Ron Denning
Kansas City, Missouri
Ron writes: “Back in the 1960s, I was fascinated by all the ‘visible’ model kits: a V-8, the Visible Man, a turboprop engine, etc., but I never built any of the clear-sided submarines that were available. However, when one of our sons got married I found out his father-in-law crewed on the Ethan Allen-class USS Thomas Jefferson nuclear submarine. So I set out to find a model of SSBN-618; I located a complete ’60s-issue Renwal 1/200 scale “visible” Thomas Jefferson for a decent price and started in.” Ron painted according to the box art and did a fair amount of carving to rid large parts of flash. “But when it came to the clear side,” he says, “meant to be hinged so you could really view the interior, that didn’t fit so well,” he says. He glued it shut and feathered the edges. “The old decals were trash, so new decal numbers were added from my spares,” he says. “I have no idea of the model’s accuracy, but it was a fun build and brought back memories of Testors tube glue and Pactra paints. Revell has even reissued the kit as the USS George Washington. I bought two for later.”