Revell Gato 1/72 scale build

[salmon]

Seams/weld beads

Decided to tackle creating some seams/weld lines. I have destroyed many as I joined the bow, aft, and installed the prop supports and I needed to see if I could recreate them or decide to remove all of them.
I had seen a build were tape was used and CA applied then baking soda was drizzled in (at the time I forgot where, so let me give Erich another shout out!) and David uses CA and Baking Soda to make fillets. Another option is I could mix glaze and use that to create seams or Nitro-stan. Then I saw a build somewhere that the individual used thread drenched in CA. So many options - not anyone was wrong. I decided to go with fill with baking powder then add CA.
To begin, I lined up a couple of pieces of painters blue tape. Rub the edges down with your fingernail and around cross seams that intersect the line you are building.


Sprinkled baking powder on and pushed it into the gap between the tape. I even left a little extra on top of the seam.


Applied thin CA and applied a drop. Then I used a piece of metal (actually a pocket clip from a pen) to move the CA up and down the seam. Then applied another sprinkling of baking powder to set any wet CA.


Using 120 grit wet/dry sandpaper, began sanding the along the newly created seam. The goal is to knock down any high areas and use the tape as a depth guide.


Removed the tape and I am left with a wonderful seam. A little bigger than I wanted, but a seam/weld anyways.


The next one I put the tape pieces closer. I thought it might be too close, but as it turned out it was not. So the gap needed to be smaller than you would think.


Then I went ahead and put some primer on to see how it looked. I like it.

[eckloss]

Thanks for the shout-outs! It's been a while. I think I started mine in 2009 or 2010. Makes me want to rescue this never-finished build from the depths of the garage and git-'er-done. Totally forgot about that sliding pin arrangement. Hope it works for you!

Erich

[salmon]

Erich, it has been running for 7 years!
I am adding my build here and more as time allows.
It is one of my favorite subs!

[chips]

Archer has some resin weld bead and rivet detail on clear decal film. http://www.archertransfers.com/SurfaceDetailsNaval.html

[salmon]

Drive shafts

One of the issues I had (because I did not angle the shafts in enough) was the shafts would be needed to be made longer to accommodate the bearing install. David, the day after I posted asked how long I needed them and dropped it in the mail. That is service.
Here the bearings are setup and verified that everything cleared.


With that in place, I used some sprue and heated it gently over a flame. Softening a longer length of the sprue to wrap around the bearing. It may take several times to heat and wrap before you get it where you want it. Did this need to be done this way? NO. I was already using the sprue for the pin to hold the WTC and thought why not. Have fun. You could have just as easily used CA and baking powder only.


I used a cheap and not the most accurate way to measure how much to trim off the sprue wrap. Using a toothpick, I clipped off the point and placed this next to the bearing. Marked the height from the inside of the hull to the top of the bearing with a pen.


Then using my highly accurate (inaccurate) measurement, I trimmed the plastic sprue. I did not need to be super accurate. In reality, I only expected one leg to attach to the hull. This would leave enough play so that I am not pulling the bearing away from the hull or pushing it into the hull and causing a binding. If I did get both to touch the hull and not cause a binding then that is a bonus. There was no intention of spending hours on this.


Plastic cohesive was used to bind one leg to the hull (keeping shaft in for alignment). Then using CA and baking powder began filling around the bearing.


Checked shaft rotation and move on to WTC.

[salmon]

WTC

Next I needed to install the WTC. I found an issue with the front of the WTC being pushed up above the waterline and trapping air as it was put in place. The suggestion was to cut it shorter by David and remove the alignment peg for the hull in the front by Jay (another builder of the Gato at the time).


Removing the peg, I believe, did help. If nothing else the WTC slides smoother going forward. David’s suggestion to shorten the WTC helped the most. I left 4” in the battery compartment to hold the LiPo packs I have.
To begin cutting, I wrapped blue painters tape at the location I marked. Measured again to make sure and began cutting. I took very small cuts, turned the WTC and took a small cut. I did this over and over again scoring the tube a little deeper with each rotation. I took my time! Did not want to crack, break, or melt the tube (especially since I did not know the properties of the Lexan tube).


I did not keep track of the time, but finally my jeweler's saw broke through. Once that happened the rest of the sawing went quickly.


Next step was to put a chamfered edge using my x-acto knife. It was surprising how easily it was to cut. After I trimmed what I thought was enough, I used a half-round file to even out and smooth over my knife trimming.


The final test is will the end cap fit? And it did.

[sam reichart]

Tom- this continues to be a great build thread. great job with the photos and the documentation.

