GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

[subicman]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Dave,

I was given a picture to look at at work today by a gentleman who have have more interesting pictures in the wings. This one seems to be an unkown Guppy mod boat in the Marine railroad dock at the base sometime in the 60's or so. Bow on, sonar dome and weld lines for the reconfigured bow clear as day. I scanned it and saved it. I can try to send it to you if your interested.

V/R
Tim

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Tim,

I would love to get a look at the picture. I'll send you a PM.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Absolutely beautiful pics, Tim. Thanks.

On to some progress... So, I continued the work on the little pieces for the limber holes on the aft structure and I added the rest of the decking and extended the deck out...




Then I got squirrelly and decided the work on the bow section some more...



Some good old .060 x .040 square rod stacked and cut as necessary...

Cheers,

Dave

[subicman]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

No problem Dave. There may be more, I will keep you posted. Nice work.

Tim

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Back from a couple weeks out and I got home to an email with some great detail pictures of parts of the sail from a former Tiru officer. Sweet! Time to get back to building.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Did up the limber holes on the port side of the bow so far today. Hopefully more to come.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Back from a few weeks at sea, and it is time to get back to real work Hopefully, I will have something picture-worthy tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Ok, took a few days, but here we go with a Christmas Update!!!!

First a look at the port side limber holes...



How about a shot of the stern of the superstructure as I bit the bullet and glued it all into place...



The side of the superstructure at the point where the 12.5 foot extension was added. A fair bit of sanding and wrangling to make everything look decent...



I crafted an insert to go into the gap between the upper halves of each side of the bow (there is a small gap that I left) to allow for some build up of support to the deck while also guiding the shape of it all. There were some homemade L-beams added on the top edge for support while there were a couple notches for it to travel around preexisitng struture. I also put in some gaps to allow for some light to pass through although the effect will be minimal...





And then there is the continuing work on the forward deck area where I am reusing a bit of the kit deck. You can see where I am adding hatches and the safety track. There is also some putty visible where I am working to make some of the molded in detail (whaleboat covers and various hatches) a bit less visible. Should disappear when I get everything painted up...





Based on info from a TIRU JO, I filled in the radar mast well (you can see the part that will be the top of the sail in the pic above) since he informed me TIRU had a fixed radar and he provided a small handful of personal pics showing no well. He also clarified some other eccentricities of her sail so there is plenty left to fix and detail there.

Hope you enjoyed Christmas and this little Christmas update.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

I swear I am still working on Tiru...just nothing very exciting and too much of my real job.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Ok, I figured that it was time to show some proof of progress over the last few months. Work has been split between the bow and the sail. For the sail, I added a piece of decking to the bridge (scavenged from the main deck that was being discarded), and restructured some to account for various notes from former TIRU sailors. I also added the ladder trunk from the bridge to the nav plot area.







(and, yes, I do have a diet cherry soda problem)

On to the bow... Before I could add the pieces above the limber holes, I had to account for the depressions for the bow planes. Some pieces of scrap plastic, sanded and cut to shape fit the bill for basic structure.



With those in place, I was able to go ahead and add in the .020 sheet pieces for the long sides of the bow after the bow planes depressions...



Once it was time to move forward of the bow planes, I added some reinforcing pieces to strengthen the join for the bow pieces that I would have to glue and then bend and glue again...



Finally, the sides of the forward bow go on. Bottom glued and left to sit for two days and then bent and glued to the top of the bow.



So, there you go, proof that I have been making progress. I have added the basics of the anchor well on the bow and the next big part will be to putty and sand the transitions from the superstructure sides to the deck. Then I will shape up and smooth the rest of the bow and lop of the lower section and scratchbuild the bow sonar.

Cheers,

Dave

[salmon]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

You are being methodical and it is really taking shape. Excellent work!

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Thanks, wish I was faster, wish I had more time...and right now I wish I had more Mr. White Putty. I have killed the majority of a tube on the bow so far...putty, sand, mark issue areas, repeat. Absolutely loving the way it is looking right now.

Cheers,

Dave

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

A little update to show progress on the bow...putty, sand, inspect, repeat...oh, yeah... slowly getting there...







Slowly, slowly getting there...

Cheers,

Dave

[wlambing]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

NICE!!!

B^)

[ssn705]

Re: GUPPY III Conversion - USS TIRU - 1/144

Continuing to slog through. Relatively unexciting patching and sanding and shaping. I have added 4 of the 6 bilge keel sections that needed to be replaced. I almost have the master of the PUFFS array done so that I can cast copies. I also keep going back and forth about how I will do the deadlights. I have also realized one spot that is lacking in my research is the shape of the back end of the sonar housing at the base of the bow. Anyone happen to know what it looks like?.

Thanks, cheers,

Dave