Questions about the Trumpeter 1:144 Gato sub

[MillenniumFalsehood]

Okay, this is one *impressive* sub kit! It'll be the first one I've actually built, but I've seen enough sub kits at club meetings to know this one will be a relative breeze to build and paint (all black minus gunship gray above the waterline. What's not to love?).

I do have a few questions:

Do I really need to build the pressure hull or will the model hold itself together without it? I'd like to have a big styrene tube in my greebles, so this would be the first question in my mind.

Will I need to blank off some of the interior behind the open doors on the conning tower, or could you actually see from one side to the other on the real ship?

How do I use the decals for the flag?

I'm building the ship as USS Gato, the lead ship, and I'd like to build it up *right*. What are some good aftermarket parts for this kit?

What would I use to make the ropes between the stanchions on the deck, and how would I attach them?

Btw, I'm seriously considering getting two more and doing the following dioramas: the first one will be the Thanksgiving scene from "Operation Petticoat", with the ship all decked out in pink and with picnic tables lining the deck (for my dad), and the second one will be from "Down Periscope" with the crew making the XO 'walk the plank'. I'll be getting the proper versions of the ship for each scene, of course, with the correct modifications. They should be enough to incite a few chuckles at shows and contests.

[rob.w]

The Operation Petticoat build should be a fun one but check references as there are a number of differences between the boat used in the movie and any of the kits. You'll be amazed at the amount of material on the net in regards to the movie sub (USS Balao) including many photos taken on the set. If you have a copy of the movie watch it as you'll pick up on many of the differences. A couple of obvious but often missed differences is that all deck guns were removed for the movie and the divide line between pink & black is also different then the normal color scheme.

I recently finished a model of this sub but used the old Lindberg kit. It was a fun build but required a lot more work but I used this old kit so that it would fit into a collection of older Aurora/Monogram sub builds.

I promise it will add a real eye turner to your model collection.

rob

[Jeff Herne]

Here are two links for you that have detail pics of Gatos and Balaos. Let me know what you need, as I have about 1100 images of the three classes (Gato, Balao, Tench)

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/jherne/balao_details/

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y43/jherne/gato_details/

Jeff