Has anyone seen any previews of this new model from Revell/Germany's 1/72 Gato? There was a preview of their German type VIIC and I can't find one on the net yet.

thanks

It is due out early November. This is the only image I could find.

Image courtesy of Gerry Paquette:

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/8260/p1001080xm5.jpg

Thanks, !!

Actually, there are quite a few shots on Revell Germany's site:

http://www.revell.de/en/products/model_kits/services/picture_galleries/submarine_gato_class_05047/

Great !! When were these posted. they weren't there last week.
I noticed from the bow picture that the vent holes are opened up. I wonder if they were molded this way or drilled out by the person who assembled this example.?

I got to hold a test shot in my hand, and its a heavy monster.

Last time I checked their web site the release date was December, now it's been moved back to January 2007

Last time I checked their web site the release date was December, now it's been moved back to January 2007

MegaHobby is adverstising the 1/72 scale Gato now. Is this the same boat we've seen from Revell/Germany?

From what I've heard on Modelwarships and Moidelshipwrights, this puppy is out 8 Nov! many have preordered (me inc), and there's sudden;y more info on RoG site.

Droooooool...

It's here, guys! Mine arrived Saturday and it's AMAZING!!! Only needed glazing putty on two small seams on that huge 52-inch hull; Now, THAT's Impressive Engineering!
---Da Sarge

The Sgt. is correct, I have seen the mega Hobby web site and they are listing the kits for sale and Mega Hobby is also selling them on ebay. So the Revell release date of January 2007 is wrong. And against the advice of my financial advisor (Hi Honey) I ordered one, I have waited years for a good model of the gato I can't wait to see it, my second reason the size of the kit will help been having lots of problems with small parts can't wait to trick out the conning tower.

Gato hit hobby shelves Mon. Nov. 6th.

Picked mine up yesterday.
Just jaw-droppingly impressive.
Happy to see decals for some of the subs that are now museum ships-makes a lot of sence.
I'm doing mine as the Silversides which is near me.

C'mon guys,.,....let's have a out-of-box review !! How does it compare and differ from the German VIIC?

As soon as mine comes in I'll be happy to give you a blow by blow review, as I have the German VIIC also sitting in the closet waiting for the day I felt like putting it together, got the kit for a great price and have been watching for a good detail book so I could one day make it a fantastic build project. As of yet havent found a good book with detail photos and drawings. But the Gato is another story I ordered a copy of "USS COD WWII Submarine memorial" Photo Museum Guide book. There are one hundred and five interior and exterior shots some in color, and many detail lovers photos of the conning tower, guns, masts, and detail photos the the bridge Target Bearing Transmitters (TBT's). Anyone intrested in a copy of the book can email the Oxford Museum Press at www.oxfordmuseumpress.com don't quote me on this I think the book was like $12.95 when I got mine last year.
Oh PS the UPS site says my kit will be here next Tuesday, maybe I can attach a couple of photos of the boats side by side with some notes. ;)

Squadron Signal Productions has also got a soft cover book out called:
Gato Class Submarines In Action #4028 $11.95

Chris

For Old Mcdonald:
Here is my very long winded review of the German U-Boat VIIC, When the Gato arrives I'll do the same and post that for those intrested to read and compare. The review and comparison to other products are the views of the author.
(A)-Excellent (B)-Very Good (C)-Good (D)-okay (E)-Poor

Name:
German U Boat VIIC
Scale:
1/72
Parts:
137
Instructions:
C
Decals:
B
Molding Quality:
A Very little flashing
Detail:
A
Accuracy:
N/A Matching against drawings I found on some web sites the boat details are very close
Length:
36-3/4 inches
Width:
3-1/2 inches
Height:
7-1/2 inches

The main hull is molded in 2 sections that when fitted together required little seam work to finish the job. The hull detail is excellent rivets are fully formed and I found no deformed areas. The kit is well packaged with 3 separate plastic bags for small parts, these are separated from the hull sections by a cardboard flap that helps prevent damage to the parts and scratches to the hull sections. The two hull sections are held in place by cardboard tabs that also provide protection for the kit parts, the over all packaging of this kit is very good. In inspecting the various parts on the sprues I found no flashing or damaged parts, or seams that needed to be repaired before assembly, the over all condition of the parts was excellent.
The kit gives you the ability to build 5 different submarines from this one kit, they are the U-69, U-82, U-203, U-253 and U-552 early or later version, decals are provided for all 5. You can build the kit with the forward torpedo tube doors open or closed, and comes with detail parts for the interior of the tubes.
The Instruction sheet is several pages long in booklet form, they are full size pages and are not stapled together (this will help if you choose to photo copy the pages). On the down side there is little in the way of instructions, it is almost all in the form of visual reference, looking at an exploded diagram of the parts to be assembled. Some of the pages can get confusing when they show the process for building one section of the kit, but also include what to add or remove for the different versions on the same page. I highly recommend photo copying the pages, then figure out what version you wish to build and then cut and paste only the information that is for your project, to a blank piece of paper then photo copy those pages to give you a new set of working instructions, to help limit mistakes.
The instructions for painting the main hull were good, using these guides plus the finished photos and drawings from the box art will help a lot in the finishing of this kit.

