Moebius (Revell) Skipjack Build

[alad61]

Damn touch phones and auto spelling Very AngryI was meant to type hang gliding joy ride ...

Nice slurping sound Tom. or did you have one of the kids in the background sucking the dregs from a glass of water... Umm? :biggrin:

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That last one ... sounded like the SAS caughed up some flem!

Perfect.

M

[trout]

Manfred, the first one was a different camera (808 keychain camera #16). I had three video cameras ready for use, I wanted backup to make sure we captured the sound.
Alec, that would have been the FX departments last resort, if none of the cameras caught the delicate (cough, cough) sound.
David, as long as it works... She can cough up a fur ball for all I care :-)
thank you all for your humor! I like waking up to a laugh.

So, next task get her in the pool. Some items need to be completed first. I affixed the foam into the hull. It had to be shifted from where it was. There will need to be some trimming there. This will need to be retest. I added an extra vent hole in the aft, video later. If the bow dips first, the aft end captures a large volume of air. Moving this would not be an issue because the leveler would allow the air to move forward. Finally set the safety settings upon loss of signal. I need to purchase KMc LiPo-Guard.

[trout]

No pool time yet. It might be fine for some, but it bothered me the way the aft was light on the surface, even though it is level submerged. The other issue is diving air will get trapped in the aft end. Even putting a 1/8" hole did not alleviate the problem (although I have more I can do like taper the inside of the hole and place a light coat of vaseline). Here is a quick video.

When I added enough weight to the aft end, the air escaped properly through the sail.
I actually woke up at night thinking about this, so I decided to shift some of the weight around. First I needed to remove the weight, then cut 1/4 of the aft most weight. This slice I placed under the wtc towards the aft end. Tested in the tub. There was a significant improvement, but still bothered me. So I switched the weights around.

Doing that made a huge improvement, but I needed to add some more foam to give a lift and level it submerged. I also needed to add weight in the center of balance to bring the sub lower.

Bringing the sub up, it leveled really close to the proper waterline with a touch more to spare. Re-submerging it verified the weight added did not change the balance.

This is an area that water collects and stays in my boat. I might add a un-scale hole to drain the water that is there. That area is forward of the shock absorber.

For fun I tried to make a panorama of the interior weight distribution so far (I have exceeded the original weigh put in so forget that post).


I will affix the float and weight. Then test again and make some modifications or adjustments. The reason I think I will need to make adjustment is the foam may not go in as one big chunk in that exact location.

[trout]

The foam was too big. David recommended using clay to find the distance between the sub-driver and the deck.

That helped a lot. There will still need to be a bit more fine tuning with the foam.

Once the RTV silicon rubber dries, I will finish the shaping of the foam. Then we will do another round of trimming in the tub.

[trout]

I shaved the foam from the last test down to make the halves come together. Today no additional weight will be added, just enough foam to make it level submerged.

That seems to be O.K. with just a small portion above the water line.

Surfaced the aft was a bit high so I juggled the foam a bit and tested again. Much better.
Then Zoey decided there needed to be some waves. O.K. we are done.

[trout]

Couple of questions, the mushroom anchor, do you put any holes in it to allow air/water to escape? What about the metal pieces?

[alad61]

Tom I found the anchor was a firm fit so I just glued it in place. As for metal bits I drilled out behind the ones with the holes. I'm pretty sure the represent the open water inlets and outlets so it kinda made sense to open behind them.

[greenman407]

Wow, thats a Big Dog. I dont believe that the MSW gratings nor the anchor would cause any issues either way.

[alad61]

They don't bit having the extra holes in the maw pieces for water to flow and drain from in the stern helps but isn't critical.

[trout]

Thanks guys. When I seal that anchor in it will be a bubble of air, so I did not know if it really needed to be addressed or not.

O.K. I am putting on some of the final bits, beefier magnetic couplers for the sail plane, and might do some final painting (not sure if I will until after I ram it into a few things first (as a side note: I was testing the trimming on the sub on one of the times in the tub and gunned it to see the power. The sub tried to launch itself out of the tub like a rocket. This sub is a hoot!)
I have some delays. Right now I am helping my son with his Scout's rain gutter regatta. I am smiling because each time we do this he learns more and more. He understands the concepts of weight and the lighter the better. Last night it was teaching him to make a pattern for the sail.

[alad61]

Yeah she is a rocket. I've taken David's advice and dialled back the epa on the throttle to 50%. Makes it much more fun in the water.

[trout]

A couple of quick updates.
On top of the sub-driver, I added the stronger connector for the sail planes.

The air hoses are temporarily taped, I am going to add some aluminum tubes for the air. The hose seems to get in the way.
Prop was weathered. Sam used gold on his rain gutter regatta boat, so I sprayed the prop at the same time. Then I used light coats of bronze to darken it. Then holding the air brush further away did ultra light coats that put little splatters of gray.

Will seal this with a final clear coat.

[trout]

The hull was panted black and then sprayed with Rustoleum Satin Paprika. This was done purely for my taste. The color is not a harsh red, but it is not the muddy brownish red of the red primer (which I hear is more accurate). After all was dry, I masked the sonar area off and painted it a titanium white using art store acrylic. Let that dry. Then to finish it, I sprayed light coats of the Paprika over the white. It gave just enough of a difference to make the sonar area stand out..

[trout]

To hold the aluminum tubes I modified the holder used on the Gato to support only one tube. Then made a mold. I will have one tube on each side of the sub-driver (providing it will fit).
To fill the mold made from the master, I used a syringe. Then I thought what if I left the extra resin in there (since I made too much). The resin does not seem to permanently stick to the plastic in the syringe.

The plug did come out. Now, I could turn this, add an o-ring, and have a piston.....hmmm, things rattling in my brain.