Toy conversion to 1:350 Akula

[RCENGR]

I bought one of these toy R/C submarines and had some fun running it around the test tank. It has a piston system for ballast control and a stern thruster to turn. While it functions reasonably well, it was too short and tended to dart in random directions.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08QJ99T16?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_ti tle_2&th=1

I disassembled it to see if I could take the R/C components and put them in a larger submarine. Eventually I decided to try it with an Akula III. After a bit of CAD and print tests, I ended up with the following conversion:



The submarine runs nicely and looks great underwater.

https://youtu.be/ktahYugQ8iU

[JHapprich]

Thats pretty awesome! Do you have more details/pictures of the build?

[RCENGR]

I would be glad to post more details. If you want to download the STL files, they are here.

You can see from the pictures above basically how I cut up the original toy and glued it into the new hull. The weights from the stern section were removed.

The top was glued with silicone, first with a light bead around the top opening. Then once tacked in place I slathered more silicone on the inside to make it waterproof.



The bottom keys into the toy, so to make sure everything stays aligned I taped them together.


You can also see there are three holes in the sail so you can see the "on" LED in the toy. These need to be filled with clear resin. I ended up painting over the side holes and just use the top hole.

Foam was cut to improve buoyancy. I found two of these 1/2 round foam pucks was enough - one forward and one in the stern.



Stern installation



Bow installation.



A piece of nylon tubing was glued into the hull to hold the forward planes. The wheel collars allow adjustment and removal of the planes. The tubing is the outer sleeve from some airplane push rods that I had. This is the closest thing I found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Feelers-Teflo.../dp/B08S3MTRQG . The same tubing was also used to make a bearing for the prop shaft.

The prop shaft was extended using some 1/32 music wire. It is connected to the motor with some 0.5mm x 2mm silicone tubing.

[RCENGR]

A note on the center STL file.The longitudinal surface where the two pieces touch has a little extra material. This allows you to sand down the surface and get rid of the rounded corners that the 3D printer makes.

[redboat219]

Ooh, had the impression you were using a 1/350 plastic injection kit with only the sail/middle upper deck 3D printed.

[JHapprich]

So was i. However, well done! I ordered both the kid and the toy sub yesterday to make a small pool sub for my kids... well see
got plenty of other styrene kits still around, small skipjacks that can well be Beluga'd and so on... those could hold that toy's innerts too

I'll see, what i can do with it, now on with my big boats, am knee-deep in grp dust from sanding polyester glass;-)

Jörg