1/96 Los Angeles 3D-printed kit build

[RazorAntilles]

Howdy all,

Here are a couple photos of my LA build, currently in progress. My goal is to have it running in time for SubFest in May, but I'm coming up on the super-fun phase of WTC/running gear integration. This LA hull kit is the one sold here at Nautilus Drydocks, and aside from a couple of printer and part fit issues, all the bits and pieces went together nicely. I do plan to make the fairwater planes functional. The kit is printed in black PET-G on a Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro, and altogether took around 30 hours to print at more or less normal, non-expedited settings. I did go back and print a few parts at finer settings for comparison sake.

The bow and stern twist-lock sections have bulkheads for a 2.5-inch WTC, while the bulkheads that print inside the main length of the hull (from in front of the sail to just ahead of where the taper to the propeller begins) look to be able to accommodate a 3-inch WTC with a length of about 22-ish inches between the 2.5-inch bulkheads.

Attached photos are of the pieces after printing, the boat as it currently is (without the sail actually attached or the stern section finished), and then my 6-blade brass work-in-progress propeller. I decided on 6 blades rather than 7 for ease. The next one will be 7 for accuracy.

The stern needs the dive plane ends attached (once I sort out the dive planes themselves) and the rudders installed.

I started this project around October/November 2024, and if all goes well it'll be operational to join the fun at SubFest.

[RCSubGuy]

Looking sharp so far!

[Albacore 569]

Many 7 blade scimitar shaped blades available out there in 1/96. Just go and order a 7 blader and be off with it....lol

Model Propellers, Boat Propellers, Brass Propellers, Scale Brass Propellers, Precision Castings, Drives

Modern Submarine | Propellers

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Howdy all,

Here are a couple photos of my LA build, currently in progress. My goal is to have it running in time for SubFest in May, but I'm coming up on the super-fun phase of WTC/running gear integration. This LA hull kit is the one sold here at Nautilus Drydocks, and aside from a couple of printer and part fit issues, all the bits and pieces went together nicely. I do plan to make the fairwater planes functional. The kit is printed in black PET-G on a Flashforge Adventurer 5M Pro, and altogether took around 30 hours to print at more or less normal, non-expedited settings. I did go back and print a few parts at finer settings for comparison sake.

The bow and stern twist-lock sections have bulkheads for a 2.5-inch WTC, while the bulkheads that print inside the main length of the hull (from in front of the sail to just ahead of where the taper to the propeller begins) look to be able to accommodate a 3-inch WTC with a length of about 22-ish inches between the 2.5-inch bulkheads.

Attached photos are of the pieces after printing, the boat as it currently is (without the sail actually attached or the stern section finished), and then my 6-blade brass work-in-progress propeller. I decided on 6 blades rather than 7 for ease. The next one will be 7 for accuracy.

The stern needs the dive plane ends attached (once I sort out the dive planes themselves) and the rudders installed.

I started this project around October/November 2024, and if all goes well it'll be operational to join the fun at SubFest.

How about this? I still have the tooling. Are you on this continent?

[Marylandradiosailor]

David, could you tell me the dimension of the outer ring of the 1/96 los angles prop? I have never been quite sure my drawing is accurate. Thanks. Khim (note it was good meeting yourself, Ken, Jake at Cabin Fever)

[RazorAntilles]

How about this? I still have the tooling. Are you on this continent?

I'm absolutely interested in a 7-blade prop without a ring! I'd love to know what you'd charge; I'm in the midwest US.

Albacore 569, I went searching for props on websites and I clearly used poor search terms; no idea how I missed finding prop shop UK. Thanks for sharing!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I'm absolutely interested in a 7-blade prop without a ring! I'd love to know what you'd charge; I'm in the midwest US.

Albacore 569, I went searching for props on websites and I clearly used poor search terms; no idea how I missed finding prop shop UK. Thanks for sharing!

E-mail me your address.

dmeriman@aol.com

[Albacore 569]

The ringed prop was for the flight 3 boats onward without sail planes for under ice operations. the earlier flights had 7 bladers with 12 blade vortex attenuators. I have other but this crappy site program won't take the images after adjusting 25 times...**** it give up

[RazorAntilles]

The ringed prop was for the flight 3 boats onward without sail planes for under ice operations. the earlier flights had 7 bladers with 12 blade vortex attenuators. I have other but this crappy site program won't take the images after adjusting 25 times...**** it give up

I honestly had no idea they had those vortex attenuators on them; that's a cool-looking propeller! The Flight III LAs are cool boats (my favorite fictitious representations of them are the USS Cheyenne from the ancient Tom Clancy SSN game and the USS Columbia from the Patrick Robinson novels featuring Arnold Morgan and Boomer Dunning) but the ringed prop and lack of sail planes just doesn't do it for me to model, at least for the LAs. Once I get this boat done and it's running smoothly I'm going to turn my attention to doing either a Virginia or Seawolf... if I can find a good Seawolf plan set for 3D printing.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I honestly had no idea they had those vortex attenuators on them; that's a cool-looking propeller! The Flight III LAs are cool boats (my favorite fictitious representations of them are the USS Cheyenne from the ancient Tom Clancy SSN game and the USS Columbia from the Patrick Robinson novels featuring Arnold Morgan and Boomer Dunning) but the ringed prop and lack of sail planes just doesn't do it for me to model, at least for the LAs. Once I get this boat done and it's running smoothly I'm going to turn my attention to doing either a Virginia or Seawolf... if I can find a good Seawolf plan set for 3D printing.

