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

[Davidh]

I've had a week to work on my models almost exclusively. I have however focussed a large portion of the time on the Resolution re-tooling. I have pretty much finished the hull master and am now in the process of laying up the top and bottom moulds.

The time that I have spent working on the Papa has been divided between working on the hull and the Cylinder. The work on the hull has been mainly just sanding down the flat deck section. I have gone over this with rough paper to start with and then down through progressively smoother paper. I have had to sand a little forward of the pipe onto the very forward section where the turned wooden bow section meets the pipe. The turned section that meets the flat section of the top deck sits slightly high so I've had to run sand paper forward to bring this bow section level until it drops of as it goes to the very bow. Once this was done I simply added filler where needed along the length of the flat section smoothing down with finer paper then adding more filler to the increasingly smaller divots in the surface.

I have started to look at spraying the printed parts with spray putty. Starting with the small propellers I have given them several coats. They are fiddly little things to work on and require fine work with rolled up sand paper and fine files. I file and sand a little and then spray some more putty then sand back. Slowly they become smoother and more uniform in shape.

The Papa should be a quicker build then the Borei or the Mike. It is a very simple shape and little work will be required up the front end with regards to getting symmetry right. The back end will take most of the focus, making sure that the booms are symmetrical and even. As a result It probably wont be too long before I can start etching detail into the forward hull. As can be seen by the pictures I have finally got hold of some Renshape. HWSNBN will be saying "Thank God, he's finally using some!" I was given this block by Scott (Hardrock), very generously, This is actually a French equivalent called 'Axson Labelite 45.'
It will be interesting to see what its like to use.


David H

[Davidh]

Hello All,


Setting up the parts in the right way to get the best out of the way the printer works is hit and miss and a bit of an art form. If the parts aren't set up well then gravity will do it's best to disappoint your print job. The key is to reduce the amount of overhang in a part and reduce the amount of scaffolding needed.

Printed off a few more parts, however have been busy as mentioned earlier with the Resolution and getting that boat to a point where I can re-tool it. I am in the final stages of Etching and scribing the hull detail on Resolution ready to produce the silicon moulds. Im now on Christmas holidays and so am in the position to really get a lot of stuff done. I'm batching it at the moment as the rest of the family is over in Scotland seeing family.

So I visited Hardrock (Scott) down in Ourimbah. I don't get to catch up often with Scott but its always good to see his handiwork and get inspiration. Wow his Russian diesel boats are simply stunning, especially his Zulu. Just gorgeous... I also got the change to have a look at his giant Delta 3. This thing is 1.7 metres long and makes my Project 955 Borei look soo small. Ironic really because Borei in real life is bigger!





Whilst I have been doing some limited work on the Papa hull I have also managed to do some development work on the Cylinder for the Papa. I have never built a twin cylinder before so working out the twin shaft arraignment has taken some hours with pencil, paper and numbers. I have decided to create a new cylinder that is a bit of a departure from my usual cylinder designs. Instead of producing a design with a central ballast tank in the middle and a forward section ,I have gone with a design that is much simpler with less penetrations and less complexity. I have designed a cylinder without a tank. That will be separate and forward and made out of PVC pipe. I will use a pressurised pump set up Sheerline style and have the pump on the outside. This means I can make a very short cylinder that will sit quite rearward. The tank in the middle and then a 12v battery up front. End caps have been machined out of acrylic.




The motors are direct drive low drain high torque canned types. I thought long about whether to gear them or not, but came to the conclusion that the props are soo small I don't think I'm going to have any problems with burnt out speed controllers. I also simply didn't have the room to gear each of them. Waterproofing them was enough of a challenge. Immediately behind the twin motors are the two servos for the hydroplane and rudder, then an area for the ESC RX, Failsafe and volt reg. Then the larger servo up the right side is for the pump pinch valve. Got to start soldering all the connections.

Below is a photo of some of the printed parts that I have managed to produce so far..



