Scaleships Akula II

[Subculture]

An alternative to etch primer is to brush some ferric chloride over the brass parts until they go dull. Then ordinary primer will grip well enough.

You could also use epoxy primer. The car trade use this on bare metal in place of etch primer these days and is considered an improvement.

[Mankster]

Glue and forget is what I did.

[Subculture]

G10

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Glassfibre...item461e1e6b83

A good brand of single part etch primer in the UK is Upol. You can buy it in aerosol form in Halfords. You can can get in a tin for spraying yourself on ebay or at car paint suppliers.

[Peter W]

Glad you are enjoying it Dave.

Less a reminder moreover a lesson required really I know I was going to need some form etch primer but have no experience of them whatsoever. Any info would be gratefully received. I also have 2 questions. 1 mainly to Andy regarding G10, I have looked but am not sure where to go to get it. 2, this question is mainly, but not exclusively, to all Scaleships sub builders. How did you all fix the moveable rudder and planes parts to their integral rods? Glue and forget? or removable?

Peter

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You are doing a great kit a very good service. An enjoyable WIP, Pete. Keep it up.

And a reminder (likely I should not have to say this, as I think you already appreciate the reason why): after you have made the hull surfaces ready for that first coat of primer, insure that you pickle all exposed metal surfaces first. This to insure a good grab between metal and primer. Failure to get tooth on those areas will result in primer-paint shrugging off those areas the first hot July day you encounter.

M

[Peter W]

Recent events have slowed me down....again but I have made some more progress I am pretty sure that all the brass is now finished, by that I mean filled and everything. I may do little bit more gluing from the inside of hull but they are finished apart from that.

Today I decided to grow a pair and tackle the upper hull cut. This, due to never having had to do this before had worried me a little to the point of prevarication. However in the event it was a bit of an anti-climax. I made a pencil guide to make the marking out a simple matter then with my narrowest kerfed razor saw hack, hack and it came out well. I then allowed myself a picture of how the stern would sort of look with upper rudder and stern planes before typing this missive.

Rudimentry marking set up


all cut up

Indulgence


Note the addition the hole at the back of the rudder pod, I think it looks better than not being there.

Peter

[Peter W]

Ramesh,

Hello, yep getting there, apart from burning myself. I have your underwater video to motivate me. When I get it done I must try and get to a Dive in event.

Peter

[Mankster]

Having taken a bit of a break from submarines for the last 3 years or so, I have not been keeping an eye on the forums and have missed this tread till today. Anyways, it looks like your Akula is coming along swimmingly, and you have successfully got past the tricky bits!

Ramesh

[Subculture]

If you want some saddles that will remain very strong and help keep the hull in shape, then use epoxy glass sheet.

3 or 4mm thick sheet will be incredibly rigid and strong, Also because it's essentially the same substrate as the hull it will form a very strong bond with epoxy glue.

You can lay up your own sheet from cloth and resin or buy G10 epoxy glass sheet. The latter is stronger than you need to be honest, as it's laid up from multiple thin glass layers to form an extremely tough composite.

[Peter W]

Yes, The SAS that's the one. It's not like I should of known the name, it's not like it is at the top of every page in the forum......... Oh wait a minute.......it is! I like being the resident Idiot, I find it comes naturally. Off to do the homework.

Peter

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You mean the SAS? And you can mount the snorkel induction head-valve just about anywhere, such as how I did it on this 1/72 THRESHER model -- there was no room in the sail so I mounted the horizontal type unit into the upper hull. Works fine.

M

[Peter W]

Thanks for the advice Mark, the 2 part stuff I use is the 2 ton Devcon stuff used it for years, brilliant stuff, drying time is ages. I am hoping to use a Sub driver of some description but need to do my homework on the shop page. Really like the idea of snort system but my very limited knowledge leads me to believe that the inlet goes in the sail and the sail is quite small on the Akula, the inside certainly is....?....

Peter

[greenman407]

A No Brainer. Just figure out where your Subdriver goes front to rear and where within that area your saddles will go. Then evenly spaced additional ones front to rear. A good two part epoxy with a drying time of at least 30 mins. or more(none of that quick stuff). Sand well the hull at the joint as well as the ABS pieces. Position your hull to allow gravity to hold the epoxy in place as it dries to form a 45 degree filet. You know how to do it.(smiley face) what do you do when you just need an emoticon, and you dont have one?

[Peter W]

No need to mention it....... I probably deserved it. Who'd have thought that the metal nozzle that directs the heat from a heat gun actually got hot. Mental note: Metal is a good conductor of heat.

Peter

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Oh, I forgot to mention .... that heat-gun nozzel gets hot.

M