Destination Tokyo's B-17 "Ma Deuce"

[johnpipe]

Destination Tokyo (1944, Cary Grant, John Garfield) is probably my all-time favorite WWII submarine motion picture. It was the first to have sets with a realistic feeling about them. However, the Pacific "Fleet" submarine was secret, and though the general level of accuracy was high, a little artistic-license was thrown in.

One such bit of license was the "Ma Deuce," the M2 .50 caliber Browning Automatic Machine Gun seen aboard the sub in the battle-action surface sequence. First, a real M2 Aircraft Model, as the D.T. BAM gun turned out to be, fires at 750 to 850 rpm, and at this high rate must fire from a locked and closed bolt, and cannot be actuated by blank-fire. As a result, the M2's seen are amongst what are probably the first of the sim-fire guns, in which a gas-mix such as propane or acetelyne and oxygen are set off to simulate gun-fire.

Here's a look at the D.T. "Ma Deuce":

The rig is actually a B-17E/F side gun, with Boeing side-gun ammo box, and seems to have been inherited from Warner's previous film Air Force (1943, also with John Garfield as a gunner!). Also, the riveted top-plate is some 50% longer than normal, probably to meet BATF regulations!

I had decided to make a scale-model of this; the scale was determined by what was available in my scrap-box to make the barrel jacket, namely 7/8" aluminum tube, and as the real thing has a 1-7/8" diameter jacket, the resulting scale was about 47%. After much research, and a few re-builds to correct errors as I obtained more info, this was the eventual result:





The materials used were 1/4" MDF for sides, 3/4" ex dresser-drawer separators for spacers, ply for the top cover, and old brown clip-board for the bottom, rear and top plates, and the recoil-shield on the E-8 flexible adapter (the cradle-mount). The adapter side-bars are oak-veneered poplar from furniture scrap.

Here's some construction views:



The round, large object from which the barrel-jacket protrudes is called an "E-10 Ring-Spring adapter" and would handle the recoil on the real thing; I made it from a PVC pipe-coupling, over which are two telescoping PVC pipes. The bosses are turned on the wood-lathe from maple, and tapped 1/4-20 and adhered with epoxy; the notched-ring was carved from maple.

I only identified the ammo-box after building same from the movie, and it took me a while after that to obtain the actual plans (available from Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Archives). The box is a little off, but not by much. It's MDF & .010 brass, with 16ga linoleum nails as "rivets." "Cartridges" are made, some from .223 Remington brass found in a dipsy-dumpster and some from hobby brass tube; "bullets" are turned from hardwood, and "links" are from sheet brass stock.

Hope you like it.

Regards, John

 

[division 6]

One of my favorite Sub films, just watched it the other day.
The "real" sub shots where the USS Marlin SS-205 Mackerel Class Submarine also used in Crash Dive the year before (in color)
It was mainly used as a training sub being smaller that a Fleet Boat.

Accept to the stock fake torpedo launch's (all out of the same tube and used in almost every film into the 60's) the film had some of the best model work, far better than Run Silent, Run Deep that was made in 1957.

As far a I can tell she was supposed to be loosely based on the USS Wahoo SS-238.
Cdr Morton of the Wahoo visited the set while in production.

From the small pictures it looks like you did a good job on the gun.:thumbsup
Any plans on doing the rest of the boat? LOL

 

[johnpipe]

The "fairwater" (the structure surrounding the tower and creating the covered surface-navigation bridge) is indeed a "Gato" class reproduction (in essence, though the "upper lid" is located actually forward of the "tower" in the surface set, and there is a water-tight door in the forward port-quarter used for the actors to climb to the bridge, and for the rubber-boat storage, a bit of Hollywood illusion).

The internal arrangement seems to be based on the pre-war "Sargo" class of Portsmouth (the senior Naval yard) design, which is the same as the Squalus, which was sunk during trials in 1939 and the first McCann chamber rescue.

I do have a miniature at 1:24 started for the central section, but I've used the re-fit drawing of the SS-190 (Spearfish), an Electric Boat design which puts the crew's mess immediately abaft the control-room, as this drawing is available and makes a better arrangement for a sectional model:



The hull will be open on the starboard side, and the view-ports may be seen in the tower. There will be some concessions to D.T., such as the #1 periscope (an older type used for both films) which will look like that in D.T.; the #2 will closely resemble the Kollmorgen that became standard on the fleet boats:



That was started about July 2011, and it's a non-trivial project, as there is no single documentation for building a model or miniature. I have a young friend who is very good at figures, and he is working up a crew of 20 (only about 3" tall!) for the build.

