Tweet
Greetings! This is a short log of the restauration of my first working static diver, based on the Soviet K-3 / Project 627. A long term project, basically a try-out for building techniques and new ideas that by the way upgrade that over 20 year old model.
I built that model without ever having heard from subdrivers, proper grp piece production, David Merriman, Norbert Brüggen etc. What i had were some modelling magazines, books about Naval Vessels, a great book on the soviet submarines after 1945-my bible back then, though most of the sketches in it later proved to be wrong, and 0 rc model building experience, safe my prior attemps to turn revell models into radio-controlled. I had some static model experience.
This boat consists originally of pvc, aluminum( at least 3mm thickness!) , abs and STEEL. I started building it from scratch in 1999/2000, i.e. what you see is an evolution of previous models that share the same badic hull shape. I first made a 2-channel dynamic diver with a dry-hull and free-flooding bow and stern and a large deck held on a perpendicular rubber seal by somewhat 20 bolts. That first hull was a 70mm diam. pp sewer pipe. I later learned that any glue i had would not hold long on that material, however my plywood-bulkheads, thoroughly sealed with plastic glue and spray-filler, still exist in the surplus box no matter how wet they've gotten.. bow and stern were made from a large plastic easter egg, its top made the stern, the bottom made the bow. Sail from wood. It worked, but i than wanted dive control and a pressure hull. So i made a pressure hull from 65mm square aluminum tubing and aluminum bulkheads that would be inserted into the sub, using a 4-channel radio for dive control. I then found out pp is bad for building and would now use a 76mm pvc pipe. Plus i had one spare channel, so "lets try static". I bought a 12v gear pump that ran on a 9.6 nicd pack, controlled by a small esc thst was attached to an aluminum heatsink thst i made, implemented into the water circuit. Needed more space- no aluminum wtc. Saw a picture of the Robbe Seawolf and its inerts. "Make it so" . Where would the balast water go?The first balast tank was a piece of bicycle hose, however it didnt hold the balast water well, but pushed it back out throgh the pump. I than made a static tank with one sealed end, water inlet/outlet and over-pressure valve. Its other end received the bycicle hose, that would be sucked into the tank when draining, but extrude out of the tank when filled. This system worked-and still works- very well and leaves some safety, i.e. is self-draining over time in case the boat looses signal.
having all that, i built this boat, no.3. A solid aluminum tray formed the base for the electronic components, bulkheads were made from abs, the stern from massive rectangular aluminum tubing covered with plastic sheets and pvc tubing. The planes and rudder are Alu, too. The foremost bulkhead of the tray contains the thread for the m8 locking screw as well as multiple coupling-screws positioned around the center thats heads lock into corresponding holes in the aluminum bulkhead, bolted down onto the glued abs bulkhead at the bow. SUPER SAFE against twisting. Oh boy...
The wooden sail did not survive for long and was used as template for a more realistic november conning, filed out of a block of weld-glued plexiglass sheets. The bow was made from the pointier top of the mentioned easter-egg-originally the stern of boat no.1!
This model gave me the creeps then, for the super expansive 4 ch radio would just not work! The cheaper 2ch did so well before. What was it?
I ran 2 batteries.7,2v racing pack for the motor, esc red cable "in". 9,6v on pump, esc too, red cable"in". Find the error? Youre wrong.
Switching bec to pump esc only, same effect, boat did anything in the water but what i made on the remote...
Was it i used a can of aluminum effect spray as base coat?
Was it i placed the antenna on the inside?
Solution for both, external antenna. Seal the tip, make seal for the antenna to go through.
NO EFFECT.
Found out theres a Mr.Norbert Brüggen who could help, emailed him.
He suggested a separate receiver battery. Squeezed in a 4-cell pack, but not the easy way. No, i made an enirely new "battery deck" and now had 3 separate circuits.
Still the boat would not run properly. Must be i chose a Soviet 1st generation nuke or i took the wrong way.
My fault: Acoms radio said "40mhz AM".
wait, they have a boat on the packaging cover!
That radio was simply useless. It never worked properly.
Magically, installing the enormous 8ch receiver of my brandnew Futaba F-14 solved all these problems and K-3 ran happily ever after.
In 2018, i decided just to quickly replace the rusting non-stainless screws on the stern etc. Found more corrosionon the brass parts. Epoxy glue dissolved too. And by the way, a november happens two have twin shafts, dummie! Lets go tinker a quick refit, upgrade...
