1/32 French Arethuse

[RCSubGuy]

Apologies to everyone. It was a tough day yesterday and I wasn't in a good headspace. I fully understand that this has been an ongoing passion of the customer for a long time and there is a desire to see perfection in the long-awaited finished boat. I'm grateful to be a part of bringing it into fruition.

I successfully engineered the retraction half of the bow planes. It uses elasticized cable and a pulley to keep inward tension on the planes. I drafted and printed servo holders for the two waterproof servos that will be used to extend the planes. The idea is that the extension arm is anchored on the rear half of the servo horn while the forward half has a pin that presses against the arm when the servo swivels. In this way, the arm is under tension when extending, and rotates freely when the opposing plane is actuated.

Taking those comments to heart about hull finish, I spent some time cleaning up the hull split. The boat is ready for sanding again and after a bit of TLC, will be smooth, sharp and ready for additional details.

Steve, do you have any reference materials for the upper deck details? You sent lots of pics of the museum boat, but all are taken from below or beside. I can't see much at all in the way of safety lines, hatches, etc. I'm getting close to scribe time.

I'm off now from today through Tuesday for a much needed vacation with Renee.



Bob

[RCSubGuy]

Success!

Honestly, the forward linkages were a mental stumbling block for me, and part of the reason that I kept putting this project on the back burner, which is unfair to Steve, who commissioned the build. Happily, I pushed through last week and successfully integrated two waterproof servos and the sliding retracting bow planes into a functional system.

The bow planes slide in and out of a pair of brass rails. Inward tension is achieved via the use of a high-strength elasticized cable. Extension force is applied via an arm actuated by a waterproof servo. The arm is anchored on the far end of the horn. As the servo spins, the arm pivots about the mounting point until the horn itself is encountered. The arm forces the plane outward, sliding on a brass channel. Moved in the opposite direction, the servo horn rotates, but the arm simply pivots without movement as the opposing dive plane is extended.

Neutral postiion:


Extended position:


Opposite extension:


Here is a video of the system in operation:

[Albacore 569]

OUTSTANDING BOB! I deliberately stayed away from this web site for a while & just hoped I didnt upset anyone. The hull looks so beautiful now and the bow plane mechanism looks simplest and very robust like the rest of the hull.

Sending you every photo I have of anything showing the uppr decks close in Since emails seem to not be working, posting every deck photo I have collected for years. I probably have bout every photo in the public area on these boats. Hope these help. Posting here instead of emails for down load.

[Albacore 569]

Sending all deck photos i have.

[Albacore 569]

More photos

[Albacore 569]

MORE Thi Promgrm is not friendly...lol

[Albacore 569]

sening more have to write something

[Albacore 569]

1234567890-

[RCSubGuy]

Excellent. Exactly what I was after. I'll have to rig up some kind of drawing, extrapolating the info from the photos in order to make a scribe plan of some kind.

Bob

[Albacore 569]

Excellent. Exactly what I was after. I'll have to rig up some kind of drawing, extrapolating the info from the photos in order to make a scribe plan of some kind.

Bob

Sent you 1/32 scale detail drawings with the model parts long ago. Still have? If lost, i'll happy to rush you copies Bob? Thank you .

Steve

[RCSubGuy]

I'm putting a push on this project to get it finished by the end of June. Hull scribing is taking place now. The supplied drawings are great, but don't seem to match up to the photos that Steve supplied above. I'm doing a mashup of the two to best fit the model.

Rather than simply scribing the hull, I'm including a lot of 3D details, including hatches, recessed areas, etc. This should really lend realism to the completed model.

The rear rudder linkage needs to be redone. I did not properly allocate the needed room when I did the first iteration. I'll have to switch to a very narrow setup, likely a belt/toothed gear assembly.

[RCSubGuy]

Progress!

Arethuse (well... actually Argonaute) had her initial sea trials. We encountered an issue with the VEX radio that was initially installed, so swapped it out for a new Futaba 6-channel unit. Persistent glitches across the spectrum ended up getting traced to a faulty servo reverser in the forward dive plane servos. Both of those Hitec waterproof servos ended up fried from the electrical backlash, so now both are replaced with brand new units to the tune of $100 (sigh).

Despite having no forward planes, she performed exceptionally well. The boat is quick (very quick!), has great turning performance, and with just a bit of speed, the rear planes are very effective. I operated her at the pond on stern planes alone (which were on a dial), and it was actually quite docile and easy to control.

Getting closer! When I'm back from my trip on the 6th, we'll have her out to the pond once again. We are getting close!

You can see it in action in our weekly update video at about the 2 minute mark:

[Albacore 569]

Here is a French documentary on You Tube about moving the Argonaute Hunter killer submarine inland to its present display at the Paris Science Museum.

[SSBN659]

When I was still working I had a business meeting in Brest which gave me an excuse to spend a weekend in Paris with my wife Nancy before going to the meeting. While we were in Paris we visited the Argonaute at the the museum. At that time I wondered how they got the sub there but thought I probably would never know. Now I do.

Thanks for posting that video Steve.

Will Rogers
SBN659

[Albacore 569]

Bob has a New video in his weekly series. The radio tests successful Confident of operation. Featured among many subs in thi latest video on you tube is the Argonaute. S636 of the Marine Nationale (French Navy) Operational from 1958 to 1982). I'll let Bob carry on with his comments and imput. .The video above I was surprised & pleased to find. I do not know French & I just use certain key search words and thing begin ot appear. 'Argonaute', 'sou marin' , etc.
Here is Argonaute in her new paint and markings on July 15. The unusual bow plane arrangement was 'surprisingly effective' Bob reported.

62 inches long, 1/32 scale.

Source of model image Bob Martin.

Steve