AFV 1/350 1943 Gato Finally DONE

Great looking build GH, I know what you mean about loosing interest in a build. I have to fight that all the time. 

Starting to play and try different things with the big bead type of  foam board for the seascape for the GB, using a wire wheel in my cordless,  Just finished the first coat and towel as per the article in the latest issue.  May have to try and get some smaller bead hard foam, but HL only has 12 x 36, 1 inch stuff at $20 a sheet.......Need 3 of them to get my 2 inch, 16 x 32-36 for that seascape.  Oh man----- Am I going to go through the gel to make that one.  Also playing with acryic paint to tint the gel for starters.

Thanks for the kind words on my little lady.

Rest of the month is pretty much toast-   leaving for 5 days on Tues for USFS/BLM meetings halfway across the state, going to stop at Erickson's museum and the auto/air museum in Hood River for pics at both, and trying to get my dredge together to get it in the water and pulling some gold the middle of May when the season opens in one area about 70 miles south, and the other one opens first of June, 20 miles from me.

I have been doing Chris's method for all my seascape dioramas. I haven't tried the foamboard used for insulation but I do like the hard foam from HL. I use strips of paper to cover the boards texture so I don't go through so much gel. I will get the large medium gel from HL with the 40% coupon which lasts for a few builds. For the paint, I get tubes of artists acrylics, which cost a lot less. 

That is the acrylic color I got as well. (4 oz tube will last about 9 lifetimes-should have been a cat)  Tried one spot with just the waves and first coat of gel and now the towel and gel.  I'll tint the second coat and put up a pic tomorrow of both.

Here are a couple of pics of first practices of techniques - big ocean waves and choppy water.

Thanks for the tips, got a long way to go to get anywhere close to what you are doing.  Right now I have the heavy and super heavy from Liquitex, will have to get some of the more flowable stuff too, I think, especially for the smoother last coats.  Along with some different brushes too. This is the heavy stuff.  That blue is just the straight cerulean blue.  The green is a blend of tourquoise and grey.  Got to play with it some more.    For the 1/144 my rollers are a little deep for what I want, and the choppy version needs to be deeper for the same, if I go that route.  She will be running at flank with 2 or 3 shell splashes bracketing her off the bow.

I pretty much work with medium any more although I have heavy that I will use for bow waves and such. The colors are pretty much what you want to go with, who is to say you are wrong. I do mix blue, grey and green to get my seas. I have a link to Chris' color and mixing chart that is nice to have.  I will put down the link when I get to my computer. 

Great job GH, I'm very excited to see it.

Looking great GH!  Found a little time today to just sit here and check out some builds from start to finnish. Some really great work there.  Never tried the seascape work yet.  Maybe some day.

Bought the Revell Lionfish a few years back to build for a cousin of mine.  His grandfather was a submariner in WWII.  All I know is that he was in a Gato class sub.  Have tried to find out which one but no luck so far.  Every once in a while, when my hands are working OK, I open up as many of the holes as I can.  I'm about 3/4 through.  The sail is finished too.  Hope I get to finish it and deliver it before I go to the great workshop in the sky. Hope it comes out 1/2 as good as yours.

Jim  

If you have a name to work with, try contacting the Bowfin Museum in Pearl Harbor.  If they can't find it in their records, they should be able to point you in the right direction to get a name/number of the boat he served on.  Hopefully he is was not on one of the 52 still on patrol.

Sidenote-----Argonaut's bell is there at Pearl, and every Sunday is rung for one of the 52 boats still out there.

Thanks for the kind words.  Firstattempt at a lot of things with this little lady, in preperation for the 2 footer in 1/144 this summer.

I took this pic a year or so back while visiting Pearl Harbor,  cant really see it

but the Pic is the last known photo of the Wahoo...note that the prop guards are gone.

I don't know for sure, but believe the guards were removed during her overhaul in May-July, '43, as the photos during and her "shakedown" after the overhaul show them gone then as well.  My scene will be set as 27 January 1943.  As she was running flat out on the surface, I suspect most of them, if there, would have been under water in the churn of her passage.

The kit does not provide styrene parts for the guards, but the WhiteEnsign PE set has the temp guards and "attachment hoops". Will have to make the decision to use them or not as I get into her.  If I do it would be without the hoops.

Thanks for posting up a pic of the Pearl Harbor Memorial area for her.

Thanks for the info GH.  I'll give it a try.  Maybe I'll have better luck there.  I've tried to go through other sources as I have his name, military ID #, dates of service etc. but was told that they can't give me the name of the sub he was on as I am not a direct decendant.  

