Newbie no more - Building the Revell 1/72 Gato

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compiling details for finishing the sub I ran into this picture. This helps answer the position of the bow planes from a discussion in an earlier post.

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The inside corners of the deck had received a liberal amount of cohesive and was allowed time to dry. Then ran thicker CA to reinforce the joints. Also put in a tab to help the side line up with the bow.

Then, using thin CA and baking soda, filled in the gap. I plan to make sure the CA gets a good coat of primer to seal it. I have read that it can absorb water and not hold, not sure if it is true.

My clip did not do what I wanted. The very bottom stuck out slightly. So to fix that, I cut out a smaller clip near the bow flood holes.

That took care of the problem. There is a small corner of the clip showing showing through the flood hole. You can see how flush that little tab makes the fit. I am not so certain I need the larger side clip, so I may consider removing it later.

Trimmed the length of the larger clip and the corner of the smaller one.

I am waiting for some parts and just going to do some cosmetic work on the deck and hull. Filling the seams with Nitro-Stan is just one of those things.

Sanded down to smooth it out

And fixing the deck mess I made is another (my priorities are still to get the submarine done). Here is the deck with the glue that leaked onto it and filled holes and grooves.

I began with .0145” drill bit and drilled the holes out. Not too deep, but maybe 3 or four turns drilling in and 6 turns counter clockwise to remove loose plastic bits. Then moved to .024” drill to make the hole closer to the size of the other holes on the deck. For this, I went one full turn drilling in and three or four going out. I used my engraving tool to recreate the filled in grooves and clean out the partially filled ones. Here is how it came out.

Here are the tools I used.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Excellent work. You'll have more control applying that touch-up putty if you use a putty-knife -- right now you're laying it down too thick.

Good fix on those deck holes!

David,

[trout]

Thank you for the tip. The black putty knife I began to use (it was made for bondo) began to melt while using the Nitro-Stan. What do you use?
When do you use the Evercoat versus the Nitro-Stan or at what point would I make that decision?

[trout]

I AM SUCH AN IDIOT!!!!!
I came home wanting to test out the spatula to see if the Metal Glaze would melt it.
Here is the tool in question.....

I may have inherited it from my dad or grand father, but I have no idea where I got it. Here you can see the melting of the tip.

It is obviously been used before. Look closely at the blurred picture near the handle.

When I stop laughing, I will head off to the auto store and get real spatulas made for the job.....

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Only use the Nitro-Stan (or any other air-dry touch-up putty) where the depth of fill does not exceed 1/32" -- in other words, us it only for scratch filling. In all other situations use the two-part fillers.

Harbor freight sometimes has little putty-knife sets on the shelf -- look for them at Micro-Mart and other such mail-order tools sources.

David,

[trout]

Thank you for the putty knife direction. I ordered my ESC and some misc. other stuff, will be working on designing the innards of the WTC.
I plan on having snort, LiPo, ADR, ESC, and I think I am forgetting something else. I will have the plans up soon for review.

[trout]

David has posted a picture of the wiring on another post. I will have one done with crayons and pictures (I have to work on my level of intelligence - lol). I am waiting on some hardware to come in as well.


I ran into a slight problem with the install of my propellor shaft. I did not angle it in enough to give me the clearance for the bearings. Until the new ones come in - Thank you David! - that part of the install is on hold.


So, it has been a busy week (Tina’s, my wife, birthday), not so much on the Gato. However some work was done, I began working on the flood holes.


Found a drawing of the flood holes here:
http://www.subcommittee.com/SubComm/...m?MemberID=154


or here is one:



I printed the plan to scale and marked my hull in sections and labeled the pattern the same, beginning at the bow.



Caswell sells stick-on pattern here:
http://www.caswellplating.com/models...templates.html


They are a different pattern than the ones I used. So go with which ever one you wish. I will say this, after doing the work I did, go with the stick-ons. I am not going crazy on accuracy here, so I do not know if one pattern is more appropriate for the Gato I am building or not. I am trying to save a dollar here and there, but the time it took to cleanup the glue, I think the few dollars the pattern costs is minimal. However, if you like to go the hard road (like I seem to do) well buckle up - you are in for a ride.


