Scratch-built USS Virginia

[RapidNadion]

Hi all! Father-son scale modeling team here ... we're new to the forum, but it was this thread that pushed us over the edge and caused us to register, so we thought we'd submit a couple videos despite the fact that they don't follow the suggested format to the letter.

This is the newest boat in our fleet. We'll save you the great mass of the build details (that's covered in the second video below), but generally: this is a 1/96-scale scratch-build of USS Virginia SSN-774, completed in approximately 30 days and finished on the morning after Thanksgiving. The paint was still wet in the first video, in fact. She's made of a PVC sewer pipe, assorted woods and plastics, and a lot of sweat. No WTC here ... this boat is a dynamic-diver.

Even if we're disqualified by improper formatting, we hope you guys enjoy these vids. Would like to post them to the YouTube forum as well, if that won't be considered spamming. We've been doing our model videos for a few years now, but Virginia is our newest endeavor.

Great to be here!


SSN-774 Shakedown cruise/Alpha trials:

SSN-774 Making-of/Internal components:

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Watched both videos. Great production values there -- well done, sir!

David

[Kazzer]

Wonderful stuff!

Do you have any still shots of the innards? They look like they are all in the wet.
And this looks like a great candidate for Snort.

[RapidNadion]

Watched both videos. Great production values there -- well done, sir!

David

Thank you, sir! We're in a constant state of evolution, so hopefully we'll keep getting better.

Wonderful stuff!

Do you have any still shots of the innards? They look like they are all in the wet.
And this looks like a great candidate for Snort.

Thanks! You're quite right re: "in the wet" ... we experienced a bit of a leak on one of the shakedown deployments (a breach in the tape securing the dorsal hatch let some seawater in). Fortunately, we caught it before the boat could duplicate the demise of her predecessor! Under normal circumstances, the equipment stays as dry as the rest of the interior on this dynamic-diver.

As for innards photos ... we used pretty much all of the still shots we had in the how-it's-made vid, but here's a few from the files:



I've seen the term "Snort" around here a bit ... what's it mean, if you don't mind?

EDIT: Just looked it up. Ingenious. Obviates the need for pressurized air bottles. Would love to do a static diver someday!

[Anuci]

I watched both videos, and absolutely enjoyed the presentation, a top shelf video, for certain.

Most impressed with the control and scale like response of this dynamic diver, very responsive and trimmed to perfection, IMO.
The underwater video of the boat in operation was absolutely astounding, reflecting the clarity of the water you conducted your shakedown cruise.

I can't say enough of your build methods and video presentation as presented. Very nice sub. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Al

[RapidNadion]

Thanks very much for the kind words, Al. Thanks to some wonderfully clear water and a bright, sunny day, we were treated to some nice underwater views. As for VA herself ... We're still tweaking the boat to our preferences, but she's definitely handling a lot better already. Next up: an "emergency surface" video! Hopefully in a week or so.

[RapidNadion]

Just slightly overdue - here's the EMBT-blow videos we promised! Virginia really likes fresh water better as far as signal reception goes. She punches a hole in the water rather nicely at flank speed. :)

[Anuci]

Both video's were so well done I have had to question whether they were of a model or that of a real submarine.
Great job. : )
Maybe you can elaborate a bit on how you were able to accomplish such realism with your video production.

Regards,
Al,

[greenman407]

Oh MY GOODNESS! Very well done indeed. Next youll have to think about building one that can submerge by taking on water ballast.

[RapidNadion]

Oh MY GOODNESS! Very well done indeed. Next youll have to think about building one that can submerge by taking on water
ballast.

Thank you! We'd really have a ball doing a static-diving model ... but the added complexity of the WTC has kept us away from that area for a while. Hopefully we'll be able to take on a static-diver in the coming years! We have a lot of projects in the pipeline, and there are only two of us, so it'll be a while, but there seem to be plenty of resources here and elsewhere!

Both video's were so well done I have had to question whether they were of a model or that of a real submarine.
Great job. : )
Maybe you can elaborate a bit on how you were able to accomplish such realism with your video production.

Regards,
Al,

Al, thanks very much! We were giddy when reviewing the EMBT blow footage at the lake - very pleased with some of these shots.

