77" Type IX U-Boat

[Davjacva]

We're getting down to the wire regarding showing up to SUBFEST with completed projects. The work on SSN-591 (1/96) delayed work on the Type IX for about 4 months. We made that decision and it was a good one. Now we're racing the clock to get the Type IX completed. Here the WTC is being converted over from a SNORT to a full SAS system. What you don't see here, is that the WTC at a few levels kept crapping out on us. First we had to swap the receiver, then the BLM was removed and replaced with a fail safe...lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!!! Each day for a week, we'd fail, the Dave would pull something out of his at and get it communicating with the transmitter, then WHAM!!! The next device in line would go, and it went like this all week long until finally it all worked. Most of these components had been working before, and there's no explanation...except gremlins, goblins, or PFM!! Anyway, here's pics of installing the components to get the SAS system operating. That's the only good picture showing the underside of the sail, sorry. The hoses and hookups were installed later in the week, and we tested it in the dunk tank and all was good...after a few subsequent leaks were fixed (didn't expect perfection right off, did ya?). The WTC is longer than quite a few of the subs in the shop and now it works very well.

[Davjacva]

Next up is getting all the actuating linkages connected to the WTC. Here you can see the bow planes linkage. It's a hog. When Dave was doing it, I thought it was the conduit for the actual actuator, but it was the 'actual actuator'. I didn't take specific pics of the rudder and stern actuators as that work went pretty quickly and missed it. Both ends were a trick to fix up. You can see initial photos of the rear end that attaches to the magnet has a straight 90-deg fix. This had to be changed to go over the rudder control and you later see it curved. Try doing bending aluminum piping without a proper pipe bender. Dave did it the caveman way, and it works great. Getting photos in these tight spaces with the camera sensors is a pain, so this is what you get.

[Davjacva]

Last work for the week is getting the upper hull pieces to be able to 'lock-in' with the lower hull without having to use fasteners. Here, the forward section is held down by a pin forward, but it had nothing aft. This left the large middle section able to flop up. To correct that, Dave made a interfacing bracket that mounts on the rear of the upper hull and inserts into the hull, then you push forward to lock kit. Easy-peasy, no magnets or fasteners. Will do the middle and aft sections this week.The last photos are of the overall model coming together.

[Das Boot]

Sweet. Are you bringing it to Georgia?

[Davjacva]

Sweet. Are you bringing it to Georgia?

Hopefully, it's getting close. It'll be operational and base-coated. Detailing is going to have to wait until after.

[Davjacva]

Continuing on with the final mandatory plethora of small items that need to get done before painting. Dave's doing all this final hull interface/ alignment stuff, and installing the lighting system I made up a few months ago. Tomorrow, we go to the lake and do an initial dunk of the sub in the lake. At 77" it's just too damn big for the bathtub, the regular dunk tank, and even cross-wise it won't fit into my hot tub...so the lake it is. Weighed it yesterday with a battery and it came out to 10.7pds, and we're going to add 2 pounds of lead down low in order to get a good metacentric-aspect on this thing when it goes in. It's got about 4 +/- pounds of lift in the WTC so am anticipating strapping on a good bit of foam to start out just to start out. This will be ballpark and I'll get it back once or twice the following week to dial it all in. It's all theory until you put it in the water. Kind of like Mike Tyson's saying, 'Everybody's got a plan until they get hit in the face'. Anyway, the entire hull is now able to be locked down and is tightened up. I still have to clean up the back end with Bondo and the big gap that's developed on the front section. After that, it's getting washed, all metal acid-etched, Prep-Sol'd, primered, then base-coat painted. Not sure how much detail painting I'm going to get done. Probably not until after we get back from Cahutta. Other details like the antenna cables, and the rear stanchions aren't getting done until after we get back.

[Davjacva]

Last Sunday, Dave and I went to the lake to check out the latest projects. He brought the 'float-a-boat' (aka camera-barge) to see what it would do. Besides sounding like a coffee grinder, it exceeded expectations. See his page for all that. There's a video also on Youtube with it, so check it out. Now for the Type IX. Had been caculating surface/ submerged trim and knew it was going to be overall heavy to start. Sure enough it was, and sunk out in the water with the ballast tank full of air. Strapped what we calculated and brought it up to surface trim. Some side issues was we got water in the battery compartment, which we found out later was an o-ring issue. Funny, as we had just completely tested the WTC prior to this with no issues. We thought we had an issue with the speed controller as the screws had no power forward, sometimes reverse, then one screw at the end. Found out the next week when I got it back out that the set screws in the universals were vibrating out, and pretty quickly too. Going to put Blue Loc-tite on them next time. Getting the sub initially to work was not a good thing, as it went out about 50' and then we couldn't get it back. Luckily, the wind was blowing towards us, but we didn't have to wait, because 3 subsequent surface craft attempted to help. The first two broke on the way out...kaput. The third one got the sub over near where I was wading, then all of a sudden he had it drug back out to where it started. He was still figuring out his craft worked (rudder and throttle are apparently hard:) ) After a while he did it again and got the sub back. Worked on it each day this week starting with proofing the WTC again and gluing all the foam in place.

