1/72 Virginia Class USS South Dakota

[CollectiveBorg]

More from the neophyte trudging among giants……the sail is now primed and will be set aside while I finish upper hull details and prime it. I am pleased with the sail.



As I mentioned, I am not a rivet counter, but I thought my fellow neophytes might like this photo of a Virginia Class sail. I have opted not to attempt the stressed surface. I really like this photo though!

I saw a post here with a "disapproved" banner. I even tried clicking it, but it wasn't active. The entire post was highlighted in red; it was text-heavy and long. Am I right?

[Timothy L]

This is kind of weird. The post you just mentioned with the two pictures of a sail was never “unapproved”. But you are correct the long one after that from this afternoon is showing up in pink and marked as unapproved. Strange. Thanks for the feedback by the way.

[CollectiveBorg]

This is kind of weird. The post you just mentioned with the two pictures of a sail was never “unapproved”. But you are correct the long one after that from this afternoon is showing up in pink and marked as unapproved. Strange. Thanks for the feedback by the way.

It's strange that I saw it before, but now I don't. I don't have the rights as an administrator of this forum. I know a little about how vBulletin forums work. A regular user, which I am, shouldn't see this.

[CollectiveBorg]

By the way, I admire your workshop and your work! I wish you good luck and creative success in your project!

[Timothy L]

By the way, I admire your workshop and your work! I wish you good luck and creative success in your project!

Thank you.

[Timothy L]

It's strange that I saw it before, but now I don't. I don't have the rights as an administrator of this forum. I know a little about how vBulletin forums work. A regular user, which I am, shouldn't see this.

For me the longer posts take time to write - but it appears that they have a relatively good chance of not being approved from my experience. And once they’re unapproved they don’t seem to get approved later on. And truth be told, what I’m posting is likely not of great benefit to anyone. For those reasons I think I am going to curtail this thread. However, if anyone is curious about this particular project I am more than happy to answer any questions posted here. The goal was initially to finish the project by the end of July - but you know how life goes LOL - Continually having to adjust the schedule :-)

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

For me the longer posts take time to write - but it appears that they have a relatively good chance of not being approved from my experience. And once they’re unapproved they don’t seem to get approved later on. And truth be told, what I’m posting is likely not of great benefit to anyone. For those reasons I think I am going to curtail this thread. However, if anyone is curious about this particular project I am more than happy to answer any questions posted here. The goal was initially to finish the project by the end of July - but you know how life goes LOL - Continually having to adjust the schedule :-)

Hell no, Tim. Send a shot through Bob's wheel-house -- tell him the problem! Just as soon as he gets his feet under him he'll fix the problem.

Keep posting you bum! As you suggested your personal screeds here about the joys and troubles of getting into this hobby will do much to help guys in the same boat as you; your words give heart to the 'new guys' experiencing the same problems as you. The point is, you share the problems AND the fixes. Good stuff.

Don't be a frig'n quitter!... get back in that ring and keep punching! More people read -- and profit from -- your accounts here on the Nautilusdrydocks pig-pile than you suppose!

DON'T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE!!!!

[Timothy L]

You crack me up David LOL - and thank you for the positive thoughts. I’ll see how it goes with getting posts unlocked. I’m not going anywhere LOL - just trying to be practical with my time compadre ;-)

PS “pig pile”???? Good one!

[Timothy L]

I’ll copy snd paste the blocked post here. Maybe that will work;

Musings from the trudging neophyte are posted here only for one reason - to possibly help others who will not ask questions because the incredible expertise on this forum might seem intimidating and questions might feel embarrassing.
Sharing the occasional foibles of a sub-rank rc sub newbie might encourage you. As a “quasi build log” anything I post here is likely of no interest to the supreme craftsman who so wonderfully infuse their knowledge into this forum LOL!
BUT my fellow (likely quiet) neophytes here are a few quick thoughts on things I’ve learned so far:

1) if you buy a printed hull make absolutely sure you know how much sanding and prep work you’re getting into. There are trade-offs between having details cleanly and accurately portrayed vrs strength. I chose to focus on strength and therefore I’m working with an ABS/FG (plastic with bits of fiberglass thrown in). Mucho sanding.

