Ufo skydiver

[greenman407]

I recently purchased a UFO SKYDIVER thats 3 ft long from Mamas Pitsillis in the UK. Here is his website showing all his fine models and hulls available.http://studio2models.webs.com/ There is also a five foot long one available as well.Here are some pictures that I have collected over time. Now that I have one I will be needing your help(YES YOU) to make it into a fully functional rc submarine. Any suggestions or observations that you may have please post them. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the raw GRP pieces before they are cleaned up.

[greenman407]

Just a few pictures of his completed 5 ft. Skydiver.:biggrin:

[greenman407]

The hull is GRP and in these pictures has yet to be cleaned up. Once it has Ill need to bond the upper hull to the lower. Then Ill need to select the best possible way to cut an opening to access the interior for placement of goodies. Its roughly 10" wide at the stern.

[greenman407]

Sky one is 12 1/2" long and the fuselage is about 2 1/2" wide. You can see here all the resin parts. The only thing that is missing is the canopy. Oh and also the main engine exhaust or thrust nozzles. He didnt make any because of the shape of the nozzles on the jet drives that he uses.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

An excellent looking kit there, Mark. Keep posting as work progresses. And my hats off to the guy who produced this fine kit!

Something that just arrived from the UK -- pulled off the Century-21 tooling:




John Goode will loft off these parts to produce a proper set of drawings from which I can make patterns, tools and eventual parts. I'm thinking of a steam-propelled, flyable SKY-1 (think, Bell rocket-pack).

David,

[greenman407]

That is just too awesome. Looks like its about the same size as mine?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

We gotta compare notes. The one I pictured are parts from original tools from 21st-Century Productions (not Century-21 as I previously wrote). The kit you got is to die for.

In the immortal words of old-man Stanton: "BUILD IT!"

[greenman407]

And build we will!

[Tugrat]

I love the 1/72 version

Its been a while since I last saw an episode of UFO (it must be due for showing again on paytv) but I remember that Sky 1 went to an angle and then launched

If you had a foam version of the aircraft you could partially surface - only aircraft above the water and then launch. the launching gear could be based on say the torpedo system , compressed air or even water. The aircaft could reach height then glide down. ( one of the model rocket companies used to have foam SR71, space shuttles and cruise missles

Jaycar ( our version of Maplin/Radio Shack) are selling a rocket launch system that propels 2 litre plastic drink bottles into the air. they also used to sell an air launch rocket(compressed air)

[greenman407]

Wow! , sounds like you have already figured it out.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I love the 1/72 version

Its been a while since I last saw an episode of UFO (it must be due for showing again on paytv) but I remember that Sky 1 went to an angle and then launched

If you had a foam version of the aircraft you could partially surface - only aircraft above the water and then launch. the launching gear could be based on say the torpedo system , compressed air or even water. The aircaft could reach height then glide down. ( one of the model rocket companies used to have foam SR71, space shuttles and cruise missles

Jaycar ( our version of Maplin/Radio Shack) are selling a rocket launch system that propels 2 litre plastic drink bottles into the air. they also used to sell an air launch rocket(compressed air)

Looking forward to your build -- will you chronicle it here?

David,

[Tugrat]

the bottle launcher can be found

www.jaycar.com.au part # GT3014

this reminds me of a 1/5 scale model carved out of foam of WWII Japanese Midget Sub

I used to work at a location that had this model -it was kept in an empty building that now houses the conning tower of a real one.

Because someone couldnt find a better location it was placed out in the open -it only lasted a short while - what I could have done with the foam - used it as a basis for a mould - with all that space what could i have included

[greenman407]

I have been asked to post more pictures of the resin parts.
In the upper two shots you see the front of the diver and the rear of Sky. They interloc together quite well. I will put a screw thru here to keep the two together. But I will put it thru the diver part so I can at anytime remove it with a screwdriver from inside. The Sky portion is hollow so as suggested I will make it free flooding like the rest of the sub. The interior space allotment will allow for a 3" Cylinder about 16" long. The forward part of the cylinder will be needed for ballast and will need to go as far forward as I can get it to aproach the center of the sub. Some how I need to determine how much of the cyl. to use for ballast and then the remainder for electronics. Any suggestions?

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

This is the latest picture of " Mamas's build. If you look closely you can make out the opening in the hull on the flat deck area. You as the builder will have to cut this in yourself. Im going to do it with a large Dremel diamond blade on a right angle attachment. Any errors I will try to keep to the inside. To replace material removed by the saw blade im going to first use plastic strips epoxied under the deck on the hull so that it forms a shelf. Im going to do the same on the cutout except it will stick out past the cut line to take up the space lost in the cut. This will take some precision. Then using auto body filler I will fill in the notch that was formed by adding the strips to the cutout and letting it stick out past the cut line. Keep in mind that when adding a strip to the cutout you effectively add to the edges thickness. Therefore when putting the strips on the inside of the hull youll have to add a spacer to make up this difference so that the end result is that the surfaces of the upper deck where they meet will be flush. Also of note is the radiused corner pictured in the foreground. It has horizontal slots in it. This too youll have to do yourself. A daunting task to make it look good. Various hull openings will need to be cut out and backed up with various types of screen material. The hull openings in the bottom of the hull to allow water in and out so that you can sink it are not marked so you have the chance to be inventive here.