GATO! (It has begun)

[alad61]

keep as much weight and down low as near to the cog as possable. you could also weigh the conning tower and then add that weight to the ballast. It helps with the list that can happen as the boat rises when you blow your ballast. As normal keep the foam on the waterline. I found that with mine I needed to add some foam under the deck aft of the ballast tank to get a level submerged trim. Another thing you could try is balancing your sub driver. The Gato is a real pita to trim but once you have it's a beautiful site running on the surface and as she slips down for a submerged run and the same when tio bogiesw ballast and she broached to surface trim.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Can't speak for everyone, but I'm partial to a stout storage-transportation box banged together from exterior grade 1/8" thick plywood with 1/2" square bracing. Foam sheet is employed as a custom fit soft cradle within the box that holds the model centered within the box.

I've had a 1/96 AKULA, in its box, roll off the end of a moving van and not suffer any damage to the model. To date I have nearly thirty boxed models sitting around the house.

Matt: you asked the right question. It's important to have such a box to protect your investment of time, talent, and money.

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Shown above is a little 1/144 Trumpeter KILO (you watching, Romel???) and its custom sized storage-transportation box. Next is Ellie showing how we first give from to the supporting foam then glue it to the upper box lid. And next to that I'm showing off a 1/72 SKIPJACK and its box. Note how the foam is glued to the bottom of the box lid -- when the lid is in place the model is safely cradled between the conformal foam pieces at the bottom, sides, and top of the box.

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Box construction is straightforward: crosscutting, ripping, nailing, gluing, band-aids, and some bad words. If I have to explain how to bang a wooden box together for you, then you, pal, are in the wrong game!

M

Thought I would add to the box-building portion of this thread with a little insight into the tools I use to make boxes and other large wooden items:

Specifically, what you have to do to keep those tools working. Most of the tools today come from China. Like it or not, your lathe, milling machine, band-saw, power hand-tools, and the like have been assembled by some young Chinese gal fresh off the rice paddies; working in a plant doing one crummy thing, all day, on an assembly line, Supervised by some ya-who who may, or may not, give a **** about his job.

OK, there's the prolog on the tools you're using. Will it break in use. HELL YES! Only variable is ... WHEN!???



My new fangled cordless Chicago Electric circular-saw (haw! This thing is made in China, who the hell do you think you're fooling, Harbor Freight!) lasted about three-minutes before its power-switch fried. Had to replace it. I was able to yank the bad switch and replace it with a toggle-switch which took the position on the handle formally taken up by the useless laser-beam switch. The 18-volt circular saw does not pass much current, so a 10-Ampere capable switch is enough.

I now have a cheap, rechargable, little circular-saw that works and would fail every safety examination you can think of: The switch is not of the dead-man style; I've removed the spring-loaded blade guard; and I run with scissors. So, I turned a Harbor Freight POS cordless circular-saw into a useful tool without all the gadgets that otherwise would make it a hand-full to operate.



My band-saw lasted about three-years before its power switch crapped out. And it is the switches on these things that typically go sour, so be prepared to replace them with a proper switch rated for at least 15 Ampere's @ 120-volts. You can get these from Radio Shack or Lowe's. Look at the switch on the band-saw -- it came with a slide-switch, you can see that that has been swapped out with a toggle-switch.

Hey, don't get me wrong -- all my big machine-tools are Chinese. I've just grown acustomed to the fact that their power switches will fail sooner or later. Other than that (and my big milling machine is in mind when I say this), the Chinese machines are well designed and robust -- the problem is with the site of assembly: Did that gal on the assembly line just get back from holiday? was she ****ed off at her boy-friend? or was it a Monday when she slapped your machine tool together? QA is a problem over there. Oh, well. No one in America seems to be making this stuff any more. What's a guy to do?

M

[herrmill]

ROFLMAO in a masochistic way!!! You mention holiday issues.. its been a full 6 weeks since the factories have officially reopened from Spring Festival holiday & we're still dealing with quality f&%$ups from the new &/or disgruntled staff who had to come back to their dull lifeless positions on the assembly line or workstation.

That said we do have some decent tool factories in the neighborhood since the area around Hangzhou is known for tools. One of Bosche's larger factories is just a few km to the west of me & I know of a few of their German & US-based engineers who fly in occasionally for a few weeks to oversee QC &/or product development. Snap-On's China facility is 9km the south. Too many others to mention within half an hour of here.

[Albion]

Was in Wenzhou last week, our China licensee quality has slipped :( , they had japanese guy overseeing them until recently, guess what, as soon as his back was out of the country!!!!!

Running with scissors!, Why dont schools include that race for sports day, would sure educate a few kids

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I was thinking of Chuck (herrmill) as I was composing that rant.

Recently he and his lady visited us while they were making the rounds while in the States. During a delightful dinner Ellie and I were able to get a better insight in the virtues and problems of being an ex-patriot over there in China. To my way of thinking, Chuck is an businessman of the first order: he has the guts to take informed risks; works hard; surrounds himself with smart, industrious people; and is a problem solver. So is Nicole. She's smart, observant, grounded, and knows the culture over there as no round-eye can. The perfect pair to make it big in China. Ellie and I were delighted to meet and talk things over with them.

Albion: I would promote running with scissors as a mandatory pre-school activity -- would thin the herd of future welfare recipients, idiots and no-accounts.

M

[herrmill]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got a big warm & fuzzy one after reading that post, David. Once again, the offer is still open for Nicole to come be your unpaid understudy. She loved your shop not to mention meeting you & Ellie.