2) if you’re looking for answers on this forum or the Internet at large, you will have to do a little bit of work. Take the time to learn how to search the forums, search Dive Tribe sessions etc. Giving yourself the tools to find answers is no different than getting the right tools to do a job.
a) Sometimes those answers are like jumping down the rabbit hole because they simply lead to more questions. And that can get confusing. This is definitely a hobby where a basement tinkerer newcomer may very well suffer from “ You don’t know what you don’t know” conundrum.
b) and that’s about the point where you might want to ask David Merriman a question. Despite his reputation for being a softhearted mush-mellow, he’s an unbelievable crafts person with a knowledge base that I doubt will ever be duplicated. As I mentioned in an earlier post you might be well advised to daily follow his Today’s Work posts.

3) PE (photo etch): I was dreading using photo parts when I started on this project. I got over that hurdle - this is what I learned; 1) make sure you cut the PE parts out on a rock hard surface 2) anneal parts that will fit to a curved surface (heat it up and then cool it - lots if videos on it) 3) make your own application tips when using CA glue (I sharpen a 1//16” sprue and use it with thin CA). 4) depends on your view towards detail, but in my opinion don’t sweat the really tiny stuff that you can barely see - (2 feet away from you no one will see it).

4) Fitting the upper hull to the lower hull. If you’re used to building surface models, this is a whole new focal point that you may never have given a second thought to! However, it is super important! This is something that’s not too difficult to research on the forum - BUT here’s the thing: for me, doing it was a challenge LOL. There are two things going on. First, you want the upper hull removal to be a trouble free “2 second” procedure. Second, you want a really clean seam between the hull sections. I experimented with several of the suggested methods. How you approach it will probably vary depending on the type of sub that you are building. For this hull only a small bolt in the stern needs to be removed to lift off the upper hull. After trying several methods I found that the Vaseline / Gold Evercoat filler combo worked best. You MUST use thin CA to harden the filler as a last step.

5) Turning radius: Larger, longer subs have very poor turning radii. This should be part of your decision on what sub you want to build. If you really love the looks of the larger nuclear subs, Make sure you understand what its operating characteristics will be and whether or not you want to change those characteristics during your building process.

Well, that was a lot of jabbering. The point for sharing these rather simple thoughts is that they might help somebody who’s sitting there scratching their head like me. Like me, you may not be somebody that’s fond of reading instructions and just want to try everything your own way. I don’t advise that though. This is a different kind of hobby and you need the experts and need to expect you will run into things that are not common to any other RC hobby! I hope my musings will be of help. As I trudge along with this most enjoyable model I’ll try to share bits of my experience that might be of worth.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I’ll copy snd paste the blocked post here. Maybe that will work;

Musings from the trudging neophyte are posted here only for one reason - to possibly help others who will not ask questions because the incredible expertise on this forum might seem intimidating and questions might feel embarrassing.
Sharing the occasional foibles of a sub-rank rc sub newbie might encourage you. As a “quasi build log” anything I post here is likely of no interest to the supreme craftsman who so wonderfully infuse their knowledge into this forum LOL!
BUT my fellow (likely quiet) neophytes here are a few quick thoughts on things I’ve learned so far:

1) if you buy a printed hull make absolutely sure you know how much sanding and prep work you’re getting into. There are trade-offs between having details cleanly and accurately portrayed vrs strength. I chose to focus on strength and therefore I’m working with an ABS/FG (plastic with bits of fiberglass thrown in). Mucho sanding.

