Newbie no more - Building the Revell 1/72 Gato

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Only use the Nitro-Stan (or any other air-dry touch-up putty) where the depth of fill does not exceed 1/32" -- in other words, us it only for scratch filling. In all other situations use the two-part fillers.

Harbor freight sometimes has little putty-knife sets on the shelf -- look for them at Micro-Mart and other such mail-order tools sources.

David,

[trout]

I AM SUCH AN IDIOT!!!!!
I came home wanting to test out the spatula to see if the Metal Glaze would melt it.
Here is the tool in question.....

I may have inherited it from my dad or grand father, but I have no idea where I got it. Here you can see the melting of the tip.

It is obviously been used before. Look closely at the blurred picture near the handle.

When I stop laughing, I will head off to the auto store and get real spatulas made for the job.....

[trout]

Thank you for the tip. The black putty knife I began to use (it was made for bondo) began to melt while using the Nitro-Stan. What do you use?
When do you use the Evercoat versus the Nitro-Stan or at what point would I make that decision?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Excellent work. You'll have more control applying that touch-up putty if you use a putty-knife -- right now you're laying it down too thick.

Good fix on those deck holes!

David,

[trout]

The inside corners of the deck had received a liberal amount of cohesive and was allowed time to dry. Then ran thicker CA to reinforce the joints. Also put in a tab to help the side line up with the bow.

Then, using thin CA and baking soda, filled in the gap. I plan to make sure the CA gets a good coat of primer to seal it. I have read that it can absorb water and not hold, not sure if it is true.

My clip did not do what I wanted. The very bottom stuck out slightly. So to fix that, I cut out a smaller clip near the bow flood holes.

That took care of the problem. There is a small corner of the clip showing showing through the flood hole. You can see how flush that little tab makes the fit. I am not so certain I need the larger side clip, so I may consider removing it later.

Trimmed the length of the larger clip and the corner of the smaller one.

I am waiting for some parts and just going to do some cosmetic work on the deck and hull. Filling the seams with Nitro-Stan is just one of those things.

Sanded down to smooth it out

And fixing the deck mess I made is another (my priorities are still to get the submarine done). Here is the deck with the glue that leaked onto it and filled holes and grooves.

I began with .0145” drill bit and drilled the holes out. Not too deep, but maybe 3 or four turns drilling in and 6 turns counter clockwise to remove loose plastic bits. Then moved to .024” drill to make the hole closer to the size of the other holes on the deck. For this, I went one full turn drilling in and three or four going out. I used my engraving tool to recreate the filled in grooves and clean out the partially filled ones. Here is how it came out.

Here are the tools I used.

[trout]

compiling details for finishing the sub I ran into this picture. This helps answer the position of the bow planes from a discussion in an earlier post.

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I need help, of all things, batteries.....
I am replacing the batteries on my Futaba, The RX pack has 4 1.2V 500mAh NiCads, The important part is keeping the voltage at 4.8V correct? and the higher milliamps means longer runs correct?

[trout]

There are a lot of things I can be doing right now, but I am just pondering the next steps. One is assessing the things I need to get to test my sub. I found my old 6Ch. Futaba that I converted to a ground frequency late 80's or very early 90's.

My other Futaba is a 4Ch non surface frequency and that would be $50 to convert plus batteries and who knows what else, For what I put into it I might as well buy the wfly or save my money and work to that. However my 6Ch does not need converting, I just need to get power to test it. Does the MicroVIPER Marine10 ESC have a BEC to power the receiver? if so I will not buy a new pack for the RX and all I am left with is finding a replacement for TX unit and test it out. So my next purchase will be an ESC (especially if it has a BEC), LiPo for the WTC, NiCad for the TX, SNORT, and 4 servos (bow planes, Stern planes, retract system, and rudder). That is the minimum with an ADR to be purchased by the time I get to sea trials, but for ballast and trim I just need it to surface, dive, and the all too important surface again. What are your thoughts on this 6Ch Futaba for Submarines?

[trout]

The props have me a little confused. I must be really slow minded or I am over thinking it. Especially the left and right thread in the Raboesch props. As I see it, I put threads at the end of the shaft (what 3/8" or so of thread?) then the one prop it will be fine, the other will be cross threaded??? - but I will move forward and cross this once I get my die.

The deck at the bow had an ever so slight lift to it. I went ahead and added the clip from the D&E fittings package. To do this I marked where it needs to go measuring from my cross members forward edge. Then transferred that distance to my deck underside. Used the clip to see what areas I needed to sand for a base. I roughed up the under side of the deck and the bottom of the clip and used thicker CA. Aligned it and in moments it was set. I was going to use both clips, but the back one would hit my plane control system.

Then came testing time. It really helped secure the bow and take away the little lift that was going on.

Looking at the wtc, I notice that with the way I have it set up, it does cause a bit of a problem using the pin because I cannot lift it straight up and out for the most part. I have to lift it up and slide the tube either forward or aft depending on where I place this unit. Well that will be a discussion later, right now I am going to shape the forward end of the wtc cap. I marked where the cap touched the hull.

Then beveled the edge. The little bit of shaping I did, to account for the curve of the hull, made a big difference in distance or range of travel forward. There are two vertical lines the one to the left is without doing any shaping. The line on the right is from placing a bevel around the edge. The lip is about 1/8" and I trimmed it down to 1/16" or half way and tapered towards the center of the cap about 3/32" to 1/8" depending on where the hull contacted the end cap the most.

I might be able to squeeze even more forward range if I get extra aggressive on the taper. I will wait on doing that after my drive shafts are in and see how much room I need. There is something really incredible just seeing the wtc in the hull.

[trout]

just had a thought..... Is there a left and a right twist on the raboesch props to correspond to the right and left hand prop? or are they both the same?
If so do I have to buy 2 die or is that ability built into the one die?

[trout]

Thank you, will do!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Make your dog-bones about three-inches in length. That will result in a moderate off-set angle between SD and GATO shafts. I don't care where you put the indexing pin in the hull, just so it matches up with a corresponding hole in the ballast tank section of the SD. You may have to trim some resin off the sides of the forward bulkhead to keep it from hitting the sides of the hull.

Yeah, spring for a die.

David,

[trout]

Got the prop answer on another thread - 1/8 shafts = 1/8 UNC Screw thread. ( taper nr 5 -40). Remember my prior post on never tabled a thread before? How do I get threads put on the end of the SS shaft? Do I buy a die?

[trout]

David,

Since I am the one that will cut the length of the dog-bone coupler, there is some room to go longer or shorter. The one thing I did not think about was the pin for the wtc. That goes on the forward face of the bulkhead. That would set my distance, correct? and any help on the raboesch props? how would you install them? thank you.
Peace,
Tom

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The longitudinal position of the SD within the hull is driven by the length of the dog-bone and brass couplers at either end of the dog-bones.

From a thrust bearing forward face (there are two thrust washers, a port and starboard unit): there is a thin stainless-steel thrust washer, then a Dumas brass coupler, then the dog-bone, and the coupler made up to the SD motor output shaft. Simple.

David,