I've begun work on my revell 1/72 scale Gato Class Submarine. After looking at the 4 choices they say can be build from this kit, I have decided to go another route and using my book from the Oxford Press on the USS Cod. I assembled the center section of the hull yesterday, and that was a fun project the upper section and bow and stern areas of the central hull fit together very well. But during the forming process the keel area developed a bow, and when the two sections were fitted together the keel had a 1/2 inch gap in the center. I attached 4 layers of masking tape to the side of the hull and using a large C-clamp and 2 smaller C-clamps I cemented the hull and pressed the two sections together, using the clamps to compress the area with the gap, and a couple of spots along the top of the hull.
Today I started on the bow, and was about to cement the two sections together when I realized a piece was missing, I located the part and decided to check my book on the cod. After looking over photos of the Cod's bow I discovered I have a bunch of modifications to do before cementing the two sections together, there are numerous drain holes to be drilled just behind and above the torpedo tube doors. There are also going to be several changes to the conning tower and the periscope housings, the radar mast has to be moved to the rear where the radio mast is, the radio mast get moved to the rear gun deck, and all the forward and rear storage lockers mounted in the conning tower have to be flipped to the opposite ends to match the Cod. Photos later, the fun has begun.

Tonight I did some work on the first half of the bow, using photos from the USS Cod book, I marked and drilled flood holes along the top of the torpedo tube outer doors, then directly behind all three outer door panels. The cast flood holes along side the forward buoyancy tank I also drilled these out. I have some baffles to build and attach between the limber holes in the area above the buoyancy tank and when both sides are finished this section will be ready to attach to the main hull.

Here are the photos I keep mentioning
In the first photo this is the center section of the hull for the USS COD after it was cemented together, with large C-clamps used to press the joints that had gapped open together, I placed several strips in the spots where the clamps were positioned to prevent them from damaging the hull.

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/9146/cod1ec0.jpg

The second photo shows the two bow sections, the one on the left is the original look, the section on the right I have added flood holes across the top of the torpedo tube outer doors and just behind the doors. Looking at the photo here the flood holes behind the outer doors do not show up very well but there are 76 holes they are spaced 4 across and 8 rows down on the first door and 7 rows down on the other two doors.

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/134/cod2tn7.jpg

Robert -

This is fantastic! You are breaking new ground on this model for the rest of us. The phots show some great work, and a lot of serious clamping!

I have produced some PE for the Revell VIIC, and am looiking at what will be needed for the Gato - do you think brass drill templates would have helped with the extra holes?

Also, if you don't mind, would like to link to this post fropm my Gato forum:
http://p104.ezboard.com/brevellgatosub

Keep up the great work! :thumbsup:

Ahhhh pictures! I see you got out the industrial 'C' clamps for this project.

Ahhhh pictures! I see you got out the industrial 'C' clamps for this project.
Yeah it was either use the C-clamps or sit on the hull to close the gap in the keel, and I had other things I needed to get done.
The bow has been attached to the main hull, and it went into place very well. Flood holes are being drilled in the stern along the upper deck center line along with the ones around the torpedo tubes. Other than that not a lot out of the normal going on with the kit, the big changes will be when I get to the bridge and a couple of small modifications to the upper deck. Oh yeah one other change to the main hull, I do not have any information on the underwater sound heads that can be retracted into the hull as to their correct size, so I'm just going to wing it there, I know their general location and I'm going to scratch build a set and mount then into 2 recessed wells in the bottom of the hull. Last point this is a model that I want to look like the USS Cod, The paint job I've chosen may not have ever been on the Cod but I like the look and have seen drawings of this paint scheme, it will be Light Ghost Gray top with red belly and White camo misting along the sides. I do not really care for the Black and Grey camo colors. More later...

Great work! It's nice to see an in-progress build of this model. :thumbsup:

In the photos, please point out the modifications you make for the customization of the boat to the USS Cod.