Jim   

GH,

Here is Chris' tutorial on color mixing. Good information.

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=157447

Thanks MC, bookmarked.  Funny thing, been doing body and paint work for 40 years, been 23 since I picked up a paint gun.  Everything I did was completes so I never had to learn color tinting and toning.......Now it's old, old dog and new tricks to have to pull off.

Fox-  worse comes to worse, maybe the cousin can pull it out, unless the build is a surprise for him.   I wish you good fortune in the quest.

Thanks GH.  I was planning to do it as a surprise but, if I have to, I'll clue him in and give him the papers to fill out.  I'm sure he'll do it. 

Jim  

fox

Bought the Revell Lionfish a few years back to build for a cousin of mine.  His grandfather was a submariner in WWII.  All I know is that he was in a Gato class sub.  Have tried to find out which one but no luck so far.  Every once in a while, when my hands are working OK, I open up as many of the holes as I can.  I'm about 3/4 through.  The sail is finished too.  Hope I get to finish it and deliver it before I go to the great workshop in the sky. Hope it comes out 1/2 as good as yours.

So I went looking for the Revell Lionfish and I find it in 1/220 and 1/180? Can that be right?

Also saw some commnets about it being "misidentified", was a Balao and not a Gato?

There's no scale printed on the box or the instructions but the hull is 21" long. I saw something about the misidentification too but haven't seen anything since to either prove or disprove it. I picked up the kit when I was up in Grouton a few years back.  

Jim  

That would be 1/180.  So I guess a sub expert would have to see what was wrong with the kit and help me out there.

I just finished a 1988 Revell U-505 that is a type VII-C when the 505 was really a type IX-C - totally wrong.

I don't have the Squadron book with me, but seem to remember that the Balao's were a slight mod of the Gato's, and mostly due to thicker hulls, something along the lines of 5/8 inch vs 9/16 inch.  I would imagine there were some equipment changes/differences due to war experience, and they might have some very minor size differences.  Even the Gato's were built to two different standards as those built by Electric Boat and the Navy yards had hull differences.  Would have to break out the hull numbers to see if she was built to Gato or Baleo standards.

I will add here as a disclaimer----I'm the very first person to NOT claim any kind of expertise here.

according to wikipedia its Balao. I'd guess the sail and other things woul not be acurate but I'm no expert! LOL....

Have not done much with her the last month, other things on the plate with new owners at work, and trying to get the build for the Mustang GB at least close enough to maybe make it by the deadline.  Not to mention the stuff with the prospecting clubs I belong to and having the last 2 w/e's tied up with demos and shows. 

Got one set of PE antennas on, at least at the rear.  Got to get the conning tower standoffs on and bend the PE to touch the tower, then get the other antenna on to the shears.   I did get the base of the case painted in Tamiya Titanium Silver at least.  The kit base is MM gold, and the plate I had made, "USS WAHOO - SS238   ON ETERNAL PATROL    11 OCTOBER 1943" is brass.  Should be decent contrast in the clear case.

Finally got back to this one and am going to call it done.  Got the standoffs on the fairwater and th antenna on.  Not going with the antenna from the shears to the aft antenna mast.  Have to refinish the mount base and repaint the case base. 

I have a friend I serve on a Bureau of Land Management advisory council with whose dad passed away this past spring.  At his memorial service the rest of the family decided she should keep his flag, as she is the oldest.  I found out he served on the USS Chub - SS 329 at the end of the war and just after.  Had a plate made for it with his name and the boats name.  Will present it to her in a couple of weeks to go with the flag.

Will post some final pics in a week or so.

That soiunds very cool. Looking forward to the photos!

This build started as Wahoo, but after learning of my friend's father's service at the end of and just after WWII on the USS Chub, I decided to do it for her and the family, to be displayed along side of his flag.  I know this is a Gato, and Chub was a Balao, but so be it.

Anyway here are the pics of the finished boat on it's base and the plaque I had made for it, and one of it in the dispaly case.

It will be presented to her on Oct. 6th privately at our meeting.

No, that is one of several sizes available at Hobby Lobby. I think it was around $13-14  Usually meant to display car models.  I just epoxied the mount base for the boat to it and painted the base plate.

Since most of the differences were in the 'scope shears, I hope not, but she did send me one pic she found of the Chub leaving port.  I told her back a couple of months ago I had something in mind to go with the flag, she said you're going to make me cry aren't you......

My friend finally found my email asking for a picture of the boat along with her Father's flag.  Here it is.  Put a smile in this old man's heart, and puts a final wrap on the build.

Nice build and wonderful gesture!

Those 1/350 subs are tiny!