SSN21 - 1/72 Seawolf

[Slats]

Some more photos taken by Craig Talyor



Going deep to duck under mine field damage

[Slats]

John,

When you slammed the throttle around in the test tank, did you observe any torque roll? If so what direction was the roll going ahead, and directon of the roll going astern?

Excellent work. What a beast! You've done Joel proud.

David

No noticeable torque roll slamming the throttle around in any direction.
Acceleration is a little scary and this boat's mass momentum needs a lot of getting use too. The Sturgeon I built could go from full ahead to a dead stop by a full astern command in all but a few metres. Seawolf pretty much ignores a full astern command to stop her- think B52 landing with no brakes and no tail chute and your pretty much get the idea. If you allow for that she is a joy to drive.

J

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

What a beautiful boat. How was depth-control? Did the stern planes have enough authority hands-off?

David

[redboat219]

Nice shot of the Tomahawk launch. How come the missile's broaching astern of the boat, isn't the launch unit located in the bow?

[Slats]

What a beautiful boat. How was depth-control? Did the stern planes have enough authority hands-off?

David

An excellent question.

Dealing first with pitch:
The leveller held the boat beautifully, but only on a straight track. Throw the rudder over (either gently or hard), and the boat wanted to pitch up. I set my boat up so the rudder and rear planes are on the one RC gimbal so I can easily influence both channels via the single TX stick. Once a worked out what the boat wanted to do in the turns I simply took over from the leveller applying some rear down planes. This kept the boat under control.

Depth control:
The big surprise for me was how sensitive the bow planes were for depth changes. Slight touches on these and the boat reacted big time. Again took a little getting use to but easy to dial in little changes through the slider control I have on my Robbe FC16 radio. The rear planes auto leveller were often fighting hard against bigger depth changes, but the boat was never unmanageable in what was being asked of it.

J

[Slats]

Nice shot of the Tomahawk launch. How come the missile's broaching astern of the boat, isn't the launch unit located in the bow?

A good observation. The launch was from the 688I in the background, you can clearly see in the photo a fin missing from the TLAM which may be behind the missiles weird track. This system is that of Dr David Batagol. The system works well, but is prone to the odd trajectory screw up. Nonetheless its a great photo by Craig Taylor.

[ManOwaR]

John,How was the reverse bell reaction when going at slower speeds or from a dead stop? Also did those anhedrals do their jobs cutting down the roll caused by the sail on hard submerged turns?Thanks,Joel

[Slats]

John,How was the reverse bell reaction when going at slower speeds or from a dead stop? Also did those anhedrals do their jobs cutting down the roll caused by the sail on hard submerged turns?Thanks,Joel

Reverse bell from a dead stop or from slow speed ahead takes a few seconds to react. This boat does not like the concept of going backwards at all! But neither do I so it is not a problem. Having said that I do T bone a Typhoon and all astern on which you will see on the video has no effect.

The boat has a gentle bank in both low and high speed turns so I guess the Anhedrals are working, but I have always had them fitted so I have no clue as to what the boat would be like without them.

Video is coming - just got to get it chopped up a little and on to youtube. Hope to have some time on to do so in the next week or so.

J

[trout]

That is really a gorgeous sub! Really like the photos. You have one great looking Seawolf. Look forward to seeing the video!
Cheers,
Tom

[Slats]

That is really a gorgeous sub! Really like the photos. You have one great looking Seawolf. Look forward to seeing the video!
Cheers,
Tom

Thanks Tom.

It is indeed a very impressive sub and has quite the "shark in the pool" menacing look about it. I cannot recommend Joel's sub kits and David and Mike's internal gear enough.
It is an unbeatable combination and exceptional value for money. If you have the means buy one.

Best
John

[ADDINGTON]

Outstanding.
Congratulations John on being the first skipper of an HMK Seawolf.
The driving and handling characteristics you describe are much like I experienced in 1/96 scale.
Some quick questions:
What motor and gearing are you using?
Are you using the large or small LPB pump?
Excellent photos, and looking very forward to your motion picture posts.
Just beautiful work and thanks again for sharing,
Kerry

[Slats]

Outstanding.
Congratulations John on being the first skipper of an HMK Seawolf.
The driving and handling characteristics you describe are much like I experienced in 1/96 scale.
Some quick questions:
What motor and gearing are you using?
Are you using the large or small LPB pump?
Excellent photos, and looking very forward to your motion picture posts.
Just beautiful work and thanks again for sharing,
Kerry

Thanks Kerry

The motor is what David supplies with the 3.5" SD - its the size of a 500 series type motor.
The gearing as per the SD (I think) is 5:1
Using the small LPB pump
Boat runs of a 7.2v battery supply of 3700mA which was good enough for around 2 hours patrol time.


J

[Slats]

Video is up

[trout]

It is showing, This video is private.
you might need to go in and share this.

[Slats]

Sorry never played with Youtube before dammed thing seems to default to "Private"
Try the video again.

Pt 2 is here