2) if you’re looking for answers on this forum or the Internet at large, you will have to do a little bit of work. Take the time to learn how to search the forums, search Dive Tribe sessions etc. Giving yourself the tools to find answers is no different than getting the right tools to do a job.
a) Sometimes those answers are like jumping down the rabbit hole because they simply lead to more questions. And that can get confusing. This is definitely a hobby where a basement tinkerer newcomer may very well suffer from “ You don’t know what you don’t know” conundrum.
b) and that’s about the point where you might want to ask David Merriman a question. Despite his reputation for being a softhearted mush-mellow, he’s an unbelievable crafts person with a knowledge base that I doubt will ever be duplicated. As I mentioned in an earlier post you might be well advised to daily follow his Today’s Work posts.

3) PE (photo etch): I was dreading using photo parts when I started on this project. I got over that hurdle - this is what I learned; 1) make sure you cut the PE parts out on a rock hard surface 2) anneal parts that will fit to a curved surface (heat it up and then cool it - lots if videos on it) 3) make your own application tips when using CA glue (I sharpen a 1//16” sprue and use it with thin CA). 4) depends on your view towards detail, but in my opinion don’t sweat the really tiny stuff that you can barely see - (2 feet away from you no one will see it).

4) Fitting the upper hull to the lower hull. If you’re used to building surface models, this is a whole new focal point that you may never have given a second thought to! However, it is super important! This is something that’s not too difficult to research on the forum - BUT here’s the thing: for me, doing it was a challenge LOL. There are two things going on. First, you want the upper hull removal to be a trouble free “2 second” procedure. Second, you want a really clean seam between the hull sections. I experimented with several of the suggested methods. How you approach it will probably vary depending on the type of sub that you are building. For this hull only a small bolt in the stern needs to be removed to lift off the upper hull. After trying several methods I found that the Vaseline / Gold Evercoat filler combo worked best. You MUST use thin CA to harden the filler as a last step.

5) Turning radius: Larger, longer subs have very poor turning radii. This should be part of your decision on what sub you want to build. If you really love the looks of the larger nuclear subs, Make sure you understand what its operating characteristics will be and whether or not you want to change those characteristics during your building process.

Well, that was a lot of jabbering. The point for sharing these rather simple thoughts is that they might help somebody who’s sitting there scratching their head like me. Like me, you may not be somebody that’s fond of reading instructions and just want to try everything your own way. I don’t advise that though. This is a different kind of hobby and you need the experts and need to expect you will run into things that are not common to any other RC hobby! I hope my musings will be of help. As I trudge along with this most enjoyable model I’ll try to share bits of my experience that might be of worth.

Congratulations, your post came through without being 'flagged', Tim. Excellent presentation and I know your words will strike a chord with most of the 'new guys' visiting here.

(Softhearted Mush-Mellow!!!!?????..... You will pay dearly for that!)

[Timothy L]

(WARNING - If you were looking for advice from a skilled craftsman, don’t read further LOL)

From the trudging neophyte - since my recent post, two things occurred to me that might be helpful to my fellow head scratchers.

THE BIG PICTURE
Before you begin your first wet hull sub you might think about what your NEXT sub might be - and not because you’re a stash builder like all of us. Why? Because the WTC’s aren’t cheap and it might be good to have a WTC that can easily be transferred between two hulls. Are you doing something with your first sub that would make it difficult to drop the WTC into a 2nd sub? Seems like “future of the fleet” thinking might help. Will my subs have as many transferable parts as possible? Will they be the same scale? Will my drive shafts, props, and universals have similar diameters and threads (very helpful if you don’t happen to be a machinist LOL). Future thinking might make your fleet build more efficient. For me, I’ve made all threads and drive shaft diameters for surface ships AND subs the same. The more machinist knowledge you have (I have none) and the more machinist equipment you have (I have none) might make such thinking irrelevant - but this is just from one head scratcher to another LOL.

WHAT COMES FIRST!
Most wet hull subs don’t come with instructions. You have to identify and source all components on your own. For many NO INSTRUCTIONS is like heaven!!!! But to be clear, for me, once I sourced this big pile of stuff I had to ponder where I would begin!!! What I’ve learned is that the order in which you do things is pretty important. Did I approach this logically? Nope. I avoided what seemed new and confusing and focused on the “easy stuff”. My motto seems to be do the fun stuff first! And the fun stuff is the stuff you have more of a chance of understanding right off the bat!

