1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

I have a question for you, Jeff.
How do you keep your work bench so clean and orginized?
------------
I have 3 projects on my bench.
My plan is to finish the Gato and get it off the bench.
Get two boxes and separate everything as I take it off the benck to start over with a clean empty bench top.
Understand the Gato is the third project and it has been on the bench more than a year.
Some parts on the bench go back a lot farther and are for ALMA which was stated in 2005.
Yea, things have gotten out of hand.

[boomerfunker]

I love that PE deck, Jeffty but I guess I have always been worried about weight. Seems like everyone who actually got one in the water was struggling with low freeboard. I do like the SPEED at which the deck gets done though. Bam! Next.

[boomerfunker]

Small update, and a minor heart attack courtesy Paul Crozier.

Paul recently pointed me to some enhanced pictures of Trigger in the yard getting a late war refit. One of these was new to me. This one.



See that teak on the cigarette deck? I did, and nearly had a cow. Silversides is steel back there and so is my kit at this point. How the heck am I going to put teak around all the stanchions and under TBT, gun, and everything else back there? Then I notice that white line pointing to the deck and sure enough after checking another photo dated two weeks later the teak is removed. Heart tested, tested SAT.

I spent the rest of my time this week punching holes. I had noticed something wrong on my boat after viewing the above mentioned Trigger shots and also checking my Silversides shots I found I had made my limber holes with one too few of the double holes. The total number is correct so I manually created a double set from the first single back from the bow.





I used the tiny engraving bit in the dremel to cut, and some Dymo tape to help keep the "bounce" minimized. Worked good.

Other holes include two in front of the bow planes on either side and holes that served as a ladder further back about midships. Scuttle holes? Dunno. THOSE are a pain though. Half-moon shapes are hard to do with files, and these will be acceptable with some finishing but not great. I would have added those to the original file I had laser cut knowing what I know now.

[PaulC]

Happy to help, Tom. Of course, you have a conning tower built. I don't. So there's that.

For those keeping score at home, Wahoo's cigarette deck was steel from patrol 1.

[jefftytoo]

Ralph: How do I keep the workbench clean? Simple. I don’t. Knowing that I wouldn’t be touching the boat again for days or weeks, I put as much stuff away as I could before taking that shot. Much of the mess just gets moved to that smaller table in the background. All the rest of the time tools and sanding sticks are everywhere—and sawdust reigns! Truthfully, I do generally work on only one build at a time, unlike you, so that helps me keep the clutter a bit more under control.

[jefftytoo]

Tom: First, I love how Trigger’s cigarette deck park bench is so clearly visible in that photo! And yes, freehanding rounded holes out of styrene is murder. I know it well. At some point you just gotta say “good enough,” right?

And you’re absolutely right about all the extra weight of that PE decking. I have no doubt I’ll have terrible freeboard issues with Harder even after so much styrene removal underneath. But for me it was worth the operational sacrifice for the added specific-boat accuracy and the fact that she’ll look so good on the shelf—where, after all, she’ll spend most of her life alongside the rest of my fleet. If she has to run at decks awash on the surface, so be it. I’ll simply figure she’s just giving those destroyers that sultry “play with me” come hither look, seducing them to their doom.

[jefftytoo]

Paul: Harder’s cigarette deck is teak too. And I haven’t so much as winked at my conning tower yet. Tom’s way out in front of us in that regard. I’m just relieved he didn’t have to do a do-over based on that photo. I would’ve been honored to donate one of my extra “teak” PE cigarette decks to the cause if necessary, however...

[jefftytoo]

Here’s the magnet setup for the aft end of the superstructure. Works well. Shown in place, the turtleback does need some edge repair/cleanup.





Yesterday I took a swipe at removing more material from the top of the hull and cleaning up its edges to start opening the thing up to eventually receive Big Dave’s large RCABS unit. I’ll have to remove more though, in particular a section wide enough to accept the 3” diameter segment that is one of the multiple modules in our late good friend’s unique design. Even so, the hull will still have to be stretched apart in the middle to allow it in. That’s why I have super-reinforced (with extra styrene) the two hold-together frames left in place fore and aft. It may turn out that further manually attached frames will need to be added amidships for additional support later.

