# Finished Renwal 1/200 Cutaway Submarine



## Phillip1

Fellow Modelers,

This is Renwal’s 1/200 scale SSBN 608 Ethan Allen U.S. Navy submarine. I built this model in 1995. It was always a dream of mine to build one of these kits up into a nice display. The fit on many of the kit parts is not very good and several of them are way out of scale. However, this is a really cool kit and I have always been fond of it. Several of the modifications I made are listed below:

>Plastic “piping” replaced with small diameter-
>Scratch built chairs and tables
>Added photo-etched ladders/radar screen-
>Missile made from “Stuka” airplane bomb- 
>Most of the decals came from a Revell 1/260 Polaris cutaway submarine kit-

One of the things I am proudest of is the fact you see very few of these kits built up. Enjoy the photos!










Phillip1


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## Phillip1

More 1/200 Renwal/Revell Cutaway Submarine Photos...


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## spock62

Very nicely done! Reminds me of museum displays I've seen when I was a kid.


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## John P

Well done!
I actually have some parts of my original Renwall kit from the 60s, still in my spares box.


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## irishtrek

Very nicely done!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:
Also this kit was just reissued be Revell under the Renwal logo with the name of George Washington.


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## djnick66

Yours looks great. I used it as a loose reference for my George Washington (not the same kit actually, but different here and there). By chance I have the Military Modeler article you did. I liked your idea for the cut away deck section... I found the kit to build up well. I did mine in about 10 days time.


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## Phillip1

djnicks66, irishtrek, John P, Spock62-Thanks for the compliments.

djnicks66-Your model looks really nice. Can you post more photos of it? The best decision I made on my build was cutting out a section from the upper deck, since it completely covers the deck below it. I am glad you enjoyed your experience with the kit. 

Phillip1


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## djnick66

Here ya go.

I went for a rather traditional finish and wanted to capture the box art look too. I have a couple of the kits and figured I would knock one out quickly OOTB for fun.

Using photos from the Nautilus Museum and the USS Casimir Pulaski web site, I came up with a color scheme that looked visually appealing and also realistic. These ships were a mix of "hospital green", bad wood paneling, linoleum, and steel/aluminum inside. 

I still need to edge the cut away portion of the deck. I used tape for the red sections. 



I also used the kit provided crew figures. They are not great but they are part of the kit and do impart a sense of scale.



My sub is not the same kit as the one above. The missile tubes are different and have a different door arrangement A few details like the gyro room are different too.



The engine room reminds me of a high school machine shop with various pieces of machinery sitting around



I airbrushed the interior bulkheads and floors with a mix of Testors Model Master White, a green mixed from the white, Testors Flat Brown, and Aluminum. The cream in the missile room was mixed from Tamiya Flesh and White. The missile tubes, and hull were sprayed with Tamiya lacquer spray paints. The rest of the details were hand painted with various old school Testors enamels and some Vallejo acrylics. The whole model was airbrushed with Testors Clear Flat Lacquer.


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## irishtrek

This morning I realized your builds are missing something, curtains for the bunks!! Think about it, after your duty shift would you like to go bunk out and not be able to sleep because of the lights in the crews quarters??


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## djnick66

Well yeah. I purposely did not add any extra pieces to my kit. It is 100% out of the box. I did avoid putting sleeping crew in the areas where there was activity though, like the torpedo room.


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## Modlerbob

Very nicely done. I had both this kit and the original Revell kit. The Revell kit was so accurate that from what I heard Admiral Rickover wanted a congressional investigation into how they got it so right. The original Revell kit was never re released and is very hard to find.


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## djnick66

The original Revell kit is, in some ways, less accurate than the Renwal kit. And the Revell kit has been reissued many times over the years. It was last out about 6 years ago as part of the 50th anniversary of Revell line. It's not overly rare. I have a second or third issue of it in the Picture Fleet (?) series.


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## dklange

Really excellent work on BOTH subs!!:thumbsup:

I've never seen either of these finished and they are beautiful examples!!

Very cool!!

- Denis


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## Phillip1

kdlange-Thanks for the compliment.

djnick66-Thanks for posting the additional photos. Your model looks good. I cannot believe you built in in only 10 days! I believe I spent over six months on mine.

Phillip1


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## djnick66

Thank you ! Your kit was so good i kept the magazine around just waiting for the chance to build one of these up.

Yeah I work quickly. I spent a couple days cleaning up every single part. I put each section of the ship in a little zip lock bag. I test fit the bulkheads and floors and once I was sure that stuff fit, it was just a lot of painting. Fortunately it went quickly and smoothly.