[Davjacva]

Got out again Friday to proof what we determined to be a good surface trim. It's actually higher than what it's supposed to be, so I'm going to take some out. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time, so I went to vent and the sub went to the bottom which I still thought it was going to do, but not that much. Found out the problem with the throttle is not with the speed controller, its the set screw for the universals vibrating immediately out. Normally, I would be going back out with corrected surface/ submerged trim for Sunday, but I have to focus on getting this thing somewhat painted for SUBFEST. To get there is a lot, and I still have some bondo work on the aft deck too. So it'll wait until next Sunday to get it back into the water. The surface trim is supposed to be about where the limber holes are.

[Davjacva]

This week has been all about prepping and painting the Type IX. I couldn't have asked for a better week as it's been really dry, and about 75-deg. Great for paint work. As this sucker is so large, a lot of it needs to be painted outside, and the weather is usually not cooperative, but again, this week was perfect. Dave got back from SUBEX and is getting the Nautilus WTC, the rudder control, and dive planes in working order. We get to proof that tomorrow at the lake and it gets boxed up for SUBFEST. The Type IX got stripped, cleaned with Prep-Sol, then the next day painted all the upper structures with primer, the next day, the lower hull got primered. Then the base-coats started. In-between, I worked on the decking, and the color I chose wasn't dark enough, so I got the joy of going over all that I had done the next day. The universals need to be aligned and configured correctly for balanced operation and they are a big pain to get them that way, so I decided to paint them black and white, with some green on one and red on the other so they can be made up quickly. This is the largest model I've worked on and everything due to its size makes it a pain and slows stuff down. Re-proofed the WTC today. Dave fixed the vent valve issue, now it works like a champ. It'll be ready next week for lake, then on to SUBFEST.

[Davjacva]

Haven't post in awhile, so lot's to catch up on. I had base-coat painted and got the sub ready for Cahutta, without any weathering or detailing, so once the event was cancelled the BIG guns get to come out. I'm waiting on a sub to be delivered, so I have nothing but time to experiment and paint. The lower hull I tackled first off. I did the toothpaste method and then sprayed it with a lighter coat, then did one rinse and repeat in a few areas, but with a darker coat. Followed that with some dry-brushing and some chipping with lighter gray and some rusted portions. This was all clear-coated and I moved up to the upper hull. I sprayed some darker grey in portions on the upper hull and tower, then followed that with chipping fluid and another coat of light gray then went to town scrubbing that up. Afterward, I addressed the deck. As it was already painted dark gray/black, I sprayed chipping fluid over it, then painted a light wood deck color...then went to town scrubbing that up. Back to finish the lower hull, I used the oil-dot method. With tanks, there's common colors you use per color. For Panzer gray, which is pretty close to this hull, I use dark blue, dark brown, lamp black, and white. You don't want to use more than 5 or it just comes out brown. I used Turpenoid as the mixing agent as it doesn't attack anything previously done. It's a pretty fast technique if you haven't tried it, but you have to let it dry for a few days. I speed it up by putting it outside and hitting it a few times a day with a heat gun. Then it'll get it's final clear coat, then I'll do the other side. After that I'll move back topside and finish weathering and detailing. Almost done.

[Davjacva]

Final clear coat and adding some details. Getting a lesson in 'how to make periscopes'. Almost done

[Ken_NJ]

I like the chipping effect on the lower hull. What are you doing on the one section?

What are you doing here Jake?

[Davjacva]

I like the chipping effect on the lower hull. What are you doing on the one section?

The chipping and effects on the lower hull were completely different than the upper hull. The sub I'm trying to model is U-188 when she was getting back to France, which went to Panang and made it back after almost a year. It was pretty beat up when it got back to France and didn't even get attacked. After two months of repair work, they finally just scuttled it. For the lower hull, I sprayed the base-coat of darker gray, then splattered on toothpaste in the areas I wanted to show paint stress and failure, then sprayed that with another lighter coat of gray, did the toothpaste again, then spray an in-between coat of grey, but only more sporadically. I then sprayed with a light grey onto certain areas with the airbrush for certain effects. Then I did the rust areas (no streaking for underwater). Then I did a dark oil wash over the lower hull. Then I did the oil paint-dot method over the entire lower hull, then when dry after a few days, I clear-coated that. Then I did a dark wash with oils in certain areas. Then I clear-coated the entire lower hull.

The upper hull was entirely different and taped both areas off from each other. The upper deck, which is normally painted dark, would have been well-worn, so I used chipping fluid heavily on it, then repainted it before chipping it. The upper hull and tower I used chipping fluid on, and sprayed the other areas lighter. After removing the chipping fluid I went back in areas spraying both lighter and base coat gray. Then the rust chipping started. That's three colors. Then I washed the whole upper in oils, followed by rust stains with oils. I brought it over to Dave's for clear-coating as automotive stuff is just so much more superior.

[trout]

That looks spectacular. I will be revisiting this post. Thank you for sharing the how-to steps.