on the Conning Tower only a mounting , no rails on the front gun platform. My problem at the moment is I've got to try & build a 1/220 scale ladder to go from the rear gun platform to the deck. have managed to alter the Conning Tower so that it looks a bit more like the boat in the film.
thanks
Shaun