Scratch build Soviet Project 661 Anchar "Papa" Class SSGN K-222 1/120 Scale.

[Davidh]

Hello all,

Another week where I have been spending most of my time apart form work, working on getting Resolution up and running. I finally built the ballast tank for Resolution out of a PVC drain pipe. I use the thicker PVC pipe as this tank will be under pressure. I have used some green PVC cement. This stuff seriously glues and smells positively alcoholic! I made a pick up out of Nylex garden nozzle length and with a heat gun simply bent it to the right angle. It enters the tank high and drops down to have the tip resting against the bottom of the tank, in between two baffles. After glassing down some aluminium cross bars I then bolted down the tank near the middle of the hull. I am just in the middle of trimming her at the moment...

I have done a little work on Papa. I have started creating the first of the moulds that will be used for making the final parts for the kit. I have started off with the propellers. A month ago or so I did a fair bit of filling and sanding to finally get the props to be just what I want them to be. Now it was time to start creating the tooling for these.

I have found propellers to have the most complex geometry of any parts that I make for a submarine, however I find that setting up the moulds for them probably the easiest of any parts I make. These moulds differ in that you pour down into the middle of the top mould, unlike fins and so forth where you pour down the part line into the mould. The flashing is still along the equator its just that you pour from the top. This means that you have to think about you venting and pour geometry a little differently. I am confident that the design that I have come up with will once again work well, so far it has for Komsomolets and Borei.

I have drilled out a small hole in the middle of some laminated board. This is where the centre rear hub of the prop will sit. I mark the outline of where the propeller will sit and the area taken up by the clay filleting around the edges. I trace a rim for where the acrylic tube will contain the silicon. I then lightly drill holes in and around the pattern, thus creating the registry points. Then I give a tiny dab of silicon to press and hold the propeller, hub facing down. Once done I then add clay around the rims of the blades taking the leading edge and filleting down to the base. Once this is done I can then silicon down the acrylic tube that will be the container. This is the easiest half of a mould to make.

Now it is simply a case of pouring the silicon. My colour for Papa is a beige light brown that is actually a mix of green orange and blue.

Once this has been pulled, I can then look at creating the second half of the mould, the one from which you pour the resin and use a 2mm thread insert to get the shaft thread embedded in the resin.

Next week....

David H

[Davidh]

Hello All,


Once again the stern section of the boat is where the action is. I had been looking at the detail just in front of the rudders. There is what looks like two hatches, one that is the usual Russian escape hatch, white and red and the other a broader flatter white ring that looks like a type of loading hatch. Or it could be a docking hatch, maybe someone could illuminate me on this one. I have gone ahead with this anyway. I have got onto my trusty lathe and put in a piece of brass to start turning up the escape hatch. This is a round dome like profile. I like turning with brass, It is a nice soft metal that turns beautifully and is just nice to work with. I also quite like turning plastic too, mainly acrylic or acetal.

After turning the small brass piece, I then parted off the piece. I then marked out where it should fit and drilled out a slightly wider circle to lay down the brass hatch. I would level it out before gluing it in and then filling around the edges with filler. Once dried, and using fine grit paper to sand around the edges and get the profile as close as it was to before. This dome has red and white sections I don't know where I should attempt to mark them out on the brass or not. Further forward is the wider round hatch as previously mentioned. To create this raised ring I simply took some styrene and with two swings of the compass had the right diameter ring to cut out to glue down. Once again I took sand paper and took the time to lightly sand down the outer and inner rim to get the profile to be just right.

[Davidh]

Hello all,

There has been some movement with Papa this week. As I have had a week off school I have managed to get some building done although I have probably spent most of my time doing Resolution which is looking fantastic If I may say so. I will hopefully be able to put up some pics of the re-tooled resolution on my webpage soon.

On an extra note from last weeks write up about the fact that the top rudder does not come the full way up the vertical post. I have developed a hinge mechanism for it that will be something I've never tried before. It will be an "L" shaped brass pin that will embed into the rear edge of the vertical post and then sticks downwards. The movable rudder section will push up onto the downward facing brass L piece. It will slot into the hole that runs down the leading edge of the rudder. The main brass shaft will run up inside the rudder just short of where the L pin comes down to meet it. Does that make sense? I just have to now work out how to embed this into the silicon mould design. shouldn't be hard.

