1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

[scott t]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Jeff,
I sent you the drawings I have by e-mail. If you don't get them they look like the ones
Tom sent except his has some fancy lableling. Since they are PDFs make sure to set the
page scaling to none when you print them.

Scott

[boomerfunker]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

So now I get to START OVER...and I'd planned to tackle these flood holes first because I thought they were gonna be easy!

Jeff so sorry to hear of the troubles you are having with your bottom...

I know you want to be as accurate as possible. On that note thanks for the Cod pics BTW. I haven't decided whether to model the grates or not yet. I suppose I will if the build continues smoothly. I myself am not as worried about being super accurate as far as the floods go. I'll be fine with them just looking good and being accurate-ish in the end. No one is going to know for sure, really, anyways. Tongue-in-cheek chart provided below.

I am looking forward to seeing how you sort through it all and your final technique though. Good Luck!

TomK

[jefftytoo]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Jeff so sorry to hear of the troubles you are having with your bottom...

Kisler:

In my very best Sgt. Schultz:

"Jolly joker!"

[PaulC]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Jeff, I'm surprised that the Nautilus templates aren't working for you. I didn't have much trouble with it. I used it a section at a time and it fit pretty well for me. Certainly to an acceptable level for my tastes. I'm with Tom in this regard: I'm fine with Wahoo's bottom being accurate-ish. After all, I'm a leg man.

Here's a short video of Wahoo's running gear moving in place (I figured out how to embed it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BjoLDGSvPSw

[jefftytoo]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Paul,

Believe me, I was surprised too. Maybe my kit is somehow v2.0 with slightly altered weld lines. Or maybe my instruction/positioning document from Nautilus is different from yours. Or maybe I'm just an idiot (no surprise there). But my peel-off template sections definitely don't go in tandem with the Nautilus documentation. So—it's out. Salmon Tom's hole configuration plan sheet, on the other hand, is a joy. Download one and check it out.

JeffP

P.S. Your stern video demonstration is wonderful! Another job well done!

[boomerfunker]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

This got buried and I wanted to ask Salmon Tom...

It took me hours to clean up and then I re-did the welds with CA and Baking Soda. Which turned out pretty cool, learned a new technique

I was thinking of using the sprue-n-glue method to redo/accurize the weld lines on Trigger. Please tell more about your technique. I am familiar with kicking off C/A with baking soda but hadn't thought of it for this application. Do tell.

Oh yeah, the Nautilus Models resin fore gun platform and the replacement I made weigh almost exactly the same so no weight savings but mine does look better!

TomK

[salmon]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Yours looks a lot better! I may have to try some of that too!

O.K.
To rebuild seams lay down two pieces of tape. It took me awhile to realize get the tape closer together than you think. The thinner the better, I think. Rub the edges with your finger nail to seal it down especially when coming to intersections.



Then I take Baking Soda and push it into the space.



Apply CA along the line. Then sand it down flush to the tape right after applying CA.



Pull tape away and there you go, recreated seams.





Try it, I think you will like this technique.

[PaulC]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Very nice presentation, Tom! Will definitely be using that technique.

[jefftytoo]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Brilliant!

[PaulC]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Got to tinkering with one of my pet peeves about the Revell kit, and Wahoo research in general, tonight: the anchor well. The kit comes with a canted, starboard well. It is kinda goofy in its design and the anchor leaves something to be desired in the scale accuracy department as well. Contemporary drawings of Wahoo have shown all kinds of different anchor placements. It is often depicted on the port side.



Like the kit, Wahoo had a starboard anchor well. However, it was arranged horizontally along the boat's axis, not at an angle. It was also positioned lower than the kit well. The top of the opening lined up with the main weld line leading aft from the bow.



Actually, Wahoo was built according to the original Portsmouth plans with two anchor wells: one to port and one to starboard. Like the rest of the boats in her Mare Island series, this port well was plated over before she left for the Pacific. However, a few very early boats kept both.

USS Drum, on display in Mobile, AL, is the prime example. Here's a good shot of her starboard well. Note how her limber holes in the bow plane area are different from the kit (we'll address that later). To see more of Drum, click here: http://www.drum228.org/restoration.html



Throwing caution to the wind, I started carving plastic. My original intention was to re-use the kit well. However, the more I study, the more I think I'll build a new one out of stock.



The first step on the road to restoration was to fair in the hull around the new well area. I cut templates from index card, used them as patterns to cut new parts from sheet styrene and glued them in place. With the proper opening filed square I can now build up the new well from the back side.



Anyone know where a more accurate anchor can be found?

[jefftytoo]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Wow, Paul! And if new, better anchors are found, betcha we're all gonna want one.

[salmon]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Paul,
I like it when you throw caution to the wind. Look forward to your next move.

[PaulC]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Yes, I'm getting kinda medievil on this boat. I usually take much longer to get up a head of steam on something off the reservation like this

[PaulC]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

Here's a couple of shots showing how the stern tube shutters and anchor well changes have cleaned up. The spot putty I'm using is a bit troubling. It fills everything fine but is leaving the lighter shade under the primer. I'm hoping successive shots of primer and sanding, plus a top coat of the flat black, will eventually hide everything. But I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to find a new product. I never had this issue with Nitro-stan.

The shutters are dry fit in this shot. Will glue them in permanently soon enough. Still tweaking.



Decided to use the stock anchor well backing with some significant modification to the interior. Tom has found what should be some much nicer white metal anchors from Bluejacket Shipcrafters. I'll finish out the well itself to mate with the aftermarket piece. I've also begun to fill the round kit holes under the bow buoyancy floods. New oblong holes will be cut instead (see previous Wahoo bow shot).

[salmon]

Re: 1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

I looked at the Shipcrafter's site, which anchor are you thinking of the 1/96th scale?