1:72 Los Angeles

[ADDINGTON]

Ok- it was just a thought- but I should really be more responsible.
Spankey, the only advice you should take from me is to follow David's instructions to the letter and disregard random freelance junk like I dropped on this thread and any other similar departures from sanity you may encounter. Midline seams are a matter I am resolving with a therapist. If you want a beautiful boat that actually works, Mr. Merriman will bring you home.

[spankey]

you are right about the five sets of ballast tank vents FWD...I screwed up in the placement of those damn things. I'm in the process of fixing them with filler now....

The first batch of filler I put on, I followed the directions for use of hardener...yeah, use less of that stuff....WAY LESS. I got it on there, and went to add more to other places, intending to come back to correct it, and when I came back, about 2 minutes later, the stuff was already hard.

Kerry, No worries on the midline cut....I'm learning here, and no damage done!

I should have more today later.

[spankey]

quick followup...
I just sanded all the excess filler from the top of the boat. Maybe this isn't a good idea, but I put another coat of grey krylon primer over the spots I sanded, because I have trouble seeing where the scribe marks are in the white gel coat.

I'm going to be correcting the ballast tank vents on the bow...

I have a set of deep sea designs drawings... I just screwed up when I located the ballast tank vents on the bow.
I sent you my address...just in case there is some better information... I'm just working my way up the retard curve now...!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Retard curve, indeed. You're doing fine! (Kerry's going to kill me, first opportunity, I'm sure). The LA's had three ballast tanks forward, and three aft, so that's only six MBTV's per group (one each on the A and B side of a tank).

Primer over the filled area is a good idea. But, go to a Matto's store or other automotive refinishing supply house and get some DuPont Lucite 131S Fill 'n Sand auto primer and thinner -- don't horse around with that rattle-can ****! And stop using that hobby store putty -- it's ****; formulate to be safe, not useful!

Next time before you ladle on the filler, put some masking tape down on those areas you don't want the goo to stick too!

Now, as to where to buy your consumables: Do you want volatile solvents, putties, fillers, primers and paints that are safe or effective?...

... Pick one!

The good **** comes from an automotive refinishing supply house, not your cheesy local hobby shop (usually attended by a kid with face studs, a Mohawk haircut, and who smells funny). If that filler or putty is not carcinogen, flesh-eating, make-your-eyes-pop-out, or has Ebola inducing chemistry -- then, it's no good to us!

The good stuff is dangerous! That means it works good!

I'll forward you a C.A.R.E. package of LA dope when I get your address. But, you have clearance to proceed with the Deep Sea Designs drawings, Greg Sharpe did a magnificent job with those and they are 90% on-the-money.

David

[spankey]

Haa, I always say that to the car parts store when I am buying brake cleaner....they keep trying to sell me this enviro-friendly stuff...might as well be blowing smoke rings at my car's brakes to try to clean them off with that stuff. If its not nasty, it doenst work!

I just finished with a bit of the corrective scribing.

I attached a scan of the tail end...I think greg's plans only showed two sets of vents on the stern. Anyone have any confirmation on this?

She looks a bit better now.

Another scribing question....there are gobs and gobs of stantion mounts all over the hull...indicated by #11 on Greg's LA plans. Should I scribe these? I'm wondering if it'll get too cluttered.

[spankey]

this is that tail end shot, with only two sets of MBT vents... That right? Most of the time, those things are underwater, when the boat is at the pier anyway, so its hard to see them.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I stand corrected. There are only two ballast tanks in the after group -- four MBTV's.

The stanchion foundations are 'bumps' on the pressure hull (remember, other than the bow, stern, and ballast tank areas, what you're looking at is pressure hull) around the two deck hatches, that stand about three inches proud of the deck. In the center of each stanchion foundation is a taped hole that receives a screw-in type stanchion.

Pretty ratty looking engraving. You'll improve in time. Tip: make many light passes with the scratch-awl, not a few heavy ones.

One of these days I'll show you guys how the big-boys do it.