I spent a little time this week creating and shaping the sail fillet/ mount profile. This is a raised outline slightly smaller in area than the actual fin and it is where the fin will sit. It is designed mainly with the kit in mind so that people can clearly see where the fin goes. It's boundary is about 2-3 mm less than the fin so that the fin sits outside of it. To do this I have simply taken some 2mm styrene and drawn a profile of the base of the sail and then cut it out. Sanded it and got it smooth and uniform. Once done I then re-established the centreline of the hull with a line that runs down the middle of the flat deck section and worked out where the sail would sit. Looking at drawings and making sure that the outline sits evenly and the right distance from the safety rails on all sides. After marking this out I then decided to take some 180 grit and start roughing up the area where the styrene would be glued. Once that was done, I simply applied superglue to the base of the styrene outline and glued it down right on the outline and pressed..

I have also included a nice computer generated model of Papa and a pic of the new Beaut resolution...

David H

[Davidh]

Hello all,

Thanks for the video link there Gantu. As mentioned earlier, this boat was around for 40 years and there are bugger all photos available of it! Why? Plenty of opportunities to photograph this boat out of the water and none seemingly taken. I believe when she was scrapped in 2010 there were foreign observers, surely they could have taken more pics. However this video is interesting, would be great if I understood Russian. however I would love some more drydock photo's of the rear end.

I am on holidays at the moment but have been busy with trying to get Resolution retooled and ready to go. I'm in the home straight with her as I finally think that I have the proportions right. The new design Cylinder is also coming along well.

I have done a little further work on Papa, really just scribing and sanding here and there. I have concentrated on developing and refining the stern flat section between the twin booms. This flat section has a mounted stern plane in between the two booms. I have sanded this area down smoothly and then giving a little more filler then sanding back to smooth. I have also been giving small dabs of filler in places here or there. The boat has been sitting on the bench for weeks now under a cloth as it is right under an window and needs protection from the sun. There has been some movement where the wood section meet the PVC pipe. This has meant ongoing sanding and filling.

I intend on developing a new top of the sail/fin. The printed one that I produced has warped. I also intend on getting the fin finished and then start looking at creating the moulds for all the appendages.

I have also trimmed the fillet along the bottom of the hull for the lower rudder. It protruded out a bit further forward than the leading edge of the rudder. So I trimmed it off with a knife and then sanded it back.

One of the challenges of Papa is that the vertical surface hinges are small and well hidden. The top rudder section bucks the trend when it comes to soviet nuclear boats. The movable surface stops short of level with the fixed front surface, they've even put a nav light in there.. It almost looks like its been knocked off or incomplete. Virtually all other soviet boats have the fixed surface extend up and over the movable section, with the SSBNS, and SSGN often having a towed array or like the Victors and Akulas, A pod. I will have to arrange a hinge a little differently. The bottom rudder has little area for a hinge. I have used a small bit of brass tube. I am just concerned that it is a little flimsy and could break off. I also have to be careful that the mould design will allow the resin to get I there and form the small round hinge section.

anyway,

enough for now. David H

[gantu]

https://vk.com/video-53952240_168150057?list=d2906b06f7019fb980

[Davidh]

Oops.....

I haven't been progressed to far with Papa at the moment. I have actually been trying to get the retooled Resolution finally completed. I am also building a new cylinder for it that will also fit into Borei.
I admit I hadn't looked too closely at the Rail geometry on the Papa. May be I should have. I do think that the styrene strip that I use for the rails on my Boats look quite good. I intend to try and get back to Papa soon enough. I still have a lot more vents to scribe and some squaring up of the stern end of the boat. However with a little more fine tuning I should be able to start looking at setting up the moulds and pouring silicon on the appendages. that will be good.

David H

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Unless the PAPA was a departure, Soviet safety tracks were circular, not square in cross section.

David

[Davidh]

Hello all,

Thanks Jorg, I know you 're really busy but looking forward to seeing pics of the Mike when she does get finished...

I have spent a little time going over the MBT vents on the underside. I have a lot more to add and will get onto the rest, soon.

I the mean time I decided to add the safety rails that run down the length of the top hull, either side of the flat deck section that is the foot area for the crew. Its pretty narrow from the front to the end with a curved bulge that matches the profile of the sail. I have used .5mm thick styrene sheet strip to simulate the raised safety rails that is a distinctive feature of Soviet and Russian submarines.

