Engineering the pins separately allowed the hull halves to be ever-so-slightly manipulated while the glue was drying – a big plus since you cannot ‘see’ all the angles and sides of the hull at the same time in this scale.Įach keel has five round ejection pin holes that should be removed before being attached. The two halves of the hull are brought together with the assistance of eighteen plastic pins and two large support bulkheads – a thoughtful, and key - design. I followed the instructions and the two keels got in the way of applying pressure to the center portion of the hull – meaning I had to hold the halves together by hand for about 30 minutes, while very wide and strong rubber bands held the rest of the hull. Doing so will allow you to use any and all means available to clamp the two halves together while the glue is drying. The instructions begin with attaching a bilge keel to each side of the main hull, but I would suggest that you attach these after putting the two halves of the hull together. Study the boat you want to build so you can decide which holes to open up and where you want to place the guns, etc. Since no two Gato-class submarines were exactly alike, Revell gives you several options as far as placement of the deck weaponry and other significant detail. It’s slow drying time and the solid bond after drying was critical to bringing some of the larger and more cumbersome parts to heel. You should also think about starting with a full bottle of glue – I found that Testors ‘Black Bottle’ liquid cement was the only product up to the task. With the Gato, you will need a lot of clamps and a lot of room. One issue I had was the lack of sprue letters, which forced me to look over all nine sprues for a lot of the smaller pieces identified (with letters!) in the instructions. The parts count is relatively low, so Revell kept things pretty simple. Most steps contain simple images with notes scattered here and there to assist when needed. The instructions include a handy, four-page parts list with the proper nautical names to help those of us not used to terms like ‘Breech Caps’ ‘Sight Trim Boxes’. 1 good-sized decal sheet, perfectly registered, with optional flags and national markings.1 28-page black and white instruction booklet in three languages (English, French and Spanish).1 bag of single ply black nylon thread used for antenna wire and rigging.9 main plastic sprues in hard, grey plastic.
The contents in the enormous box are compact just enough to keep these large parts from damaging the smaller parts on individual sprues.Īnd speaking of sprues, a model of this size requires some structure, and many of the sprue connections are massive, yet Revell made sure that the smaller, delicate parts have tiny connection points that are easily snipped and cleaned. The two halves of the hull (split down the middle) are sandwiched around a thick piece of cardboard, while the single piece bow and stern sections are packaged separately, as are the three deck sections that cover the seam down the middle of the hull. The first thing you notice opening the box is the great job Revell has done in packaging everything, and designing the model to minimize exposed seams. She is the oldest of her class still in existence. Rice in command.ĭrum was the twelfth of the Gato class but was the first completed and the first to enter combat in World War II. She was laid down on 11 September 1940 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, launched on, and commissioned on 1 November 1941, with Commander Robert H. Drum is on display as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama, at Battleship Memorial Park. The subject of this review is the U.S.S Drum (SS-228), named after the Drum fish, known for their ability to make a drumming sound.
Together with the Balao and Tench classes, their design formed the majority of the United States Navy's World War II submarine fleet. The United States Navy Gato-class was the first mass-produced US submarine class of World War II. Overshadowing everything, however, is simply the sheer size of the hull – an ambitious project for any modeler. Also included are three sets of pre-bent, steel wire steps as well as a variety of pre-drilled stanchions for stringing safety cabling. Revell has re-released their vintage WWII Gato Class Submarine in enormous 1/72 scale – topping off at just over 52 inches in length! Surface detail of the deck and fittings is excellent, as well as their renderings of the 20mm, 40mm, and 4inch deck armament.