HMS Astute build

[Davidh]

G'day all,

Months ago I finally gave in to an urge that I had had for a long time. To build a British nuke. I've got a motley bunch. An L.A and ohio , plus the 2 hot swedish models ( Gotland and Sjoormen that is...) And a chinese Type 092 Xia SSBN

This may upset some American readers but I was finding that the L.A just was'nt doing it for me. I did'nt want to add any more boats to the collection and I probably would'nt sell the LA so I decided to give her an extreme makeover.

I always intended to build a Resolution class BOOMER ( sorry Brits, when I hear BOMBER I think of Vulcan or Lancaster!) Anyway just a couple of years ago out rolled the Astute. I was so not ready for how she looked. At first I thought maybe she been given over to the designers at Volvo. what an irregular shape even though I can definitely see the lineage from the Trafalgar and more recently the Vanguard classes.

I'm amazed that no one else has modelled this boat, that I'm aware of. Such a strange shape that has really kept me guessing, it's grown on me. The Bow section took the longest to get the masters right.

Anyway, the middle section of the boat features the middle section of my old L.A I cut her up into three bits and remodelled the front and rear sections aswell as the tricky top deck and all. I make my masters out of pine that I pinch from the scrap box at school. (I'm an industrial Arts teacher)

I made the propulsor from scratch. I haven't got around to working out what scale this model is at. I'm guessing around 1:120 ? I made the propulsor out of polyester resign. I poured it into a cone mould and dangled a nut just into the top and let it set. I then screwed some thread into it , put it into a drill and sanded it round. The blades are simply made from PCB.

Anyway i hope that you enjoy the pics. I have put lights in her and also have reduced the size of the forplanes. She is fantastic to drive. Very docile and her trim is good. Can't turn like a swedish X fin but what do you expect. Least I haven't run aground off the isle of skye yet!

David Hughes
Central Coast NSW Australia.

[Slats]

David welcome to the best Sub Forum on the internet
For those of you that don't know David, he is a regular RC sub builder in Australia, and lives on the beautiful Central Coast, about an hour North of my place in Northern Sydney. He builds to no particular scale and everything is built from scratch. Whilst it can be said some of his work is a little rough compared with a precision kit, he enjoys it -Which in my book is the main game!
He's largely self taught and I am impressed by his innovation which is a key success factor for him.

David - if I might provide some constructive criticism - try to avoid using a garbage bin as your pedestal for photographing work. (Smirk!!)

Suffice to say she's nice and will fit in with that small scale fleet you have.
Best

John

PS - which pool are you running that in? I'll be up the F3 faster than a rat up a rope if you can get access.

[Kazzer]

David - if I might provide some constructive criticism - try to avoid using a garbage bin as your pedestal for photographing work. (Smirk!!)

Which reminds me. Where's that post of yours on RCABS showing those garbage cans where you dumped a certain RCABS product?

[Kazzer]

David welcome to the best Sub Forum on the internet

Yea! Wot he said!

[Slats]

Which reminds me. Where's that post of yours on RCABS showing those garbage cans where you dumped a certain RCABS product?

Its here - now lets quit hijacking David's thread: http://forum.sub-driver.com/showthre...st-tank-system

[Davidh]

John,

The pool is at toukley aquatic centre (YMCA). I'm frequently there and get to use the pool virtually any time. It's a toddlers pool so it's quite shallow. Deep end 600mm shallow end half that. It's about 10m long about 7 m wide. The only time I can't really use it is when it's a stinking hot one and there are 2 year olds I could have collisions with. I pay a spectators fee of $1.50 each time.

I'll try and get some more pics of Astute up soon. Some more detail shots.

Thanks for the comments

David H

[greenman407]

Im very impressed! Would you post some pictures and text on your 092 Xia?

[Davidh]

I will when i get the rest of the attachments to behave
however you may want to take a look at some pics of her on

http://graysubs.tripod.com/home_page.htm

and
click on Canberra 2010 pics 38-40.

dave

[Kazzer]

I will when i get the rest of the attachments to behave
however you may want to take a look at some pics of her on

http://graysubs.tripod.com/home_page.htm

and
click on Canberra 2010 pics 38-40.

dave

Those links were a bit 'general'. I ended up on a page with dozens of photos, but nothing specific. Can you simply copy and paste the URL of each photo into your post here please?

[Davidh]

Type 092 Xia Class SSBN

G'day

Here are some pics of my chinese SSBN. This boat is about 950mm long. It uses the pump ballast system similiar to the Sheerline boats. The Xia is about 7 years old and has been a regular at the Subregatta in Canberra.

She is quite responsive and runs very well. She is a fave of mine.

The Original Xia has been an unreliable boat for the Plan and somewhat elusive. I think i've probably seen every photo ever released in the western media of her and that's maybe 30 pics.

Since 2000 she has had a black colour scheme ( like every other SSBN). Launched in 1981 she only successfully launched a missile in 1987. she has now been superseeded by the Type 094 Jin class SSBN which looks almost the same.

regards

David H

[Slats]

Nice David - and I love the way this little boat performs.
I'll try and give you a call this weekend.

Best
J