Darthpanda, I never thought you were getting your material from the Naval Institude, especially from Norman Friedman's material. I am a Life Member of the Naval Institude, and have prefered Norman Polmar's work, as his material was as close to the Yard Drawings as one could get. Shipyard construction drawings, I possibly thought you were getting your material from, as most of these drawings travel with each Diesel Submarine that got sold and exported to other countries, which you never know where a set of original construction blueprints will pop up from time to time. But as my nickname states, I worked around some large boats, took care of their facilities, and got to know allot about the other boats that sailed along side these boats from members of the Diesel, or Nuclear Fleet. I had 20 years of being around those boats, and cried everytime they decommissioned them for scrapping out. I enjoyed many visits from other navies that visited our bases that I worked at, and had enjoyable encounters with the Offiers and Crews of these Submarines of Asia, South America, NATO, Former Soviet Eastern Block Countries, Russia, as they must of been totally shocked to see me standing at their brows requesting permission to come aboard, as of my height. Alright, get those converters out, as I'm old school, not metric still, so whatever 4'6" is, that's what was normally knocking on their brows OK, lol. I loved what I did, and I would like to thank all of you for helping me with getting my mind off of my pain, as I crushed my spine in '02, which today, I live in constant pain. I was a AutoCAD Artist, Tech Illustrator, Tech Engineer, which I self taught myself the use of the program from the first versions of it back in the early 80's to AutoCAD 2000. So Microsoft Paint has been a pain to get use to, it's simple, especially with two pixels equaling a foot, which drives me nuts, but after you get over simple details, it gets to be enjoyable.
Darthpanda, if you possibly could contact me, or post what you have for reference material on, SS-78 R-Class (R-1 SS-78, R-8 SS-85, R-20 SS-97, R-27 SS-104), SS-163 Barracuda (V-1), SS-164 Bass (V-3), SS-169 Dolphin (V-7), SS-172 Porpoise, SS-182 Salmon, SS-205 Marlin, I would be greatful. Allot of this material, especially good detailed drawings and photo's don't exist like it use to, so finding something with enough detail to draw from is a blessing from time to time.
Thank you all for this fun medium which you've opened up for me.
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