1:72 Seawolf

[Slats]

Hi Joel,
I think keep it simple and just supply (as you have done previous) two yokes of different sizes but with control horns that exit on opposing sides. The end user can then mount these how they like. The only obvious thing is to keep the grub screws orientated forward for ease of adjustment / installation. You only really need reverse one of your existing yokes to make this possible. (Reverse the horn position and grub screws to opposite its current location.)

If people want to do there own independent plane control they would simply need to use a couple of single horns (like the ones you supply for sail plane mechanisms on your Permit kits).

With a boat this size I think most users will be making more hands on use of the forward planes for incremental depth changes than by manual pitch inputs of driving the rear planes. As a matter of fact most guys out here with 72nd scale LAs don't touch their rear planes at all employing a full time leveller on the rear planes to take care of pitch oscillations hanging off a 5 volt rail with no TX input.

The anhedrals down aft are interesting. I know these don't move but having driven X fin subs I think it would be an interesting theoretical experiment to make these move a little in union with a tight turn. I might give this ago, but the bottom line for me will be getting her ballasted right around the COG and CP, and keeping any her weight down.

Best
John

[ManOwaR]

Alright, now we’re getting into the fine detailing part of the project. In order to do this detailing I need stencils for scribing and I have quite a few for basic shapes, but I need some that represent Seawolf specific shapes, like hatches and torpedo shutters. So to get these custom shapes the best resource at my disposal is the process of chemical milling (aka photoetch). For those that have followed my worked since the beginning with my USS Permit they will notice that the quality of my “milling” work has improved ten-fold from that time. The reason for this isn’t fluke but hard work and perseverance...lots of practice, screw ups, experimenting, new equipment and materials, new techniques, and lots of research. Anyways, I’m using this stuff not only for stencilling, but for actual adhere-on details as well to my plug. For those worried that my usual fibreglass hull mould won’t be able to take that much detail, fear not as my plan this time is to go with rubber-glass hybrid moulds.

Here’s all my “artwork” for the shapes printed out on transparent film


Laminated and developed brass and stainless steel. If you look closely at my HMK ss ballast vent sheet I am using a mix between two sided and one sided art. This gives the effect of only partially etching through the sheet were desired to give a sort of scribe mark. This has been used extensively this time ‘round










This is a dual purpose sheet. It’s used first as a scribe template, then the grates are glued on between scribe lines...a perfect fit!


Now, to transfer measurements easily from my plans to the hull using cereal box cutouts






Continued shortly...