Enough for now..



David H

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

3D printing is a bit of an art form. Really!

David

[Davidh]

Hello All,


So after assembling the bow and stern plugs in place, and using self tapping screws to secure them at either end, I then filled the gap section that occurs at the top of the hull and runs the length of the PVC section. As mentioned before this was intentional as the top of the Papa's hull has a subtle flat deck section. By laying down filler and then sanding it back level I would be able to very easily replicate this section. I did notice that the bow section at the top is slightly higher than the flat section at the top, so I will have to sand a flat section beyond the end of the forward PVC section in order to make it continuous.

I haven't started sanding down the top of the middle section yet. Too busy with an order, also retooling Resolution and creating my first twin shaft WTC for this baby.

However I have managed to get the 3D printer to work it's charms. Back in October I started the development of a Blender model of the Project 661. I focussed mainly on the development of the appendage parts, all the stern planes and bits and pieces. The aim once again like the Borei was to get the Printer to do some of the 'heavy lifting' in terms of getting parts made. Soon enough I had the machine set up and worked out the scale of the parts to print and then off it went.

3D Printing is a bit of an art form. The positioning is crucial. The was the part sits on the base will Either make it easier or harder on the printer and add more time and material for the print. Overhangs really slow down the job as extra 'scaffolding' is needed under the part. Fins print best pointing up and not lying flat. Lying flat they tend to bow.
The brilliant thing about 3D printing is that while you work on something, you've got a little helper making parts for you. Also you can guarantee identical multiple parts.

David H

[Davidh]

Hello all,

With the overall shape of the stern and bow sections generally met, I decided it would be time to look into securing the front and back of the boats to the three layers of pvc pipe that make up a rather unconventional diameter. At the last Gosford Sub regatta I got talking to one of the Queenslanders that makes it down every second year, Jim Russel. I asked him about gluing PVC and he said that nothing beat using Plumbers PVC glue. I wasn't too familiar with it so along to Bunning's (big hardware chain here in Oz) to have a look. There are several different categories of this glue it turns out. I decided on the one for pressure pipes as I do want to build a Ballast tank using the pressurised system that I am very familiar with.

Anyway this pressure rated PVC glue is a green goo. Has enough warning labels on the side of the pot. I made final arrangements to check that the pipes were set up the way that I wanted them to be. The outer pipe having the split at the top, this would be filled with filler and would make up the flat strip that runs the length of the boat. I then rotated the middle pipe with the split halfway down one side. The innermost pipe had no split.

Once I arranged these in the right order I had to think about how I would put the green goo inside. The pvc pipe is fairly rigid and doesn't like to be flexed too much. The green goo is not to be messed with and I had to think about how I was gong to pry apart each layer of pvc pipe in order to get a layer of goo in their without the PVC pipe snapping back on me, and possibly flicking some of the goo in my face. Glasses and gloves.

I carefully set up the pipes in such a way that I could use the little brush that comes in the pot, on the underside of the lid and then brush a layer on to the outside of the innermost pipe. I then carefully sprung apart the second middle layer and snapped it over the inner tube gently sliding it so that it rotated to the right position. Once done I then repeated the process with the glue on the middle layer for the last. then once all three were done making sure that they lines up and at the ends were aligned also.

Then it was simply a case of sliding the bow and stern over the ends. Once this was done I looked a putting some self tapping countersunks in the top recessed section where the first split is. drilling these into position and then smoothing over with filler that would become the main deck on the hull.



David H

[Davidh]

Thanks Albion,

Yes I know that the internal section between the twin booms is movable. I intend on making it movable as there should be the room for the control surface connections. It will be a
tiny surface. Thanks Trout for the added photos. I actually have all of these, I'm now trying to hunt down obscure photos that are hard to get. Once more I tend to pick obscure boats to model even though there is plenty of photo's of Project 955 Borei. Mike was a challenge. Papa was around for over 40 years. Although not operational for all of this time you would think once again there would be more photos of this Boat. There are hardly any! Why?