The work compleated last night was sanding the joint lines down along the keel and top joint seams, had a couple of arear where the plastic pieces were a little out of alignment, and rather than spread a bunch of putty, I shaved off the raised areas with some 240 grit sand paper attached to a balsa block with double sided tape. After I smoothed out the areas I went back with some 360 grit sand paper and smoothed out the rough plastic. Here's a shot of all the main hull sections joined together.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5384/cod3jt9.jpg

For anyone wanting to do the flod holes n the nose area by the torpedo doors the measurements I came up with are 4 holes across set .050 apart by 7 holes down also set .050 apart. I used a #74 drill bit for these holes and the ones in the torpedo door are set .080 apart and also drilled with a #74 bit.
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4018/cod4yf3.jpg

The flood holes above the rear torpedo tube openings are along the seam line and are set at .080 apart and again done with a #74 drill bit.
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/8756/cod5rr0.jpg

Amazing work! Looking great!

yer gonna need a bigger bench.

yer gonna need a bigger bench.
Yeah the cleaning lady only comes on thursdays, and she seee my work bench and just starts laughing :confused:

After digging through the "Nav-source web site" I located some drawings of exploded views of the different interior components of the Gato style submarine, like hydraulic line placement through the vessel, ballast tank locations, fuel oil tank locations. Any way digging through these many different drawings there were some good views of the Underwater Sound Equipment that gave me a general idea of how the units looked. Using those as my guide I dug through my odds and ends box, and I used a 1/4 inch wooden balls for the sound head, and 4 sizes of styrene tube to form the housing inside the hull of the ship, and the support arms that extend the unit from inside the hull. The last task was bending a strip of styrene to make the straps that hold the sound head to the support arms. My last project for today was to start applying putty around the openings I drilled for mounting the Sound Heads to the hull. then I started filling in the two joint lines where the bow and stern attach to the main hull. Photos to follow when the areas are completed.

The newest photo shows the two forward sound heads as they will be mounted on the finished project, hanging down as the boat patrols enemy waters, with the sound man constantly listening on his head phones for the sound of propellers turning in the water Thump - thump - thump. The finished sound heads look very close to the drawings I found, with the mounting strap across the top of the balls, the tapered shaft. The mounting hole is a little small and the heads could not be retracted into it like the real ones because the ball with the strap is slightly wider than the hole. But it is there just as a representation of how the real ones looked.
Work on the bow and stern joint lines is going very slowly, I ran two strips of masking tape on each side of the joint, then applied auto body putty to fill in the gap. After the putty was dry I removed the masking tape, and using a block of balsa wood with double stick tape applied to one side as a sanding block. I started to carefully sand away the putty, along the main area of the joint this works very well but up along side the cast on wield lines you have to be very careful, just get up to the line and stop. For removing the putty from along the wield lines I used the side of an X-acto blade, just lightly scraping it across the area removing a small amount of putty with each pass. With the balsa block method of sanding you cannot wet sand the area, so you have to keep wiping off the sand paper strip (which I do with an old tooth brush) and dusting off the area being sanded (there I use an old shaving brush) to keep the sand paper from gumming up. For the main sanding and to cut through the putty quickly I'm using 240 grit sand paper, this means I'll have to go back and smooth the areas with 360 grit paper later before I go to paint.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9681/cod6cy2.jpg

Beautiful, beautiful stuff!

My seam work along the joint lines at the bow and stern is finished, it leaves a little to be desired but I'm stopping at a point where it will pass the two foot rule. I'm stopping before I damage the cast on weld lines. I came up with a solution (of course after I had most of the putty work done), my solution is you could sand away the weld lines and when finished smoothing the joint lines, then cut pieces of .006 (maybe smaller) brass wire and cement them into place replacing any damaged or areas of weld lines removed on purpose. I've used that trick on Ho-Scale locomotives for adding the weld line across the top of the cab and around the fuel tank. Tonight I plan to start attaching the side panels that support the upper deck work along the bow area, also I want to tear into the forward escape trunk above the torpedo room. Revell did an okay job making it look close to the real one, but the hatch that allows entry into the torpedo room by the stairway from the upper deck in the side of the cylinder is to small. I'm going to open up the hatch and add a few details along the walls of the interior of the cylinder you can see into when viewing through the deck access way above.

