On my vacation this year I had the good fortune to find Revells 1:72 Gato class submarine in Munich at the very reasonable price of 50 Euro.

Normally I dont do ships, but this one had my attention the moment I laid eyes on the rather large box.

The box is decieving, its long, but the sub is even longer since the hul is devided into 3 sections... all assembled its 132 cm. long... it gives some problems taking decent photoes ...

The hull is assembled and have recieved a basic paintjob with pre- and post shading. Lots of weatheing to do!







Im still working on the Tower, and on deciding on how much weathering to give it.

To facilitate my build i borrowed the book "thunder below" by Eugene Fluckey, commander of Barb.

So far it has been a straightforward and enjoyable build with little hassel but it takes some glue and paint to build something this size..

Ahoy Jan!


Nice looking build so far mate!
Keep the modeling and updates coming!!!

Cheers,
~Gunny

I love the shading Jan. Keep up the good work.

Kenny

Very nice looking hull. Thanks for sharing her with us!

That's one hel* of a hull Jan.
Looks good.

Nice looking paintjob on that long hull, I really like the preshading effects. I can barely wait to see how the sail is going to look. Thanks for showing her off to us.

Looking good so far mate,

My original plan was to build this but after seeing it in the model shop it became clear that it would not fit it's intended home! So i had to go with U-69.

Are you building this out of the box?
As for the weathering, only do as much as you see in photo's, this will vary from photo to photo, but if you go for something in between you should end up with a very realistic Gato judging from your efforts so far.

Sav.

Thanks for the kind words, just back from northern Germany and a visit at Laboe (a type VII c) and Munster (panzer museum) so I have a lot of things to digest.

I plan on going sparringly on the weathering - mostly because as for as I can see, most Gatos got a good overhaul each time they returned from a patrol - so the chance a Gato would look really old and used would be little.

Im going for a more or less strait out of the box build, the only thing i have done so far is adding some pressure hull inside the arear over the diving planes - it looks very empty as it is.

Theres a lot more work on the tower than on the hull, so slow progress on that part, might have some pics tomorrow.

A few more pics, as said, theres more work in doing the tower, including filling and cleaning, but overall the fit is ok.

Hi Jan

So far, so good!!
I really like the hull assembly and painting - and looking forward to see the weathering part of the project
Keep us posted and keep up the good work!!!


Rui

Wierd - how did this turn into a blog ?

Anyway, here it is, basepainted and lacking decals, wires and weathering - last chance to see in mint condition.

Dont use the hullnumbers supplied in the kit if you are doing a wartime edition.

Sorry for the quality of the pics, taking photos of something this size aint easy...

Hope you don't mind, mate......




Looking great Jan!
And I hope you get the size issue under control, because I would LOVE to make an "On Display" feature out of this when you're finished, my friend .........

Stay loose, and keep modeling!
~Gunny

Very nice Jan!

Kenny

Looking good with her weapons compliment on deck and the sail up. Can't wait to see her with all the rigging and railing on there, she should be quite the nice looking build.

gorgeous build... if you do a full build, would love to read the technique you used for the panel shading.. thanks for sharing!

Thanks Mates, no problem Mark, had guessed who the culprit was anyway - my problem is to control the light and colours as my photo setup is made for tanks and smaller items - might be able to do something ....

@ James, all you see so far is done with airbrush and 4 different colours - all Valejo Air exept the black wich is Tamiya

Panzer gray for panellines and other areas that need preshading
US gray for basecoat
Barley Gray for highligting - done freehand on the panels - some didn´t get any and others got a lot - random variation is the key.

Black was masked with bluetac and masking film.

@ Jay - thanks, the kit has the 20 mm in front and the 40 mm on the rear cigarette deck, but the configuration for Barb after its 12 th. patrol was the oppesite config - not 2 boats were alike from the yard, and at wars end, it was even "worse"

Weathering in progress....

Hi Jan

Looking good!
One tip on the weathering: rust streaks don't run vertical below waterline
Keep us posted, and I must request a full build feature on this


Rui

Roger !

Theres a little under the diving plane that has now been smeared out. Generelly I make streaks in the light gray area and partially in the black area - the rest is "non directional" weathering

Im thinking about spraying a thin green filter on the lower part of the hull to give it a weak greenish toning ...

Instead of spraying, why don't you brush it? With a hard air brush, flat... You can go and mix some green + yellow to get different tones

Just a though (although I suggest you to try before on a older model or a piece of curved scrap plastic painted black - a real mock-up)


Rui

I tried the spray method, mixed some green in to the varnish - very slightly visible, not good for pictures but its there ...

Still working on the hul, but ordered a small etch to take care of the radar etc. so the tower is on hold.

Well, this is kinda habitforming - just ordered Alanger Type XXIII in 1:72 .... damn..

I have seen modellers who can paint eyes and facial expressions on 1:72 figures, how is beyond my imagination, I know I´m too old for that

Anyway, heres a crew for the gato - its a set of 5 from warriors - quite nice, by fiddly for my big fingers...

Going to try a wash to bring out details a bit more.

Looks great so far Jan.

Indeed, Jan...
Looking very good!

Keep up


Rui

great build! thanks for sharing...cheers