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## brad4321

Very cool. Saw this in the store and debated on getting it, but couldn't find many photos of it built up online. Thanks for building it and posting photos!


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## Jafo

nice job on both of those!


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## walsing

Really liked what I saw here and had to give it a try. So here's another one.


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## djnick66

Cool. Thanks for sharing that. It really is a neat kit, isn't it?


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## walsing

Lots of fun to build. Heck, with a flashlight you can see the meat hanging in the cooler on the mess deck.


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## djnick66

Yeh there are little hams you glue to a rack on a wall in the meat locker. The stoves have cookwear stacked up behind the flat top. Much of it is more or less invisible but hey, you know its there.


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## Phillip1

walsing,

Your build looks nice. Congratulations on finishing it. It seems that tens of thousands of these kits have been sold over the decades, but you see very few that were completed. Do you have any more photos to share?

Phillip1


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## djnick66

No kidding. Phillip's magazine article model was the only one I ever saw. Even online there aren't a lot of these built up. Its cool to see three right here. Maybe someone else will build one. They all look great.


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## walsing

Phillip1 said:


> walsing,
> 
> Your build looks nice. Congratulations on finishing it. It seems that tens of thousands of these kits have been sold over the decades, but you see very few that were completed. Do you have any more photos to share?
> 
> Phillip1


I took the pic with my phone. Tried to get closeups but they came out very blurry.


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## pob63

Very impressive! I thought I was looking at a museum display when I first your model on Google images. Your choice of colors combined with the red edging really gives it that old school science museum look. Well done!


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## geekchris

I'm currently working on my Ethan Allen, it's a rather fun build thus far. I believe I got mine for a steal too, only $6 from a local thrift shop (obviously they didn't know what they had)

I'm also wondering if any of you have suggestions on painting the hull?
-Chris

(Sorry for reviving an old thread)


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## btbrush

Beautiful display. I've seen some guys include figures to show off the scale. I think 1/144 would not be out of line.


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## djnick66

The Renwal kit includes figures


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## AllenInks

geekchris said:


> I'm currently working on my Ethan Allen, it's a rather fun build thus far. I believe I got mine for a steal too, only $6 from a local thrift shop (obviously they didn't know what they had)


Chris, 

I'm jealous. Although I should not be. I built one when I was a kid, but it got lost in one of our moves. Sigh! Little did I know that 15 years later, I would be serving on the Ethan Allen. And now... 40 years later, looking for a model of the sub I served on.

Of course, I also see the inaccuracies of the models. I know that the manufacturers didn't have access to the secret plans, and did some guessing. And... things were changed over the years. for one thing, when I came aboard in 1975, the big stabilizing gyroscope in the lower level, forward of the reactor compartment, and aft of the missile tubes, had been removed, because it was found to be unneeded.

And... actually, was located in it's own compartment AMR1, and not part of the missile compartment as depicted in the Renwal model/ Auxillary machinery Room 1 had, on the lowest level, a lathe and a storekeeper's room. The next level up had the O2 generators, the C0-H2 burners, and the CO2 scrubbers. The upper level had the only door into the missile compartment from AMR1 into the missile compartment, and the only door into the Reactor Compartment tunnel (shielded passageway through the reactor compartment). Also on the upper level AMR 1 was a hatch to topside. The equipment in the room included a couple of motor generators used for generating 400 hz power for instrumentation... navigation and missile use.

Forward of the control room on the upper level was NOT berthing and officers wardroom... instead it was: Port side: first the ladder /stairs) from the middle level came up, and turned right into the passageway forward of the control room. then forward of that was the Radio Room. On the starboard side was Sonar Room and forward of the sonar and radio rooms was a space where the sonar techs could access the electrical connections to all the hull mounted hydrophones that the listened to. It was odd because the pressure hull was sloping inwardly quite noticeably in this space.. especially the overhead.

Instead, aft of the crews mess and galley (the galley, walk-in freezer, and walk-in refrigeraor were to the starboard of crews mess) on the middle level of the operations compartment (between torpedo room and missile compartment) was a passageway that went aft to the missile compartment. On the starboard side was the "goat locker" where the Chief Petty officers had berthing. Aft of the goat locker was a fan room where ships ventilation fans and filters were located. On the port side, immediately aft of the crew's mess was the officer's berthing area, which kind of wrapped around a central "pantry" that had to doors... one into the fore-aft passageway, and one into the officer's wardroom. The Wardroom was located aft of the officers berthing and the pantry, and had doors into both. There was also a ladder (stairs) down into the crews berthing area off that fore aft. This ladder was under the ladder that went up into the upper level of the ops compartment. Both ladders went down to the aft and up forward. One detail: Below the crews berthing was the battery compartment. This space was about as long as the berthing space, but not as wide, and contained a battery made up of a over a hundred 5 foot high x 2 ft x 2ft cells (search youtube for a video titled "Submarine Battery Bank shorted.Initially called ball lightning, now Leidenfrost Effect. August 1994" to see the size of these batteries... I'd leave a link, but I haven't posted enough) The battery cells are covered with a perforated melamine deck... which you laid down on on your back and grabbed ribs on the underside of the berthing deck to slide around over the top of the battery to get to the cell you wanted to service. The space above the battery was about 2 1/2 feet....so the battery compartment was about as tall as any of the other levels in the ops compartment, but only located along the centerline...where the curvature of the hull allowed such a tall batter compartment.

