by Tom Dougherty » Sat May 23, 2026 11:42 am
Eduard made a photo etched set with limber holes. But unfortunately these were the Eldctric Boat design on the original kit and have been discontinued. Either way, that doesn’t help you, as you are looking for the Portsmouth/Mare Island limber hole design. The Revell kit details are based on, IIRC, USS Cobia (SS-245), a museum ship. Be aware that depending on the Balao submarine modeled, the deck was partially replaced with metal plates rather than the wood planks.
EB also built Balaos, so you might be able to modify the Balao conning tower fairwater to the EB design. For example, see Hardhead on the attached document. Model Monkey makes a Balao fairwater which comes with additional parts. At one point, he had a Lionfish conning tower fairwater for the 1/180 scale Revell Lionfish kit. He might be able to adjust the scale for you. Alternatively, there may be a combination of his current Balao conning tower with an EB limber hole pattern.
The configuration of the Gato and Balao conning tower fairwaters changed throughout WWII. New radar antennas, new guns and other equipment were modified or added. Once you decide on a particular submarine, check the time period through photographs.
The various conning tower configurations are discussed in detail here:
https://www.navsource.net/archives/08/pdf/0829295.pdf
This series is a great resource for these submarines.
Good luck, have fun.
Eduard made a photo etched set with limber holes. But unfortunately these were the Eldctric Boat design on the original kit and have been discontinued. Either way, that doesn’t help you, as you are looking for the Portsmouth/Mare Island limber hole design. The Revell kit details are based on, IIRC, USS Cobia (SS-245), a museum ship. Be aware that depending on the Balao submarine modeled, the deck was partially replaced with metal plates rather than the wood planks.
EB also built Balaos, so you might be able to modify the Balao conning tower fairwater to the EB design. For example, see Hardhead on the attached document. Model Monkey makes a Balao fairwater which comes with additional parts. At one point, he had a Lionfish conning tower fairwater for the 1/180 scale Revell Lionfish kit. He might be able to adjust the scale for you. Alternatively, there may be a combination of his current Balao conning tower with an EB limber hole pattern.
The configuration of the Gato and Balao conning tower fairwaters changed throughout WWII. New radar antennas, new guns and other equipment were modified or added. Once you decide on a particular submarine, check the time period through photographs.
The various conning tower configurations are discussed in detail here:
[url]https://www.navsource.net/archives/08/pdf/0829295.pdf[/url]
This series is a great resource for these submarines.
Good luck, have fun.