Building the little Kilo submarine

[trout]

Manfred,
what model kit is this? Is this trumpeter’s 1/144 scale?

[MFR1964]

Tom, yeah it's the trumpeters kit, had it laying around in the stash, must be at least a decade or so.
The intension is a kind of recruiting boat, to infect more people to join the tribe.
Working on the floodholes and some other stuff.


Manfred.

[redboat219]

Manfred, regarding your DIY endcaps, what's the thickness of the plexiglass discs and what cohesive did you use?

[MFR1964]

Romel,

Thickness is 5 mm, used 2K epoxyglue, during curing placed them in the vice, released them after 24 hrs

Manfred.

[trout]

I am not a big Kilo fan, but your idea as an introduction for unsuspecting and vulnerable children is brilliant! Much like how David does it or how I got hooked back into this hobby.

[redboat219]

Did you encounter the same thinned out or under cast resin dive planes?

[MFR1964]

I am not a big Kilo fan, but your idea as an introduction for unsuspecting and vulnerable children is brilliant! Much like how David does it or how I got hooked back into this hobby.

The Kilo is a bit small for my taste, but ideal to hook up interested people, especially during poolruns, due to the size it's a nice boat to keep your skills sharp, i' ve got me the XXI for more victims.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Did you encounter the same thinned out or under cast resin dive planes?

No problems with thin casted resin parts, those things are a bit tiny and have to be handled with care.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Floodholes are done, made the provision for steering the front dive-planes and a dryfitt of the hull parts,



By using a metal rule as a guide, i made the floodholes with the Dremel



Cleaned up the floodholes with the X-acto knive and some sandpaper.



Made this contraption for steering the front dive-planes, it will be connected magneticly to the steeringrod on the SD.



Made a proper stand for the boat, compared to the stand delivered with the model it's more beefy.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Made some studs near the middle part of the hull to get it less flexing at that point.



A dryfitt of both hull parts, for now it seems to be looking good, next step will be, replacing the plastick railing by 1 mm copper, those plastick rails is asking for trouble, even by looking at them they will break.

Manfred.

[redboat219]

Will you be fixing the sail to the deck or make it removable?

[MFR1964]

A permanent fix to the upperdeck is not what ik have in mind, i like to have things removable for maintenance or transport.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Railings are done, next step, building the scope and antenna stuf, unfortunally i don't have the kit to build one, but i do have enough pictures to start up the lathe to get me some.



This set of railings is included in the kit itself, unpractical to handle since they are plastick and so prone to break, but they do offer a nice mold to reproduce them in copper.



The two small one's didn't give any problems, made a template from tape and secured everything to be soldered in one try.



The other side with the long railing, ended up using 1 mm as studs and the railing itself from 0,5 mm copper rod.

Next step will be, opening the front windows and make all the stuf needed on top, i allready have some small diameter stainless steel tubing in the stash, just have to turn the top-ends on the lathe.


Manfred.

[Das Boot]

I’m going to bring one that’s unopened to Subfest as a raffle prize. Matter of fact, I’ve still got it in the shipping box.

[MFR1964]

Scopes and the array are done, fastened the conningtower,



All things on the conningtower are done as well the windows, filled them up with 2K epoxy, i did cheat a bit, used the radar and that crucific like antenna from the kit itself, the mast with the antenna on top is my snort mast, made a small slit in the side near the top for sucking air in.



Some people prefer using magnets i went this time with hex screws, it's always possible to take the conningtower off, either for maintenance or transport.





Finally she's all together, giving me the oppertunity to do a final tweek on the SD inside.



The only minor things i had to change where, those brackets to keep the rods for the dive-planes and rudder at their place, David catched this by making some slits in the bulkhead itself, i went the other way with the brackets, made a aluminum adaptor for my shaft on the lathe for the silicon hose connection to the SD, replaced the shaft by a 2mm carbon rod,the old shaft was to my taste a bit short.


For now it's priming time, first i want to prime all resin parts before the complete model will be primed, have to wait for better weather to do this, in the meanwhile i can prepare the parts by sanding and de-creasing them.


Manfred.