As for how we shoot: in the EMBT blow videos, we're using a camera called a Casio Exilim FC150, which shoots video at a much higher frame rate than normal cameras. As a result, small, fast-moving objects tend to scale up very nicely in slow-motion. In addition, several years of filming scale models have taught us the benefits of shooting at low angles, so the water retains its reflectivity and obscures submerged objects . . . until they surface, that is. :) The end result is a model that looks much more real than it would if shot at chest level from a dock or similar angle.

Really glad you guys are enjoying the sub videos. The next modification to this boat will be incorporation of a VLS tube for some TLAM action. We might have to fake it by mounting the tube aft of the sail due to space constraints, but we'll see. Will keep you updated!

[Slats]

I have really enjoyed this project.

Couple of quick suggestions -
1-Do seek out from Caswell a David Merriman engineered WTC (Subdriver). Your projects would really benefit from a static dive capability. If you can work out a scratch build sub (and you have), and you are great with the technical side of these videos (which you are), you will have no problems getting a Merriman Subdriver dialed in.
2-Re do your Dive planes - the one thing my eye is drawn to on this sub is the rather awkward overscale planes. A great boat you have here, but it is somewhat let down by those planes.

All that said, what a great project.
Well done.

Best
J

[Anuci]

RapidNadion,

Ha! what a coincidence, that just happens to be the same camera I've been using.
Bought it specifically for its high speed capabilities, however only used the slow motion speed once and found that the video reproduction was like watching paint dry. : ) when filming continuously that is.
I've been meaning to experiment further with the various high speed settings.
However, I'm curious as to which video speed setting was used in your latest video ? if you recall.
30-200fps
210fps
420fps
1000fps

Regards,
Al

[RapidNadion]

I have really enjoyed this project.

Couple of quick suggestions -
1-Do seek out from Caswell a David Merriman engineered WTC (Subdriver). Your projects would really benefit from a static dive capability. If you can work out a scratch build sub (and you have), and you are great with the technical side of these videos (which you are), you will have no problems getting a Merriman Subdriver dialed in.
2-Re do your Dive planes - the one thing my eye is drawn to on this sub is the rather awkward overscale planes. A great boat you have here, but it is somewhat let down by those planes.

All that said, what a great project.
Well done.

Best
J

Slats, thanks again for the kind words. We'll definitely take your advice on that WTC when we next go into a sub-building frenzy. First we've got to squeeze every bit of video we can from our dynamic-diver here, though, so that overhaul will likely have to wait a good while. Missile tubes come before WTCs on the shot list. :)

You're right about the oversized bowplanes; we decided to err on the large side because of the huge amount of buoyancy fighting to keep this boat on the surface in its prior incarnation as Baton Rouge Modular ballast helped us out this time, though, and we may reduce the bowplane size going forward.

RapidNadion,

Ha! what a coincidence, that just happens to be the same camera I've been using.
Bought it specifically for its high speed capabilities, however only used the slow motion speed once and found that the video reproduction was like watching paint dry. : ) when filming continuously that is.
I've been meaning to experiment further with the various high speed settings.
However, I'm curious as to which video speed setting was used in your latest video ? if you recall.
30-200fps
210fps
420fps
1000fps

Regards,
Al

Al,

Yep! We recently used the FC-150 on our newest rocket-barge video. Although the camera was only rolling in realtime for perhaps 3 or 4 minutes, the high-speed setting delivered a 36-minute video! Shooting in high speed requires extensive editing!

As for speed: if we're shooting something like the sub just cruising along on the surface, and we want to see the bow-wave at scale speed, we'll usually select something like 120fps. If, on the other hand, we're filming a really quick event like a rocket launch or the EMBT blow (each of which happen in less than a second in realtime, we'll boost it up to 210 or 420. 420 starts to look really grainy, though, so unless we're in really good lighting, and pushed in really close, we prefer 210.

Hope that helps somewhat!

[Anuci]

Yes, Thank you for a most informative breakdown, very helpfull. I'll keep that info. in mind when I get around to my next sea trial. or whatever.

Regards,
Al