Bronco Type XXIII by Ken

[Ken_NJ]

Separating the deck

See the previous post for finishing up on making the deck cuts.
Here are a bunch of pics showing the result of separating the deck from the hull.

[redboat219]

Wonder what Bronco had in mind for that "box".
Too bad, if it was located more midship could it be used as a ballast tank

[Das Boot]

Ken, you and David make it look easy. Every time I’ve tried to cut plastic, I just make a melted mess. That’s why I’ve got this Type XXIII unopened, because I’m afraid to try. There was a guy in here a couple years ago that tried doing the same thing with his XXIII, but said he ruined the hulls, and ended throwing them both in the garbage. I wish when Bronco had designed this kit, they would have made the top half of the hull removable. The rest would’ve been a cakewalk. Anyway, good job. Can’t wait to see the end result.

[Das Boot]

Ken, I’m kind of lost. I see where you’re doing Dave’s version of the boat, but where does Manfred’s come into play at? I seem to remember Manfred had his as a twist/lock version to access the SD.

[Ken_NJ]

Manfred has his hull sections halves basically bolted together so he can service the rudder area and the torpedo door area. With the bow sections bolted, the aft sections bolted, then the bow and aft sections join in his magnetic joint fashion. Did I explain that enough?

[goshawk823]

I have one of these Type XXIIIs that I bought a few years ago because it came with David’s upgrade kit; they are scarce as hen’s teeth. Whomever had this hull butchered the hull cutout, and also glued the tower to the upper hull. I have a second one still in the box that I wanted to build as static display model, but I may have to use it for the R/C version because I think the first one I bought is going to be an unreal amount of work to fix. I’ll scavenge the prop bearing fittings and other parts off David’s upgrade kit from the old hull. I am dreading cutting up the hull even though I have a Zona saw and cutoff wheels for my micro motor. It’s touchy ****; the possibility of melting the plastic is real. As mentioned, this would have been an easy conversion if Bronco would have split the hull longitudinally as part of their design. Following along closely on your progress here, as it looks like your hull separation work came out very well.

[Das Boot]

Manfred has his hull sections halves basically bolted together so he can service the rudder area and the torpedo door area. With the bow sections bolted, the aft sections bolted, then the bow and aft sections join in his magnetic joint fashion. Did I explain that enough?

I understood it, but if you want to go on you’re welcome to. Anything RC sub related, I could read all night.

[Subculture]

Avoiding melting is simple enough, keep the cutting speed down, take light cuts and use a very sharp cutting wheel, and brush in a bit of water with some dish washing liquid in as you cut. This will cool the plastic and tool, and the soap reduces friction on the area of the blade that doesn’t do any cutting.

[Ken_NJ]

Forward deck filler

For the lack of a better word at the moment, using filler.

The Exacto blade width was 20 thousandths. So assuming the cut width is the same.



A sheet of 20 thousandths styrene in place causes the weld lines to line up.



After some slight sanding of the edge to clean it up, a section of gray styrene was attached with solvent.





After the filler piece was sanded down...... and since the cut was just about perfect, there were no gaps between the removable deck and just applied filler piece. I'll probable apply gray Nitro-Stan anyway to fill in any gaps but it will probably be sanded away.



A 20 thousandths strip was pre bent and attached to the deck.



This strip locates the forward section of the deck into the hull.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Avoiding melting is simple enough, keep the cutting speed down, take light cuts and use a very sharp cutting wheel, and brush in a bit of water with some dish washing liquid in as you cut. This will cool the plastic and tool, and the soap reduces friction on the area of the blade that doesn’t do any cutting.

And mount the disc with the teeth pointing backwards.

[Ken_NJ]

Once the deck was cut away from the hull, the deck sort of compressed or expanded so that it did not meet correctly with the hull. Here I marked the hull profile on paper.



And compared it to the deck.



A piece of acrylic was clamped to the deck. The clamp was tightened until the deck lined up with the profile on paper. Then it was flipped and solvent applied.



Here you can see the clear acrylic which aligned the edges of the deck to the edges of the hull.

[Ken_NJ]

Hull filler/shim

The hull edge was sanded with an emory board to clean up the edge. Strips of 30 thousandths styrene was cut from the sheet and sanded prior to adhesion to the hull edge. Solvent was applied to both edges to soften the styrene and placed in this setup and more solvent was applied. Once the solvent set and the hull removed from the setup, more solvent was applied from the inside of the hull.



Closeup.



Finished applying filler pieces.





Sanding the inside. After rough sanding with the Dremel, finished with an emory board.



Progress



Finished edge



Closeup



After the side edges was done, progressed to sanding the top edge to make sure it was horizontal side to side and that the deck met correctly to the top of the decks hull.



I was carful enough that I could get the weld line sanded into the shim.



Looking through a magnifying glass.



Finished. Couldn't get the seam any tighter than this.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Beautiful process and work. Almost 'seamless'.

I hate you!

David

[Das Boot]

Primo work.

[redboat219]

Avoiding melting is simple enough, keep the cutting speed down, take light cuts and use a very sharp cutting wheel, and brush in a bit of water with some dish washing liquid in as you cut. This will cool the plastic and tool, and the soap reduces friction on the area of the blade that doesn’t do any cutting.

Great tip about using soap as lubricant.