I think the early fit Gato’s didn’t have deck guns only the AA guns on the tower. I believe the 2nd fitting saw the deck guns getting installed after problems arose with the Torpedos.
Well this one has NONE!
I never saw the word “FINISHED” , in my post![;)]
Still trying to figure out which ones I wanna use.
[:$]
I’m digging the multi-colored scheme…
In November 1944 the USS Gato had a 4" deck gun forward of the fairwater before that dat it was probably a 3".
Some photos can be found it Navsource.
No 5 inch?
Seems like it was the class before Gato that had the greatest range of deck guns, with a 3 to 5" bore rifle and a 40mm on either end of the conning tower (it’s not a sail until the control room moves into the main hull).
If memory serves, the heaviest-armed US sub was USS Nautilus, which sported a pair of 5" rifles fore and aft of the conning tower. The CO having experimented with a number of other arrangements, first.Nautilus also executed a bunch of covert insertion missions, too, and was in a number of near-shore actions.
The original design concept for a fleet submarine was as a submersible destroyer, a “stealth” DD if you will, so the deck gun was considered as important as the torpedo tubes, especially so against “soft” targets like unescorted merchant shipping.
You’re close, CapnMac82 - Nautilus, Narwal and Argonaut all sported a pair of 6"/53 deck guns. Quite the wallop for a pigboat, but then, those three handled like pigs too,
I think this is one of those 5 inchers…
It’s a bit late for Fermis’ (nice looking!) build, but I posted the official Navy instructions for those schemes here. Pictures/design sheet at the bottom.
Looks like he nailed the overall scheme—maybe didn’t apply every counter-shading technique but frankly it is hard to see in actual ref pics where this was always done…most of my refs show that it was done on the large deck guns and on some parts of the conn but in 1/144 scale I’d say that it gets a little dicey on some of the other areas to attempt a textbook replication …
Oh yes, and then throw in weathering and upkeep (I doubt that the sailors were out painting with a paint gun in the middle of a patrol) and you’ve got room for a fair amount of deviation. But I like to get the originals out there so that people can see it at least and know how the Navy thought it should be done at overhaul.
Agree…I’ve seen the comprehensive side-views in your link before but never the detailed instructions…pretty cool stuff…The entire reason the shears on the periscope assembly were cut down and through was also for camo reasons (thinner silo on the horizon)…
I’m going to use three of the 1/350th AFV club Gatos to show the evolution of USS Barb over time… Large sail (at launch), small cut-down sail (44-45), HUGE SAIL (Guppy).
Actually, a GUPPY III boat would be better for the HUGE SAIL, but I like Barb’s history.
Do I remember correctly from reviews that the AFV Club “Gato” is actually more of a “Guppy” class than a “Gato” class?
They’ve released a few; the 1943 Gato kit had some ship out with GUPPY upper hulls. I took delivery of mine last week from LuckyModel and it did not have that issue. The only complaint I had was that the hull pieces were not wrapped or on a tree and thus the front tip of my bow is bent over about 10 degrees from knocking around during shipment.
Yeah, I’ve gotten a few sub kits AND ship kitts that suffer this malady…I wish more companies would put a piece of foam over that area,
I like both Trumpeter & Dragon’s various approaches in their 1/350th kits. It’d be interesting to see a cost break down to see if either one is cheaper than the other by a large enough margin. Hasegawa’s 350th hulls split vertically, no waterline, so their method of putting them in a separate layer is also decent for what they’re doing. Can’t recall any damage from any of those companies.
Thanks for the responses and discusions, very informative. This is only my second “summereen”, so I got a lot to learn. I must play the artistic license card here, with the scheme and guns. For the scheme…well, it looks cooler than plain old grey all the way down. And for the guns, the Nautilus Models set has a bunch, but only three were usable (absolutely terrible resin!!!). I used the 5" on the deck, with a scratched aluminum barrel (a little off, but close enough for me), then the twin 20mm and 40mm to the rear.
Anyway, aside from the base, the model is finished, unless anyone can point out any glaring issues. The entire month of June saw this beast on the bench. Glad to finally be done with it!
