Moebius (Revell) Skipjack Build

[trout]

The instructions for installing this portion are very short, so I was not sure what needed to be sealed. When in doubt......
I placed a ring of RTV silicon where the mast of the SAS valve would go through.

Installed the SAS induction tube foundation.

Set up the rest of the system.

Making sure that just enough of the induction tube sticking through the hull for the 90 degree elbow to fully engage, yet remain in contact with the hull. I will seal around the elbow also with RTV.

Assembled the sail over the SAS assembly. The head valve has two cylindrical posts coming out the sides facing port and starboard. These posts caused the sail to deform. So much so that the top piece would not fit,

Using a mechanical pencil and extending a length of lead, drew the contour needing to be sanded down on the posts. It took a couple of tries.

The fit was good.

The top piece now fits.

On the top how did you guys open it up to let the air out? I do not plan to have the whole array up.

[Capt_Christo]

No Matter how many time we tried, the bushed supplied would not stick to the inside of the sail, so we made new ones out of styrene.

[trout]

I am out of town at the moment, but I ran out of time to post, so let me do that now.
Put all the parts together and tested fit and travel of controls. Check!

The forward bushing kept popping out, so I put avery small dab of RTV silicon to give it a bit of a hold.

There is something really pretty about brass and white metal - i almost looks steampunk. It is a beautiful design.

Top rudder placed in for no other reason than it looks cool. It is a shame this gets hidden.

Cohesive applied as in other parts of this build. Let it sit for 12 hours.

Checked it over this morning and the dive planes are real stiff. Will have to work on that when I get back.

[trout]

Thanks guys for the kind words.
Scott, call me warped, but if I read it fast, it will come out as Klingon.
Mark, no stealing needed. If you need me to pound out the brass for you let me know, it took a very short time.
i like it enough for this to be used with other controls, when I have time to play.

[alad61]

Nice mod Tom. I might steal the idea...

[Scott T]

Looking good Tom. Neat mod on the klikon. If you say it fast enough the hypen is silent.
You are really churning on this build. Keep it up.

Scott T

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That is SLICK!

M

[trout]

Last nights posting was long so I cut it short. The last thing to add was a modification to the Klick-On.

Cut a strip of brass and curved it to fit against the connector. Drilled a hole to go over the mating magnet on the sail.

Placed the brass piece on the sail dive plane control magnet and the magnet CA'd it in place.

Tested for fit again. It worked great and comes off easy when needed.

Then put a pin through the back end of the srip to keep it together better.

[trout]

Hole counter sunk.

Installing the torpedo foundation/Bow support. Did a test fit.

It was off center.

Squared it up using grid paper.

Outlined the foundation on the bow piece. Using the outline as a guide, sanded the area and ca'd the piece in.

David had put a line (I hi-lighted with black Sharpe) that is used to align the foundation.

CA'd it all in.


Did a bit of finishing and clean up.
Finished counter sinking the shock absorber screws.

Cut out the flange overlaps.

Used sprue to fill in the seams. I had trouble getting it to fill in some areas. In some areas it just looked ugly.

Assembled the bow with the foundation put in. Them I remembered I was going to prime the interior. Ooops.

Still concerned about air flows and preventing trapped air, made passage ways for air to leave.

Wanted to reinforce the opening by making a small bridge that allowed the air to pass and strengthen the area cut out.

Installed the support.

Harder to see here, paths cut in to allow air out. Beveled the holes that vent air out.

Reinforced the bow seams.


CA'd the aft foundations.

Same for the forward foundations and the shock absorber.

The aft piece, I carved a notch in the frame for air to escape. I do not know if any of this is necessary. I guess the final word will be how it handles. So hang on, we will find out together.

I glued the sail together using a cohesive being careful to leave the bottom free from glue to allow it to open. Thought I did good until I realized I forgot to put in the screw foundations in. I am here to tell you they can be installed after the fact (it is better to remember first). Not all went well, the rear foundation did not go all the way aft, so my hole was off a bit. I ground the opening to allow a screw to thread. When installing the foundations you only glue one side of it so the bottom can be slit open for maintenance and repair.

[trout]

Alec,
Yes I will counter sink the screw. Today's post will be some of the small things being done like that. The soap idea, in this build, is from David's cabal report.
T

[alad61]

Tom are you going to countersink the fastening screw? I like the soap idea too.

[trout]

Everything has dried.
Putting in the means to fasten the hulls together was pretty simple.
This section was left out of these instructions, but it can be found in the 7th part of the Skipjack Cabal (can be found here http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showa...mentid=5287179 ) mark 1/4" forward of the aft radial cut.

Drill a 7/64" inch hole all the way through.

Run the threads of the 4-40 screw, included with the screw foundation, through some soap. It will be a barrier from the CA seizing the screw into the foundation. Ah, the smell of Irish Spring.....

Thread the screw through the flange and into the screw foundation. Apply CA around the foundation and set aside to dry.

Test assembly. Yeah it worked!

[trout]

There is not much to add to the instructions. I curved the plastic strips over a small metal tube and marked on the pieces for how much will extend out from the edge. The upper aft portion (the small section cut off) will get 1/2 hanging over (since the strip is 1" it is 1/2" extended out past the edge). The lower bow section (the larger piece or main body) gets a 3/8" extended past the hulls edge.

Sanded the areas to put cohesive glue on.

Used clothes pins to hold it together.

Now it will be another day before i work on it.

[trout]

The slight warping still exists. Once I get the tail pieces together it might help because if I squeeze the tail down behind were the radial will be, it closes up..
Earlier I transfered the radial markings for cutting the bow and aft sections from inside to the exterior side of the hull. Per the instructions, used a light to help do that. Then used tape to connect the dots. I marked were the radial line made contact with the paper on each side, measured the distance from my radial line to the aft most end of the sub to make sure the distances were even on both sides. Did the same for the bow radial line to make sure it was also even on each side.

Darkened the line and removed the tape.

Cut along the line and we have separation.

Same was done for the aft end.

I still need to fill in the quarter pieces seam from the prior nights gluing and clean up cuts made into the hull. One step closer!

[trout]

David, that is cool! Was there a paint scheme like that? Awesome photo too! It has to be a thrill every time you see a Moebius or Revell model running in the wild knowing you had a hand in it coming to a reality. Does the article say what dive system the assembler used?