Scratch Build Project 685 Plavnik K-278 Komsomolets NATO: Mike

[Davidh]

Thanks ,David, Peter and bwi 971.

Thanks for the responses.
David h

[Davidh]

Hello All,

Once again I'm back to it. Some time on the weekend to get some work done. I have taken time out to directly work on the model and am doing some infrastructure upgrades. Gosh I sound like the NSW Government. I love council clean ups. The ones where your local council says, put out all your rubbish on the side of the road and we will collect it. Then you go around the day before it's collected and guaranteed someone is throwing out a kitchen bench top that is ideal for making a marking out board for my models.

The marking board is simply a board that you can mount your model to then scribe an equatorial line or any line around the hull. I will then be mounting the model on two supports and turning it so that I can get vertical hull lines and panels on the hull. The board that I have got is blue and almost straight however there is a slight bow in the board and so it needs a slight adjustment in its attitude I think.

I bought a length of 40x20mm pine from Bunnings. (big hardware chain in Oz) Cut it in half and screwed two lengths to the base. Nice and straight now.
Once this was done I simply drilled four holes for the hooks and from here you can place the hull in to then create the horizontal lines that you need.

Once this was done it was simply a case of sanding, sanding and more sanding the front end of the master. The resin coat on the bow section allows the timber to be sealed and then you can sand back the bow and get a smooth surface. I envisage several layers of resin and then sanding back to get the resin to really soak in and allow a fine surface to be achieved. The photo's show the effort in sanding down the bow and once again checking with the profile templates. I am getting to the end of using these as the shape is really good. I don't think there's really anymore adjustment that I can make.

More sanding, sanding, sanding. hmm...

The top deck needs to be quite defined. The change in direction between the hull coming up and the flat deck section at the top needs to be distinctive. So sanding and scraping with the back of the ruler works well for getting a clear edge along the sides of the deck. Making them consistently parallel is the challenge. Once I sand this back further I repeat the process of filling and then a shot of primer to see that I'm on task.

I have had people ask me about why I have my model on a bin. A wheely bin to be precise. That's what we call them here. Or as you ask your friend "where's ya wheely bin?" I've wheely bin up the coast! ( maybe it's an Aussie joke, never mind..) I have little room in my workshop. I don't have a work bench as such I work on the top of a bar fridge, a small fold up table and for some sunlight it's the top of the Bin.

Anyway that's enough for now.

David h

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

DavidH, you are a much better model-maker than you were this time last year. Keep at it, kiddo!

M

[Peter W]

David,

Stupid question I have had a good look through all of this thread but can't see or have missed what scale you are doing this thing at ?

Peter

[Davidh]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the words David. Peter, not a dumb question. I have never been interested in what scale my boats are. I built resolution without knowing her scale. Up until this morning I only knew the scale of my two swedish subs, Gotland and Sjormen. They are 72nd scale. I didn't even intend on that! I only found out because John Slater took a ruler to them at a Canberra Subregatta a couple of years ago.

Resolution comes in at 1:118 and Komsomolets comes in at 1:123. Can I round them to 1:120?

David h

[bwi 971]

David, I don't know where you got your plans from or how detailed they are but I came across this image from a POLAR BEAR model for what's it worth......strange stuff some kind of scoops?

Link to the site...half way down the page, click on them to get the full image

http://scalemodels.ru/articles/5991-obzor-Polar-Bear-1-350-apl-k-278-komsomolec-proekta-685.html

And link to a another video I found

https://my.mail.ru/mail/yuriy.volkov.1957/video/358/366.html

Grtz,
Bart

[Davidh]

Hello Bart,

Thankyou for the links, they have been interesting. The polar bear models are good for getting an overall idea of shape and proportions and yes I have seen those curious features at the stern just below and forward of the lower fin. I have no idea what they are for and would love an explanation if someone has an idea.

I am also very curious about the raised square fins that are halfway between the sail and stern.

Following my success with the Ministry of Defence in the UK declassifying some photos of the Resolution in dry dock I emailed the Rubin design bureau in St Petersburg and asked if they could release some further details of the Komsomolets. Heck they designed it so surely they have something on it more than just the usual few photos that crop up on the net. In the last 10 years there has been an enormous number of fantastic photos coming out of Russian showing their boats in dry dock. Surely releasing some pic's of a boat that is no longer in service (lost in 1989) can't be that hard... I've got nothing to loose..

Have yet to hear back. I also emailed the St Petersburg Submariners club. Still awaiting...

I am at the point where the drawings that I have are divergent from the photo's that I have of this boat. This is concerning the front end once again. The forward planes and mounted in raised Blisters. I have been talking about these a fair bit and are taking up a fair bit of time and are probably at the moments the hardest to pin a conclusive profile to. Most of the drawings of Komsomolets show two distinct blisters that run parallel with the top deck at the bow. In the front view they are raised / bulged and then angle down to meet the deck. There are no really good close up photos of the forward deck of Komsomolets to prove or disprove this arrangement. So I find this a bit frustrating.

The two main photos that I have allude to the section between the two bulges as being Raised and level along the profile of the deck to the front. No doubt the bulges /blisters are there, you can make the outline on side views. I just wish there was more clarity with what profile occurs between these blisters. I am leaning towards ignoring the plans on this one and having a flat raised profile between the two Blisters/ bulges.

You can clearly see in the last photo that the plane doors cut across the curve line in the hull plates at the bottom edge of the blister. As far as I can see the lower photo is my best evidence that the bulges were joined and the forward deck was slightly raised..

any thoughts?

[bwi 971]

Again their or zillion different opinions. But you have to do something one way or another. Maybe this will help you to deside.

If it was my call I would leave the deck in between the bulges flat and straight.

In the two first pictures below you can see that the safety tracks are bending inwards going around the bulges. In your picture the angle of the camera resulted in an optical effect that it seems that the safety track is going upwards BUT IT's IS NOT its bending inwards.

The bulges never join either

In the third picture you can see that the flat deck is straight thet deck gives the same licht reflection troughout.....if some part would have been angled it would give a defferent reflection.

If it turns out to be wong you can blame the Belgium guy......it's a win win situ...go for it David.

Wild guessing here, the fins must be some kind of sensors akula/victor style. They are too much Fwd to have an effect on the waterflow towards the prop like the ones on the Typhoon.

Grtz,
Bart

[Peter W]

I am inclined to go flat, but.......the 2 pictures Bart has posted above of the Bow from the tower seem to make the blister return back over to the centreline slightly but could be an optical illusion. But
..The more I look the more it appears they curve over slightly .........not much help eh?Having said all that the handrails do bend around the blisters, would they have to if they weren't a little raised ??

Peter

[bwi 971]

I hear you Peter, what often helps is banning everything that distracts the attention of the object you focus on.

Grtz,
Bart

[Peter W]

Have to say that it looks flat now that you have highlighted the area.......However the bows on plan has the blisters way too high/pronounced in my opinion, considering the Russians were big into laminar flow tech at that sort of time I would be surprised if they were so aggressively raised.

Peter

p.s. tell me when any of this actually starts to help.....?!

[gantu]

[Davidh]

Thanks Bart, Peter and Gantu.

Yes I am thinking that the raised bulges on the front view are too pronounced. The plans I'm using are virtually the same as the pics Gantu has put up. I will have
very subtle bulges. But still don't know if I should raise the front deck level ever so slightly. The cut out Bart has done looks like there may be a very subtle raise.
Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions.

David h

[gantu]

[gantu]