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

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The quality of your work has improved a great deal, Dave. Looking good, Kiddo!

M

[Davidh]

Hi All,

Thanks Bart, but I'm not quite sure what you are talking about with the pontoon pictures.

I have been away all week taking a group of students from my school on a hike from Wollongong to the Sydney Opera house. About 120km, to raise money for charities. My legs are stuffed!
So I have been a bit out of the loop however I have an update none the less from some work that I did a week or so ago.

I have been doing a little bit of consolidation and simply checking that all the dimensions and surfaces are right. I have been particularly looking at the overall size of the sail and making sure that the overall dimensions are right. I have been paying attention to the base of the sail to make sure that the overall shape of the sail at the base allows for a consistent width of the deck that stretches around the side of the sail. On Komsomolets, this 'footpath' is quite narrow. I think it is only barely wide enough for one crew member to walk around the side of the fin. Once again I have only got photos taken from a distance. The Rubin design bureau has STILL NOT GOT BACK TO ME! Nor has the St Petersburg Submariners Club. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson 'How hard can it be?' Some detailed pics would be really useful right about now.

This has meant doing a bit more sanding of the top of the sail and to make sure that the according taper of the sail matches the drawings. I have also gone ahead and started doing the first bit of detail on the sides of the sail. I have decided to create the windows at the front by creating recessed sections in the front edges. I saw a technique that involved cutting back the area of material around where the widows are placed and then cutting out really small pieces of plastic from an ice cream container that would act and the windows. I then mix up some filler and paste over the area that was cut out. Pressing the plastic squares into the filler and wiggling them around a bit as I don't want air pockets, and allowing to dry. Once dried it was simply a case of sanding back as flat and as smooth as possible and then gently pulling out the two very small plastic squares to reveal the recessed section. I think they turned out O.K.

As mentioned before, I also have decided to raise the front section between the bow blisters. This was done with a slither of wood that was glued down in between the blisters and then filled over and sanded. I am happy with the compromise.
David h

[bwi 971]

After studying the pictures it seems they were always positioned iwo the hull sonars, I believe they have something to do with the applying the GRP or something lookalike, see picture below as example of the lookalike stuff.

Came across a Russian site with a note to the pontoon pictures:

Подготовка с пуску АПЛ "К-278". Прямоугольные конструкции - понтоны для уменьшения осадки:
Preparing to launch submarine " K- 278 " . Rectangular design - pontoons to reduce rainfall :

Grtz,
Bart

[Davidh]

Hello all,

Thankyou to those people who have left comments and have helped with pics. Keep the ideas coming.

The blisters and bow bulges at the front are an ongoing thing and will probably take up more of my time over the next couple of weeks as I come to a final opinion regarding them. I will probably go with the compromise that I outlined earlier with regards to the slight raise in the section between the two bulges, yet tone down the bulges just a little bit.

In the meantime I have decided to start looking at a different section of the boat. The sail / fin is the most prominent structure other than the hull of course and so though that I would have a go at starting it's development. Komsomolets has a very long low Fin. It's like the Sierra, and the Oscar, and in keeping with so many soviet designs there is the escape chamber that takes up so much room in about the middle of the design. Although I haven't paid a huge amount of attention just at the moment to the escape module design, it is in my opinion, pretty clever.

Once again I have decided to cut two sides to the fin and would create two pieces that I could make split moulds from. They will be the first sail design masters that from the outset will be used to create RTV silicon moulds. I am not going GRP hardshells for this one. I recently took out the Resolution sail halves and re-tooled them using silicon and seriously, the improvement in fidelity is a no brainer. RTV silicon has seen a quantum leap in the quality of my mould work. I need to update "tool time" in "hints and tricks" to reflect this. Once you have started using RTV Silicon you won't look back. The silicon I use just needs a hardener added to the catalyst to get a nice thick paste that you can work up vertical surfaces. I just need to get the hardener, unfortunately here I cannot buy any less than about 500g-1Kg of the stuff. I only need about 50g.

I drilled two holes underneath the bottom of the sail. these two holes are skewed up and into the other side so they both hold together. This allows me to work on both pieces as one and make sure they are symmetrical and also that edge detail meets exactly where it should. I them spent a bit of time getting the symmetry of the overall halves right. Making sure that the tapers are right in the right place.

I intend on producing a separate top piece of the fin. this will have the detail for the masts, scopes, deck and the escape pod. Lots of detail here. As can be seen by the cut out of the fin top there is plenty of fin detail that is known of this boat. All you then have to do is put the sail on top of the hull in the right spot in the widened deck section in the middle and in no time it's starting to

"look like mike"..... I think.!

David H

[Peter W]

I'm still on the look out for you, having Google translate helps because all the best pics come from Russian sites.

Peter

[Davidh]

Thanks Pete,

This photo has been an important one for me from the start. I would kill for some really good dry dock pics though..

Dave h

[Peter W]

hopefully some one can make this bigger....please it is a reasonable res picture but I am struggling to get this format

Peter

Here is the image URL http://bastion-opk.ru/VVT/685_2014_01.jpg
it is a 1413 x 697 pic so good for detail.

[Peter W]

I was using my phone to upload it but it won't let me make it bigger. I will try on the pc later.

Peter

[HardRock]

Hey Peter. That picture is as small as an Australian cricket score!

[Peter W]

It may have worked ?
Edit : it hasn't uploaded it to size where you can see it. David what is your email address and I will email you the pic. It may help answer a question or 2 if you haven't seen it that is
Peter

[Peter W]

http://bastion-karpenko.ru/bastion-reports-4-2015/

try this site David I have found some Mike pics that I have never seen but can't upload the
Via my phone.

Peter

[Davidh]

Hello all,


Thanks for all the suggestions from people about the dilemma of the forward bulges / Blisters over the hydroplane housing. All I need is some good photo's of the bow area to clear this up but so far neither Rubin or The St Petersburg Submariners club have bothered to reply which is a bit annoying.

I really think that I will reduce the size and profile of the blisters and maybe just raise the deck between the blisters by a tiny amount. This is influenced by Barts black cut out profile of the forward deck. Most cunning...

The photo's continue, one showing me on my best side. I talked a week earlier about creating a flat marking out board and here is me using it. I admit my pen clamping device is a bit crude but works very effectively. This method is really good for getting nice consistent equators and other lines around the hull. The challenge is making sure that the hull is dead level and that the top of the deck is level and at the top. To do this I actually unscrewed some of the screws in the bottom of the hull that were used to secure the dividers inside the hull for the top deck. I drilled holes in the base of the measuring board and then re-screwed up form underneath to get a fixed hull and one that was level and with the deck at the top and centre.

Once this was done I could then mark out the equatorial lines around the hull and even do some light scribing. This line would probably be sanded off later as I continue to smooth down the bow section and get it just right. I will be using the marking out board later as I come back to marking out waterlines and equators later when the hull is nearing completion.

I am as mentioned finding a divergence between what the drawings say and what the photos of the Komsomolets, show. The bow section with the blisters, are they as pronounced as the drawings suggest or is the deck more raised? For this I have had lots of feedback for which I have been grateful. I have mentioned my decision earlier and these series of photos show me using the templates for the bow front view template showing the pronounced blisters. I will not make them as pronounced.

I have taken time to modify the overall shape of the blisters. This involves adding more filler and using a template that feature a cut out of the blister and placing it over the top of the blister and tracing around it. Then making sure that they match up and sanding accordingly. I have also used a blade to shape the front end of the blister, marking out with lines to make sure they both line up.

Anyway, enough for now.

David h

[gantu]

[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