For almost five years I have been scouring the internet for a 1/72 scale unbuilt Sturgeon, then along came the promise of a great kit (and it will be) from Brian Starkes but that too is not yet across the finishing line.
A while back I had thought of getting my own boat together, Anyway the product of that thought and the acquisition of some great plans by Greg Sharpe led me to kick the process off by commissioning a build of a sail and sail planes by a modeller here in Australia. This shown below (photo to be inserted).
Work, and other target commitments shelved the idea of doing my own hull, and then Joel Stadnick and Andy (Subculture) suggested I consider another option......
It just so happens that Joel's long hulled Jack (Permit) hull, is identically geometrically to the the 637 class, (that is the original Sturgeon - not the longer series). With that in mind and a study of the longer Permit hull cf the Sturgeon, it turns out that around half the detail are in the same position on both boats.
Some of the similar detail
For the express purposes of building a Sturgeon in 1/72 scale, I ordered Joel's USS Jack hull, and the rear dive planes, rudders, scopes, and various other hardware and set about a conversion.
Soon after it arrived I cleaned up all the parts of their various mold release material and commenced work with Z cutting the hull, installing indexing lips, and getting a great fit between upper and lower hull surfaces using the supplied screws and installing the securing nuts.
The next job was to fill in a 10mm discrepancy in the stern cone using a automotive filler. The hull despite having identical geometry is designed around Joel's unique Jack counter-rotating bearing, this bearing is of course absent in my case and the hull needed to be tapered off correctly. To do so required roughing up the hull surfaces upper and lower and I did so using my Dremel. Shown below is the work in progress.
Next job was to consider the geometry of the rear rudders - these are a perfect match on both boats (Sturgeon and Permit).
The rear dive planes turn out to be slightly different. As can be shown below there is small discrepancy on the outer aft edges - this is easily fixed by adding roughing up the edge and applying GRP filler.
The largest discrepancy of Permit parts cf Sturgeon is the horizontal stabilisers ahead of the dive planes. What is shown on the photo below is that around a 10mm portion of material is missing behind the Permit's parts cf the Sturgeon. Roughing up the rear edge of this stabilser and tacking some flat styrene in place on either side of a Permit stabiliser with CA, I poured into this section some GRP filler. Then removing the styrene border a perfect match is made.
Difference in size:
Of course as strong as this modified part is, it needs to be stronger, so with the complete permission of Joel, I will be molding this part so that I have two identically strong port and starboard side stabilisers.
The final bit of commence work I did was make a horizontal fin for the rear Stabilisers. This work was done utilising light styrene, which will be molded.
J
A while back I had thought of getting my own boat together, Anyway the product of that thought and the acquisition of some great plans by Greg Sharpe led me to kick the process off by commissioning a build of a sail and sail planes by a modeller here in Australia. This shown below (photo to be inserted).
Work, and other target commitments shelved the idea of doing my own hull, and then Joel Stadnick and Andy (Subculture) suggested I consider another option......
It just so happens that Joel's long hulled Jack (Permit) hull, is identically geometrically to the the 637 class, (that is the original Sturgeon - not the longer series). With that in mind and a study of the longer Permit hull cf the Sturgeon, it turns out that around half the detail are in the same position on both boats.
Some of the similar detail
For the express purposes of building a Sturgeon in 1/72 scale, I ordered Joel's USS Jack hull, and the rear dive planes, rudders, scopes, and various other hardware and set about a conversion.
Soon after it arrived I cleaned up all the parts of their various mold release material and commenced work with Z cutting the hull, installing indexing lips, and getting a great fit between upper and lower hull surfaces using the supplied screws and installing the securing nuts.
The next job was to fill in a 10mm discrepancy in the stern cone using a automotive filler. The hull despite having identical geometry is designed around Joel's unique Jack counter-rotating bearing, this bearing is of course absent in my case and the hull needed to be tapered off correctly. To do so required roughing up the hull surfaces upper and lower and I did so using my Dremel. Shown below is the work in progress.
Next job was to consider the geometry of the rear rudders - these are a perfect match on both boats (Sturgeon and Permit).
The rear dive planes turn out to be slightly different. As can be shown below there is small discrepancy on the outer aft edges - this is easily fixed by adding roughing up the edge and applying GRP filler.
The largest discrepancy of Permit parts cf Sturgeon is the horizontal stabilisers ahead of the dive planes. What is shown on the photo below is that around a 10mm portion of material is missing behind the Permit's parts cf the Sturgeon. Roughing up the rear edge of this stabilser and tacking some flat styrene in place on either side of a Permit stabiliser with CA, I poured into this section some GRP filler. Then removing the styrene border a perfect match is made.
Difference in size:
Of course as strong as this modified part is, it needs to be stronger, so with the complete permission of Joel, I will be molding this part so that I have two identically strong port and starboard side stabilisers.
The final bit of commence work I did was make a horizontal fin for the rear Stabilisers. This work was done utilising light styrene, which will be molded.
J
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