I posted elsewhere, http://forum.sub-driver.com/showthre...72-Gato/page19

Would be glad to repost if wanted.

I re-did the railings tonight because I did not like the first ones and the joints got better as I went along.

Placed the guns in and the barrel rested perfectly.

Brass looks good. I'll have to give that a go.

jack

Thanks Jack!
I will work on the front rails next. More than likely, I will leave the plastic stanchions and just use brass for the rails.
Peace,
Tom

Looks good, Tom!

Thanks Paul!


Worked a little more on conning tower railings. Got the lower rail installed.

The threading went easier than expected once I drilled out the holes with a .018 drill bit. It gave enough freedom that using tweezers, could pull the brass (.014) through. That being typed, I broke one of the stanchions before even threading the brass wire and it is making it hard to get this right (in the picture it is the one furthest away....it is glued and in position), I will let it set overnight and see what can be done tomorrow.

Also added to the deck the barrel brace.

It holds onto the barrel with, my favorite thing, magnets. One under the barrel in the hole and in the bottom of the U on the brace. I may have to uninstall it and put a pin under each hinge to fasten the brace to the deck.- will see.

Worked more on the railings and will post pictures tonight or tomorrow. I will also post of the lights I put in.
Peace,
Tom

Finished railings


and
here are the lights on (sorry for the blur)

The brass railings look great. I'll bet drill the stanchons was a little testy.

My railings had really taken a beating with transport, running & bench work. I'll have to bite the bullet and have a go at that.

Lights are nice but remember aircraft can spot you from a long way off with running lights.

jack

pjdog,
The drilling of the stanchions was not that bad. Looking back, it surprised me how well it did go. I placed my finger behind the hole and (I know this sounds dumb, so do not try it at home - I am a professional idiot) hand twisted the drill bit through. Once it begins to emerge, move finger out of the way (duh). Stringing the brass through I found it is important to use tweezers to guide the wire. It would not have worked just trying to just push the wire in the small holes without breaking all the stanchions. The tweezer was able to give just the right curve to go through the hole. Once through, the wire could relatively easily be pushed through all the stanchions for adjusting. Does that all make sense?
The .014 brass wire looks like it is supporting the stanchions. Time will tell.

The lights were for fun. Although the port and starboard were a pain to put together - these smd LEDs are very tiny - soldering them was not fun. I lost/destroyed many more than were successful (I only needed one of each).
Here is a photo for perspective - the tiny tan colored rectangles are the LEDs

After that I drilled a hole in the clear light supplied in the kit. Put the LED in and sealed it. Mounting it I butchered up the brackets holding the lights. That is another story.

It is always great to post the runs that are successful, but we learn more from th ones that.....well, have issues.

I did a run in the pool to test out the trim as I have added do-dads. It began well.
She was running well on the surface. (forgive the grainy photos - night time, crummy camera)

I like the running lights! Yet around the pool she seemed to be slow in responding and sluggish. Normally she is able to make the turn in the pool, but tonight she could not make the turns, I would have to do a two or three point turn and it seemed to get progressively worse.
I sent her under to see if that helped.

It did not help her performance.

There is a threshold of about 2 - 3 feet that my Gato goes from positive buoyancy to negative buoyancy. From my diving days, I remember that on the initial descent, that first 10 - 20 feet there is a lot of adjusting of BC/mask/ears so you would not get the squeeze or sink too fast. At 3 feet under the air volume is reduced about 10% (going off memory - please correct me if I am way off) so somewhere in that pressure. It changes things in my sub.

There came one point that I was going too fast (just seeing if forward speed affected the turn rate) when I had to put the sub in a quick reverse because a wall was coming up quick.That brought her below the positive buoyancy and she settled down to the bottom.

I tried to maneuver her up from the bottom, but this time there was no turning at all.
Fortunately my son (8) was thrilled to be the emergency diver and eagerly retrieved the sub.

Dry dock report:

In the emergency reverse I had disconnected the rudder. As far as sluggish turns, one prop was not moving. It turned out I striped the threads.


You may ask "Tom, why did you not use your gas system to come to the surface?" That is a fine question and the answer is....... I ran out of propel and thought I would not need it in the pool. Crummy answer, but true. Lesson learned.

The best part is the man who designed the system is graciously going to send me a new gear. That is cool!

New gear arrived and is installed. Now painting the sub.

and

I am leaning to I need to lighten it up. I was a bit heavy on the darker wash and US subs were cleaner than this (usually).
I am open to thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

If you have looked at my build, you know that I make many mistakes.
I went ahead and lightened the CT with a very thin light grey wash, airbrushed in and let that dry.




After sealing it with Model Masters Lacquer and letting it dry, did a trim test. Water must have gotten under or it did not adhere and the result is that nice silvering.

Tom,

We all make lots of mistakes! The difference between a master modeler and a new modeler is the ability to cover them up....

You are doing fantastic. Keep up the great work.

Matt

Matt!
If that is the case, I'm the grand poobah.
Thanks for the encouragement.

I did an interesting study on the Gato subs. I was of the belief that our subs were in great shape and always kept pristine, but I have found that is not the case. If you take a color shot from WW II and make it black and white you will see that rust disappears or looks like shading. Many photos were taken after the sub was cleaned up. So many subs may have had rust on it and you would not have guessed it.
Here is an example:

Looks nice enough. Maybe that is a shadow on the CT in the background, maybe water. Here is the picture in color.

I took the original color and made it B&W. So now you can see it is rust streaking down the CT.
O.K. how about this sub coming in.

Looks nice and clean.
Here it is in color:

This may be a surprise to you (and I have found a lot of subs with the aft end rusted)


And in color

Time for another video - weathered and with bits and pieces put on.......

Revell 1/72 Gato Submarine R/C (4 min 27 sec)