Siluro a Lenta Corsa -- Italian Manned Torpedo

[Sakrison]

In 1935 two Italian naval engineers, Captains Teseo Tesei and Elios Toschi, proposed a manned submersible vehicle adapted from a standard naval torpedo. In the San Bartolomeo torpedo shops in La Spezi, they built and successfully tested two prototypes.

The Italian Navy called the submersible Siluro a Lenta Corsa (“slow-running torpedo”). Its poor maneuverability earned it the nickname Maiale (“pig”) among its crews. Each SLC carried one or two warheads and up to two hours of air for each crew member. It went into production in 1939. The Italian Navy built more than 50 SLCs before Italy signed its armistice with Allies in 1943.

Used only as coastal weapons, SLCs sank or damaged over 111,000 tons of merchant shipping and three British warships – battleships Valient and Queen Elizabeth and destroyer Jervis. They were often launched from submarines. And from a neutral Spanish port just two miles from the British naval base at Gibraltar, SLCs operated secretly out of an interned oil tanker, the Olterra, emerging from an underwater hatch -- a clandestine operation the British never discovered.

The model, designed by forum member Matt77, is in the Download section in 1/25 scale. I scaled it up to 1/18. The fit of the parts is very good and MATT77's artwork is excellent. His assembly diagrams and photos are helpful but require careful study, as several details that appear in the photos are not shown in the diagrams. I supplemented these with photographs and drawings from several online sources. I would call the level of difficulty 3/5. Buildng it took me about a week of evenings.

I added the control lines to the fins and some piping not included in the kit. I built the stand using cobblestone texture paper, and I scratch built the wood dolly from basswood and paper. The finished model is just over 13 inches long. The label on the base was modified from the kit.

At the Midwestern Model Ships & Boats Contest held May 19-20 at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, my Siluro a Lenta Corsa received a Gold Award. A lot of people commented on the outstanding "paint job." Hats off to Matt77 for that. All I did was color the cut edges.

[Philip]

A well-deserved award. Such a nice build.

[Vermin_King]

Very nice, sir. Congrats

[CIUTTSO]

Very beauty model. It's a amazing history: how those brave italian divers manned the topedoes inside Gibraltar Royal Navy Base. There is a good novel from Arturo Pérez Reverte titled "The Italian" about this not well known history of courage.

[rmks2000]

Beautiful job. I've looked at building this kit a while back but was a little confused with the discrepancy between the diagrams photos. As per your comment, the kit just needs a some research when building it.

[Sakrison]

Originally Posted by rmks2000

Beautiful job. I've looked at building this kit a while back but was a little confused with the discrepancy between the diagrams photos. As per your comment, the kit just needs a some research when building it.

I saw a real SLC displayed at the Royal Italian Navy Museum in Venice, Italy about 14 years ago. I wish now that I had taken the time to photograph a "walkaround." There are a few good reference images on the Web.

[MacSongLi]

Congratulations! I can see why you won a gold award. Fantastic build. Matt did a great job on the kit.

Gary

[JP64]

Very nice model !!!
Well built and well presented !!

compliments !
ciao
Jp

from Italy...

[Don Boose]

Congratulations, David!

It is a superb and historic model. Many thanks for the background information.

Don

[scon10]

Was it a kamikaze action? Or did the crew manage to get back to shore? The model seems to be a full torpedo, with no returning vehicle.