I drew a line down the centre of the hull, in the middle of the deck section. Then measured evenly either side just to where the hull starts sloping away and marked a line where the safety rail will be placed. The straight lines fore and aft are only broken by the curved profile of the deck rail around the bulged sail section just forward of the middle of the boat. I had to make sure using a really long ruler that the forward and sternward rails were aligned and straight. I then got some fine sandpaper and lightly smoothed over the line to rough up the surface a little for the styrene strip to be laid down.

I then cut two strips of styrene after marking out the length of the strips from just in front of the stern rudder, near the rearward escape hatch. These strips would extent to just rearward of the sail where the styrene would then curve around.

[JHapprich]

Following your progress, i am increasingly excited about the finished boat! Any chance to get this one in epoxy GFK when your done? best regards Jörg

[Davidh]

Thanks Gantu,

I actually have pictures of that model. Interesting how there are differences between the model and the drawings I have. But then again none of the drawings align.

I have am still in the fine tuning of small appendage parts stage at the moment. I will continue using small amounts of filler to get the parts just right. I have spend a couple of hours just filling in tiny areas of the props and then sanding them with very fine wet and dry to get them just right. They are about as consistent with each other as I can make them at the moment. I have also had to place some filler around the root of the stern planes as there is a 'rim' where there is a slight rise all the ay around as the part then buts up against the fillet profile on the rear hull. It I don't reduce the radius at this point it will not make such a smooth gradual transition that would have been what the original boat would have had. I intend on getting this resolved soon.

I have spent a bit of time lately just going over the hull and looking at the scribe work. Some areas where it looks a little shallow I have gone over again to get just right with a little more depth but taking care not to make it any wide and fudge it. This week I managed to scribe out a few more drainage vents, mainly the MBT vents along the bottom of the boat. Papa seems to have its vents quite wide out to the side. They are not directly underneath. I have also added some drainage ports that are directly underneath the large cruise missile doors at the front. This boat had a lot of vents!

Doing this I noticed that the Missile doors on the starboard side a slightly lopsided. they are further away from the centre point line that runs down the axis of the boat along the top. Don't you just hate that! I worked out that I would simply have to reduce the top line of the missile doors at the top by about 5mm and increase the edge at the bottom downwards by the same amount. So that's what I did. Filler, sanding and then some etching and it looks even now.

[gantu]

http://karopka.ru/community/user/13253/?MODEL=315878

[Davidh]

Hello All,

I have gone back over the drawings of Papa from the top view and realised that the stern in between plane is further back than the outer stern planes. It is not aligned with them. I had built the rear hull so that the mounted section where the inner plane fits is just at the rear line /trailing edge of the moving plane. I would have to move it back. I have also spent a fair amount of time looking at the two stern booms as they extend outwards. Checking that they extend out at exactly the same angle and to the same length. also making sure that the diameter reduces at the same rate on each as out move sternwards. Better to get these things checked now before going all the way to moulding stage and then noticing the imperfections. This as happened to me enough times on Resolution!

I marked out two lines that run down the axis of the two stern booms towards an arbitrary point just beyond the vertical fin. This helps me to look over the angles of the booms and make sure they are consistent. One of the things that I have noticed is that if the booms are not quite symmetrical it will have an effect on the fillet profile of the horizontal planes as they are so close to where the booms diverge towards the very stern. The shape and outline of the rearmost section of fillet as it curves back towards the boom is subtly different. You can clearly see a difference on the template photo.

HWSNBN is a great user of templates. I have also made a few in my modelling and they certainly help to clarify and articulate what you can't quite pin down. I have created a small template where the angle of both booms can be measured. As can be seen on this template the angle is set at 78 degrees and the distance apart from the centre axis is 24 mm. I'm out by 1 mm on one.





The lower photo shows a correction in the rearmost fillet curve. the port side needed a little more filler to widen and bring out the curve just a little more. Throughout the process I have been interchanging the stern planes assembly on either side. All horizontal planes should line up on both sides. The fillet should be an exact align for either left or right.


I would really appreciate it if anyone has any other pics of this elusive boat, I would certainly love to see more detailed pictures of her. As mentioned before, there are very detailed internal drawings of this boat that are available. I have seen them and printed them out but if anyone has outer casing details in photos that are not well known or obscure that would be great and would certainly help me attain greater accuracy.

