A Skipjack in Ireland

[The Boattrainman]

Here is finally how the sail light wiring exits the sail through the hull, I drilled two holes off-set to left and right and went for the left hole to take the wires. It would be better to unite the four wires into two (+ and -), however I need the sail in two parts for a while to do other work, as it is I can remove the sail and wiring and may need to for maintenance when complete and in service.




The wiring going to the right works with the KlikOn connection and safety loop on the left, leaving the centre free for the snorkel and the through hull fitting.




The lights working correctly with the wires exiting the hull for the moment, Green/Starboard, Red/Port.




The Boattrainman

[The Boattrainman]

I'm only going to use one KlikOn magnet, it will be on the linkage to the sail planes, not sure which end of the linkage yet, but I want a quick break as the clevis linkages are hard to open.




However, I want security, so this has been achieved with a small washer, soldered to a short brass wire, plus two very small split pins which have been pushed through holes in the plastic housing and glued in place and the ends opened and spread around the housing. The brass wire is pushed through the two holes in the split pins and soldered, all brass parts that won't rot in water and very strong, but will pull off.

[The Boattrainman]

To finalise the sail light installation, a surround of L-shaped Plasticard is made with a gap to the let the wires out. Two pieces of square tube are used as cable guides to keep the wiring away from the dive plane yoke fittings.





The square is flooded with epoxy, a fair bit is allowed to flow out to ensure the wires are totally encased.



The wiring is led down and will exit through an off-set hole in the Plasticard fitting in the left side of the sail (right in photo), and the through the hull. Both sets of wire will exit the same hole, but that can't be sorted till the sides are united for good. the exit hole will be off-set to one side to let the wiring pass the snorkel inlet fitting under the hull and unite with the rear light wiring. Coming up from the back of the Subdriver are an air line, a linkage to the sail dive plane fitting and this wiring, they all can't go up the middle top of the Subdriver, I'm working on how this will all fit/work on paper at the moment.

The Boattrainman

[The Boattrainman]

If anyone is in the mood for a nautical movie based on real events, this just arrived in cinemas:-



I just saw this on the web, and while it's not the greatest movie ever made (not even the best sea disaster movie ever made), the true story of what happened in 1952 to the Tanker Pendelton and the efforts to rescue the survivors is incredible...............can't say any more..............don't want to spoil it.

Apparently to give the viewer the sensation of what they went through there are over 1000 effect shots (mostly CGI), and it took a year in post production to get the movie together, visually it's amazing.

The Boattrainman

[The Boattrainman]

Here is the inside with all the mods, everything is in line (now!).




I've put four pieces for strengthening of 2mm Plasticard at the screw points and one other, three screws will come up through the hull to hold the sail, two as per David's instructions and the one in the end of the exhaust will receive a new hole in the hull and a very small screw.

I'm not using the beautifully machined Caswell resin blocks as I may have to drill out the front thick screw holder to get the wires from the sail lights down into the hull.




Here is how they will go into the opposite sail sides, two each are currently glued to one side only and will be liberally covered in Polystyrene cement when the two sides are finally united for good. If the Caswell blocks are used you will need two types of glue to get the two halves permanently together (CA and Polystyrene Cement), now only PC will be needed.




A side effect of all this work and fettling is the two sail sides go together much better and are here resting on the hull without needing tape to force them together a good sign.




I learned a lot during this two night build:-

1. I should have made a small plastic jjg to set the lower Caswell fitting, if I had, I wouldn't have wasted so much time fiddling with the resin bushes.

2. I'm not good at gluing resin to styrene/plastic parts.

3. Always, always make sure you can see it if you are doing it, especially parts that have to index together in some way.

Finally, these are my problems, it's perfectly possible to follow David's directions and get it right.

The Boattrainman


.Go to Page 7 of this thread to see a fool proof method of setting these parts! Rob

[The Boattrainman]

The sail lights get their 1mm Plasticard supports plus the resistor to drop the 12v down.

[The Boattrainman]

On to the sail planes and their mechanism. I glued a piece of 1mm Plasticard on the inside, square to the holes for the dive planes, when hardened the Caswell bushes are pushed into the holes from the outside and then sanded flat. The hole is then re-drilled to the new diameter.






So why the inner piece. This appalling drawing will explain, the Caswell dive plane fitting has to fit into an odd shaped sail, not only is it slanting inwards towards the bow at this point, but also slanting inwards going upwards. The fitting will have a slight gap where it meets the hull (see the arrows in the drawing). Now the fitting does have rounded ends, but I want there to be as little friction at this point as possible, so by sanding the piece of card using a small piece of sandpaper and by hand (no files or tools), it can be made easily to this rounded shape (the black parts in the second drawing) to match the rounded end of the fitting, which I have further rounded.




Now this is where it all went wrong!

I couldn't align the larger Caswell resin ring fittings for the second lower toothed part-wheel that takes the movement into the hull, plus I've a big problem gluing resin parts to polystyrene. No amount of jigging and re-fitting could get it aligned, so I gave up. For me the area is too restricted, visibility poor, along with my eyesight!!!!




So I ditched the rounded resin bushes and made two larger square Plasticard fittings from 2mm stockwith the same diameter hole and glued them to approximately where the brass bar should sit. I united both sides and then inserted the bar and fittings and moved the square pieces around before the Polystyrene cement set (around 30 seconds, plus two hours to totally cure).



