77" Type IX U-Boat

[Davjacva]

Here's further results of slingin' a chain today. Right out of the box, with two cups of coffee. Didn't even brush my teeth yet. Grabbed the hammer, lineman pliers, Dremel, and went to town. Took out the remaining electronics, aft bulkhead (which was wood), and three of the brass fill-ports for the piston cylinders and something else. The 105mm main deck gun was removed, as they were all removed when these upgraded mega-wintergarten sails came out anyway as I recall. The one on this model wasn't even on par of being accurate, so I removed it. I took it off the stand and was shocked at how light the whole thing was I took a photo at arms length to illustrate this. Just a few pounds. I then took some measurements for a new stand and I'll cut the pieces this afternoon.

[Davjacva]

I failed to mention the obvious, and for those who haven't figured it out...I'm converting this from a 'dry-hull' to 'wet' WTC.

[Ken_NJ]

Ambitious project Jake. Nice beginning story. Good luck with it. Will be following.

You have a nice big shop setup. I like it!

[Davjacva]

Okay boys and girls, starting full-on with the Type IX build (re-build?) now that the Nautilus is in re-fit awaiting some corrections/ upgrades. Had Merriman over to assess/ confirm the work-direction and brought out the modeling tools that also double for the best implements of destruction in a great horror movie (sawzall-recipricating saw), as I found a 1/4" metal plate glued beneath the central access. Toughest part was getting the gearbox out, as all the fittings were corroded (hammer). Everything came out as desired, with absolutely no re-work involving overzealous technicians with aforementioned implements of horror movie destruction. Going to have to rewash everything out as there was still some automotive GP grease in there and a ton of other crap. Plan for the sail is to douse it repeatedly with EasyOff until all paint removed and rebuild/ repaint.

[Davjacva]

So after scrubbing the interior with a paint brush with Palmolive dish soap, which got most of it. I thought better and went and did the harder areas with Simple Green. I clean all my car engine bays out with it and it's a superb, yet friendly cleaner. Here's what it looks like squeeky-clean. This is a side project to the Nautilus on a not-to-interfere basis when I have dead time. So I'll be posting here time to time. Now that the hull is clean and all the junk removed. It will be converted over to WTC, but I'm going to concentrate now on overhauling the upper deck and sail.

[Davjacva]

Got this about 15 years ago and it needed some TLC. Hull was warped, so last summer I set it outside and let the sun do it's work. I previously had put brass 'stiffening' brackets on the side in order to assist getting it back together. About a month ago I had a big shock, as I was watching the old Sub-regattas in New London, this one being the 1993 (part 1). So I'm marveling at the Ray Mason Nautilus, I guess that's when Ray introduced it as he won 3 awards for it, but what I was shocked about was this guy carrying my U-Boat, and it's seen about 5 times in the video, and Ray's narrating and names the guy who owns it, and it's Charley Cleveland. This is funny as I knew the previous owner before whom I got it from and he had said it was built by someone else. I was talking to Bob M. via e-mail and described this sub and he said it sounds like an Engle, and all the photos I'd seen of Engle's they didn't have torpedo tube shutters, a better 105mm, and the internals looked better. So this last weekend I had some down-time from Nautilus and dug into it, rather excavated it. The crap in the bottom looked like the bottom of a lake. Took out a time of lead, sinkers, and other odd bits, then got the ballast cylinders out. I told Merriman about it and he said 'gut that crap, and put a 3.5" WTC in it'. So proceeding forth. Gave it two baths with Simple Green, and the interior looks better than the deck now. After taking the ballas cylinders out, I took one apart and after some clean up, and replacing the 540 motors, it will be good to go to a new home. I'm not a fan of dry-hull at all though. This sucker weighed a ton, and it didn't even have water in it.