USS Sturgeon SSN-637
by Ken Hart

1/192 USS Sturgeon SSN-637 (D&E Miniatures)

David Merriman is, without question, one of the most outstanding model makers of our time. His professional model work has graced Hollywood film productions, museums, wardrooms, and countless magazines. For a short while, just prior to his commitment to radio-control formats, Dave's home model company of D & E Miniatures began offering cast resin submarine model kits in 1:192 scale. D & E produced a LOS ANGELES-class model, and a Sturgeon-class model. There was also a SKIPJACK on the way, but that one never came out once Dave got too busy with R/C production. These model kits were costly, but they were more accurate and detailed than anything else available.

A former submarine sailor himself, Dave Merriman knows not only all the true nuts 'n' bolts of a submarine, but the ways and wants of fellow model builders.

This model, the D&E Kit no. DE003, was a Sturgeon-class SSN in 1/192 scale cast resin with additional white metal parts. The D&E kits came with highly detailed fold-out full-size plan and profile drawings, dry-transfer decal sheets, and a pair of optional screw-on base stands.

The kit also included optional parts to allow the modeler to choose between a standard 637-class, or the later "stretch-hull" variant of the class. It also included an optional towed array feed tube to depict a later in-service model. I built mine as an active service short-hull version, and thus I left the hull number decals off the sides of the sail, keeping it as a non-descript Sturgeon-class ship in deployment.

1. A port bow view of the D&E Miniatures kit no. DE003 1/192 scale Sturgeon-class SSN model in cast resin.
2. An oblique view shows some of the fore and aft deck detailings.
3. A starboard bow close-up shows the forward deck detailings.
4. A close-up of the starboard side of the sail.
5. A port side low oblique of the Sturgeon model, showing the towed array feed tube along the hull to the stern plane.
6. A close-up of the mast arrangement.
7. A close-up of the upper rudder shows draft mark number decals and the anchoring light, formed by rounding the tip of a piece of clear fiber optic.
8. D&E kit no. DE003 Sturgeon-class SSN showing hull, cast resin and metal parts, instructions, drawings, and decal sheet.
9. The kit sail, sail top, and cast white metal masts.
10. Cast white metals parts, including sacrificial zinc block strips (left), cleats, and 7-blade screw.
11. The hull halves laid out upon the full-size plan and profile drawings included with the kit.
12. The model under an early construction phase.

In a time when R/C submarine modeling was taking off, static modeling was dying a slow and painful death. Even a few of the major modeling magazines went under when their need for static model articles fell away.

D & E Miniatures would likely have produced a long list of highly accurate cast resin submarine kits for the discerning modeler, had the hobby of static modeling remained stronger. Our loss. (I haven't talked with Dave for a few years, but I think he probably still has all the dies and molds for these 1:192 scale model kits of LOS ANGELES and Sturgeon -- it might be possible to talk him into producing one or more of them if someone wanted them badly enough.)

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