5 years later...2 kids, moving into our own house and my beloved garden SOMEHOW shifted my priorities... marginal PROGRESS:
Bow and sail were copied with grp, the stern will receive a grp casing, too. But hey, I removed all the rotten parts, afterall :-)))
Jörg
I built that model without ever having heard from subdrivers, proper grp piece production, David Merriman, Norbert Brüggen etc. What i had were some modelling magazines, books about Naval Vessels, a great book on the soviet submarines after 1945-my bible back then, though most of the sketches in it later proved to be wrong, and 0 rc model building experience, safe my prior attemps to turn revell models into radio-controlled. I had some static model experience.
This boat consists originally of pvc, aluminum( at least 3mm thickness!) , abs and STEEL. I started building it from scratch in 1999/2000, i.e. what you see is an evolution of previous models that share the same badic hull shape. I first made a 2-channel dynamic diver with a dry-hull and free-flooding bow and stern and a large deck held on a perpendicular rubber seal by somewhat 20 bolts. That first hull was a 70mm diam. pp sewer pipe. I later learned that any glue i had would not hold long on that material, however my plywood-bulkheads, thoroughly sealed with plastic glue and spray-filler, still exist in the surplus box no matter how wet they've gotten.. bow and stern were made from a large plastic easter egg, its top made the stern, the bottom made the bow. Sail from wood. It worked, but i than wanted dive control and a pressure hull. So i made a pressure hull from 65mm square aluminum tubing and aluminum bulkheads that would be inserted into the sub, using a 4-channel radio for dive control. I then found out pp is bad for building and would now use a 76mm pvc pipe. Plus i had one spare channel, so "lets try static". I bought a 12v gear pump that ran on a 9.6 nicd pack, controlled by a small esc thst was attached to an aluminum heatsink thst i made, implemented into the water circuit. Needed more space- no aluminum wtc. Saw a picture of the Robbe Seawolf and its inerts. "Make it so" . Where would the balast water go?The first balast tank was a piece of bicycle hose, however it didnt hold the balast water well, but pushed it back out throgh the pump. I than made a static tank with one sealed end, water inlet/outlet and over-pressure valve. Its other end received the bycicle hose, that would be sucked into the tank when draining, but extrude out of the tank when filled. This system worked-and still works- very well and leaves some safety, i.e. is self-draining over time in case the boat looses signal.
having all that, i built this boat, no.3. A solid aluminum tray formed the base for the electronic components, bulkheads were made from abs, the stern from massive rectangular aluminum tubing covered with plastic sheets and pvc tubing. The planes and rudder are Alu, too. The foremost bulkhead of the tray contains the thread for the m8 locking screw as well as multiple coupling-screws positioned around the center thats heads lock into corresponding holes in the aluminum bulkhead, bolted down onto the glued abs bulkhead at the bow. SUPER SAFE against twisting. Oh boy...
The wooden sail did not survive for long and was used as template for a more realistic november conning, filed out of a block of weld-glued plexiglass sheets. The bow was made from the pointier top of the mentioned easter-egg-originally the stern of boat no.1!
This model gave me the creeps then, for the super expansive 4 ch radio would just not work! The cheaper 2ch did so well before. What was it?
I ran 2 batteries.7,2v racing pack for the motor, esc red cable "in". 9,6v on pump, esc too, red cable"in". Find the error? Youre wrong.
Switching bec to pump esc only, same effect, boat did anything in the water but what i made on the remote...
Was it i used a can of aluminum effect spray as base coat?
Was it i placed the antenna on the inside?
Solution for both, external antenna. Seal the tip, make seal for the antenna to go through.
NO EFFECT.
Found out theres a Mr.Norbert Brüggen who could help, emailed him.
He suggested a separate receiver battery. Squeezed in a 4-cell pack, but not the easy way. No, i made an enirely new "battery deck" and now had 3 separate circuits.
Still the boat would not run properly. Must be i chose a Soviet 1st generation nuke or i took the wrong way.
My fault: Acoms radio said "40mhz AM".
wait, they have a boat on the packaging cover!
That radio was simply useless. It never worked properly.
Magically, installing the enormous 8ch receiver of my brandnew Futaba F-14 solved all these problems and K-3 ran happily ever after.
In 2018, i decided just to quickly replace the rusting non-stainless screws on the stern etc. Found more corrosionon the brass parts. Epoxy glue dissolved too. And by the way, a november happens two have twin shafts, dummie! Lets go tinker a quick refit, upgrade...
5 years later...2 kids, moving into our own house and my beloved garden SOMEHOW shifted my priorities... marginal PROGRESS:
Bow and sail were copied with grp, the stern will receive a grp casing, too. But hey, I removed all the rotten parts, afterall :-)))
Jörg
Comment