1/72nd Revell Gato Wolfpack

[PaulC]

Tom, I've heard two explanations for those chutes. One is they were drains to expedite water run-off from the bridge. The other is that they were used to dump accumulated spent shell casings from the bridge. The reality may lie in either/or some combination of the two or none of the above. Glad I could help.

[wlambing]

Those are ammo chutes, used to pass main gun shells to the gun crew from inside the bridge. They are passed up through the bridge hatch and out through the opened ports in the sail plating. The ready service lockers only hold so many large caliber rounds, so these ports make passing the rounds a bit more efficient.

When in doubt, ask a squid!!

B^)

[boomerfunker]

Thanks Bill, Paul

Well that makes some sense I guess. But the main gun is on the aft hard point it's just another 20 on the forward one, seems to me it would be smarter to run those things off the back of bridge near the 40. Plus there is no opening there, the door is plated over. Are they just lobbing the shells down to those guys from the bridge hatch over the front of the wave deflector? Weird. The story in my head is gonna be that those things we're coming off in the refit and just hadn't been cut yet.

I will ask a squid. What was your boat Bill? My qual boat was my user image through the late 80's. Moonbeam navy sure but a Plankowner to boot.

[wlambing]

There were 4 over my 23 years; Narwhal, Stonewall Jackson, Trepang, Ulysses S. Grant. TAD stints at SubRon 2 allowed for riding Corporal and support work for a butt-ton of diesel boats. Two tours at SubScol and retired out of NSSF NLON.
The shells would get daisy chained if the gun was aft. Some boats had an ammo scuttle aft of the sail, too. More than one way to skin a cat!!

B^)

[PaulC]

That makes perfect sense, Bill. Thanks for the clarification. And your service!

[boomerfunker]

Yeah! Thanks shipmate, that's a lot of time on or rather under the pond...
I think I'm gonna put 'em on now, I like that daisy chain surface action mental imagery...

TomK

[boomerfunker]

Hello all,

Been busying myself with details on the front part of the sail and gun area.

Decided to finish up the front part and move slowly aft attaching tidbits and greeblies as I go. The time had come to attach the top and forward part of the bridge area. <Sigh> Again the Nautilus Models part is well cast with lots of detail, in fact the instrument shelf is very well realized with actually identifiable equipment such as the compass repeater, TBT mount and such, but the front was strangely angular perhaps reflecting Silversides more than Trigger. It looked to me like nothing so much as perhaps the hood of a Freightliner truck or maybe a modern railroad locomotive.



The putty was needed to bulk up the piece to match the sail sides and give me enough material to have a nice rounded front per my refs. The venturi needed some help. It had a good shape but the bottom makes a distinct cave on the prototype and there are distinct supports visible. I took an "L" shaped piece of Evergreen and glued it in there to give is a more distinct edge overhang. I then glued some bits at intervals under the lip to represent the supports. If you look at a bunch of these period subs this area looks wildly different boat to boat like there was one really hyper-engaged guy at Buships always trying out something different whenever a boat went into the yard.



Much more roundy now. I added a top piece as well. It looks nice but um, according to my belated look at the reference photo, not strictly canon. But it looks nice and it's close, so moving on. Moving on to ...the TBTs (Target Bearing Transmitters). Kit parts horrible, plus the aft TBT tower provided is wrong for Trigger. First attempt.



Tiny little thing. I did make a mold of this one that gives me reasonable copies from the pressure pot but I used Alumilites High Strength Silicone which was way too thick for such a small part and I ruined my attempt at a two part mold when I couldn't pour it slow enough (Use the Quick Set I say). The resulting one part mold works but there is a lot of cleanup. All that notwithstanding I made two more different ones that will actually used.

<my picture won't go--imagine two beautiful 1/72 miniature recreations of reality of heartbreaking beauty>

They look better painted mind you. There were some other bits and pieces in the area to be done. The handrails across the curve of the sail for one. They were created in place with styrene rod. The liquid cement melted them together somewhat that and some plus some tiny bits of epoxy in the corners made them pretty sturdy. The lone post or whatever it is on the starboard side was next, styrene tube with a brass post. After some discussions with our wise and learned resource Bill Lambing, I decided to include the two ammo chutes as seen on my reference photos. If they were there then they should be here now was my reasoning. Finally Trigger has these series of metal rods welded between the ready lockers and the bridge plating I assume in lieu of actual grab handles to allow access to the 20 millimeter area up there.

Ooh. On that note. I wasn't entirely happy with my choices between the kit parts and the add on kit. Mostly I needed two mounts and didn't have all the parts to make two that would be alike. Whatever. New idea. While looking into aftermarket kits for these I saw this place called Shapeways who could 3D print me what I needed, two for under 20 bucks. I got them the other day and they are pretty sharp detail-wise but will take some smoothing out before paint. I think I'm going this way now.



Anyhow a shot of primer and here we are now. Satisfyingly busy. Some divots and pings that need correction before final paint but that's down the road. Working my way aft now, storage lockers, nav lights, aft gun deck...

[jefftytoo]

Nice work, Thomas, as usual. Always fun to watch your builds go together, plus see stuff get more and more accurate.

Here's to swimmin' with bowlegged women,
JeffP

[PaulC]

Wow, Tom. Really looking good. Seeing your model reveals all the things I've missed in the photos. Great job as always. She'll be wonderfully unique on the water. Now if we can only figure out the superstructure floods...

[thor]

Absolutely beautiful work, Tom!

[boomerfunker]

Spent a lot of time making little bits and thingys this post. Not much to say, just a lot of making and adding little pieces. As of now just the covered wagon section (which needed a minor rebuild) and the sheers and scopes are all that's left.
The sidelights are nice. They are made from a modified kit part for an external dry locker and it seemed to have the right curvature. There is some clear rod in there to simulate the actual lamp though I was never planning on making them work. Note the 20 mil., that was they 3d printed one I'd mentioned before and um, the aft TBT turned out well too. Till next time.



My favorite thingy maker

[PaulC]

VERY cool!!! Trigger really is coming to life. A shame our old member Ned Beach isn't around to appreciate it. We know how good your shears turned out. Can't wait to see it all together.

Where'd you get your thingy maker?

[salmon]

Outstanding workmanship! The details and modifications you are making add so much to the sub. Plus it is great to see activity on this thread. Overtime, when someone posts I learn something new about their build.

[boomerfunker]

Thanks fellas. Positive feedback is so important for staying engaged with a long project like this.

Paul, it's a Chopper 2 from Northwest Shortline (Ignore the rather chintzy Chopper 1). Presumably it's for model railroaders but if you need lots of the same shapes it's perfect. Got mine from the wonderful vendor room at the IPMS show a couple years back but it's online too.

[boomerfunker]

The sail is done. Yippee!
Now on to the hull and getting the guts going on this thing. A slight break first though, a local model show is coming up in October and I have a couple non-sub kits I'd like to finish to show then.

Meanwhile, I hope I captured Trigger's late war look so far. Details are necessarily overscale in some cases because this is a working boat after all and it has to hold up. Also in that regard everything is brass pinned as well as glued, with a few exceptions like the park bench.

Later!