Once again , like Mike, I emailed the Malachite design bureau to see if they would part with any information. However, typical Russian response. Not even a reply...

Enough for now..


David H

[Davidh]

Hello All,


After scribing in some of the detail for the doors and access panels I then marked out a thing line across the lower sides of the sail to mark out the location of the hand rails that are located along the side and go from the front of the fin and align up at the back. I use really thin styrene to simulate the handrails. I light shot of primer.

I have gone back the hull and applied a little more sanding to the widened mid section that curves around the base where the fin meets the hull. There were some slight imperfections and so once this are was smoothed and even I started to mark out the limber holes and other hull details around the amid ships either side of the sail. Once again taking a fine round scribe and etching the markings as required.

[Davidh]

Hello All,

The Sonar bulge in the front of the fin has too much of a pronounced lower curve so with some 180 grit I managed to smooth down the lower are where the bulge occurred to create a smoother transition. To make the sonar panel at the front I decided to cut up a coke can, cut out a rectangular section and then draw lines along the back of the sheet. Once done I took a fine point on the back of a small file and used as a scribe to crease lines along the back of the sheet to resemble the rectangular pattern. After turning over the sheet you could clearly see the pattern showing through the sheet.

I spent some time curving the sheet as the gentle bulge in the front of the fin would also translate to the sheet. I took scissors and made some small cuts at the top and bottom of the sheet along the lines of the grooves to the first horizontal crease line. I would then work these cuts to overlap the panels along the first line of rectangles to make the top and lower sections curve in and simulate the inward curve along the top and bottom. After working out where the panel would be glued I mixed up some epoxy ,applied the resin and then clamped down the sheet to the front of the fin.

Once glued I then mixed up some filler and worked it around the sides where the sheet meets the surface of the Renshape profile underneath. Once this was hardened I simply sand over with some 180 then moving up to about 400. The transition between the edges of the sonar panels and the Renshape will need some substantial sanding and further filling to create a seamless transition between the two.







Once sanding back the outline of the sonar section I started marking out the doors and access panels along the sides of the fin. Renshape is fantastic to carve into.


Anyway, any comments or suggestions would once again be appreciated..

David H

[Davidh]

Hello All,


I haven't really used Renshape before but have made the fin out of this new material (well, new to me). A month ago I managed to cut out the overall profile of the fin. This material is not what I expected. To me the texture kinda reminds me of stone, sandstone in particular. However agreed its fantastic to work with.

I originally made the fin oversized, its too high and a little too wide. This simply gave me more material in which to secure the parts together. I have gone with two self tapping screws going up from underneath at about a 45 degree angle. I just hoped that when I reduced the fin I would not find little tops of the screws sticking out.

I printed off the top of the fin after designing it in blender. It has a narrower cross section than the foam part of the sail and so would need to be sanded down. Its a little frustrating as the thinness of the 3D print means that the top piece is bowing upwards. I'm not really concerned when I mould this I'll glue it down firm to the moulding board. The Papa has a very stock sail. It is quite short and log. I am assuming that this is a function of the high speed that the sub generated. It also has little taper from the bottom to the top. The most distinctive feature of the fin this the noticeable curved bulge along the front of the fin that extends from the top front down to about 30 % up from the base. It also features a wrap around array arrangement that can be seen as a series of subtle panels outlines. This is typical of numerous Soviet submarine designs with a sonar array wrapped around a curved surface. It reminds me of the array that features on the bow of the Foxtrot. class diesel boats.
This is one of the best photos taken of Papa. Even though It was taken after de -capitation. It shows some really good detail of the fin and you can see the rectangular pattern that wraps around the side and front of the sail. Its a pity that I cant get the same pic of the other side.



So after looking at the drawings, I took the fin and with a marking gauge measured the amount to be taken off and then scribed a line around then simply cut it off with a hacksaw. Then a light sanding and a little more on a flat board to get it square. Once that was done I marked around the top of the sail with the printed out top piece and then started sanding around all the sides to get the fin to the right width at the top and a little wider at the bottom. I made a bottom profile to make sure that the bottom shape would conform and then sanded till both top and bottom edges met the rim of the outlines.






The bulge at the front has turned out well even though I needed to smooth out the abrupt line at the start of the curve.



David H