Building the little Kilo submarine

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

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.

Opening up the bridge dead-lights was a good move, Manfred. Seeing those transparencies (the real thing, like what you did here, not painted on phonies like I did) breaths life into the display.

I hate you!

And proper sail railings... at that scale?! You crazy man, you!

David

[MFR1964]

Allways a pleasure to tease you David,
as for the paintjob, got me a complete collection from your paintwork on the Kilo, so i'm well prepared for the next step.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Allways a pleasure to tease you David,
as for the paintjob, got me a complete collection from your paintwork on the Kilo, so i'm well prepared for the next step.

Manfred.

Hey! It's a closed loop, pal: I learn from you, and you teach me a thing or two. Good stuff.

[MFR1964]

Primed all parts including the hull this weekend, next step will be some end colour,



Prepped all resin parts by sanding and de-creasing, took some tape to cover the steeringrods.



First step in priming, dive-planes front and rear are done.



Big step, complete model into the primer, this has to dry a few days before i can start with the colour-sceme.

Manfred.

[redboat219]

Manfred,
what primer did you use and paint will you use?

[MFR1964]

Romel,

Bought some primer at the local hardware store, they have a line of their own brand, primer and paint is oilbased inside rattle cans, colours will be simple, dark grey and red for under the waterline, i do want to make a attempt to get that white line at the waterline, will see if that is possible, for now i will wait until the primer is hardened.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Paintjob is done, adjusted the SD, in theory she's ready for trimming,



Conningtower is finished, took off the masking on the deadlight windows, front dive-planes are ready



This one was a bit tricky, first i made the basic colour, took the time to let it cure, masked off the upperpart for spraying that white line and the top parts.



Pretty much the same story on the lower part, gave her the basic colour, but only a inch from the seperation, waited for curing, masked off everthing that had to stay the basic colour and added the red.





For now she stands like this, a factory fresh Kilo right from the shipyard.



Made all final connections to the SD and adjusted some parts, within a few days i hope she will see the water of the testpool.


Manfred.

[trout]

Very clean Manfred! That looks great.

[MFR1964]

Thanks,a bit too clean Tom, she will get a slight wheatering, have enough pics to make this happen

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

The boat has got a slight weathering being a used boat, normally i'm not interested in weathering my boats, this one turned out nice, giving me the motivation to do the same to my type XXI.





Next step is preparing the boat for trimming, first i will glue in some foam and lead, got me enough pictures from other boats to get me a rough idea how much foam is needed, once in the testpool i can adjust the amount i need, taking down the time i need for trimming.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

The tempartures here went to normal instead of blistering hot, Kilo is trimmed, ready for a testdrive in the wild.



Pressure tested the SD and made all connections, ready for the plunge into the testpool.



After the first try had to add some foam and shifted the lead inside the keel.



The next try, she was listing to the right, and not able to dive, had to remove some foam in the front and middle.



After some tinkering got her at this position at the surface.



Submerged trim, pretty much at the position i want to have her, did noticed one thing, those scopes are grey?, have to give them a new coat of black, probably during priming i had some overspray.



Final result of trimming, had to remove some under the waterline and add some at the upperstructure, trimming this little beast took me a few days, last step will be running her in open water, i hope the trim will be the same, that lake i always use to test is for the most part fresh water with a hint of salt, i'll report back with the results when done.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The tempartures here went to normal instead of blistering hot, Kilo is trimmed, ready for a testdrive in the wild.



Pressure tested the SD and made all connections, ready for the plunge into the testpool.



After the first try had to add some foam and shifted the lead inside the keel.



The next try, she was listing to the right, and not able to dive, had to remove some foam in the front and middle.



After some tinkering got her at this position at the surface.



Submerged trim, pretty much at the position i want to have her, did noticed one thing, those scopes are grey?, have to give them a new coat of black, probably during priming i had some overspray.



Final result of trimming, had to remove some under the waterline and add some at the upperstructure, trimming this little beast took me a few days, last step will be running her in open water, i hope the trim will be the same, that lake i always use to test is for the most part fresh water with a hint of salt, i'll report back with the results when done.

Manfred.

Good looking work there, Manfred! Looking forward to your next posts.

David

[trout]

Open water tests are always nerve wracking to me. Look forward to your report and photos!

[MFR1964]

How went the operation Tom?, even when everything works at the testpool in the open water it can be different, i'm curious how that little prop will work, after all it stays a little pool boat.

Manfred.

[trout]

Thank you for asking, Surgery went great. The healing is the biggest pain right now. I will be back to working on subs soon.