RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

1/72 Revell Gato with Nautilus Models Balao conversion and RC Sub Workshop WTC.

My grandfather was a plankowner on the real boat.

It's great that you have a plank owner in your family history! I did a search on Balao-class submarines and found that there are 8 of them that are museums, (including the USS Bowfin here in Hawaii). I also did a search on eBay for USS Barbero items, and was amazed at all of the stuff there - everything from photos, hats and patches to challenge coins and license plate frames. It will be a great honor to your grandfather to have a working model of it!

Son of a gun-ner wrote:Sorry, got to ask, what's a plankowner?

Plankowner is a original crew member who was present at the commissioning of a ship,


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Granddad was the original CO.

sassgrunt wrote:It's great that you have a plank owner in your family history! I did a search on Balao-class submarines and found that there are 8 of them that are museums, (including the USS Bowfin here in Hawaii). I also did a search on eBay for USS Barbero items, and was amazed at all of the stuff there - everything from photos, hats and patches to challenge coins and license plate frames. It will be a great honor to your grandfather to have a working model of it!

Did you find any "Missile Mail"?

Yes, and I thought that was pretty neat as well. There is a Regulus II at the Bowfin museum. I had some affinity to the USS Cusk and USS Carbonero, which were two of the boats used to launch LVTN "Loon" test missiles, (American-built version of the V-1). The USS Carbonero was tested off Hawaii and the USS Cusk off of California. Several years ago I found a 1/18 V-1 kit and always figured it could be converted to a Loon as a display piece for one of these boats.