I'll have to go check and see if Bob Martin still sells the fitting kit for this boat.

[salmon]

Sam, if this WIP gets one more person building and running a Gato, I am thrilled!

[salmon]

On my WTC there was a hole already drilled into it for access of your hex key to make adjustments. It is off center and that poses some issues with how easy it would lift out, but the pin that is to be attached to the hull can work there. Too long of a pin and there would not be enough diagonal travel room to slide off the pin. Too short and it will never engage the hole.
I needed to find out how much room was there between the hull and the WTC. Grabbing a scrap piece of 1/8” brass (I was practicing putting on threads) checked to see fit. I needed to grind down the threads, but for testing it was fine.


Put a piece of Play-Doh (Thank you Sam [my son]) on the end of the pin and gently pressed it against the WTC.


I aligned the WTC into the hull making sure that the vent was centered and at the apex of the WTC. Pressed it down and allowed the Play-Doh to squish out. Realizing that it would take a full day for the Play-Doh to dry out, I had to come up with something quicker. Super Sculpey to the rescue. This stuff is a clay type consistency that will harden when put in the oven at 275 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes. So I took the WTC out. Carefully removed the Play-Doh and put a ball of super sculpey on. Squished it down and removed the WTC one more time. As it happened to be, my wife was just done using the oven and it was already pre-heated. I was a little vague about why I needed the oven and slid my mold on a piece of aluminum foil into the oven. She caught me and when I explained what I was doing she did not mind. I love my wife! I compared the sculpey (which is now hard as a rock) with the Play-Doh and came up with how big the gap is.
Now I used a piece of sprue to make a base for the pin. Heating up the plastic on the gas stove (I was empowered since Tina did not mind the sculpey in the oven - what’s a little plastic over the stove?) I got it nice and soft. Then quickly pressed it against a safe hard surface. In my case it was a small block of steel.


This created a blob at the bottom. Oh, if you try to rush it or get the plastic too close to the flame, it ignites and turns your plastic into a blackened blob, I did this for demonstration purposes only (What don't believe me? Well, it still worked)


I sanded the bottom of the blob to rough it up for cohesion. And fortunately the red sculpey left a little stain on the hull so I knew where to sand to rough up the area.


I carefully drilled a 1/8” hole into the top of the sprue and inserted the brass pin. Cut the pin short since the plastic blob would be close to the WTC. Rounded the pin end so as not to scratch my precious. And placed a small thread of sculpey around the pin. Pressed the pin and blob to the WTC and placed it in the hull. Again being careful to align the WTC. From underneath I was able to add the cohesive through one of the flood holes. Let it dry. Removed the WTC and did the CA and baking powder filler.


I should have drilled my own hole for a pin directly underneath. Then placed a block at the end of the WTC and when it is dropped straight down, the pin will automagically go in. As it is now, it is a little tough finding the hole. Can you see it?


Neither can I!

[salmon]

Shaft connector

There is a feeling, I cannot express adequately, when I came to this point. The connecting of the Propellor shaft to the WTC. I hope this feeling happens with every sub I build. I will AGAIN mention get the DVD by David. He goes through this step so well! I am doing it only because of what he teaches.
Take a measurement between the end of the propellor shaft’s Dumas coupler and the WTC Dumas coupler. Cutting the aluminum tube is so simple. Who knew? Yes, I know you did. All I had to do is roll the edge of my X-Acto along at the point I wanted my cut, and bend. It snaps at the place it is scored. How cool is that?!


Cut the nylon Dumas coupler in half, insert one half in each end, and test the fit. It will look something like this.


Next using 1/16” bit, drill through the tube and nylon coupler.


Tap a piece of 1/16” brass rod through your newly created hole with a hammer.


I trimmed the ends close and hammered it down using a jeweler's hammer. This will mushroom out the brass rod creating a rivet. The black marking was used to make sure the end did not shift prior to being drilled.


Two shafts ready for install.


And of course, here they are installed.

[salmon]

O.K. I went down another bunny hole......
Couldn't resist the urge to add the hand hold. As I looked at photos, there are 4 rungs or handholds and not three the model had.


I drew mine in from a pattern I made off of the Revell Gato line drawing in the instruction book.
Then drilled out the initial opening.


Using a small half round file, began opening the opening to match the pattern. At the same time, I would alternate with grinding out the back of the opening.


I made the top way to high, so I added a little Nitro Stan filler around the opening to correct some shape issues I had, then wet sanded the area.


I will worry about the primer paint a little later.