Thanks for the pics, Robert. I just picked up the Gato this morning. I'm going to be following your progress on this build up.

when I went to begin working on the forward torpedo room escape trunk, I had high hopes of adding some nice interior details to make it stand out. The attached photo will show I took the supplied part, drilled out the cast on hatch and using a curved hobby file. I widened the opening, then made the hatch taller by moving the top up slightly and the bottom of the hatchway almost to the deck, like the photos in the USS Cod book shows. I used a piece of .010 X .060 styrene strip to form a new hatch ring around the modified hatch opening, after setting the escape trunk in place I cemented the the side panels to the main hull, then attached the upper deck with masking tape to hold the side panels in place while they dried. Looking through the stairwell opening at the new hatch, I very quickly saw any added details inside the escape trunk would never be seen, no matter which way I turned the hull you cannot see any further that the now open hatchway. So much for that great idea, but the escape trunk hatchway really stands out now. It was a good idea, now all I have to do is build the new hatch....

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/544/cod7fw6.jpg

At the beginning of this project I mentioned how I wanted to paint this boat with the gray upper body and white mist streaks, and a red underbody. This morning I went back through the navsource.org web site, because I remember seeing a line drawing somewhere in there of a submarine with this paint scheme. On the web site this coloring is noted as "Ms9" paint scheme, used around 1943. Attached is a photo of one of the Revell Loinfish 1/200 scale Gato submarine models I built a year or two ago and used this color combination on, I made several modification to this kit again using photos from nav-source as my guide. All the railings are made from brass wire super glued in place, and the bridge was cut down to a war time configuration, but because of the scale of the kit I couldn't upgrade the periscope, radar and radio housings the way I would have liked to. Another reason I have been awaiting the release of the great kit.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7973/cod8bn1.jpg

Robert, love the esacpe trunk, very, very nice. The detail - well, you tried! I admire that extra-extra-extra-effort! And again, it's coming along beautifully.

Trying to divide my time between this project, and building a small Ho-scale switching layout in my garage, slows things down at times. Just installed a display shelf in the craft room to hold this monster and store it during the build process. Work is continuing on the hull and upper deck, This part of the ship is basically the same on all the boats, I'll just be adding a few extra details Revell may have left off. I'm also preparing to start making numerous modification to the conning tower to convert it to the war time configuration of the USS COD. As for the decals needed for the COD there are enough numbers on the decal sheet provided by Revell to piece together a set of numbers. For the emblem a skull with a torpedo through the forehead, I'm going to take a digital photo of the war flag and emblem from the USS COD book and see if I can convert that into a decal sheet for the display stand, and a set for the conning tower as I've seen when the ship is in port for refit, or re-supplying displaying their kills and damaged ship scores. As with the rest of the project when I complete a job or make a change photos will follow with information on the how it was done.

In the first photo you see the support structure that holds the periscopes, radar masts and lookout positions. On the sides of each of the six legs marked (A) on the photo I cut away all of the fins there, I used side cut pliers, then to sand the sides smooth I used a block of balsa wood with double stick tape attached to it. When the leg is pressed onto the tape the pressure of the file and the adhesive hold the leg in place. To make these legs look like I-beams I attached .015 X .060 Styrene strips at (B) after the support structure is installed on the bridge then I'll add the strips at (D). The next thing to do is cut away the extension at (C) just in front of the mounting hole for the periscope, if your building the COD.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5920/codbsp9.jpg

Photo two is a full bridge drawing, the red line just below the running light arm that is the cut line for lowering the bridge side walls and across the front of the bridge. The hatch at (C) will need to be lowered for the modification to be done to the front of the bridge to build the curved edge and wave baffle. The light at (A) needs to be cut away and moved to (B). All the hatch structures with the black lines running to them do not install they must be removed a couple with be added but in a different location, and some must be swapped from the forward area to the rear of the bridge housing, more on hat later.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5194/codcsm1.jpg

Here is a photo of the work started.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/5100/cod9vn5.jpg

^^Impressive! It's already starting to look a lot like your diagrams indicate it should.

