Halinski's USS Gambier Bay

**Sakrison** · #1 12-11-2020, 07:48 PM

I'm picking up this project again after letting it sit unfinished for about two years. I am not much for writing detailed build threads, but I will try to post updates now and then. Maybe that will help motivate me to finish the kit. It has lots and lots of greeblies.

For the newbies here, "greeblies" are those tiny little parts that can drive you half crazy, especially when your tweezers go "boink" and the part flies somewhere over your shoulder. Greeblies that you think fell onto the floor between your feet will actually land in the shag carpet in the next room. No one knows why; it just happens.

--David

**PAPER FAN** · #2 12-12-2020, 11:19 AM

Looking good, I've got a post going on the same model. It's a straight forward build, deck assembly is actually easy. Keep up the good work.

**Sakrison** · #3 12-30-2020, 01:19 PM

The deck subassembly, the deck itself, and the hull, were all a little different in length, probably due to the variable humidity in my work room. I had to reposition one of the bulkheads under the forward elevator, and the deck was about 1mm short when mated to the deck subassembly, but both problems were easily fixed. And for the most part, the kit's fit and finish is excellent.

I'll spend the next couple of weeks on the galleries and armament. And I have a bunch of 1/200-scale airplanes to build. Then I have to figure out where to put the finished model. My GPM Bismarck is on display at my local public library. The Gambier Bay might end up there, as well.

**Michael Mash** · #4 12-30-2020, 01:29 PM

This looks real nice with the aircraft tucked away on the elevator.
Good idea to get a collection on display at your local library!
Mike

**Sakrison** · #5 12-30-2020, 01:29 PM

The Gambier Bay kit is for a full-hull model. I chose to build it as a waterline model -- an easy conversion. I guess I prefer seeing model ships like this in something like their natural element, instead of "high and dry."

I might try my hand at modeling a water surface for a base, or I might just mount the ship on a slab of oak; I haven't decided.

I welcome suggestions, opinions, and tasteless puns.

**Sakrison** · #6 12-30-2020, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael Mash

This looks real nice with the aircraft tucked away on the elevator.
Good idea to get a collection on display at your local library!
Mike

Thank you, Mike. Initially, I positioned that elevator lower, and the aircraft on it was visible only from above. Since the finished model might be displayed at close to eye level, I decided to raise the elevator enough so the plane is peeking over the rim. I'll put an F4F Wildcat on the forward elevator when I mount the rest of the air wing.

Our local library has been good to me. The Bismarck has been on exhibit there for about 8 years. (I provided the case.) And it has been very popular. The head librarian recently told me she would be happy to have another ship. And I currently have a bunch of my paper models in the library's case for temporary exhibits.

I'm doing what I can to lure modelers over to the "Dark Side."

**rjm** · #7 12-30-2020, 02:14 PM

Sakrison, My son has been to Oshkosh for many years and volunteers as a guide.

Cheers, Bob

**Sakrison** · #8 12-30-2020, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rjm

Sakrison, My son has been to Oshkosh for many years and volunteers as a guide.

Cheers, Bob

Have you been there? It's an amazing event, and an amazing place year-round. Pre-Covid, I worked security in the museum 3 or 4 days a month, and for several years I have been part of the roaming campground security patrol during AirVenture. I have also been a volunteer at the EAA's maintenance hangar for many years, working on the B-25, B-17, Ford Trimotor, and other rare birds.

I am not a mechanic, but I have been volunteering long enough that the A&Ps trust me to follow directions and do things right. ("This doohicky goes way up there behind the #3 cylinder. You'll need a Phillips screwdriver, a 7/16 box wrench, three hands, and an eyeball on the end of your thumb. I'll be in the parts loft.")

The security work is mostly guest relations. ("The showers are that way." "Follow me to your campsite." "No, they dropped a different atom bomb, not this one.")
For one week in July, the EAA grounds are the most crime-free community in America. Even with 40,000 campers on site, I have rarely had to say, "Don't do that."

I miss it all, even coming home covered in hydraulic fluid. ("Oh, sorry, it was the other line I wanted you to pull.")

Let's hope it all comes back in 2021.