Selwyn Posted July 7, 2022 Share Posted July 7, 2022 On 6/23/2022 at 3:37 PM, stevej60 said: Nice one Dan the Maritime builds are increasing already and who doesn't like a sub? Tried to build a sub many years ago, but it sank without trace! Selwyn 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GAF Posted July 8, 2022 Share Posted July 8, 2022 (edited) I admit, your mention of propeller guards brought back some memories. Earlier this year I did the Trumpeter USS Gato, 1941 version. I had to scratch-build the propeller guards because in 1941 the Gato would have had them. Trumpeter failed on that score. The story behind the removal of propeller guards is interesting. Apparently, the Japanese managed to hook one with a grappling line sometime early in the war. The navy decided to remove them to prevent something like this from happening again. Good story. Gary Edited July 8, 2022 by GAF 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted July 14, 2022 Author Share Posted July 14, 2022 It was finally cool enough last night to think about doing some modelling, so got the filler on the second propeller guard sanded down, and got this part fitted; 20220713_204918 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Got the two halves of the conning tower together too; 20220713_223928 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Hmm, there's going to be a bit of work involved with this methinks! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted August 23, 2022 Author Share Posted August 23, 2022 Finally got some more time on this. What with the recent really hot weather, plus being on holiday for a week, I just haven't got a lot of modelling done recently. Been busy working on the conning tower, trying to make it look half decent. As the real USS Lionfish is now a museum ship, I have been able to print off some nice colour photos of it. As can be seen in this one, the conning tower in the kit bears hardly any resemblance to the real one at all; 20220822_221124 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr I did briefly consider trying to cut it down to make it more accurate shape-wise, but thought there was just too much work involved, and too much risk of completely messing it up. To that end, I have decided to detail the conning tower up a bit instead. This photo shows some rather obvious features on the front (not entirely sure what they are, so please excuse my ignorance!). 20220822_221204 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr This is my attempt at trying to replicate them; 20220822_221239 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Hoping it will look OK under a coat of primer, which I should get round to possibly tonight, providing the weather behaves. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 (edited) Not a subject I am too familiar with, but as this sub survived long enough to be preserved I guess it saw some post war service. I would imagine that, like many other ships etc it could have been modified a bit - quite possible several times, and in the case of a sub that would probably mean changes to the conning tower/sail. I know that some preserved vessels claim to have been restored to their original standards, but as with preserved aircraft, that can sometimes be problematic, though according to Wiki Lionfish is "as built" so your pics should be a good guide. The kit tower looks about the right general shape but the rails/bandstands are way oversize. As to the "hatches" at the front, I believe at least one of them is the "scuttle" through which shells for the forward deck gun were passed when in surface action, though towards the end of the war not all subs had the gun fitted. The forward section of the tower was the "ammunition locker" I gather. An article I have read on the USN 5" deck gun mentions that ejected cartridge cases were passed back into the magazine for reloading so that could account for another of the doors/scuttles if true. My sources suggest that the Gato class and similar Tench etc were originally intended to carry a 3" deck gun but in some cases surplus 4" guns from old "S" class subs were fitted, and that later a heavier 5" gun was substituted. Pete Later - just looked at the S-S book on "Gato Class subs in action" and it mentions the Balao class having 2 ammo scuttles! Edited August 23, 2022 by PeterB 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted August 23, 2022 Author Share Posted August 23, 2022 Ah, that makes total sense. Never even considered they might be related to the deck gun. As for post war modifications, I know a lot of the Gato/Balao class had some modifications carried out, but I'm pretty sure that Lionfish is in its WW2 configuration. Trouble is, Revell first released this kit as a different sub, and I think Lionfish is at least the third incarnation of it. Looks like Revell just kept on re-releasing this kit with a new identity, assuming that all WW2 US subs looked the same, which as it turns out, couldn't be further from the truth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted August 23, 2022 Share Posted August 23, 2022 13 hours ago, danbuoy said: I did briefly consider trying to cut it down to make it more accurate shape-wise, but thought there was just too much work involved, and too much risk of completely messing it up. To that end, I have decided to detail the conning tower up a bit instead You could cut a hole in the deck and build a subfloor to cradle the tower. You would lower it by not cutting but making a portion invisible. If you decided it didn't look correct you could raise it back too original height without too much trouble. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted August 26, 2022 Author Share Posted August 26, 2022 On 8/23/2022 at 8:50 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: You could cut a hole in the deck and build a subfloor to cradle the tower. You would lower it by not cutting but making a portion invisible. If you decided it didn't look correct you could raise it back too original height without too much trouble. Only issue is, its the top of the conning tower that is the problem area. I'm going to leave it as is. Got the hull primed last night. Not the easiest thing to spray! 20220825_204632 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Also primed the conning tower; 20220825_204713 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Next stage, paint! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 Got a bit more done on the sub last night, whilst working on my UDT boat. The hull had a coat of grey a couple of weeks ago. Now, it needs masking up ready for the black on the lower hull. The conning tower was sprayed at the same time, so last night I painted the horizontal surfaces on it black; 20221012_222900 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Need to get the hull airbrushed before it gets too cold to contemplate working in the shed! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve27752 Posted October 18, 2022 Share Posted October 18, 2022 Looking good, there was a company sometime ago that sold after market Conning tower/sails. I do not know if still available? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 Spent an hour and a half masking this up on Saturday afternoon, and then airbrushed the first coat of the black on the lower hull and deck. Will need another coat I think, plus some touch ups. Its an absolute pain to paint, as evidenced from the photo showing my very technical drying arrangement! 20221022_142832 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted October 24, 2022 Share Posted October 24, 2022 good progress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 On 10/18/2022 at 11:25 AM, Steve27752 said: Looking good, there was a company sometime ago that sold after market Conning tower/sails. I do not know if still available? Yes, Model Monkey is the company. They do a few aftermarket bits for this kit, one item being the correct shape conning tower for Lionfish. Still available, but can only find them in the US. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted November 2, 2022 Author Share Posted November 2, 2022 Getting close to the finish line with this one, painting now pretty much complete, and conning tower on; 20221101_222818 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Deck guns in various stages of being painted; 20221101_222833 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr So, here is the state of play as of last night; 20221101_222914 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221101_223007 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221101_223033 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221101_223136 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Just need to finish off and add the 4 guns, add the propellers, which were drying last night, and add a small mast towards the stern, then its decal time. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted November 3, 2022 Author Share Posted November 3, 2022 Propellers on; 20221102_201944 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Decals on. Thought these might be a pain, but they went on OK, although there is a bit of silvering with them; 20221102_212356 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_212410 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_212440 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_212507 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_212516 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_212556 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Deck guns added. These just slot into place, so that they can be moved. Two slotted right in, but the two on the conning tower needed some fettling. Was reluctant to press down too hard with these; 20221102_220550 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_220629 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221102_220656 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Small mast added towards the stern; 20221102_220555 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr So, here she is, pretty much done apart from sorting some rigging, and painting and adding the decal to the stand. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do about the stand. The instructions on the box say to paint it gold all over, but I'm not keen on this. 20221102_220535 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuoy Posted November 8, 2022 Author Share Posted November 8, 2022 Decided to paint the stand black, then pick out the fish with a gold paint pen. Quite happy with the result; 20221107_215830 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Got some rigging installed and the decal on the stand, and we're done! 20221107_221106 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221107_220932 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr 20221107_221423 by Dan Hardy, on Flickr Right, gallery time! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 Wow the stand turned out quite nice actually. In fact the whole thing is Thank you for joining us here in the build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 Nice build - that stand really sets it off. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted November 9, 2022 Share Posted November 9, 2022 great work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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