I give this kit from Revell of Germany high marks all around for the detail work, and quality of the finished product. The instruction sheet could be better, but is still very good in the presentation of information.

Last recommendation look for a book, or some good photos of the conning tower and adjacent super structure areas on the internet, if your thinking of adding extra details to the bridge area to help make this a super project when finished.

Paints needed: (A)-Gray (B)-Granite (C)-Dust Gray (D)-Brass (E)-Silver (F)-Steel (G)-Fiery Red (H)-Gunship Gray (I)-Light Gray (J)-Leaf Green (K)-Black (L)-White

Thanks for a great review on the German boat. One can never give too much info on a review. I'm planning to order one along with my Gato and a large scale phantom from Tamiya for my Xmas present. I look forward to hearing about the Gato when you receive it.

To all of those who have started building theirs, please feel free to add comments of your progress. I'm looking forward to hearing how your builds go.

Excellenty review. I've ordered mine and am anxiosuly awaiting it! Now I feel pretty good about thanks to the review.

So what boats are everyone doing?

Grouper SS214 (a wonderful mate was a younf lt onboard Grouper in 1952 when she was Guppy).

to Rokket2001:
I hope your talking of ordering the German U-Boat XIIC model, that is what the review I posted was on. Another modeler asked for a review of both the VIIC and the Gato boat kits.

The good news the UPS web site says my Gato kit arrived yesterday morning at the phoenix hub. So I should have it tonight when I get home from work, and can give it a good looking over and do my review, I will also post a couple of picks of both kits together for reference, you will probably not be ablt to make out a much detail but you will be able to judge the difference in over all size.

So far, I love my Gato.
I tape assembled the hull and sat my U-boat next to it.
Holy crap. Thats the nice thing about subjectsin the same scale. The Gato dwarfs the U-boat.

Some initial thoughts on assembly...
On mine, the HUGE hull sections have a slight outward warp to them. While the ends mate up just fine, and the top has no problems. Gluing the bottom of the hull is a little bit of a pain. I almost had to force the pieces together, and it wasn't due to any internal obstructions. Definatly test this on yours before you glue.

Next was the assembly of the forward and rear hull sections. The rear was a little goofy and a little overly complicated I thought. I think they did things to guarantee alignments ie: rudder and planes. Some of this in my mind didn't seem necessary. Consider cutting off the 'cross' pieces of the main rudder and pushing it up through the hole after the sides are assembled. That alignment is no brainer.

Forward hull half offered no real issues. Just keep in mind about possibly painting some things before assembling the hull halfs. After assembling the halfs, look inside to make sure those halfs are both compressed against pt.s 13 and 14.

The stage I'm at now is assembling both front and rear hull sections to the main hull. It appears to me that adding some shims to the gluing surfaces might be necessary in order to get the outer hull serfaces to be flush with each other. This is speculation and I have to look at this again.

Warning: This hull is LONG. There will have to be some putty work on the hull sections and you might not want some dangling delecate parts attached to the front and rear while your whipping this hull around during sanding.

The kit was sitting on the island when I got home from work, and here are my thoughts on the kit.

(A)-Excellent (B)-Very Good (C)-Good (D)-okay (E)-Poor

Name:
U.S. Gato class Submarine
Scale:
1/72
Parts:
Numerious
Instructions:
B
Decals:
A
Molding Quality:
A Very little flashing
Detail:
A
Accuracy:
N/A Matching against drawings I found on some web sites the boat details are very close
Length:
52 inches

The main hull is molded in 6 sections, these you will need to be careful when assembling the sections to make sure you get a good straight line along the hull. When done you will have 4 joints in the hull to seal and the main seam down the length of the hull. The hull detail is very good, I found no deformed areas on any of the pieces. The kit is well packaged with several plastic bags containing most of the small parts, also some of the larger sections are placed inside their own bag, inside the parts bags. The small part bags are separated from the hull sections by a cardboard flap that the main hull is secured to with plastic bands, these bags are secured to the bottom and side of the box with wide tape, the over all packaging of this kit is very good. In inspecting the various parts on the sprues I found almost no flashing and no damaged parts, all the bridge railings that need to have wire or thread passed through the eyelets were all perfectly formed and open. The over all condition of the parts was excellent.
The kit gives you the ability to build 4 different submarines from this one kit, they are the SS-245 USS Cobia. SS-236 USS Silversides, SS-249 USS Flasher and SS-215 USS Growler. Decals are provided for all 4 boats with Conning tower numbers, flags, battle flags, Radio call signs and victory flags for each boat. The rear torpedo tubes have doors that set back inside the openings. The Instruction sheet is several pages long in booklet form, they are full size pages and are stapled together, there is lots of guide information and the drawings are very sharp and clear I highly recommend photo copying the pages, then figure out what version you wish to build and then cut and paste only the information that is for your project, to a blank piece of paper then photo copy those pages to give you a new set of working instructions, to help limit mistakes.
The instructions for painting the main hull were good, using these guides plus the finished photos and drawings from the box art will help a lot in the finishing of this kit.

