Hello folks
Here's are the last news about our mammoth project.
I built the mold casings for the Yard's various piers. They'll be reproduced in resin to keep costs down. Note the masters are photo etched, as described earlier.
Here is my "stack" of molds... awaiting the RTV :
I etched the last two -fantastic- plates Jean designed for this project :
Plate one deals with the twin submarine assembly slips with all the necessary parts to assemble a framed Gato class sub-assembly, as shown on USN period pictures.
Courtesy NavSource, we found those pictures (and many more) :
and
We used an official plan of USS Gato (from Floating Drydock's excellent planbook) to design and draw the parts (keel, frame, bulkheads) needed.
Jean did the drawing and I etched it yesterday. Here is the result : (at this scale the Gato -and thus the frames- is about 13mm wide)
I began assembly of those tiny parts today... more pictures will come when it's finished
Plate one also included the "people" attending a christening ceremony.
People silhouettes are directly drawn from the real photos from NavSource... including the little girl.
Following is a part of the etched plate showing the US Flag which hangs one the sub bow... and the band ! (this part is about 27 x 25mm in REAL SIZE) :
Plate two deals with Rail Road stuff. We called it the "Harry Dente Collector", thanks to Harry who supplied invaluable info on MINSY period equipment.
Here is the Switcher section after etching. The area shown below is 98 x 45mm.
Frankly, when I received Jean's master films, I doubted all his fantastic detailing would really be fully reproduced. After etching, this proved beyond expectations. Below is a detail (42 x 24mm) cropped from above, which shows tiny details, including anti skid plates and rivets !
Now Jean will assemble this crazy stuff... pictures should follow in about a week.
As I told before, this is going really mad now... but soooooooo exciting !
Jean and Bruno
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