"The devil is in the details" and that's a factor making for a long, drawn out project; here's a sample, work on the galley ranges (which are now installed):



The Ma Deuce was an off-shoot of this project! I figure that the completion will take another year or two (hope I survive that long myself!).

BTW, "Mush" Morton was one of the technical advisors, but for security reasons could not be credited as he was on command.

Hope you like it,

Regards, John

 

[division 6]

That is a sweet build.
Keep us updated when you make more progress.

Your knowledge on the subject is not only impressive but the most I have encountered. (and quite humbling):thumbsup

I started looking into subs about 6 years ago when I bought the Revell 1/72 Gato that is mainly based on the Cobia. (a few things are wrong)

I'm building her as the USS Bream SS-243 used in the opening scenes of RSRD as the "Nerca" comes into port.
Aside from some of the construction prints and a few photos to work from I have to look at the Dorado and Cobia (sister ships) for reference.
Sadly I haven't worked on it for a few years.
I replaced the marker buoy openings with the correct war era style and location and was wokring on replacing the torpedo shutters to the correct flat style.
Did the chop down and rework on the fairwater (still a work in progress)
I also plan to have the hatch's open to the con and galley with interiors, maybe do some of the framing and gear under the deck at the bow.

 

[johnpipe]

That Revell sounds ambitious; my build is my first foray into something of this sort. I'm amazed at the level of detail some folks are putting into their models, especially the Star Trek; the general level of ability I see here is a good level above my present experience and abilities but I've come to this at a late age. Fleet subs are more difficult, as you have likely found, there is not a as much photo detail available as might be desired. Prior to the Gato class, subs were not of a standardized design, which makes my Sargo even more difficult.

I have a number of reference books; The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy, A Design And Construction History, by John Alden, Commander, U.S. Navy, (Retired) is a prime overall reference on the history of these boats. Other references are the various and sundry photos on the various web sites.

I am not working on the sub at the moment; it involves a lot of research before details can be worked out. Also, I am taking May & June for trying to finish another M2, the M2HB at 1:3 in an exotic wood mix (natural finish), complete with the M3 tripod & T&E mechanism, as I am hoping to get that one done and entered into the Sonoma County Fair which is coming up in July. That one is an offshoot of the first M2, and started because I was given a piece of African Wenge, just about the right size for such a piece and the dark color looks good on the side-plates.

HTH,

John

 

[division 6]

Sounds like a another cool project.

You're never to old to model, I just hit 50 and most modelers at least on the forums seem to be in the 30-90's range.

What I found out right off the bat was that every boat was different pretty much from launch since the captains wanted certain features added or new things where developed as the war went on, then there was all the mods made every time they refitted.
One of the most extreme I have seen was the Gato SS-212 herself.
After the war they started converting some to Guppy's with the sails and other things, at least one even had a helo pad on deck.

Unless you go stock out of box you will have to decide in what boat and what date then in most cases start doing a lot of mods and scratch building since there is little in aftermarket accept a few fairwaters, some PE, a few laser cut decks and a few other deck accessories.
Pretty much the same go's for the German boats.

I've only spent a few minutes there but there is a sub museum in Vallejo, it even has a working periscope. then there is the USS Pampanito SS-383 in San Francisco (used as the Stingray in Down Periscope) she is a Balao Class.

 

[johnpipe]

I had not heard about Vallejo, I'll have to look it up. I did get a chance to docent aboard the Pampanito about a year ago, for six Thursdays until health problems virtually incapacitated me for a while. With regard to the Guppy conversions, they are well covered in Alden's work; he covers all the major details for the fleet boats, including disposal.

The SS-212 had its keel laid at Electric Boat on 5 Oct. 1940, launch 21 Aug. 1941, Commissioned 31 Dec. 1941, Decomm. 16 Mar. 1946, Naval Reserve Trainer Brooklyn, N.Y. 1952-1956, NRT Baltimore, Md. 1956 -1960, Strike 1 Mar. 1960, Sold 28 Jul. 1960 for Scrap to Northern Metals Co., Philadelphia, Pa. for $56,056. IIRC, these boats ran about $2 million apiece to build in that time period.