I am slightly disappointed in the quality of detail, or lack of detail for the bridge and masts for the boat. Photos are included of all 4 boats but are to small and to far away to give you an idea of the amount of detail these boats have in these areas. A search of internet site will help in fixing this should you choose to improve this area of your kit.
I give this kit from Revell of Germany high marks all around for the quality of the finished product.

Last recommendation look for a book, or some good photos of the conning tower and adjacent super structure areas on the internet, if your thinking of adding extra details to the bridge area to help make this a super project when finished.

Paints needed: Light Ghost Gray/ Brass/ Silver/ Light Gray/ Semi Gloss Black/ Flat White

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/3439/gato1za4.jpg
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/3032/gato2kx8.jpg
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/9537/gato3qs1.jpg

For those wishing there were more and better photos, and wishing there were photos of almost every submarine from WWII that they could copy and print. there is, check out www.navsource.org click submarines, then click fleet boats and every boat is listed in number order. For the 4 boats this kit gives you decals for, there are very few good shots of Growler. Flasher there are several very good shots of the bridge during and after the war. The Cobia has several exterior and interior shots, while silversides has the most and some of the best phots. For areas you cannot faid a good shot of for these 4 boats, if you look at some of the other boats you should be able to find a shot of almost any exterior area you want to see, that will help you with finishing this kit.

Well dang, they could have just molded the hull into halves instead of quarters......and no open torpedo tubes???

Is the deck also in quarters?

The deck is broken into 3rd's and the way they designed this kit is intresting how they make it all come together, but you'll have to be carefull as to what you do assemble along the way as there are going to be several seams to work on. And I'm not pleased with the front of the bridge at all, I think they blew it there, if your modeling the look of the boats during WWII your going to have to do a lot of cutting down and some scratch building to build the angled piece along the front of the bridge I think it's called a cowling for deflecting the force of waves breaking across the conning tower during bad weather. For a post war boat, or a muesum boat you'll be okay with the bridge as it is. But during the war they cut away every piece of unneeded super structure they could to make the boats less visible at night when the moon was out, and also to reduce weight and drag under water.

To better illustrate my point about the changes in the look of the conning towers here are two photos of the same submarine SS 236 Silversides.

This photo is from 1941-1942 just after her commissions:
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/7280/ss236avz0.jpg
check out the bridge structure and the periscope housings.

Now look at this photo from the museum site, This is also how the Silversides looked in another photo dated 1944, this photo was just better quality and shows more detail.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/9766/ss236bse3.jpg
look at how the bridge and side walls have been cut down, opening up the area along the periscopes and radar masts. the bridge has gone from being raised on a platform to level with the gun deck. As I said building the kit in this form will require several modifications to the conning tower of the model, but you'll have a fantastic looking kit when it is finished. Another note, in the second photo of Silversides the rear gun deck of the conning tower comes to a point, on the model the rear deck is rounded. To correct this would require new railings, an a lot of scratch building work, I could live with that one ooops.

The photos are from Navsource.org

Just got my Gato--somehow it's much bigger than I thought it would be, even after measuring 52" out with a tape measure... A note on the conning towers of the Gato class--if you look at photos, you'll see that there are many variations of tower design, even on the same boat during the war years. The Revell kit is modeled on the Cobia, now a museum in Wisconsin, and appears largely correct for depicting a wartime Cobia. From a side-view on navsource.org, it also seems close to correct for Growler as of May 1943.

The kit conning tower is also fairly similar to that on Flasher and Silversides in their late-war configuration, but you'll notice even in the photos in the kit instructions that there are some corrections necessary, notably in cutting down the open bridge for these two boats, and repositioning of the aft sail lockers.

The kit conning tower is completely wrong for Growler and other early Gatos in their early-war configuration. For all four boats for which decals are provided in the kit, the railing around the 40mm gun mount appears to be wrong for depicting a WWII configuration; there should be a platform overhang on both sides of the gun, as visible in the instruction sheet photo of Flasher's conning tower (also available in color at navsource.org).

Beyond the conning tower, the limber holes as depicted in the kit are correct for the wartime Cobia, Flasher, and a number of other boats, but many boats had extra holes added during their service; Silversides and Growler both had additional rows added that ran the length of the superstructure.

I expect that aftermarket companies will release a selection of replacement conning towers for the various major configuration changes and builder irregularities in the Gato class, such as the original-style tower with the round portholes, but even then you will probably have to do some careful image research to get it just right for the particular boat you are modelling. Of course, I'm still working my Revell Lionfish conversion of the USS Torsk, where I used to work as a guide--promised myself I'd finish that before tackling the Gato!