Scaleships Akula II

[Peter W]

Scott, it arrived today. Thank you very much indeed. Due to the fact that I am off work at moment with an injured knee I decided to get it in there ...




Peter

[greenman407]

Your doing a great job there Peter. That sonic transducer thingy, I never did do anything about it. Maybe someday. Perhaps youll show me an easy way to recreate it.

[Peter W]

Yep, after advice earlier in this thread I am going to glue them. Probably going to use the existing prop shaft bearing tube as a holder for a smaller one.

Peter

[HardRock]

Looking good Peter. For some strange reason my hull came together quite well at the rear. I ditched the 5mm shaft and bearing for a smaller one that gave me a bit more wiggle room for the linkages. How are you planning to fix the planes onto the shafts? All of mine were quite tight and made the whole thing pretty stiff until I ran a 3.2mm bit through the bearings which loosened things up nicely. I machined a flat on the end of each shaft and probably should have done another one mid-shaft so that the planes could be fixed with a grub screw. Concerns over final alignment pushed me away from that and in the end I just glued them. Interested in your thoughts.

[Peter W]

Stern planes today. I have got them to a point ready to be finally attached. Instead of bolting them on I decided to use 3mm (1/8") rod drilled into the plane to act as a anchor pin into the hull, the pin will then be attached using something sticky and strong.





Peter

[Peter W]

Decided that I needed to think a little on the fixing for the rear planes so turned my attention to the rudders. The lower hull that I have has been moulded a bit skew-whiff the laboriously filed holes in the bottom are not relative to the centre line as these were pre-indented I just went for it but now they are quite obviously off centre by about 6mm (1/4").The pre-marked position for the lower rudder was therefore also out but only by about 3mm (1/8") so I went about re-positioning it. After marking it off I re-drilled the 4mm ( 5/32"ish) and then taped the upper stern part in position, then using 4mm tube and 3mm rod I lined the upper and lower rudders in place after a bit of tweaking they were both marked for correct placement and then using 6BA x 1/2" bolts they were fixed in place. Because there is minor shape issues with the hull the lower rudder doesn't quite seat down tight onto the hull so 3 x 6BA washers were just right to space the sternmost part of the rudder away from the hull. In fact I lied, through the middle of these washers I used an 8BA x 3/8" bolt as the resin there is quite narrow. Anyway a picture ...





Peter

[Peter W]

Ok we continue, have affixed the reactor scoops. Decided to screw them to the hull for strength using 1/2" x 6BA brass machine srews.







Have also spent a bit of more time on the upper rudder. 1st pic shows the front plate as fitted to the 1:1 boats replicated using a spare hub from a 1:35 tank. The 2nd shows a hole drilled from the bottom through to the pod to hopefully run some wires for a light on top of the pod. Please also note the damage caused by a slightly misdirected drill bit, will address that later.




And finally I have started on fixing the rear control surfaces, first up the stern planes.




Peter

[Peter W]

Thanks Dave, sonic transducer eh at 1/96 scale it's going to be a light.

Juan, how did you affix the rear planes to your Akula?

Peter

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Looks to be a sonic transducer -- something like the American UQC 'underwater telephone'.

M

[Peter W]

Mark on your Oscar build you asked a question about this,


Did you ever find out what it was? there is a similar thing on the Akula.

Doing stuff just not a lot and not very note worthy.

Peter

[Peter W]

The original alignment problem between the upper and lower halves, although pretty much sorted with the heat gun, was still about 4mm (5/32"ish) out. So I took the radical, more aggressive route, 120 grit sandpaper to be exact, now the 2 parts are really close together .........get a room close ! Pics to follow.

Peter

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Just an enquiry over there, haven't been on there for so long that do you think I could remember my password? No. To be fair although cheaper I may end waiting a bit and getting it from source, think I am going to need the horizontal snorty valve thing anyway. It is all about readily available funds....... Or not as the case maybe.

Have played around with an idea for scopes will try and remember what the upshot was and let you know.

Peter

P.S. If Mr. M says jump then you jump....... Quickly!

Good point. That SD comes with the tall snorkel assembly. Not suitable for your AKULA.

I also produce a horizontal one, better suited to use in your 1/96 AKULA hull. As that submarine has such a short sail and a high freeboard (it stands tall in surfaced trim), there's no problem mounting the horizontal type snorkel assembly onto the hull, just aft of the sail.

I did this on the 1/72 THRESHER -- even with its relatively low freeboard, this installastion worked fine.

M

[Peter W]

Just an enquiry over there, haven't been on there for so long that do you think I could remember my password? No. To be fair although cheaper I may end waiting a bit and getting it from source, think I am going to need the horizontal snorty valve thing anyway. It is all about readily available funds....... Or not as the case maybe.

Have played around with an idea for scopes will try and remember what the upshot was and let you know.

Peter

P.S. If Mr. M says jump then you jump....... Quickly!

[HardRock]

Geeezzzz you're fast Peter. I just had a quick look at that SD for sale and there you are - all over it. Looks like a great buy. Good luck.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Mr M, thank you for the answers. So the Skipjack one and not the 30" long generic 3.5" SD. I assume that the bigger one is just too big?


Peter

Yeah, much longer a piece of Lexan than you need for it.

And you're in luck. Someone over at the SC forum is trying to off-load just the SD you need: factory fresh, and at a steal. http://www.subcommittee.com/phpBB3/v...hp?f=8&t=12377

Snatch it up, you'll save yourself a few hundred bucks.

M