Do that SEAWOLF in 1/72 scale and I can fix you up with a pump-jet.

















David

[RazorAntilles]

It was a good week for me as it pertains to acquiring bits and pieces for my build, even though I was on the road for work and unable to make any progress on the hull, especially the stern. But, courtesy of the magnanimous soul himself Mr. Merriman, I have a shiny new 7-blade propeller en route, but due to USPS being... well, snail mail, what should have arrived yesterday at the latest now likely won't be in until Tuesday because of President's Day being tomorrow. Satisfaction deferred, at least for now.

To tide me over, I pounced on one of Bob Martin's Nautilus Drydocks Ultra-Cool Mystery Boxes... and was rewarded with just about the next best thing to pure gold. I broke down the contents into six groups, but the unquestioned jewel of the entire collection is the 75mhz radio/receiver combo. Sourcing, configuring, and troubleshooting a good radio was always going to be the most interesting part of this build, but now thanks to the wonderful Mr. Martin, that problem is the next best thing to solved! ...Provided it all works properly. The radio does power on, but I haven't attempted any sort of test of the receiver, yet.

Getting a 3-channel joystick-style 2.4ghz radio was a lovely boon, which means I'll have to work up a nice surface target for my fellow bubbleheads to chase around. The ADF2 pitch controller was a charming find in the box as well--an older version of the current Nautilus Drydocks pitch controller?--and I hope it will integrate nicely into a dynamic-dive build, which is the route I plan to take for this boat since it's my first. However, since I appear to have gotten the two-motor rig that Bob indicated in his latest (as of 2/16/25) youtube video was meant for an Engel Typhoon, it might well be that the next boat I build is that monstrosity. Not from Engel, though, but perhaps the 3D-printed kit that Bob sells...? We'll see what happens after I get this LA finished. I'm not yet crazy enough to have more than one build on the bench at a time, but maybe in a year I'll have two or three going simultaneously.

The other goodies were great to get, even if I have no idea what I'll end up doing with them; as long as at least one of those motors works, that might well end up being the heart of this LA, even if my inexperienced gut tells me it might be too much motor for this boat. The separate ballast tank may not ever end up being used in a build, but it's so cool to have even to use as a reference item for something I try to build down the road. The wifi-enabled underwater camera ought to be a ton of fun to work with provided it actually works, and the neat little mood light that's in the image with the 1/96 ASDS should make for a nice ambient device somewhere. I have no idea what those tiny little motors attached to those blue plastic housings are for, but I got four of them, and they ought to be good for something!

Speaking of the 1/96 ASDS, putting that together and determining the best way to mate it to the LA to look like a SpecOps deployment will be a fun little side project. High-power magnets, perhaps? My goal is to generally pattern the boat very loosely after USS Chicago SSN-721, as Chicago is the nearest major city to me. The 3D print files for this LA do not feature the VLS doors as a molded/printed feature, so if I do elect to show those it will almost certainly be with paint rather than any sort of etching or attachment of photoetch.

But, looking ahead after this LA is done, thanks to Dave Merriman tempting me with a 1/72 Seawolf pump jet and Bob Martin sending me the motor rig for a Typhoon, it looks like my next two builds are already set!

[RazorAntilles]

Been a while since I've had a real chance to do some work on this boat, but my focus right now is getting the drive shaft stuffing tube setup and installed in the stern before I return to my reworking of my rudder/dive plane connections. Anyone know where I can get a 3D print file of the C-collar that Bob Martin used to sell? I tried my hand at making a horn watching Bob's video on how to do it and I've had more failure than success, but I think part of the problem is I'm using a soldering iron and potentially the wrong flavor of wheel collars. I'll be giving that another go later today. In the meantime, here's an old school stuffing tube! I haven't made one of these in... probably fourteen years, back when I was working hard at getting into Model Warship Combat with a 1/144 Iowa. I still have that boat, and maybe I'll see about bringing it to SubFest 2026 to play the role of target.

This stuffing tube is necked down with smaller-diameter inserts to 3/16 inch for the drive shaft, and I'm going to 'anchor' it with a short length of 11/32 tube inside the hull. I believe this boat's plans were drawn up entirely with metric measurements, and metric tubing is not easy to come by, so I'm improvising and adapting. Hopefully it will end up working. The blessing with this is that if I completely screw it up... well, I can just reprint.

[RazorAntilles]

Had to rethink my approach, because I had sleeved the tube one size too large for the drive shaft aperture, and also I had come in too long. So, cut up a few more lengths of brass tube, and here we are. The long one on its side is the drive shaft tube, of course, while the one on its face is the anchor tube for the interior of the hull. With luck, I'll be setting both into place in the near future, and then it's back to control surfaces.