So the first thing I did was glue the hull parts together and strengthen it with fiberglass. Wait, did I say easy? Actually I had to get more familiar with “glue”. Really. This sub is a 5’ foot plastic tube! Tamiya model glue won’t hack it. So I did some searching on this forum and somewhere DM, the soft-hearted curmudgeon, talks about adhesives and cohesives. Check out his videos and posts - if you don’t know a lot about glues, This is a must. In short, some glues weld and some glue stick - when you’re putting a plastic hull together you want to weld it. Oh, and those immaculate fiberglass jobs you see skilled builders do? Not really so easy when you’re doing the interior of a submarine hull. You’re trying to get resin and fiberglass cloth onto an awkwardly curved surface. The solution for me was to do it in stages to try to avoid any kind of resin pooling. I also used terrarium heating lamps and an electronic thermometer to make sure my drying temperature was good (New England basements can get cold in the winter!).

In the process of gluing the hull parts together, since I’m an idiot and there are no instructions, I accidentally on purpose removed some of the alignment holes that were built into the bottom hull. You see what I mean about getting into that “ You don’t know what you don’t know conundrum” LOL”. If I had realized what those holes were for, I could’ve made life a bit more easy. The lesson here? Before you do much of anything try to get a very clear idea as to how you are going to fit the top of the hull to the bottom. Again, DM the SHC has some super stuff on this topic on both the forum and his videos. DM is devoting an absolutely phenomenal amount of energy trying to share his knowledge - far more than you’ll ever expend trying to research this stuff. Take advantage of it. That’s the best way to say thank you.

After the hull sections were welded together and reinforced, I discovered that the top and bottom section didn’t really fit together ideally (understatement). I did the research to finish that task as described in an earlier post. This is something you want to do pretty early in the game because it’s messy, prone to making stupid mistakes, and very important.

Once that was done I felt comfortable that I could do the finishing and detail work on the upper hull. Before I did anything I brushed on a coat of acrylic filler so I could assess what an ordeal many of the striations in the ABS would be to deal with.
For me it’s kind of like knowing where the mines are in the minefield LOL. Then I learned about etching PE and I’m still in the process of finishing the upper hull. And that reminds me: Do a quick YouTube search on how to etch Plastic models. Buy or make some good itching tools and teach yourself how to use them on scrap plastic. Not as easy as you might think. And guess what lol, DM the SHC has really good information on this. To me I think this is an essential skill and you should not skip learning how to do it.

As you can see the order in which you do things can be haphazard but there are certain sequences you really don’t want to get too much out of order.

I would suggest that you are very clear about what kind of paint and clear coating etc. you will be doing before you get too far into the project. The paint and the fillers have a lot to do with how much detail shows up. Figure out what kind of paint you want to use and make up some scrap plastic with details etched in etc.. Fill it and spray it and see what kind of trouble you run into before you go near your actual sub model. There’s lots of opinions about paint. I’m the type that likes to build a brick poop house and subs can get pretty beat up - more so than surface ships. So, planning in advance, I took the leap and decided to go the 2K poly clearcoat route over acrylics. more on that later. I’m just suggesting that early in the game you decide what you’re going to use and it will save you some grief I believe.

I’m jabbering on here as if I know what I’m doing. I don’t but I’m trying LOL! Probably the biggest mistake I’ve made in the process is avoiding the time it will take for me to study the WTC and thoroughly understand how it works. For those who have the minds of a physicist or an electrical engineer it’s no sweat. For me it will be a challenge LOL! Particularly because I am thevexperiment first and do the research second type - not necessarily the best idea!

Ok, end of the jabbering. I’ll need to stay away from some of this for a few weeks because of some really severe arthritis in my right hand that’s put me using brace for awhile - but as I stumble along I’ll try to share any head scratching thoughts that might help fellow neophytes (or not!).