USS Nautilus - Final Edition

[DrSchmidt]

After everything has been glued into place, fill and sand. Then all parts have to be prepared for the base coat. All surfaces are wet sanded with 600-grade sandpaper. This also includes the control planes.



When everything is sanded, all surfaces are thoroughly cleaned of dust and then degreased using silicone remover.

The parts that mustn’t be painted are masked suing masking tape. Then all parts are fixed for the painting using auxiliary mounts.



I use Südwest Allgrund 2-component filler/primer for the base coat, which I mix with 15% thinner (long). I apply the coat using a Satajet B (1,35 mm nozzle). It is important to thoroughly clean the room in which the paint is applied (here a garage) from dust and to clean all surfaces near the parts that are going to be painted using a wet cloth. The we are ready to go. Important: Use a breathing mask!!! Here the result:



Now the remaining micro pores can be filled and then again everything is wet sanded using 600-grade sandpaper.

[DrSchmidt]

I try my very best.....

[Tugfan]

Holy cow. I hate you as bad as Merriman. Didn't think it possible.

[DrSchmidt]

The bracket for the compass repeater is a photo-etched part. Cut free, clean the seams and sand it using 600-grade sandpaper. The bend the wings into right angles using tweezers:





Put everything together with a 0,5 mm brass bolt and fix it with superglue:



Put the compass repeater it into the bridge using a 1 mm brass wire and fix with superglue:



The rudder indicator is again sanded pkanar and glued into position using superglue.
Then the bridge assembly is glue to the underside of the sail deck. Test fit the whole assembly into the sail and make adjustments where necessary.



When everything fits, glue the deck assembly to the top of the ail using epoxy:

[DrSchmidt]

The mast support is a big resin cast part. To reduce its volume, not needed sections are marked and removed using saw and files.







The underside of the sail deck is sanded planar and the seams are cleaned:



The mast support is glued to the underside of the sail deck. Watch for exact positioning:



3 mm diameter vent holes are then drilled into the mast support.



Test fit and set back the inner edge of the sail if needed:



The bridge is a resin cast part. It still need compass repeater and rudder indicator, which are also resin cast parts.




The compass repeater is made of two parts – housing and lid. Both are sanded planar and cleaned. Glue them together using superglue and drill a 0,5 mm diameter hole horizontally through the housing:



Drill a 1 mm diameter hole in the marked position of the bridge deck:

[DrSchmidt]

On it goes with the sail, mast support and bridge assembly:





On the upper rear edge of the sail the fin (photo etched part) is inserted:



The position is marked with masking band end edding and a slit is cut free using a 0,3 mm drill:





The fin is glued into position, the seams filled and sanded flush:





In the area of the bridge the inner edge of the sail has to be removed using Drehmel tool and diamond files. The bridge has to sit flush.

[DrSchmidt]

First the viewports in the sail have to be defined. Nautilus had three levels of these viewports and at 1:87 scale they are actually only 3 x 4 mm large and are separated by only 0.5 mm minimum. The easy approach would be to just paint them on. I decided to cut them out. Mark, drill, file:







For the marking masking tape is a good choice as it can easily be corrected until everything is in the right position:









Centrally under the lowest viewport level a resin detail is fit into a 5 mm diameter drilling. Glue it into place, filling, sanding, done:

[DrSchmidt]

A few hours later: The whole boat is wet sanded and where necessary, the contours are corrected using 2-komponent polyester putty (usually used for cars). To get the seam of the service hatch as narrow as possible, the hatch is treated with release agent (PVA), putty is applied to the cut for the hatch, and then the hatch is pressed into the soft putty and fixed using the M2 screws. Wet sanding (400 grade sandpaper) and the fit is close to being seamless.





The final part that goes onto the hull is the sonar dome. It is made of two cast PU resin parts.



Clean both parts and glue them together (superglue):



The deck is put onto the hull, adjusted and then the sonar dome is glued to the hull where its position is marked on the deck. Don’t fix the deck yet.



Fill the seam, sand it, done:



Next the hull can receive its base coat.


The sail (GRP) is cleaned and sanded with 600 grade sandpaper before further assembly steps can be started:

[DrSchmidt]

Put together it starts looking like a boat. Now it gets dirty: Grinding, filling seams and gaps, again grinding. What one invests here in time, care and sweat will pay off twice when the first layer of primer is applied.

[DrSchmidt]

Next, the bow section is glued to the pressure-tight main hull. Sand and clean the adherent and fix both parts using high-strength epoxy. The bow deck is used to align the two sections but mustn’t be glued yet.





With that the main hull is complete:



To support the photo-etched deck and to mount the sail, struts, fabricated from 2 mm GRP sheet material, are fabricated and glued into the associated recesses in the main hull:











Again remove epoxy residues using a soft cloth and acetone. The deck is put onto the hull to check for the correct position f the struts but mustn’t be glued yet.



Side remark:

The photo-etched deck is best removed from its sheet using a Dremel drill with a small cutting disk. Carefully clean the edges using fine grade sandpaper.

[DrSchmidt]

To secure the piston tank a bracket with a 2 mm hole is fabricated form 1 mm brass sheet. With the tank in place, the bracket is fixed using superglue:





The position of the 2 mm hole is transferred onto the battery support, widened to 3 mm and again a thread inset installed. In the soft PVC it can be punched into place.



With a M2 screw, the tank now can be secured:

[DrSchmidt]

The fastening of the service hatch is done with three M2 screws. The position of the screws are marked on the hatch ( 2 x under 45° on the bow side and one in the middle on the stern side). The 2 mm holes are drilled.


The hatch is attached and the bow holes transferred into the bayonet ring. The holes in the ring are widened to 3 mm diameter and M2 brass thread insets are glued into them. For this, the screws are first treated with release wax:




The thread insets are available from china in 20 piece packaged for 3€ on eBay. The bow fixture is done:



The stern position of the hole is transferred onto the sterns section:



A support strut is cut from 5 mm GRP plate material:



The strut is fit into the stern section:



The support I glued into place, the 2 mm hole in the hatch is transferred into the strut, widened to 3 mm diameter and a thread inset glued into it:





With that, the stern fixture of the hatch is done, too:

[DrSchmidt]

Next is the second part of the inner structure. Three M4 stainless steel thread rods are screwed into the last bulkhead of the first section. The nuts are secured using superglue:




In the first support bulkhead for the piston tank the hole for the water hose is drilled wider to 9 mm diameter:



Then the support bulkhead is secured in the right position using M4 stainless steel nuts, which are again secured using superglue. It is important to adjust a constant distance between the bulkheads to ensure that the support and the thread roads are correctly positioned and aligned:



In the forward battery support bulkhead, recesses for the metal bends and their supporting screws are machined. The bulkhead has to fit tight against the bulkhead:





In the first support bulkhead recesses for the metal bands of the piston tank are machined as well:





The battery support bulkhead is secured in the correct position using M4 nuts, which are again secured suing superglue:



With this, the inner structure is basically done and the position of the piston tank well defined:

[DrSchmidt]

Saves allot of space.....but you need two speed controllers.

[greenman407]

Brushless outrunner motors, with no gearbox. Nice