The Ship Model Forum

Yup... this was my first online project and I am a fan of WWII subs as well as battleships (hence the sub silhouette under my signature!)

I haven't had the chance to visit a fleet sub... the only one remotely close to me is the Pampanito (and not a Gato, obviously) but it's still at least full day drive from SLC to San Francisco and I generally don't go that way (my ties to the "Golden State" are in the LA area).

Silversides isn't an EB boat so she doesn't make the best resource for the Revell kit but I DO love old subs, thanks for the link!

Anyway, here's the news in case anyone wants a complete report on the status of my personal mode shipyard and it's all subject to change without notice because dammit this is a hobby, not a business! :

First, I absolutely will work on the Nelson only until completion ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=160389&p=667277#p667277 )... I've unfortunately left a handful of unfinished project threads including this one laying about the forum but I'm determined to discipline myself better and turn that trend around.

After Nelson, who knows? I have plenty of options in the stash and the "Big Hood" might be out by then too... another "must build" on my list.

I am currently not planning on continuing with my waterlined "Big 'Mo" (viewtopic.php?f=59&t=155459 ) but I have it safely stored away just in case I change my mind (I've though before about doing a diorama of an Iowa class today as a museum ship for example) and I am definitely going back to my "ultimate Iowa" ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=158134 ) when I feel like I've "arrived" at a skill level where I can build it to match my lofty mental picture of how I want it to look finished in my mind.

Then there is the matter of the Bismarck... I definitely want a finished superdetailed 1/200 Bissy in my collection and get that thread wrapped up too ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=121249&p=528474#p528474 ); I also have all the stuff (complete pontos and KA sets) and most of the pieces of my damaged first attempt to pull it off.

Then there's the Gatos, a 1/72 IXC U-boat ( viewtopic.php?f=59&t=156994&p=632484#p632484 ) getting a similar treatment as the Gato, another Arizona (thinking about bashing it with the Missouri parts into a final refit Pennsylvania someday) and a handful of smaller unstarted potential projects in the stash + a REALLY big one... a 1/100 Bismarck semi-kit that will probably be my retirement project.

But it's WAY too early to be thinking of all that... I'm moving at a fairly brisk pace on the Nelson for a 1/200 big battleship + aftermarket build but I've got at least until spring before it's gonna be done even if I manage to keep up the pace.

Luckily I'm a younger guy (turning 38 in the spring) so I've theoretically got enough time to do it all... unfortunately I'm also a younger guy with a family, career and plenty of non-modeling stuff to deal with too.

Add that to my propensity to pick BIG projects and take things maybe a little too far on my models... well, let's just say: "you get what you pay for" when you follow my threads.

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Just skimmed through your thread here, lots of ships under construction. I'll be looking forward to seeing what you get completed. My New Jersey is in it's 5th year of ownership and only the main super structure is near completion.....so I know the feeling!

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Brett Matthews

Didn't know there was another Utahan on the forum... But yeah, luckily these things don't have quotas or expiration dates!

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

This was my ALL TIME favorite build thread on here, If she ever needs a new home, I feel like she would like Fairbanks......

Sorry to hear the fate of your Cobia, Jason. All is not lost, love can spring anew. Just rent Run Silent, Run Deep on VUDU, or throw the DVD into the player again if you already have it. One of the best submarine pron films ever.

I've been considering something truly different, yet the same. I like your build from the deck down, but the Guppy sails speak to me, and I'm more of a Cold War sub fan anyway. So I've been rooting around on the web, and managed to find USS Char, SS-328 to be an excellent build candidate. There was a point very early after she got her snorkel mod that it seems the deck fittings are largely unchanged. Also, she may have been a Balao, but she's got the anchor in the Gato location. The side and bow limber holes are unchanged as well - identical to the Eduard panels. The hard part is determining whether or not to use my Eduard deck, or to scratch up another one. To be sure, that means I'd have to sell off my conning tower details and all the gun bits, but I can live with that, and I have a hunch a package deal would find a home soon via eBay after the Gato is re-released. Whipping up the GUPPY conning tower would not be a trivial task, but there's always Shapeways that can come to the rescue after I model the basic sail in Rhino3D. My decision really comes down to getting the deck right. To be sure, this idea eliminates both a huge amount of work and lots of juicy detail...but then again, I have to remember to stay within my skill set. Thoughts on this are welcome, pro or con.

Anyway, thanks for the update, even if it did mean a confession as well. (My science fiction kit stash is a monument to lack of build time too...I feel your pain!)

Hey, Jason.

Jason!

I gots me a Gato! Gonna do her up as USS Drum, since I visited that boat when I was thirteen along with USS Alabama!

Wish me luck...gonna go OOB of course because I'm poor...

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Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Just a few of us out here in model land!

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Brett Matthews

You don't need luck OOTB with this kit as it's just good fun. But of course the Drum isn't an EB boa... oh nevermind, have a blast!

_________________
-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Meaning that I can't afford to buy all sorts of glorious photo etch parts and such, Jason.

Anyway, I got a weird notion to do her up as the fictional USS Sea Tiger from the film Operation Petticoat. Yes, that means painting her pink.

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

But they used a Balao class sub in that mov...

Oops, I did it again!

I saw an online build somewhere where they did just that, Sean. It's actually a fun idea!

See, the premise of the movie is that the Sea Tiger was "sunk" at Cavite at the start of the war—before the Balao-class entered service. All I'd need would be to get some appropriate dry transfer decals for the boat's numbers, and mix up enough pink paint! It's a win-win situation!

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

This is an interesting dilemma. I haven't seen the movie yet (queued up, along with the RC Revell Gato). Quite likely they used a Balao, as that's what would have been available (and they couldn't correct details with CGI). real ships even the wrong ones would always look better on film than models because water doesn't scale.

For our purposes we'd need to decide whether we want an authentic replica of what was in the movie (in other words, a Balao when story-wise it couldn't have been) or whether we want our model to be authentic to the imaginary version of the world in the story. If i were doing that sub I'd go for the the second option. I've also got a 1/72 Millennium Falcon in the queue so 'authentic' versions of imaginary things have been on my mind quite a bit.

that said my Gato's going to be either Barb (most likely) Wahoo (probably my second boat if i don't do a u-boat) or Harder. Dealey's supposed to have had Harder painted pink, same logic as Mountbatten pink--it's um... harder... to see at twilight. a good option for people with an inordinate fondness for pink boats and ships but who want to model something from the real world. Harder's in 3rd for me because my second Flower class corvette will be the Aubretia, which was Mountbatten pink when it was involved in capturing the Ultra code machine (first one's the Aconit, in Western Approaches camouflage). so two pink vessels on the local lake would be too much pink for me.

Saw that Sea Tiger build on the net somewhere and would look forward to another one (or a diorama? anyone?)

Jason...Any chance you could provide access to your photos somehow since photobucket has disabled them? I'm pretty much coping your build and really miss the pictures.

Sorry, I only had pics on rapey-bucket for my old builds and there is no way I'm paying them a cent so unfortunately they are gone forever.

My unfinished Cobia still languishes on my "shelf of doom" though... If anyone is interested I can take pics of her current (depressing) state...

_________________
-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

..

You do realize that you can download your photos back from Photobucket and upload them to another site, like flickr or imgur, right? Or possibly, someone else in the community could volunteer to do it, then turn the account over to you, or something along those lines.

Don't let Photobucket hold your photos hostage.

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10