- Allen Inks, EM-1(SS)
USS Ethan Allen SSBN-608 (B) 1975-1980


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## djnick66

Of course the Renwal Ethan Allen was just their George Washington in a new box and not representative of the Ethan Allen class of ships at all. Oddly though, there were minor interior differences between the kits, but not so much to get really excited. I believe the gyroscope you mentioned is relocated or removed in one of the kits. And the missile room floor/arrangement is a bit different. But, overall, the kits are about 98% the same no matter what sub name is on the box. It's been sold as the Washington, Allen, Patrick Henry and Andrew Jackson. Some kits had a clear hull half but it was still hinged like the solid hatch.


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## Phillip1

Allen,

Thanks for the technical education. I think most modelers recognize this kit is not an accurate representation, but it makes a VERY cool display. By the way, thank you for your military service. Like many on this forum, I am grateful for the protection you helped provide our country.

Phillip1


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## Phillip1

Fellow Modelers,

Like many who post on this site, my images from Photobucket are no longer able to be viewed (since I will not be paying their requested fees). I want to go ahead and add back my original images to test I can post photos from my new storage account. Hopefully, there are no issues.

Thanks

Phillip1

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/02IuZ4gRuRWvvOSTuuUPIYCHOEcCzb8zBIKKCYeXbhn
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/pt1MeFdctf3oosNoRBDkAhdLRq2BGC0ALGP77bL34lB
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/PiR72BuYWRLlBlxqRrj3FWVjI5gb215V5wNoRBrl4Eq
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/FMPUOMbabL3X9BHsOBXo4Bw4TMyFrTqCDhNwGZUy7r8
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/neWdyKSvr7Ug2GlmhNAMdJU95q5I2Ujrmv6TQicnJdh


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## Milton Fox Racing

Phillip1 said:


> Fellow Modelers,
> 
> Like many who post on this site, my images from Photobucket are no longer able to be viewed (since I will not be paying their requested fees). I want to go ahead and add back my original images to test I can post photos from my new storage account. Hopefully, there are no issues.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Phillip1
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/pt1MeFdctf3oosNoRBDkAhdLRq2BGC0ALGP77bL34lB
> https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/PiR72BuYWRLlBlxqRrj3FWVjI5gb215V5wNoRBrl4Eq
> https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/FMPUOMbabL3X9BHsOBXo4Bw4TMyFrTqCDhNwGZUy7r8
> https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/neWdyKSvr7Ug2GlmhNAMdJU95q5I2Ujrmv6TQicnJdh



^^^^I change your url to img as another test above.

Below I got the same blank image using the photo at your link.










For this next image I clicked on the photo at your link above and it goes to another screen. Right clicking there - you get this image address and a larger working image. Note that I dont know the terms of service for your hosting site and this is essentially the same process of 3rd party linking that PB is now blocking - so if you need me to delete this link let me know.


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## John P

Apparently regardless of source, our filters at work see "file sharing" and block it. I can never see anything anybody posts while I'm a work. :freak:


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## djnick66

John P said:


> Apparently regardless of source, our filters at work see "file sharing" and block it. I can never see anything anybody posts while I'm a work. :freak:


Sheesh easy fix for that... quit going to work :laugh:


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## John P

I'm working on it!


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## Milton Fox Racing

Test










What I did to get this image was to click on the link you provided above. Click on that image and it goes to a new page of that image. I then right clicked on it to get that url address and then put it into the image icon box back here at hobbytalk..

As above I dont know your terms of service, but if 3rd party linking is not available with prime let me know and I can delete these links.


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## Milton Fox Racing

Nice work by the way! :thumbsup:


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## Phillip1

Milton Fox Racing said:


> Nice work by the way! ?


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## Phillip1

The original photos are being reposted using Postimage.










Thanks 
Phillip1


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## Phillip1

More photos...





Thanks 
Phillip1


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