5" Gato/Balao deck gun

[RonP-UK]

I'm not sure if this would be regarded as a gizmo, gadget or weird device but here goes
anyway.
Some years ago I purchased on of 32nd Parallel's Gatos, huge bloody great thing it was and I had a lot of trouble this side of the pond getting info to make a half decent job of it.
The biggest problem was the deck gun, I had drawings and photos but just couldn't get a feel for the thing. There were model kits around at the time but none seemed to look quite right compared with pictures so I set out to get it as near as I could.
A trip to the naval museum in Washington did the trick for me, they have an actual gun there so I spent a day with a ruler and pad to make up my own drawings and figure out what parts did what. By te time I left I had a good idea of what I would do and attached are the results. The model is made entirely from brass and 5 different solders with different melting points so the thing didn't fall apart when putting together.
I no longer own the boat or its fittings but sold it on part built to someone younger who might just live long enough to complete it but I am glad to say that the gun will one day get wet. Hope you guys like my efforts. My next problem is the 88mm gun on my U-Boat but I have found the real thing in Cuxhaven so a trip to Germany looks like a definite
maybe.
RonP

[Subculture]

Ah nice to see this. I've heard about it, and seen Paul's Gato in pictures (it would never fit in my Mini!) but never seen the gun.

Just as well they have a big old puddle at Norwich.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Wow! Excellent work. Please tell me you have some in-work shots of these little pieces of Jewelery?!

The rust is right where it's supposed to be, on the barrel slides and other in-motion elements of the gun. Love it. You are, and always have been, a Master at this sort of stuff, Ron.

David,

[RonP-UK]

Sorry David but I don't have any construction shots of the gun, I didn't take these pictures, they were taken by a friend. The one thing I never mastered was a camera.
There is no rust on the gun, what you see as being rust is the bronze barrel sliders, damper end nuts and on the left side the scale for the gun inclination. These are bronze on the real
thing and bronze on the model, the rest of it is all brass. When I first built it the handles worked but I took the worm gears out so that if anyone yanked on the thing it would do no damage.
Since those pictures were taken I put the rifling in the barrel so now it is there (sad puppy aint I) I almost completed the bridge of the boat, periscope shears, radar mounts, ariel mount
(that works to) bofor guns,handrails,hatch cover and the strip decking all secured with over a thousand rivits but I have no pictures of that lot but I am sure that the new owner
will post them in due course. I understand from mutual friends that he is making a superb job of the rest of the boat and it will make a fabulous model when completed. I,m looking forward to seeing it. I still have my original sketches so maybe one day! By the way, who do I have to screw to get promotion on this site.
Regards
RonP

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

LOL. Hell, if I knew how to do it, I would make you Sky-Marshall of the Universe on this site.

How about it, Mike?

David,

[Kazzer]

LOL. Hell, if I knew how to do it, I would make you Sky-Marshall of the Universe on this site.

How about it, Mike?

David,

There! Your wish is my commend! Dun!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

There!

(you have two wishes left, use them wisely)

David,

[RonP-UK]

What can I say, I now walk around with my head held high. Its a bit like peeing yourself while wearing black trousers-------you get a nice warm feeling but noone notices.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

For those reading over our shoulders:

Ron Perrot is one of the worlds finest r/c model submarine inventors and fabricators alive today. Long before I got into the game he had perfected, produced, and sold the SailCon, angle-keeper device; a vital piece of gear needed to stabilize the model submarine about its pitch axis. His work was being accomplished on this front at about the same time, but without any collaboration with, Skip Asay who came up with his version of the device over here in the States. An example of, 'great minds thinking alike'.

I would say (and I'm more than qualified to make such observations) that the principle guys who have advanced the craft of r/c submarining include: Norbert Bruggen, Alexander Engle, Ron Perott, Skip Asay, David Weeks, and maybe a hand full of others; guy's who did the heavy lifting. These are the guys who invented the systems, integrated them into workable packages and selflessly took on the chore of having their work published so the rest of us could emulate their work and also enjoy success in the hobby.

Ron Perott is one very important person -- one of the greats in the game. My stature in the field is in no small part owed to the fact that I stand on his, and others, shoulders.

David,

[Kazzer]

For those reading over our shoulders:

Ron Perrot is one of the worlds finest r/c model submarine inventors and fabricators alive today. Long before I got into the game he had perfected, produced, and sold the SailCon, angle-keeper device; a vital piece of gear needed to stabilize the model submarine about its pitch axis. His work was being accomplished on this front at about the same time, but without any collaboration with, Skip Asay who came up with his version of the device over here in the States. An example of, 'great minds thinking alike'.

I would say (and I'm more than qualified to make such observations) that the principle guys who have advanced the craft of r/c submarining include: Norbert Bruggen, Alexander Engle, Ron Perott, Skip Asay, David Weeks, and maybe a hand full of others; guy's who did the heavy lifting. These are the guys who invented the systems, integrated them into workable packages and selflessly took on the chore of having their work published so the rest of us could emulate their work and also enjoy success in the hobby.

Ron Perott is one very important person -- one of the greats in the game. My stature in the field is in no small part owed to the fact that I stand on his, and others, shoulders.

David,

Watch him Ron! He probably wants to borrow something! Ha! Ha!

[RonP-UK]

Aw shucks! I am all embarrassed now (wish I could spell it). The truth is I am actually not that clever, not one of my ideas is original. The Salcon came about after reading a book about U-Boats and the problems they had with inexperienced crews when the snorkel was introduced.The problem was that if the ball ducked under the sea when cruising at snorkel depth just one revolution of those big diesels was enough to suck out ALL of the air inside the boat resulting in burst eardrums and in some extreme cases sucking eyes out of sockets (not fun)
so they came up with a pendulum idea controlling hydrostatic valves that were connected to rear vanes BRILLIANT. all I had to do was make something the same but smaller. At the time (late sixties) Kavan had introduced the first of the helicopter giros so I bought one, took the giro bit out and fitted a pendulum ----simple. It went from there.
Now the tanks are actually an American invention, I was reading an old book from the late 1700s that depicted a guy wearing a bucket over his head with a pipe up to the surface (so he could breathe) to enable him to creep under British ships to plant bombs (why is it always us) he carried a cylinder around his waist with a rack and pinion to operate a piston inside the cylinder so that he could come up (or go down) at will (even more brilliant). That's were I got the idea from. As far as any skill I might have in making this stuff---well I trained as a toolmaker in the 1960s and what they taught me has been a passion ever since. Perhaps I should post pictures of my 1/4 full size steam traction engine----now try getting THAT to surface.

[lencoo12]

For those reading over our shoulders:

Ron Perrot is one of the worlds finest r/c model submarine inventors and fabricators alive today. Long before I got into the game he had perfected, produced, and sold the SailCon, angle-keeper device; a vital piece of gear needed to stabilize the model submarine about its pitch axis. His work was being accomplished on this front at about the same time, but without any collaboration with, Skip Asay who came up with his version of the device over here in the States. An example of, 'great minds thinking alike'.

I would say (and I'm more than qualified to make such observations) that the principle guys who have advanced the craft of r/c submarining include: Norbert Bruggen, Alexander Engle, Ron Perott, Skip Asay, David Weeks, and maybe a hand full of others; guy's who did the heavy lifting. These are the guys who invented the systems, integrated them into workable packages and selflessly took on the chore of having their work published so the rest of us could emulate their work and also enjoy success in the hobby.

Ron Perott is one very important person -- one of the greats in the game. My stature in the field is in no small part owed to the fact that I stand on his, and others, shoulders.

David,

Watch him Ron! He probably wants to borrow something! Ha! Ha!


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