[greenman407]

Question is, how did she get along with the cat?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

First off, my apologies to Matt for letting his thread get so thoroughly high-jacked; and off-topic. Let this be the last comments here off-topic ...

... Nicole and Chuck are obvious cat lovers. But, no, no more understudies. Did it in the past, but I simply don't have the time (or room) to foster an apprentice. It all dies with me, guys! But, as a poor substitute, I write as much as I can about techniques and projects I feel will enhance the skill level of the bum's who hang out here and at other sites.

It's a burden, sometimes, being so damned good!

M

[matthewnimmo]

Lol the extra postings dont bother me. They are fun to read:)

[matthewnimmo]

So, as i promised you all...one MAJOR update.

Last time i updated my "Captain's log" i can't remember were i left off; but what i remember was my next steps that I did wanted to do while i was this involved with the model was to try my hand out with a lighting system...and that is exactly what i had done! I've reviewed some posts in the past on how this was done and i liked how some things were presented, but i hated the fact that many were using a separate switch and battery source. So, I wanted to come up with a system that will allow me to use another channel from my remote and the same power supply for the lighting system. Furthermore, i wanted to connect all of this via magnets (which i plan to oil up nicely before submerging).

First thing was first, I need to either by or make a switch. Since i really didn't like all my electronic switch options i opted for making my own switch from a servo. For all of you wondering how to do this, I will outline all the steps, and it truly does work out nicely.

Making your own switch from a servo

1) Get a servo and begin taking out the control board (please try to keep all wires attached)
2) Unsolder the connections to the motor (including the ground if there is one ... you may even clip the ground as it wont be needed)
3) Two, options for the little mechanism that calibrates the motor. You can leave it as is (just make sure you have it calibrated the way you want it...which is typically the default setting). Or, you may opt to cutting it off and replacing it with two 2.2 amp resisters in an "M" configuration were one end of both resisters are together while the other ends are separate giving you three points of connection on to the board. I opted to keep the mechanism for laziness.


4) Now, solder whatever connection you want to the free ends from were the motor use to attach to (in this case i solder them to two earth magnets so i may connect later on outside of the WTC).
5) Connect the receiver end to either your receiver or even to a servo setter (i'd recommend servo setting just in case you have something crossed at first) and use a volt meter to check and make sure you are getting a current.


6) Once you are satisfied, you may heat shrink your connections and now you have yourself a wonderful switch that will draw power from your batter attached to the receiver and that you can control from your remote



Now, continuing on with my progress

I ran an extension receiver connection from the aft chamber of my WTC to the bow chamber through the same pipeline that i ran the power through. It was so squished in the back that I didn't want to have the electronic switch live in the back among the other things. So I opted on having the switch in the front along with my battry. Below you will see that I've drilled out two holes on the front bulkhead of the WTC and used RTV to seal in my magnet connections.


Now, i moved on to my tower and rigged up the LED's were i wanted them. I didn't bother with concealing them like some of the others (I could have, but i'm lazy and the wires will be painted and will blend in enough with the placement i have chosen to be ok for my liking). I haven't glued them in place yet, but i have them all leading wires down through the same hole to reduce the amount of drilling and wire exposure as much as possible.


I made sure that the polarity was correct with EACH LED! That's important, otherwise your switch will turn on some LED's one direction and others will be lit from the opposite direction lol. Below, i have all my LED's with the correct polarity and you can see the test results via magnet connection.


Now, i only had two more LED's to setup. I wanted one on the far Bow on the top of the deck and the other on the far aft on the deck as well. All are connected (soldered together to more magnetcs underneath to the magnet structure that holds the conning tower onto the sub system. I've covered the magnets with RTV to protect those connections more. Below you will see all the lights lit up.


Last remaining styrene pieces glued to the model that I wanted and sub fully together right before more primer


All my LED's covered and the sub has been primered again to prep for the final coats


Started on my first base coat (My sub will be a USS NIMMO class lol...it will not be the stock paint choices) What i plan on doing is giving the lighter gray areas more of a metallic feel, but black dirt weathering to follow the weld lines. Then the bottom part of the hull will still be the nice flat black. I with then trace all the weld lines with more darkening. Then I will add real rust paint all throughout the model. I will apply more rust to the back and bottom of the sub and along some of the weld lines. That should fade some the metallic shine but still expose some shine. Then i'll use some chalk pastels for some more weathering and seal everything up with a flat clear coat.


The mechanical connections. They are all completed as well! I think i shared some of those pictures already. After painting is completed, I'll trim it out to my liking and see what other small things i need to do. While at the same time i'll be building the sub box for transportation and storage:)!!!

Enjoy everyone,

[crazygary]

When ya gonna get her wet???

CG

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Next time you run electrical wires to external items like the lights think, 'armature wire'.

Yes, the silver undercoat should push high detail out real nice. A tricky technique, but stunning if executed well. Looking good. Keep at it.

M

[matthewnimmo]

When ya gonna get her wet???

CG

soon....oh very soon:)

[matthewnimmo]

Next time you run electrical wires to external items like the lights think, 'armature wire'.

Yes, the silver undercoat should push high detail out real nice. A tricky technique, but stunning if executed well. Looking good. Keep at it.

M

Ahhh...yes, I completely forgot about using that stuff. Oh well, these are hiding nicely behind the paint, rust, weathering, ugliness:)

[crazygary]

Look forward to a positive outcome from her sea trials!!

Hang tough, Matt!!

CG