Tedious, systematic, and outstanding work! Those rivets should look just right under paint.
Thanks! I just suffered a bit of a set back… as I drilling holes in the bottom of the ship for the mounting finials the sub rolled over snapping various pieces of the model. The worst damage was to the railing in the bow.
As well as the front main railing.
Hopefully this wont set me back to much with repairs…
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Ezra, don’t get discouraged… I pretty consistently have at least one disaster per build! You’re gonna come back swinging, I’m sure!
Yep, agree with Tim: there’s a mess up in everyone of my builds too; keep going and don’t give up!
Improvise, adapt, overcome. You got this. 
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Thanks guys! Honestly i’ve suffered from worse things happening so this is fairly good. It should only really take about 30 min to fix! (Hopefully)
I’ve just spent the last half hour or so reading through this build and first thing I need to point out is a BIG mistake you must’ve made on your profile, you, innocently enough I’m sure, transposed the numbers on your age. That should be 51 yrs old not 15 right? C’mon fess up now and I won’t hold it against you. Man you got some skills and obvious talents too! I feel just down right stupid watching your build on this sub but I’ve learned a lot. I know jack about submarines, well until now that is, never heard of a “fairweather”, didn’t know subs had sails either. Still trying to figure out “oil canning” but my pride won’t let me ask. This model is remarkable my friend but I’m afaid I’ll have to insist, and I expect you to honor this request, please never build anything from the 'Nam era and post it here on the forum or I’ll have to toss my junk out the window of a moving vehicle on the way to the post office to start my new hobby of stamp collecting. If you don’t take First place, MVP, Honorable Mention and Rookie of the Year at the IPMS show next year there will likely be a gang riot of KitMaker members in Las Vegas! You are too cool dude. I have a new mentor, and I’ve been building off and on since younger than you are now. You have definately got your head in a better place than I did at 15. You have a new fan and a true admirer, I’m gonna go sit at my work table now and stare at the mess that’s supposed to be an ACAV and try to muster up enough courage to keep glueing all this crap together so I can bashfully post a couple of pics one day. You da man son, you da man.
LOL (lots o love)!
Cajun
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Hahaha Thanks Terry really appreciate it! Honestly the only way I’ve been able to progress so far on this build is because of all the great helpful people on kitmaker! I didn’t know half of what I know about Gatos until @18Bravo among others stepped in notably The_Old_dinosur on the old forums sent me a disk with over 400 photos of the USS Cobia and Drum. I also didn’t know about “oil canning” till I was doing some research and I got sidetracked. Hahaha since you asked so politely looks like my Verlinden 1/15 Vietnam war M113 will have to go in the trash! I hope to come back from Vegas with some awards but you never know there are wayyyy better modelers out there! Also your build are great, I cant wait till you post more!
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Don’t '86 that APC, Tamiya’s got a M551 that needs something to help break bush!
Cajun
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Quick update. No photos this time but I’ve managed to repair all the broken bits except this little part on the stern with I will add before painting. Also tomorrow I hope to go shopping for a wood piece for a base a bit of a problem because the ship is 52" long… If everything I can find proves to be to expensive I may just go to home depot and buy a 1x8 wood plank then cut it down to 60 inches. I’ve already drilled the holes in the hull for the Finals so I just need to drill corresponding holes in the base then apply a dark mahogany stain then ill be good to go! I also may add the USS Cobia nameplate decal that was kindly donated by @18bravo.
Ezra,
In echo of everyone’s comments - great job - the riveting really brings out the detail of what is an exquisite model. Sorry to hear about the mishap but we all have them - from the sounds of it your recovery was painless - looking forward to seeing more.
David
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Thanks David! I managed to get some time today for a little modeling and I started on the base. It’s a 1x7x60 wood plank and it will look great when stained! I’m using some left over 1" Finials to mount the ship. I made the base so it is 3 inches longer then the Cobia on both sides. I’ve just temporarily placed the Cobia nameplate decal to see how it looks. I will most likely stain it tomorrow! (I’m sorry for the poor picture quality, I took it at night on my phone.)
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Timber bases are the best Ezra, and you’ve done it correctly: made it larger than the vessel portrayed; nothing gets me more confused when a base is smaller than the vessel 
Varnished it will look great! 
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Ok so the Base has been stained and im very happy with it! I think one more light coat of stain then let it dry for some days the clearcoats and nameplate!
https://flic.kr/p/2kfb1Mu
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It’s looking real good!
Cheers,
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I always appreciate the extra effort that someone puts into making their bases and display plinths look really nice! I think it also really pays off on the display table. Nice job!
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Some more work is being done on the base and I think this kit will look "Sub"stantially better when the kit is on the new base. ( I know it was a "sub"par pun but pun intended. 
) Also I’ve placed the Cobia decal to on the base and it looks great, but the decal ripped a little so some paint touch up is needed.
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I did a bit more scratch building on the 3" gun and Im fairly happy with my progress, I did parts of the gunsights on both sides as well as adding onto the base, also I cut off the resin barrel because it was warped and replaced it. It looks a bit rough so I will do some sanding next.
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Lesson learned:
Assemble all the big parts and do all the major surgery on parts
BEFORE
adding small fragile pieces.
Hahaha definitely