Siluro a Lenta Corsa -- Italian Manned Torpedo Paper Model - 1/18 Scale

 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 is a free download at www.papermodelers.com. I scaled it up from 1/25 to 1/18. The fit of the parts is very good and designer 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. Building 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.paint job." Hats off to Matt77 for that. All I did was color the cut edges.