The Gato is the only boat in Alden that has a complete inboard profile and platform deck plan view, on a two-page foldout. All the other boats have a simplified inboard profile showing mainly the compartmentation and tankage.

Regards, John

 

[division 6]

Cool that you spent time on the Pampanito.
I visited her my senior year back in 81.

I tried to stop by and visit my the last time I was in the BA about 7 years ago but the price of parking was ridiculous, $6.50 for 20 minutes.
The last time I was there it was the same price for the whole day.

 

[TazMan2000]

You may want to repost those pics on a site that doesn't require a membership to view them.

TazMan2000

Destination Tokyo (1944, Cary Grant, John Garfield) is probably my all-time favorite WWII submarine motion picture. It was the first to have sets with a realistic feeling about them. However, the Pacific "Fleet" submarine was secret, and though the general level of accuracy was high, a little artistic-license was thrown in.

One such bit of license was the "Ma Deuce," the M2 .50 caliber Browning Automatic Machine Gun seen aboard the sub in the battle-action surface sequence. First, a real M2 Aircraft Model, as the D.T. BAM gun turned out to be, fires at 750 to 850 rpm, and at this high rate must fire from a locked and closed bolt, and cannot be actuated by blank-fire. As a result, the M2's seen are amongst what are probably the first of the sim-fire guns, in which a gas-mix such as propane or acetelyne and oxygen are set off to simulate gun-fire.

Here's a look at the D.T. "Ma Deuce":

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/medium/M2-complete-b.jpg



The rig is actually a B-17E/F side gun, with Boeing side-gun ammo box, and seems to have been inherited from Warner's previous film Air Force (1943, also with John Garfield as a gunner!). Also, the riveted top-plate is some 50% longer than normal, probably to meet BATF regulations!

I had decided to make a scale-model of this; the scale was determined by what was available in my scrap-box to make the barrel jacket, namely 7/8" aluminum tube, and as the real thing has a 1-7/8" diameter jacket, the resulting scale was about 47%. After much research, and a few re-builds to correct errors as I obtained more info, this was the eventual result:


[url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/DSCF2270.JPG[/URL]


The materials used were 1/4" MDF for sides, 3/4" ex dresser-drawer separators for spacers, ply for the top cover, and old brown clip-board for the bottom, rear and top plates, and the recoil-shield on the E-8 flexible adapter (the cradle-mount). The adapter side-bars are oak-veneered poplar from furniture scrap.

Here's some construction views:

[url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf2003.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf2010.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf2015.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1983.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1984.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1966.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1973.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1854.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1858.jpg[/URL] [url]http://www.scale-models.co.uk/gallery/data/582/thumbs/dscf1844.jpg[/URL]

The round, large object from which the barrel-jacket protrudes is called an "E-10 Ring-Spring adapter" and would handle the recoil on the real thing; I made it from a PVC pipe-coupling, over which are two telescoping PVC pipes. The bosses are turned on the wood-lathe from maple, and tapped 1/4-20 and adhered with epoxy; the notched-ring was carved from maple.

I only identified the ammo-box after building same from the movie, and it took me a while after that to obtain the actual plans (available from Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Archives). The box is a little off, but not by much. It's MDF & .010 brass, with 16ga linoleum nails as "rivets." "Cartridges" are made, some from .223 Remington brass found in a dipsy-dumpster and some from hobby brass tube; "bullets" are turned from hardwood, and "links" are from sheet brass stock.

Hope you like it.

Regards, John

 

[Sourdoh]

I love the Galley Ranges! They are so reminiscent of the ones on the boats I served in (Early 60s). It always amazed me that the cooks could turn out such great chow in such a relatively tiny space. The Skipjack class boats were very small by comparison with the newer boats.

 

[johnpipe]

You may want to repost those pics on a site that doesn't require a membership to view them.

TazMan2000

Thanks for mentioning that; I suddenly found a problem with some of the pix in that gallery, there should have been "img" tags available, but they weren't there! I was not aware that the links provided had a problem.

I will have to look into this; I may need to upload copies to my ncwoodworker galleries, and re-post, but that may take a while as I'm starting to scurry on completing my county fair entry.

Thanks again, John