Revell Gato 1/72 - Newbie no more Part duex

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

A character from a movie who I identify with: a smart guy trying to get people successfully through a maze of 'problems'. Look up, 'wynn, cube zero'.

Ellie's the single point of sanity here at Castle Merriman.

David

[trout]

David,
What's up with the new avatar?
Tell Ellie I have the utmost respect for her, she is a real champ from what I can tell.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The extra weight is of little consiquence, trout. Leave it on.

Ellie answers: 'Hurrumph!'

David

[trout]

Thank you David, if the brass railing makes the conning tower too heavy and I see the listing and tipping as she surfaces, I will yank it off and put plastic on.
Ellie, I will not mention it again. I blame myself. :-)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Fair job on the railings. Me? I made the entire sail removable with origional plastic parts and have not suffered any breakage there yet. Consider doing that on your next kit assembly job.

Oh ... and Ellie, after examining your boo-boo picture: "He calls that a cut?! What a puss!"

[trout]

Reckless - I taped a small screwdriver to a larger one so I could reach the screws to get the old one out and the new one in. Then I have a pair of tongs that I use for a pickle bath and I used that to hold the servo. To keep a good grip on the servo, I wrapped the end of the tongs with tape to keep tension on the servo and later the servo bracket. Mybe this will help.

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 gun in and the barrel rested perfectly.

And this is for Scott. Whom I promised if he posted I would show the cut - healing pretty good! Your still sick. :-)

[Reckless]

Trout .. sounds like you had the same servo fail as I did on my type7 .. any hints for getting the new one in place? my beat up mechanic ham fists I think I'll have to walk away more then you did ;)


was your servo slightly melted too?

good to hear you got yours back together and functional again .... I just haven't had the time to get back to my poor SD ...

[alad61]

Well that impressive. I made up the internal rail in the wheelhouse on my static Brodeen 31 inch Disney Nautilus and that was frustrating enough. As for breaking things off, yeah I know what you mean... So far the only casualties Ihave had have been the rear flagpole, again on Saturday, the barrel on the AA gun, the antenna foundation and the two out riggers on the tower for antenna wires.

[trout]

Since I have been testing the sub for open water, I have knocked off do-dads and broken fine things (which the wiz did say would happen) off the conning tower.
The railings are very delicate looking and I wanted to see if I can make them in brass.


There are curves in the railing on the conning tower, so I was not sure what you meant David when you said to trace the railings. To create a guide to make the railings, I filled the inside of the railings with potters clay.

Removing the plastic part, you can see there is a nice channel to put the wires in.

This is quite the learning time for me. I can solder with a torch, but soldering with a soldering iron is tricky. Practice and time will help I know, but please pardon my mess. Here are the parts I made. There are blobs of solder that I will need to clean up. I am tired and will do the fitting and clean up tomorrow (maybe), my biggest desire is to get her in the water for more tests and learning how to control the Gato better.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Hey, you got the bigger servo to work. Nothing says it louder than success!

Thanks for the plug.

Just trace out the railing outline (using the plastic kit part as a stencil) on the material you're using as a soldering jig and dig a little pit under where each solder point is. No need for clay. Keep it simple!

David

[trout]

I could not wait, but I could not spend money either. The servo that I have is larger only significantly in the bottom portion of the servo, the width and length were close. The axis or the diameter/area that the arm pivots on is larger, so I would not be able to use the arm from the WTC. That being said I took the arm that goes with the larger servo and trimmed back its length and cut a slot to match the old wtc servo.

That was the easy part. Putting the servo in and fastening it down was a pain in my tukas. About 45 minutes (possibly longer - I can not be sure because I had to walk away several times). Powered on radio and wtc. It worked. Assembled the wtc and again ran the pre-mission check and everything worked. I will do another pool test and trim check.

I must say, and forgive the shameless plug for Revell and Caswell, but I hope that Revell will re-issue the Gato. It is one wonderful sub and such a joy to see running. If you are out there and have one collecting dust, start building it. Put a Caswell/D&E WTC in it and have fun.

David, your cabal report on making brass railing for the type VII is inspiring me to try it on the Gato - we'll see. I made a clay mold of the railings and will use that as a guide.

[trout]

That is the question, can I wait a few days? I will let you know after I visit my local hobby shop :-)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Get a micro-servo from Caswell -- the same size as the one you're replacing. You can wait a few days, right?

David

[trout]

Tonight, I have been working on redoing how my CT gets attached, but I also wanted to re-test my trim. During the pre-mission checkup, the ballast valve would not work, so without turning off the WTC, I removed the plug from the ballast servo and attached it to a different servo the servo worked. Then attached it to the old one again and it did not work. I removed the old one and moved the arm and it started working. So I need to replace it. Unfortunately my spare servo is larger than the servo with a dead spot. Could this be the final solution to my ballast lock up? I do not know, but it is a factor. I am going over my wiring just to be sure.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Women!....