The superstructure has been cut down, to a war time shape. The raised area on the forward bulkhead for the hatch in front of the bridge has been sanded smooth. This hatch has to be lowered to make room for the new contoured edge along the front of the bridge. The biggest and most time consuming part of this change over is going to be the removal of all the raised lips where storage hatches are to be attached, many of these hatches are not in the right locations for the COD, or where a large hatch is located a small hatch is needed. The removal of these raised areas will result in the loss of some of the rivet lines in some sections of the hull. In the photo the new look of the bridge really stands out now after cutting down all the bridge panels.

http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/8277/cod10ik8.jpg

Robert,

Fine work, looking very, very nice.

More destruction and mayhem on the bridge of the USS COD. Last night I took a fish-tailed router and starting in the center of each of the storage tubes cast on the port side of the hull, I drilled through and slowly cut away the raised areas until all I had left was a very thin lip of the outer edge. I then took a round hobby file and removed more material until the lip was almost translucent, then I used an X-acto knife to carefully cut away this lip from the hull. the front and rear storage tube mounting nubs were all sanded smooth, as most of these have to be swapped from one end to the other. On the starboard side I removed all of the storage tubes, except the one to the left of the hatch, this tube isn't in the correct spot but it is close enough it will do. next I cemented strips of styrene behind each of the openings, and will rough cut some other pieces and cement them into the openings to fill in the voids. Then body putty will be applied to fill any gaps.
Up on the bridge I cut away the raised platform that sailors would have stood on, I cut this down flush with the rest of the bridge deck, then I cemented a piece of .020 styrene to fill the opening left by cutting away the platform. I also cut away the small hatch mounting lip that was cast onto the lower ledge across from the conning tower entry hatch. On the USS COD the bridge deck runs flush right up to the forward bulkhead, but on the model the bridge deck drops down to a lower ledge, and I'm going to leave this alone it doesn't effect the overall look of the kit, and changing the height of this section of the deck would effect the forward hatch from the bridge to the forward gun deck. More work tonight.

Keep us posted and some pix of that would be great!

Keep us posted and some pix of that would be great!
There will be a photo or two today, I did a couple of small items last night didn't have as much time as I would have wanted to work on the project.

Time - yes, I know all about it. But you're making great proress and doing great work.

Here's a shot showing the work completed so far, the hatch mounting nubs are gone and in their place strips of styrene for attaching filler pieces and filler putty. Along the top of the bridge walls I attached .020 X .080 styrene strips to form the ledge seen in photos this will be extended down the end of the bulkhead after I add the wings on both sides of the bridge. On the inside of the wall panels I cut away the guide bars for attaching the fold down platforms for lookouts to stand on. That's all for now.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8721/gatohj6.jpg

Hi Robert,
Nice, thanks!

I just received mine yesterday, and I see what you mean about the clamps! Generally a very nice model, hull good too, EXCEPT FIT! I actually thought there was some kind of 3rd piece, a strip that went in there, because the hull does NOT close by itself! Oh Boy

The new locations for the storage tubes have been drilled, then finished up with a round hobby file to the finished width. New storage tubes made of .250 styrene tube are in the process of being installed, and after some touchup work around the openings the hatch covers will be cemented in place for the small tubes. The two large storage tube have yet to be added. On the bridge deck the slots for that storage tube that is attached to the deck have been filled in, as it is not seen in any of my photos of the COD. The conning tower is almost ready to be assembled.

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1462/gato2gg5.jpg

Are you going to ahve any of the ammo hatches open?

Are you going to ahve any of the ammo hatches open?
There are no plans to leave any of the hatches open, also I have no real idea what they looked like inside. Also if you look at the photo close, you'll also notice I've removed the set of lights that were mounted above the deck on the side of the hull, and they are now located in a more correct location just to the left of the hatch mounted on the bulkhead.

All the new storage tubes are installed in their new locations, I'll wait to attach the hatches until I've done the touch up work around the sides filling in any gaps. The next task will be to sand off the deck planking from the rear gun deck, it is in the wrong configuration for the COD. I was looking through my bin of kitbashing supplies and found some .020 X .030 strip styrene, a tad oversized to match the planking on the main deck but from a short distance away should look fine. I'm going to install planking on the forward gun deck, along the main bridge area back to the first periscope housing, last replace the decking I sanded off of the rear gun deck extending this within a few feet of the SJ radar mast. Then the hard project will be coming up, changing the shape of the forward bulkhead adding the curved cap along the front of the bridge, I have an idea how it can be done, just don't know how strong the joints will be as it will have to be sanded in place to conform to the shape of the bridge bulkheads.

