Revell 1:72 Gato Class Build Questions

I forgot to mention, remove the doors on the sides of the fairwater, only museum boats have them to keep the public out and also remove the broom from the periscope sheers.

Also don't use part 49 (breather) they don't exist on the boats.

Eric... 

Division 6 wrote:

another thing to keep in mind when picking a boat is the deck, the model has a metal deck where just the area around the fairwater is wood. Some boats had full wood decking.

Thanks! That is very important info- this is beginning to get very interesting.

Take a look through the Navsource site and look at the diffirent boats to see what fits the best.

another thing to keep in mind when picking a boat is the deck, the model has a metal deck where just the area around the fairwater is wood.

Some boats had full wood decking. 

the Eduard bridge PE detail set has gun parts including sites as well as detail bits for the hatchs.

If you go to the Eduard site they have the instructions posted as a PDF file so you can see what the set has and what's involved, just do a search for Gato.

Eric... 

Thank you for all the great info thus far!

Have not picked out a boat, but since the bow doors (as molded) don't go with the Cobia, then that one is ruled out.

I don't plan on going too nuts past OOB, but there are some issues that need to be addressed.

I might end up just running styrene baffles behind the bow plane holes to prevent the "see through" problem. I will do some more research..............

I would rather have PE gunsights, but I am not going to do a new deck etc.

This will be a representative type display, but nothing can be too obviously out of character.

I am very interested in getting the exhaust correct ( easy fix) and will retain the prop guards, as the "fishing" story by the Japanese is great for conversation, so it will be a boat that retained them.

Basically, with minimal mods, I will build a boat that closely follows the Revell example OOB.

places of intrest for pictures.

NavSource 

USS Pampanito in drydock 

Ship Camouflage 

Reelmilitaryflix has some color film from a few boats on patrol 

Fleet Type Submarine on line - actual operations manuals for fleet boats 

Submarinemuseums  - look through the forum sections for some interesting stuff

AMP has a Fleet Boat forum 

If you are a paying member, subcommitteee has a section as well, they recently made it so non members can no longer read that section.

For accessories there are a number of vendors.

AMP, Nautilis, ISB, White Ensign, Eduard.

For figures

Czech Masters, Warriors and a few others. 

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Gato.

I just recently started mine, USS Bream SS-243 Late War.

Pix are pretty sketchy as to what's in behind the dive planes, there is the actual machinery that moves them and probably some piping on the pressure hull as well as framing.

Blueprints are available from Floating Drydock but it gets confusing and very expensive. 

You might be able to find something at the Batfish forum since they have been replacing the wood decking and have posted a few pix if you dig through all the topics. 

Have you decided on what boat and what date you are going to build her as, or are you going straight OOB?

No 2 boats where the same and they changed as the war went on.

While the model for the most part depicts a few boats at different stages of their careers there would be differences even in sister ships built at the same time.

The forward torpedo shutters are actually wrong for the Cobia, they should be the flat Balao style. 

Some of the things you will have to modify and add are replacing the 2 marker buoys with round ones and probably moving location depending on the boat, than there is adding the exhaust openings along the edges at the rear.

Will you be adding the flood/ballast tank openings on the bottom?

If you are doing a boat form a diffirent yard besides Electric Boat than your limber holes may be different and the anchor well may be on the port side. 

Not sure what you mean about the pix.

Are you asking how to post pictures?

If so you will need to open an account with a free on line host like Photobucket.

Once done you hit the upload image button once the window opens look for the file and image you wish to upload and click on it.

Once the image has up loaded move your mouse over the image and a menu will drop down, select the type of link and click on it, next in your post here just right click and paste (with some browsers use Ctrl v).

IMG code will post the image without having to use the little tree icon in the menu above.

Eric...