Press on!

David

[spankey]

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to fill it again...the first time I filled, I used evercoat, and when I went back over the scribing, It would 'skip' into the old channels. Better than it was originally, but still not great. I'll fill again with CA this time instead.

Doing the MBT flood holes tomorrow...should have some photos then.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Don't agonize over your very ****py scribing effort -- move on! Not a big deal.

I want you to assemble this model, get the two hull halves to match and index together, get the running gear and control linkages worked out, SD installed and working, and this beast into primer gray and in the water!

Don't get bogged down in the small ****! Get it working. If you keep nit-picking this thing -- like so, so many others who attempted this activity -- you'll overwhelm yourself with useless stuff to the point where you quite the project in frustration and wind up off-loading this bag of tears to some poor, unsuspecting EBay dope.

Press on!

David,

[spankey]

Yeah, fair enough. I'll come back to it at some point in the future.

I did the FWD MBT flood holes this afternoon. Attached are a couple of shots of that progressing. The bottom half of the hull had been scribed with these holes prior to my receiving it, and they were not (1) straight, and (2) incorrect..i.e. not scale. SO, to the best of my knowledge, I corrected the flood holes, and cut them out, then filed them down.

You can see where I had tool chatter, and where the file dinged the hull in a couple of places, but it'll get filled and fixed.

Tomorrow, if I have time, I'm going to try to do the AFT MBT flood holes. They are also already scribed, so we'll see if they've been scribed straight.

Question... I got two ~55" long indexing strips with the hull when I bought it. It was suggested that I have some of the indexing lips on the top, and some on the bottom halves of the hull, alternating...if that makes any sense. Does this sound right, or just a way to complicate things?

Also, ordered the PropShopUK propeller today, a right handed, 7 bladed scimitar prop. 2.8" diameter was the closest thing that I could find to scale for that boat. My guestimation calcs were showing a 2.93" diameter prop....2.8 is pretty darn close, and prop shop has some nice stuff.

Photos...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Good work opening up the flood-drain holes. Nice propeller. Yes, alternate the indexing tabs. It's good and an accepted practice.

Keep at it, Spanky.

David

[spankey]

I had a little bit of time, so went ahead and did the AFT MBT flood holes. I was dealing with scribing that already existed, so I missed the fact that the anchor (next to the secondary propulsion motor) should not have been cut out...ohh well, we'll get that later.
Have to fill a chip in the Gel coat too...Yippeee

Also, a photo of the sail with its scribing.

If anyone has any advice, I'm building up a full set of planes/rudders for this thing. Was starting with balsa, and then going to fill it, paint it, seal it, then make some molds using clay. Problems with that? ...

Just now ordering the 3.5" SD.

I think the longest lead item will be the Prop, but we'll see.

[spankey]

So didnt order yet....
with the 3.5" SD, should I be going into the bulkhead section, and ordering the bulkhead with the 2 motors, and then ordering the ballast bulkhead, along with the 24" Lexan tube? I was thinking you said there was a kit that one could buy... Which part number is the one that I should get? Thanks.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Balsa, bad. RenShape, good. Get some the same time you make the SD order.

We have yet to update the catalog to show that there are three bulkheads that come with the 3.5 SD 'kit'. So, ask for the single-motor, single shaft motor bulkhead and you're gold. The kit comes to you with the after ballast bulkhead installed and the gas ballast sub-system installed and tested, you size the ballast tank to suit your boat and install the forward ballast bulkhead yourself, and cut off the forward portion of cylinder not needed as forward dry space (where the battery goes).

Keep in mind that that sail is for the Flight-1 boats, the ones with sail mounted dive planes.

David

[spankey]

You think going with a single motor will do it? I was reading some other thread and I thought they were going to drive a 1/72 Permit with one of your 3.5" SD's with the two 550 speed motors geared into a single shaft. Is that overkill?

Roger on the sail...I think I'll go with the SSN 714, one of the last of the Flight 1 boats.

Daniel-