[sam reichart]

Sam, if this WIP gets one more person building and running a Gato, I am thrilled!

Well, It will have to be without the accessory kit. They’re all gone.

[salmon]

The Props are on!

(backwards, but shine)

These need to be switched, but I wanted to see what it looked like on.........this gets more fun as time goes on.

Just to show proper setup, here is my sub currently. Not as shiny as before. As a side note, I see subs that get rust effects and lots of weathering, but the props are bright and new looking. It just stands out to me.


Let me digress about my adventures in learning to put a thread on....... In the beginning there were several choices for propellors. I went for the Raboesch prop. They are pretty, but it is threaded. So, fellow newbies, use the ones in the fittings kit! I was enticed by the bright, shiny, brass props. So I bought them. After some time it was shared that the thread is 5-40. Jay aka beeryboats lent me his die (an amazing man!). For the life of me I could not get threads on without destroying the shafts by twisting, gouging, bending and well you get the idea. Maybe you don’t. Here is a picture of the threading attempts.


This does not do the damage justice because some of the shafts had a cork screw in them and others I cut and re-used. I destroyed two sets of shafts plus a lot of brass rod. I had a second fittings kit set aside for the next Gato.
While searching around, I found mention of two types of dies (there are more than that, but for my purposes two), hex and adjustable round. The hex was mentioned for rethreading and repair. The slotted was for threading rods.
Jay used the hex. With brass, after countless tries, I could get a so-so thread on (Jay you are the man!), but destroyed it with twists. To get any kind of straight thread, I would have to taper the end considerably to get it to work and clamp the heck out of it. Steel shaft just would not happen. Once I discovered the info on the adjustable round, I went ahead and got it and a handle.


I played with the adjustable round, first on brass then on my last shaft from D&E fittings kit. The brass also gave me an idea of how much thread the prop actually took. Now I felt confident to put a thread on the ones David very generously made for me. The other key thing I discovered is using the right vise (DUH!). I have a shop vise that rotates on a ball to allow me to adjust angles and it has a smooth surface on one jaw and a v groove along the length of the other jaw. Prior attempts using a regular vise and locking pliers to prevent the shaft from spinning in the vice led to this, another picture of shame, the twisted shank.


Once I used the smooth vice’s v groove, that stopped me from needing to use the locking pliers and prevented the torque from reaching the area the Dumas coupler connects to. Are my shafts perfect? One came out great. the other has a slight offset (caused by uneven pressure from one side allowing the die to travel slightly off-center). It should be O.K., I will see how it works later. Need to move on!
Then I opened up the split die to do a first cut.


Use lots of oil too.

[salmon]

The thought of my sub tagging a rock or bouncing off the bottom of a pool brought disastrous images to my mind. I saw David had added brass to his Gato keel on a Cabal Report, so I wanted to. What is it about bright shiny objects?
I scored the brass to the width I needed and cut out strips with my larger jewelers saw. Then I taped the strips to the keel and marked areas I needed to modify, like the taper for the front. Marked where I wanted the holes and numbered them so I could keep track. Removed the pieces, cut, drilled and shaped the pieces as I had marked them. Then placed the pieces back on and used the holes drilled out as pilots for the drilling into the hull.



Again the strips come off and I began to solder a length of 1/16” brass rod into the holes. The thought is the wire would fit into the holes of the keel into the hull and I could bend the wire to hold the brass strip in place, yet allow me to remove it if I wanted to.


Once the wires were all attached to the strips, it was time to push it through the holes in the keel.



Then using a pair of needle nose pliers began to bend and push the wire down. That was harder than I thought it would be and made me wish I had A. annealed it or B. used a smaller diameter. There were a couple I could not bend down because of their location.


Once they were pushed down, I used CA and baking powder to lock them in place.


Then went along the keel and cut any wire that stuck through and filed to clean up.


Later I will fill in the sides.

[bwi]

And fixing the deck mess I made is another (my priorities are still to get the submarine done). Here is the deck with the glue that leaked onto it and filled holes and grooves.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]5806[/ATTACH]

I began with .0145” drill bit and drilled the holes out. Not too deep, but maybe 3 or four turns drilling in and 6 turns counter clockwise to remove loose plastic bits. Then moved to .024” drill to make the hole closer to the size of the other holes on the deck. For this, I went one full turn drilling in and three or four going out. I used my engraving tool to recreate the filled in grooves and clean out the partially filled ones. Here is how it came out.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]5807[/ATTACH]

Nice recovery Tom.....well done sir.....sorry to mess up your build log sequence here, but I'm still catching up were I left.