Now to snag number two, when united, both parts of the sail are pushed apart by this piece of the sail on both sides which affects the tension on the lower moving fittings. I cut these off both sides (just the shaded bit), but having aligned the fittings with the piece on, now there was binding of the parts. I had to quickly re-set the lower larger plastic bushes before total glue set had occurred. The top of the sail with the mast bases sits better on top with these pieces removed.

[The Boattrainman]

Hi John,

Nice to hear from you.

I'm afraid Railway Modelling is in the past, I sold my OO Scale Railway to fund other hobbies, but I did try a small layout in N Gauge at one stage. Had to give up, as I simply couldn't see the small parts, though I appreciate you can make a wonderful layout especially on the scenic side.

I swore I would never make another model below around 1/40 ratio, my Ben Ain is 1/32 and was a joy to work on, but I couldn't resist this sub as it's a reasonable size in 1/72 and it was a bargain.

I've actually come up with my first problem with the Skipjack, more later.

Rob

[Slats]

You savagely hacked up that carefully designed yoke; found a rational for that (well crafted) access hatch; and have callously departed from our kit assembly protocol.

What's next? ... you going to irradiate this thing at CERN????

YOU PEOPLE!!!


M

Don't ever change David.

[Slats]

Rob,
been following this thread and discussion with keen interest and see from your posts you like railways too :). The scale question and discussion I love especially as a N scale train man and a blinked 1/72 ship and sub builder. Lovely assembly here and great description.

Cheers
john

[The Boattrainman]

There are a couple of areas of concern regarding the storage of air, which will act as buoyancy when the sub is submerged.




This section under the sail at the upper join is one such area. I've seen someone cut this section away, I'm not doing that as it's a seam point and I think it needs all the structural integrity it can get, so I've drilled a series of flood holes to let water and air in and out. The four to the left are through the hull but exit under the long exhaust on top and are hidden, the ones on the seam are only through the fitting NOT the hull. After drilling, a larger drill bit is used to finish the holes by running between thumb and fore finger gets rid of the sharp edge of the holes.




A photo I uploaded showed me something I hadn't spotted, there's a large void in both rear dive plane supports, where air will gather.




I drilled four small holes 1cm apart in the curved space where the moving dive plane will sit, there is a seam here so I drilled just over it so as not to crack the filler and it's at the top of the void space. The holes will be entirely hidden by the rear dive planes.



The best solution would be a small hole on top of the supports but that's not an option.

The Boattrainman

[The Boattrainman]

I've tried to come up with away a way of keeping the rudders off the hull when moving as they will mark the paint.

I tried using a brass washer as a bearer by bending it to the shape of hull but the radius is too sharp, so back to the old reliable Plasticard again.




I made two bearings from circular 0.5mm pieces and glued them to the hull and re-drilled the shaft hole. It's hard to see but the top is filed flat to take the base of the rudders, yet it conforms to the hull shape at this point.




It keeps the rudders about 0.3mm off the hull, plus acts a thrust bearer, a blob of silicone grease will be added later. The access hatch is finished, that's as flush as I can get it, almost no seams.

In case I'm overdoing the Plasticard, here's what you can achieve with the stuff if determined.







The life boat and dinghy are entirely made Plasticard with the exception of the oars and masts (cocktail sticks), every rib and strake is modelled.

The Boattrainman

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Thank you so much for the link to his work. I'll check that out. You may be new to r/c submarines, but your credentials are well established.

Your methodical approach is a breath of fresh air -- so, so many people approach this hobby with an ingrained sense of chaos about them. You know the type: has yet to cut a straight line but insists his first boat will shoot torpedoes, run autonomously, have operating masts, and will also flip the morning egg. They never get past square-one yet manage to waste everyone's time (you can see some of that activity at the other r/c submarining boards right now).

M

[The Boattrainman]

Thanks for the kind words, it's great to correspond instantly over such long distances (and time zones).

That guys model car work is awe inspiring, really model engineering with a twist of the true artist for good measure, going to try to get one of his books on the web.

I got into model making via Railway Modelling in my teens and my all time hero is the Rev. Peter Denny. This guy built a single model railway over 40 years in his vicarage in the UK and did it during a period when there was virtually no commercial products, kits or parts available for the period or location of his masterwork. He made everything from scratch, track, locos, stock, buildings, signals, scenery, people and animals, the lot. He turned the wheels himself on a mini lathe and even wound his own armatures for the electric motors for the locos. It needed two operators to run the layout properly, so when his son departed for college, he constructed a mechanical computer to fulfil his tasks. There are better layouts out there, but who can claim they made it all from zero!

Nice of you to consider me a peer, not so, by comparison to you I'm just stumbling around in the dark.

Happy modelling and developing........!

Rob

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

What a pleasure it is to cross swords with someone as impassioned with the Craft as I am. I agree with your assesment. All we can do is identify a standard (usually a respected Modeler -- my guy is Gerald Wingrove https://www.google.com/search?q=gero...hrome&ie=UTF-8 ); examples that approximate our reasonable ideal of perfection, and strive to match it.

I regard you as a peer (if that's not too presumptive of me) and look forward to each post in your thread. I'm a student.

M