Whats wrong with this picture?

Maybe he was influenced by the (SSRN or USOS) SEAVIEW.

  So!.....You're saying this cover art is sub standard?

 

(At the bottom of the sea, no one can hear you laugh)

Subfixer is POed because all he can see is the dreaded red X. Curses~!

I have to side with rcboater on this one - if this was supposed to be a coffee table book, or one for "the rest of the general public" then a little artistic license would be OK, because it might help sell more books. But these books are not marketed to the general public, they are aimed squarely at a niche market - us. Modelers. Guys that have been known to be somewhat, ahem, anal about accuracy from time to time. Some moreso than others, but we all suffer from it - it's one of the things that makes us modelers. Squadron should know better than this.

why, it's a flightI/II/III, of course...

 

If this was one of Squadron's Aircraft Books, and the cover had a painting of an aircraft with two sets of elevators, with numerous other errors as well, the book would be criticized to no end in the various forums. 

Aquadron publishes theses books with an implication of accuracy-- these aren't coffee table books meant to be looked at by the casual observer- they are sold as references for modelers.

Why should ship modelers settle for less?  We deserve the same level of competency  in the books Squadron publishes...

Lets give the artist a bit of a break.

Is the image lously? Yup. Should a bit of artistic leeway be allowed? Perhaps.

But underwater and underway photos of USN subs are, shall we say, somewhat hard to get. Besides, submarines in service are usually slimy, ugly looking things at best. Most models I've seen of submarines show the hull number and hatch markings and a clean, nice hull. I'm not surprised that the book's cover would be illustrated that way.

A more accurate image could have been used by the Squadron folks for a book that is intended for modelers to use as an accurate source, but I believe it wouldn't have been an interesting enough looking cover to attract book sales.

Just like the threads awhile back on box art, the line between accuracy to the model, or prototype, and an exciting, sales grabbing image, will always be a bit blurred, at best.

From the looks of the screw and "speed" bubbles trailing aft of the sail and control surfaces, the sub is running at about 1/2 ahead; I don't think they'd have the two 'scopes up and be firing a missile while at that speed.

Egads!