Skipjack 1/72

[greenman407]

Additional research reveals that there is a Ren seamless modeling paste used to mix and pour Renshape like material. Probably $700 a quart

[MFR1964]

Dam mit, my archoid dubble puls inverter has broken down, again no carbonation today, have to call the supplier.

Mark, why don't you use simple styrene and filler?, or are the shapes such that you need other materials.


Manfred.

[greenman407]

Im sure I could, but whatever I use I would have to go and buy, cus I dont have anything. Just looking into possibilities.

[greenman407]

Ok, after establishing a good radial line with our level, out comes the new razor saw. I took my time and I had no problems. Then it was on to assembling the forward hull reinforcement assembly. Just a word of note. Dave went to all the trouble to not only drill the holes to hold it together, He also tapped in the threads. What a trooper! He did the same thing for the velcro hold down bracket. Thanks for that. Good lookin out.
You can put the reinforcement assm. in place easily but pay careful attention to get it lined up with the same amount of space on each side, measured down from the hull lip. Mark it and pull it out and apply thick CA and put it in place. Its a good idea to mark the contact points on the hull so you know where the CA is going to go so that you can sand those areas a little bit for good adhesion. Oh....and you might want to test fit the forward lower piece onto the forward upper with the reinforcement assm. in place and check the fit before you CA it.

[greenman407]

Then it was on to the prop shaft foundation. If youll recall back eons ago, I cut off the nice little alignment pins in the bottom stern portion of the hull that Dave went to all the trouble to design the prop foundations to line up on. After numerous "Hail Marys" and other attempts at atonement it was mutually agreed to that I could continue living and breathing as long as I watch myself. So, with that in the past, I carefully lined up the lower half of the foundation in the bottom of the bottom hull section and CAed it in with thick Ca. Later I came back to the scene of the crime and wicked in thin CA under it. Of course this was done after putting in the prop shaft and upper foundation and upper tail section and checking the fit. At that point I had to "Dremel" down the inside of the upper tail cone section to get it to close up properly. Dont glue on the tail cone yet. There are other goodies to go in there first.

[greenman407]

Heres one I missed. Looking from the inside.

[trout]

Looking good.
I had to open the cast foundations a little because with the bushing installed it did not close completely.

[Peter W]

Neat looking cut on the stern Mark, I have got that coming up on the Akula............nervous. Looking good though.

Peter

[greenman407]

Nothing to it if you have a good line and you go slow. Yours is GRP so it will take a little more time and effort. Your razor saw probably wont be any good after the two cuts.

[greenman407]

Tom, I dont think that its necessary to get the foundations to jam up. Its just there to hold the prop shaft bushings. When I install the top half of the tail cone Ill put some thick CA on top of the upper foundation. It wont be going anywhere.

[greenman407]

Before I close up the sail I need to address the underneath of the sail top. Its a trap for air bubbles and needs to be smoothed out for good bubble flow. If I could do it over again I would grind the underside down smooth, but since I have already Caed in the masts and sanded and sealed it and rescribed it, I dont want to mess it up. So Ill just smooth out the edges. The top of the sail under the cap is another matter. The horizontal reinforcement serves no purpose after the cap is glued on so I will remove them.

[greenman407]

Like this. Ill be drilling a hole in the very rear of the sail top to get the air out. However, do not install the cap to the sail until the SAS snorkel assm. is installed on the hull and checked for proper clearance inside the sail. Once everything is good, then you can take the sail back off and install the sail top to the sail.

[greenman407]

Before we get too far , I wanted to go back and mention that another way to establish the outside radial lines is after you have used the compass as suggested to make your inside radial line, take a small drill bit, like 1/16" or smaller, carefully drill a small hole on the line,all the way thru about every 3/8". Then, on the outside, just connect the dots with a pencil and small straight edge.

[greenman407]

One question.I dont see in the instructions about placement location of the subdriver and the shock absorber pin. The hull is 41" long so I marked out center at 20.5". If I put the shock absorber pin to the rear of the front ballast drain hole, that works out to be where the center of the ballast tank will be 1" forward of the hull ctr. Thats a pretty good place to start from my past experience. Tom ,Alec, Dave, how far off am I? I kinda prefer a drilled hole sized better to the pin than that large drain hole, because it can allow the Subdriver to rotate, even with the velcro strap. Any Thoughts?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You want the after face of the motor bulkhead to butt up against the two large hull indexing pins of the lower hull. You gotta move that cylinder foward.

M