[granddaddydom]

I am interested in obtaining a copy of the CD ROM for Dave Welch’s 1/72 Gato Experimental Cylinder kit.
I believe I have obtained a version of the kit that has machined and assembled end caps, deluxe parts kit, battery kit, 2 bladders, and 2 motors without the CD.
Please contact me directly via e-mail if you have a copy of the CD for sale.

AZMilitaria@yahoo.com

[jefftytoo]

Not sure my Big Dave Gato RCABS unit is the same as yours—I know he made at least two versions, switching the battery position around for one thing—but I’m happy to copy the CD that came with mine for you. No problem and obviously no charge. (Dave wouldn’t stand for that and rightly so!) Happy to help. I’ll contact you for your address. Jeff

[Ben Brigham]

Both were in the novel (and movie) "Run Silent, Run Deep."

[jefftytoo]

Ben, Walrus and Eel (with mentions of Nerka and Octopus) were the fleetboats featured in the novel. The movie was a hot mess Beach had nothing to do with and he hated it. Just FYI.

[boomerfunker]

More scattered progress on Trigger, here and there, but mostly at the extreme back end of the turtledeck and upper hull.

I continued with the limber holes and added the diesel exhausts and what I take to be the trim pump discharge, though I guess it could be the blowers. Water spits out of it, dunno, not my Qual boat. Silversides has a scalloped tail pipe at the end of her diesel exhausts and my Trigger refs are unclear on the matter so I added my own. Mostly for detail. I hated the really open look the limberholes had so I put some sheet steyrene behind them to vaguely simulate the pressure hull.


I puttied in around brass tube to give me some nice round openings


Nice, adds some weight, but she ain't see-thru no more.


On the aft turtledeck I drilled some bubble escape holes as per the prototype. I continued this process onto the hull using a thick Photoetch piece as a drill guide. Worked so-so. Added the other bits like Jeffty did over the attachment points for the wartime removed prop guard. Added some plastic to buck up the PE plate and gave it all a shot of primer.


It helped keep the drill bit from skipping about but it wasn't perfect. Better than freehand I suppose.


Same method on these holes that turned out better. I do have some evening up to do on those oval slits I see.


With these great reference photos it is hard to ignore a lot of the juicy details I can see but It is real easy to overdo the scale. I knocked all of them back with some sandpaper.



And it looks pretty nice back here. Not 100% fidelity to the lost boat but ya gotta know your limits and the essence is Trigger as she looked. Once I solve some fit issues deck-to-hull I move on to the teak decking.

[salmon]

Wow....that is some nice detailing. Glad you are still working the boat.

[jefftytoo]

Wow, congrats, Tom! Your aft vent hole pattern definitely turned out nicer than mine did! (I'm sure glad Harder didn't have as many as Trigger did!) And your stern tube shutters look fantastic! (Again, I lucked out: Harder didn't have 'em.) Overall you're making great progress and it's all looking so good!

While I've been waiting for some replacement (more accurate) PE decking to come in from the Czech Republic (finally inbound, I recently learned), I've been working on other stuff. Like: I just figured out a pretty easy and effective way to have the whole superstructure held on by magnets. One forward, one aft, and three pairs spread fairly equidistant amidships. And believe it or not, the system actually works! (Admittedly rare for me.) Photos soon.

Now planning a way to scratch-build the tops of two marker buoys—one fore, one aft. Boats with all- or more-metal decks seemed to mostly have big perforated cover plates over their buoys, whereas those with all-teak decks (like Harder) had the tops of these buoys open-to-sea—at least according to photos in my Floating Drydock Gato Planbook. One photo I have of Harder during her Feb. '44 refit clearly shows she still had this older type of marker buoy aft, so I'm presuming she had the same thing forward too. I have a decent reference shot to help me (below), and have already made some rounded buoy tops in about the correct size by pressing the rounded end of a small screwdriver handle into thin, heat-softened styrene...and will go from there. Again, photos later. If I can pull off scratching these parts even to some degree it will lend significantly more accuracy and deck eye candy to this boat. Wish me luck.



More later,
Jeff