Japanese BI I-25 in 1/72

[oztruck]

Since everything is in place and working to my satisfaction it was time to weather the beast.

What I am trying to achieve is the look of a boat that is in service with little time for cosmetic looks but not ready for the junk yard

[oztruck]

Sorry about the dodgy photos yesterday, hope these are better for you.

[oztruck]

Finally got around to scratch building the twin anti aircraft guns in the conning tower.



And this is the emergency gas system.

As you can see it is operated by a push-rod from inside the water tight thingy, but both the gas cylinder and valve are mounted externally to the water tight thingy. The gas cylinder can be removed or exchanged in seconds and because it is clear it is easy to tell how much gas is left and it takes the guess work out of refilling.

[trout]

Absolutely wonderful work!

[oztruck]

If you look hard enough at the photos, in the first photo you can see the emergency buoy being pulled along after it has been released and in the second photo you can see on the rear deck the hole where it lives. Both of the emergency systems worked very well. I will post some photos of the way it is set up as soon as I can.

[oztruck]

Managed to get a couple of photos of the beast running submerged

[oztruck]

Looks like it could be a winner, but I might pass for the moment.

[Rpmtech1]

These never fail to help the turn radius when installed on the TE of a rudder, simple too.

[oztruck]

I'm back.

Got home today, kissed the wife and opened the mail.
What I had ordered had turned up, it is a valve that I am going to use for my emergency gas ballast blow system.

The plan is to have the valve connected in such a way that it can be operated manually and/or by the fail safe.
That's the plan.

This is the "Robart" valve, it is originally built for air operated landing gear on RC aircraft


Next is a clear gas cylinder to hold the gas supply. Because it is clear I can tell at a glance how much gas is left.


And here is the housing for the gas cylinder, still a work in progress


Now all I have to do is fit it all together and get it to work.

[oztruck]

The sail and the lower deck area are closed off to the public. The climb up to the top of the sail might be too much to control. Only a single ladder and a long climb up and down. The boat is in great condition and as you can see in the couple of photos VERY well fitted out and complete

[greenman407]

Will they let you up into the sail?

[oztruck]

Sorry about the lack of input over the last few weeks, but I have been called to Sydney on our East coast to look after my Dad for a few weeks.

When I was flying in I spotted something that took my interest and as soon as i got a bit of free time found what I was looking for.

It's there, It's complete, and open. The photos are from my phone, so there is not many to show






I will be here for another week or two, but when talking to my wife on the phone this morning she said there is a package back at home for me
It is the control valve for my emergency blow system so I will be able to get the boat finished and post progress photos and text

[oztruck]

Couldn't help myself. Went to the "green sea" today to see if there was any improvement in the handling of the boat.

VERY happy with the results. With the larger rudder and different shaped front dive planes it was like a different boat.

The turning circle is a lot tighter than before and the response to change of direction is now good.
A guess would be about 4 boat length radius, it's not a sports boat so it's not going to handle like one.
The rudder is a winner. And I am happy

Even with the green water I still wanted to see if I had improved on the submerged running by changing the shape of the front dive planes and I am happy to say that after a bit of fiddling with the angles I had to adjust the rear dive planes UP by about 5 deg to stop the bow from trying to rise all the time.
She now runs at periscope depth with no hands with only a slight movement up and down about an inch, as she runs, .

The water is just too green to do anything fancy submerged, so it was only straight runs but as I was leaving some workers from the City turned up with some chemicals.

I will as soon as I can get some video of the boat doing its stuff. But it is winter here and it's hard to get my camera person (wife) to spend a winters afternoon by the side of a wind swept pond.

[oztruck]

Update:

I fitted an air craft type mixer to mix both the rudder and the ESC to see if it improves the turning. It would slow or reverse the outside prop when turning the rudder. Although it did work it did cause other problems. Like whenever I mover the rudder one of the motors would run so i could not just coast along and steer with the rudder like you do when coming along side. It was like trying to ride a bike on ice, it can be done but it is too hard.(not fun)

I then tried using the inbuilt mixer on my radio and that was even worse. Back to the drawing board.

What I have now done is enlarge the control surface and give it a bit more movement from side to side.

It is raining here in Adelaide so I have to wait till it stops before giving it another run and wait for the pond to be fixed. The water has gone GREEN

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You've done a magnificent job so far. Now, it's just fine-tuning things.

David,