I use to do home brewing and bottle my own beer (there is a point to this digression). Then create labels for the bottles. One way of attaching the labels to the bottles is using milk. The reason for using milk is when you wash the bottles the label will separate easily and the stickiness of milk worked well as a adhesive. Do you know where I am going with this? Yep, Hey why not use it for the flood hole pattern?

I was tickled with myself, but that euphoric feeling quickly dissipated (or evaporated) by the time I got to the aft end. The bow pattern just lifted off - it was in the shape of my hull, but useless for what I wanted. It must work on glass because of the smooth surface or I have defective cow's milk.
My son had been doing his school work near by and I spotted white glue. That will work.



One section at a time, I glued and applied the pattern being careful to line up the seam on the keel with the pattern’s mid-line.



Not as euphoric, but glad it was done. Even that satisfaction did not last. These popped off as well! Now I am ticked (well mildly aggravated). Got the CA thin and glued these on. That worked!
I drilled a small hole as a pilot hole for a larger drill. Then followed up with a drill that was smaller than the diameter of the pattern, pick one any one. At this point I used CA and touched the edge of the hole and let the capillary action draw the adhesive between the pattern and the hull. If I was to do this again, I would try tacking the pattern down the keel only, drill a hole and glue at the hole. This might localize the adhesive to a local area.
I used a jewelers saw with a wide throat to cut out the bulk of the plastic. The blade I put on was a spiral wax blade. This blade is twisted with the idea that you can cut in any direction. It is designed cutting patterns and rings off of wax stock. Since plastic is really soft, this blade worked real well. It is a rougher cut so do not get too close the the edge, if at all possible.

The holes look ugly, but that was the whole idea of drilling smaller than the pattern, cutting with the twisted blade, and leaving room for finishing. I used half-round files to clean up the holes. Then came the time to remove the paper. What a BIG mess and a pain in my ....... you get the idea. I had CA release and applied that to a test area to make sure it did not melt the plastic, it did not. So I kept adding the CA solvent and s****ing, I will not repeat the same line over again, but 2 hours later, I got this much done. Still have the bow and aft to do.

Overall, not too bad. I will tackle the rest tomorrow. I also made a pattern with brass to clean up the holes and use to fill where needed.

Side note. I know in David's video he removes the weld lines. I have not yet. I like the weld lines, I do not know why. I like the older subs with rivets and weld lines too. So, I most likely will regret that decision as I will have to recreate the lines later (on the flip-side, I can always remove them). This submarine is becoming my classroom to learn new techniques, but still keep the primary focus - finish the submarine. In this classroom there is the humbling experience of making stupid mistakes and not following the advice of the sages. I can be a thick skulled.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

LOL. A fun read. Especially the last bit.

Love the milk adhesive trick -- new one for my books. Thanks.

David,

[jlday1256]

The milk thing works even better with a little vinegar:http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howtos...uefrommilk.htm

[trout]

A little vinegar? Great tip!
Thanks.

[Scott T]

Glad to see someone use the flood hole drawing I helped make.
I feel like a published author.
I am going to save a few of your pictures of the flood hole pattern in use.

Scott T

[trout]

Scott,
Thank you for your work creating the pattern! Yes, you may use any of my photos using your pattern! Scott, if you have the time, I would love to pick your brain offline.
Peace,
tom

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Color video for inspiration: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675075979_United-States-submarine_submarine-underway_United-States-sailors_sailors-on-conning-tower
Video1
and http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65...ongside-tender

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One more: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675075978_United-States-submarine_airplane-in-flight_watching-through-binoculars_men-aboard-tender
Video footage is cool especially when it goes to the tender. There you can see weathering and how some kept painting the hull.