Here is how the new planking looks installed almost half way done. After it's all in I'll go back from the underside and drill out all the covered up mounting holes, along with cutting off the sections that extend past the end of the deck. To try and keep the spacing looking half way right I would cement the back of each plank with slow ACC set it in place and run the back edge of the thinnest X-acto blade I have along the joint line. Doesn't look bad at all.

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/7264/gato3nr1.jpg

Robert,

I hope you don't mind if I take notes for when I finally do mine, man your doing some great work on your kit without all the aftermarket stuff thats not out yet.

Nice stuff! :thumbsup:

Hi Robert,

planking looking very nice. Based on the Floating Drydock stuff, I think your strips of .020 x .030" are just right:

Full size
1.5 thick x 2" high, .75" gap
or metric
38 x 50.8mm, 19mm gap

scale
.020 x .027
or metric
.527 x .705mm

I'm very interested to see such scale planking success. I'm doing Grouper (SS214), and she was an all wood deck boat. The kit deck appears correct scale, but is flush instead of having that .020"/.5mm thickness, and the bow and stern are metal, so if I plank I have my work cut otu! (Was thinking of PE, but so much metal is hard to glue and will expand/contract different to rest of boat, and laser cut styrene gets melted and bitty, and wood would be too thick and require huge rebating.)

Keep the pix coming!

(From Fluke) I hope you don't mind if I take notes for when I finally do mine, man your doing some great work on your kit without all the aftermarket stuff thats not out yet.

Take all the information you like, that's what it is there for, to help some one else build a good looking kit.

(From Rokket2001) I'm very interested to see such scale planking success.

Once you get the cnter line marked and the first piece laid down the process goes very quickly, I work side to side laying one piece here, then do the other side, with the slow set ACC by the time I get back to the opposite side the ACC is set enough I can attach the next piece.

Excellent, thank you Robert. I didn't think to handle it like an actual flooring job (one side/other). Assuming you're using a shim for spacing? And just a few dots of CA?

Excellent, thank you Robert. I didn't think to handle it like an actual flooring job (one side/other). Assuming you're using a shim for spacing? And just a few dots of CA?

the actual process of installing the planks is as follows. I marked the centerline of the deck, this is mainly to get the first piece laid straight. Then I lay one piece of the styrene strip on the deck measure, and cut to length leaving a little extra to hang off the end on the deck this has two reasons. 1-It gives me something to hag on to with tweezers when setting the strip into place on the deck. 2-After the deck is installed I'll cut off the excess, this will leave the planking going right to the edge of the deck, and it will also hide some of the joint between the conning tower hull and the deck where they meet. Holding the strip in place with tweezers I spread ACC along the full length of the strip ( I use old broken drill bit shafts, held in a old pin vise as a glue applicator this way I get a fine line of cement along the length of the plank). I set the plank on the deck right up against the next plank, then I use the back side of the thinnest X-acto blade I could find in my supply of blades to open the gap between the two planks and keep all of the gaps looking the same. Also don't worry about cement smearing on the deck, or if one of the planks hit ones already installed, a light sanding before you cement the deck in place will clean up any flaws there.
And of course I ran out of strips this morning two short of finishing all the planking. And it's almost 25 miles to the only shop in my area that carries the stuff. Looks like a Saturday road trip. Here is how it looks now.

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/3617/gato4xc0.jpg

Thanks, Robert, very helpful. It works great because your deck is looking superb. There is hope for my project! Tahnsk for the detail. You're going to have a superb boat when finished.

Can't wait to see this thing finished! :thumbsup: rr

Did a little work last night on a couple of other areas of the conning tower, I just can never seem to want to read the instruction booklets. I gave in and installed the grab irons on the side of the conning tower, in the locations the manufacturer marked, not the correct spots but I can live with that one, but I didn't do it their way. I used a #80 drill bit and the small indention's in the hull were fine for guiding the drill bit working from the outside of the bulkhead and drilling into the inside, using a hand pin vice. I installed the grab irons and placed a strip of .040 X .060 styrene behind the rungs and applied cement to the ends of the rungs sticking through the bulk head. I checked the alignment of the grab irons and made any adjustments then set them aside to dry. The gaps around the storage tubes were filled in and the hatches were attached. Last I used a #62 drill bit to drill out the stanchion post mounting holes on the forward deck, I drilled these from the under side by placing the deck upside down on a scrap of balsa wood, then holding it firmly in place I drilled slowly through the original holes doing this prevented any of the new plank strips from breaking off and also left a smooth round hole with no flashing to scrape away. Tonight I want to get the conning tower assembled and the deck in place.

