Tweet
For the past nine months I've waited in vain for the aftermarket guys to produce a stencil or PE limber hole set to depict the Portsmouth plan configuration for Revell's 1/72 Gato. And so far each completed kit I've seen has depicted an Electric Boat hull (some static builds offered on eBay even claim to depict Portsmouth boats without changing the limber pattern). As I'm modeling SS-238 Wahoo, a Mare Island boat which followed the Portsmouth plans, and no one else has taken the bull by the horns, I've buckled down and started in on the task myself.
Since the Gato kit comes with the EB limber hole pattern I figured the first step would be to take everything back to square one. This meant eliminating two problems: the row of half round holes forward, and the gap between the turtleback and the sides of the hull.
The two pieces with the half round holes were tackled first. Tape was applied on the face of the outside of the part and Evercoat filler was applied to the hole on the backside. Once hard, the tape was removed to reveal a smooth outer side. I'll test the adhesion after an overnight cure.
The gap along the turtleback was even easier. I took my kit parts to the LHS and found Evergreen StripStyrene in .080x.125" filled the gap perfectly. It's the right height to take the casing down to the hull and is the same wall thickness as the tutleback parts.
I started with the aft piece. I held the strips in place with clothespins and glued them in with Tenax-7X plastic weld. The stuff works great -- no adhesion problems there.
The mid-deck section has beveled edges on the inboard side of the hull casing. The contact point with the styrene was greatly reduced. However, the Tenax did the trick the same as the aft section. To reinforce the seam I filled the backside gap with JB Weld. A bevel was block sanded on the interior side of the styrene to create a better fit with the rounded hull.
The initial mockup looked good to me. Everything is held loosely in place but you can see how the half-rounds will disappear with primer and the turtleback deck casing now comes down to the hull.
With a blank canvas it is now time to create a stencil and map to scribe in the long row of oblong holes that distinguish the Portsmouth and Mare Island built Gatos and Balaos.
Since the Gato kit comes with the EB limber hole pattern I figured the first step would be to take everything back to square one. This meant eliminating two problems: the row of half round holes forward, and the gap between the turtleback and the sides of the hull.
The two pieces with the half round holes were tackled first. Tape was applied on the face of the outside of the part and Evercoat filler was applied to the hole on the backside. Once hard, the tape was removed to reveal a smooth outer side. I'll test the adhesion after an overnight cure.
The gap along the turtleback was even easier. I took my kit parts to the LHS and found Evergreen StripStyrene in .080x.125" filled the gap perfectly. It's the right height to take the casing down to the hull and is the same wall thickness as the tutleback parts.
I started with the aft piece. I held the strips in place with clothespins and glued them in with Tenax-7X plastic weld. The stuff works great -- no adhesion problems there.
The mid-deck section has beveled edges on the inboard side of the hull casing. The contact point with the styrene was greatly reduced. However, the Tenax did the trick the same as the aft section. To reinforce the seam I filled the backside gap with JB Weld. A bevel was block sanded on the interior side of the styrene to create a better fit with the rounded hull.
The initial mockup looked good to me. Everything is held loosely in place but you can see how the half-rounds will disappear with primer and the turtleback deck casing now comes down to the hull.
With a blank canvas it is now time to create a stencil and map to scribe in the long row of oblong holes that distinguish the Portsmouth and Mare Island built Gatos and Balaos.
Comment