Salvage of a wrecked submarine
This Nichimo 1/200 I-19 Japanese Submarine was a Christmas gift to me from my parents in about 1977 , or so. Over the years it's gotten a little “ war weary”, dusty, and beat up looking. I was considering finally throwing it away.
On a visit to the LHS one day I found the same kit on the consignment table. The price was only $7.50 , so I decided it was meant to be mine.
After looking at the unbuilt kit I decided to use the instructions and kit parts to help me try to scratch build similar parts for the old sub and try to make it a little prettier. The new scratch built parts were mainly spindly antennas and other thin parts that had been broken off over the years. One of the dive planes was missing and needed to be scratch built. To protect the original decals I used liquid mask to mask over the original decals before repainting the ship with Tamiya spray paints.
It is far from perfect, but with the new parts and some fresh paint it looks much better, and is a reminder of my early days as a modeler in the 1970s, and also Christmases past.
I made a stand for it with some pine wood bought at a craft store and I stained the wood dark walnut. The flag on the base was down loaded off the internet and printed on some card stock .
The Submarine I-19 had a busy life during the Pacific war. Some notable highlights are the sinking of the US aircraft carrier USS Wasp in September 1942.
Of the six torpedos fired at the same time, 3 hit the Wasp, one hit the Destroyer USS O'Brien , and one hit the battleship North Carolina. The O'Brien was damaged but after temporary repairs, it was deemed seaworthy enough to sail back to San Francisco for further repairs. During that trip, the ship broke apart and sank. No lives were lost.
The Battleship USS North Carolina was also put out of action for a time for repairs.
The North Carolina is now a museum ship in the state of North Carolina.
In May of 1943 the I-19 sank the cargo ship SS William K. Vanderbilt. The crew of the I-19 then machine gunned the survivors in their life boats.
Fortunately, only one person was killed by this war crime.
In November of that same year , the destroyer USS Radford crossed paths with I-19 near Makin island. This time the I-19 came out second best and was sunk with the loss of the entire crew.
Amazing save on your 1977 build, Jay! Really awesome that you found the same kit nowadays at a very low price and used its parts to fix your original. Thanks for the historical facts, really interesting!
You perfromed an outstanding save on this old build, Jay @ssgt
It can last for many more years like this.
Well done.
Thank you John @johnb !
I enjoyed working on this one again, it gave me a chance to try to correct things done wrong by my younger self nearly 45 ago.
Great story! It is Great to recive model from Santa!
Thanks @lis...you are right, Santa probably gets discounts from the model manufactures since he buys so many
Thank you, Spiros @fiveten , I’ve read of others on imodeler rehabilitating old built models , so I thought I’d try to save this old favorite of mine.
Interesting write-up and great save.
Thanks George ! @chinesegeorge I enjoy researching the history of the subjects I build models of.
Man I remember seeing that kit in the 70s and thinking it was so cool. Nice job!
Thanks Rob @robertandy !
It is a nice kit. I’m fortunate to also have one of Nichimo’s 1/200 Japanese destroyer kits. I wanted one of those as a kid but couldn’t convince my dad I needed it. Now, almost half a century later, I have one !
Didn't they look cool in the hobby shop? Man those, Tamiya and Bandai 1/48 armor kits!
Looks great, Jay (@ssgt), but I don't recall you posting anything other than airplanes. I myself have been known to partake in things that float, and even an occasional piece of armor. Well done on an old kit.
Thanks , George @gblair ! I’m glad I held off on trashing it and gave it an overhaul… it probably looks better now then when I first built it years ago.
Usually I only build aircraft , but I do build an occasional ship. I even have a ww2 jeep and a 1936 Ford roadster to build someday when the time is right. I’ve never built a car model before, at least that I remember .
Nicely done rehab. I've done a few myself.
Way to polish up an old build!
Thank you @roofrat & @gkittinger…. It was nice to be able to restore an old sentimental favorite.
Jay @ssgt, great restoration and excellent read on its history!
Thanks , Bob @v1pro
I’m glad I kept all these years, the new parts @ fresh paint make it look pretty good for its age. It was fun to try to fix it up.