All the bridge deck planking is installed, the storage tube hatches are all hung in place, the grab iron ladder rungs are in and I just finished cutting and adding the small end wings to the rear of the bridge bulkhead. After everything is dry I'll re-drill all the mounting holes for the railing stanchions, then trim off the excess planking that overhangs the bridge deck and the rear gun deck. For this I use a single edge razor blade and a small steel ruler, I lay the deck area where I want to trim the planking across a piece of square balsa wood, set my ruler in place and make a couple of cuts across the planking, I use my X-acto knife to pop off the ends I just cut off and I have a nice straight line on the planking. After I cement the conning tower, also adding the ( 2 ) large storage tubes to the front and rear of the conning tower and installing the bridge deck a couple of photos will be posted.

Okay the conning tower has reached the 50% zone, so here are the photos I promised.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/2499/gato5jl0.jpg
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8179/gato6yt5.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7665/gato7wk5.jpg
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/356/gato8me2.jpg

Very nice, looking great. Thanks fro the pix.

The conning tower has advanced some more, starting with the mast support legs. I set the mast superstructure in place on the bridge deck and marked where the cut down bulkhead side walls hit along the legs. Next I used a small length of masking tape pressed onto the leg to measure the length of strip styrene I'd need to form the outer flap of the I-beam. Using some .015 X .080 strip styrene I cut 6 new flaps for the outer edge of the support legs. I turned the superstructure upside down and using fast set super glue attached each strip to the top of the legs, and left the rest of the flap sticking out like wings. After I was sure the flaps were dry, one at a time, I applied super glue to each leg down to the mark I measured earlier, then I folded the styrene strip over the outside of the leg and held it in place for just a minute till set, my I-beam is done. For the bridge cowling I have no idea how this is going to turn out but this is what I'm trying to do. Using a piece of .250 styrene tube (1/4 inch) I cut a section off on a 45 degree angle, then marked this around the outside diameter in quarters. I also cut one section off with straight ends and marked this off in quarters. Using hobby side cutters I cut 2 quarter section out of the piece cut on a 45 degree angle and one quarter section out of the piece with the straight cuts. These pieces were super glued together to form a Simi V shape. There are no exact measurements on the length of the pieces I'm just eye balling them as I go and they will be cut down drastically later on. The forward bridge bulkhead I cut down another .145 inches to allow for the cowling and the new deck planking on the gun deck, I still have to cut out the opening for the forward hatch and make a ring for the hatch to seal against. The center section of the cowling needs a filler piece to get it to the same length as the side pieces, the fun will begin when I try to start cutting this piece down to size and do the sanding and filing to shape it to match up with the shape of the bulkhead.

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/5739/gato9br0.jpg

Mr. Hargrave...
As I follow your conversion....I saw this posted today...
The SubCommittee (http://s181686668.onlinehome.us/phpBB2/messageboards.php5)
Then goto the "The Submarine Drydock/The Fleetboat Dock/Late war (1945) Gato fairwater Drawing & Photos"
I tried a direct link,but it went to the main page....
These may come in handy...As well as some other stuff that is popping up over there about the "Gato"....


Jeff

Mr. Hargrave...
As I follow your conversion....I saw this posted today...
The SubCommittee (http://s181686668.onlinehome.us/phpBB2/messageboards.php5)
Then goto the "The Submarine Drydock/The Fleetboat Dock/Late war (1945) Gato fairwater Drawing & Photos"


Jeff

Thanks for the link, there is some interesting stuff going on over there, was intrested in the flood holes in the belly of the ship conversation, made a drawing from their information, and can still add that to my kit.

Your very welcome....

Jeff