Hey all,

Thought I would post this real quick. I just received an early B-day gift from my wife(rebecca) and kids. The revell Gato 1/72, they had it on sale at Hobby Lobby and I talked her in to it........Had a good pic of the little ones holding the box but with the gallery work going on I'll have to wait on the pic posting.

Gunny do you want a in box reveiw on this one or do you already have one?

Give it a go, Frank!

It's a doozy of a kit alright. For grins and giggles I taped mine togther to compare it to my Type VII and just guessing, I'd say it is a good 25% larger than the Type VII! I knew it was big, but wow! Looking forward to your write up Frank! "Q"
ps. Trying to talk my wife into an early B-day gift too, one of the new 1/72 Japanese subs hitting the streets soon.

Hey red,

It is huge and it dwarfs my S-100 of the same scale. I'll try to submitt the in box whithin the next few days......maybe I'll work on the draft as the pat's win the game today...He, he, he, he.........

I also started a site to keep track of the build over at

http://www.freewebs.com/franksgato/

but of course this site will get the updates first.

Working link.

http://www.freewebs.com/franksgato/

opps....thanks Gator

Good luck on the build Frank. I'll be keeping tabs on it. I mightbe tempted to drag mine out and get it started on it if I see you having too much fun with yours! "Q"

My wife has offically warned me, if I ever get the urge to build one of those 1/72 subs... She can be such a party pooper. Guess the 1/35 K5 railgun was the killer!

Hey All,

I was looking at the paint scheme for the USS Silversides (MS 9)

"Vertical Surfaces:
Paint entire submarine above the waterline black, formula 82. The painting shall be carried over all parts which are visible for the air including the numbers, capstan and running light boards and bridge rails. The radio insulators shall be dark. The shall be no boot topping. The underbody shall be painted with the current issues of bottom antifouling paints.
Horizontal Surfaces:
All horizontal surfaces except wood decks shall be painted Dark Gray 5-D. The systems differ only in the painting of the vertical surfaces. In case of doubt, as on sloping surfaces, use Dark Gray 5-D."

Question is.....Where do I find what color of anti-fouling paint was used?

Someone will correct me because I'm only going on sketchy info, but I *think* the paint was black. They may or may not have painted some kind of red anti-foul first as a *base* coat, but it would have been covered gray and then with war, black.

I think there was a little gloss black for certain parts of M9. The sun and sea oxidized and blasted the crap out of the paint very quickly, at least according to Cmdr Richard O'Kane - he didn't recognize his own boat it was so faded and blotchy, after just a month or two. I'm assuming below the waterline would be just as bad, but possibly a different charcoal black due to being an anti-foul paint.

I'm a little frustrated that for the time period I'm going to depict on mine, she has to be a M9 paint scheme, it's so dark and unattractive! Maybe I'll do operation petticoat... anyway, hopefully someone will have some better info than this.

Frank,
While not a complete answer to your question it's a little more information for you.
The current anti fouling paint formulas for submarines at the time were,Formula 14D-Dark undercoat coat plastics for subs, Formula 145-Anti foul for subs and Formula 146-anti foul for waterlines for subs. There is no reference to the actual color just the formulas. This can be found here. http://www.shipcamouflage.com/paint_formulas.htm
P.S. I hope the link works if not then copy paste to your browser.
Don

Wink & Don,

Thanks for the quick replies. From what I've seen in pics the anti-fouling was in all likelyhood Black. But Charcoal may be an option, at lest it would break up some of the black to give the build more intreast and depth.

Some subs were launched prewar in Measure 9 overall black, with red antifouling. By the time we entered the war, all subs were using black antifouling. Bear in mind that this was a plastic coating applied hot, so would have been a satin finish as applied, as opposed to the flat black on the upper surfaces.

John,

Thanks, that was a good catch. I saw that it said "plastic coating" but it didn't dawn on me what that may mean for the finish. Thanks again.

I just ordered the Eduards "BIGED" PE set for my Gato and I'm going to get the Iron Bottom Sound conversion kit for a pointy conning tower to look more like the USS Silversides. I'm also thing of getting a resin 4" 50 deck gun.........any one know if there is a turned brass barrel for this gun?

I quite behind on my posting but here is a shot of the hull with vent and access holes in.

Also a shot of my scratch build(first major scratch build ever) of the sail.

You have a good start for the sail, Frank!

Just take it easy and when things seem to go wrong, stop and change "focus" - go to an area that you don't have to stretch your limits... when at ease go back to scratchbuilt!
Keep up!!!!

Rui

PS: Early sail?

Its a mid war sail as far as I can tell. The USS Silversides didn't make it to all of the re-build yards. No port holes, cut down sail, that kind of thing. Mario at IBS, and Mr. Rokket have been tons of help.

Looking very good Frank!

Kenny