Anyway, back to the development of the hull masters..

Last time I was working on the fillet top and bottom that joins the twin booms and creates a web type structure that gives a square edge between the two booms and allows the fitting of the internal flap. This will be tiny but should easily have the room for the connections to be joined to the outer stern hydroplane. I haven't started work on this yet. It will be designed on Blender and 3D printed later. For now I have spent time using filler to fillet out the profiles of the booms. I have then run a ruler over the stern area on the lookout for undulations. Where possible I would then fill these areas with filler and use a straight plastic edge to try and create a smooth fill over the top to reduce the amount of sanding required later. At this stage the stern and bow section is still detachable as I haven't yet screwed and glued them in with the main PVC section.

My time is currently divided between this and the rebuild of Resolution. Yep, folks, its officially the boat I cannot leave alone. I have decided to re-tool it because it's still not right. Have been on it's case for a couple of weeks now and armed with some new detail am going to redo the main hull halves.

enough for now

David H

I

[Albion]

Looks good, I was considering having a go at this myself, although was looking at 1/72. I got hold of some sewer pipe to use as the main hull and scared myself silly with how big it would be. Ever since I'm torn between just do it and be sensible. Did you notice that the fillet between the stern pontoons is actually a flap. A your scale it might not be practical to have it working.

[trout]

See if these are larger images

[trout]

Here are the images. Hope they come out O.K.

[Davidh]

Thanks Tirfing and Trout for your contributions.

So after the gluing up of the stern booms and making sure that they are straight and true I then needed to think about the triangular fillet that runs between the two booms further astern and is the location of the central hull mounted hydroplane. A feature that I've only seen on Papa. This was made by simply cutting a piece of plywood into a small triangle and then gluing it place along the centreline of the hull. Before doing so I sanded down the rear edge so that it would fillet better with the angle of the hull as it sloped down towards the point where the two booms separate. I just used ordinary PVA glue. Once dried I could start adding filler around the joints and then start sanding back.




David H

[Tirfing]

Hello Trout, Thanks for offering the possibility. I have sent you some items now.

[trout]

I can convert it - rc.submarine@gmail.com

[Tirfing]

Digging Deep in my old files I found one of the stern in a dock. It is a BMP-file and I get a message saying that the Picture is not valid for this page. What do I do?

[Davidh]

Hello all,

Thanks subculture for the comment. The way you suggest makes total sense however I have moved on from moving in that direction. I am however pretty happy with how the stern section is looking.
Once both turned cone/ boom sections have been turned and cut so they sit on the larger stern section I could then go about gluing them on. Once I was sure that the booms did not exceed width of the stern section, and that the tips of the booms were level with each other at the very end. I have drawn several lines down the centre of the stern at the top and the sides. When setting up the gluing of the two stern booms I had to make sure that the two booms sit level with respect to one another. The tips of the booms according the drawings I have are slightly below the horizontal centreline.

Using P.V A glue and tape I glued the booms onto the stern section. Using green tape to stabilise and make sure that they didn't move around whilst being glued.

Once these parts were glued up it was the case of pulling off the paper and then sanding down the overall shape. I had to make sure that the booms glued straight. It was crucial that the booms aligned horizontally and vertically, as mentioned the tips of the booms needed to be slightly below the centreline horizontally and that the very tips are exactly the same distance apart relative to the vertical centreline.

After an overall bit of sanding I then applied the first of many layers of filler to start working a shape that would slowly evolve into the stern of the Papa. Once glued to the stern section I could slide it into the rear of the three PVC pipe section that makes up the middle of the hull. The previously prepared bow section can be seen. The boat slowly takes shape....

David H

[Subculture]

I would be inclined to make an intermediate tool from one of those cones, then cast a pair of grp cones, and use them on the master. Then you know they're identical.