After market parts.......

[rick]

Does anybody know where I can find some after market scopes and barrels for the 1/72 Gato.......thanx..Rick

[ricknelson]

Check out White Ensign for

Check out White Ensign for 20mm, 40mm, and 5"/25s.

[rick]

No luck there......any other suggestions.....thanx

No luck there......any other suggestions.....thanx

[Scale Shipyard / WLU]

Gato aftermarket items

H-R Products makes a 5"-25 cal. wet mount gun and a 40mm single mount that are still pretty good parts, well as long as the molds hold out, the price is pretty decent as well

Scale Shipyard produces a Photo-Etched brass detail and deck set for the 1:72 scale fleet boat, this can be used to detail the Gato in either the EB or Portsmouth design there are also details for the Balao class boats as well.

[ricknelson]

I just perused the Scale

I just perused the Scale Shipyard web site but could not find any 1/72 scale photoetch items. All I found was 1/96, 1/48, and 1/32. If the 1/72 material is hiding somewhere would you please point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

[big jim]

Ditto

Ditto

[Scale Shipyard / WLU]

After market Gato

Hmmm It is not in the website.

The website is due for some major revisions but these will not happen for awhile.

You can e-mail me direct for the info, I will take some photos this evening of the brass.

I can e-mail you the photos and info directly

[JWLaRue]

Lee,

If you'd like to send

Lee,

If you'd like to send some photos to me, I'll get them hosted and then posted here so that everyone can them.

-Jeff

[Scale Shipyard / WLU]

Photo-Etch

Thanks Jeff:

I will do that, I am working on clearing the area I need to shoot photos

[ricknelson]

Hello Mr. Upshaw,

When do you

Hello Mr. Upshaw,

When do you think you will have the photos of your 1/72 photo-etch brass for Gatos up on Scale Shipyard? I'm anxious to take a look.

Thanks,

[Scale Shipyard / WLU]

1:72 scale Gato Photo Etch

I had to recover my Digital camera that works better in my shop, lighting for photos is a problem here, one that needs to be resolved as I need to take a lot of photos for my website so we can do an overhaul of the site.

And I am having to fit this project in with the orders I am working on.

[snook279]

1/72 photo-etch drawing

Hello,

I think these pictures might help with questions about the photo-etch. I made the drawings and did some of the brass for some of my boats. I made the work to fit Lee's hull, but it fits well with some minor cuts for the Revell kit. After I had the brass photo-etch made, I gave the "rights" to use them to Lee. To make the drawings, I used the Floating Drydock Plan book and information from the Silversides, located close by. I hope this helps a little.

The first photo is of the drawing used.

The second photo is of some of the photo-etch used to create periscope supports for a 1/48 and 1/72 Gato.

Thomas Wierenga

[tmsmalley]

I am working on clearing

I am working on clearing the area I need to shoot photos

Lee - your shop sounds like mine! Sometimes there is so much junk - I mean good equipment - on the bench I have to take my stuff outside in open shade (not direct sun) to photograph.

The nice flat light with no harsh shadows in open shade makes for good closeup shots and you don't need to use on-camera flash. OC flash makes harsh and ugly shadows and can oscure important details.

As a professional studio photographer for about ten years - shooting hand tools, mining and industrial equipment and such, I found that when using flash; if you can bounce it off the ceiling or a white card suspended over the subject it gives a much more natural light. That is why most modern strobes have a tilt feature that allows for this. Just be sure the ceiling or your card is as white as possible.

Before Doc Edgerton invented the modern strobe light, the old time portrait photographers used to have a tilted window that faced north in their camera room - that way they had an all day source of nice flat light with no harsh shadows.

The idea of artifical lighting is to mimic the sun. That's why we try to only have one shadow and only one specular highlight (the very bright spot that appears in shiny objects, glasses, etc) when possible - there is only one sun.

Artifical lighting can be done with multiple sources of incandescent or strobe lighting but it is usually more trouble and takes more equipment than most non-pros want to use to get the shot. As uncle Skip says - K.I.S.S.

An interesting tidbit is that when a subject is photographed underwater - there are no specular highlights. Something that applies to subs - when I used to shoot fish photographs for the DNR, I used to photograph them in an aquarium to avoid those white shiny highlights that were reflections from the lights.

If you are shooting in direct sun, using fill flash or a white bounce card just out of frame opens up the shadows and really helps in grab shots that can be taken nowhere else.

BACKGROUNDS
A plain background helps to keep attention on the subject - it doesn't have to be a fancy painted background either. Posterboard, a plain or muted pattern wall, or carpet works. A sheet will too - but lets face it - it always looks like a sheet If no plain backgrnd is around, by throwing the background way out of focus - that brings attention to the sharply focussed subject matter too.

Oops - I didn't mean to ramble on, but it looks like I have a start on an SCR article here.

[ricknelson]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the photos

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the photos of your photo-etch and the examples of it built up in the 1/48 and 1/72 periscope sheers. However, I would like to point out one thing, if you look at page 24 of the Floating Drydocks Gato and Balao Plans Book you will see that the vertical supports fore and aft of #2 periscope do not appear as you have rendered them. Page 24 depicts periscope sheers when the #3 position had the SD Radar mast present.

The vertical support with the relief holes was only used aft of #2 'scope when the SJ radar mast was in the #3 position and supported by the zig-zag girder structure. Look at page 38, upper left-hand photo of the Flasher superstructure at Groton, CT and you will see what I mean. Also, if you have a copy of the USS Cod Photo Museum book you will see on the front cover and in other photos the structure I am talking about.

In all of the documents on Fleet Submarines I have perused I have never seen the #2 'scope supported in the fashion you have depicted. If you have a reference that shows it your way please let me know. I would definitely like to see it.

Thanks,

[snook279]

Trigger...page 34

Rick,

Thanks for the note. I built the USS Trigger for my Dad and I used various pictures on the boat. If you go to page 34 of the book, the picture on the left side is what I used. When I drew the artwork for the photo-etch, I tried to make a lot of different "extras" so each time I used the brass, I could vary the boat. In all the years of seeing pictures and talking to different people, no two boats were ever alike and I tried to do that with my brass. I also fiound a similar type support on the USS Silversides. I hope this helps.