1/35 scale type 23

[greenman407]

I think that its about time I got this thing out and commence to finish it. Its been..................what..........a year and a half. Where has the time gone?

[greenman407]

Yep...and I sure hope I can find all the parts to this thing.

[greenman407]

Today I drug it off the shelf and proceeded to locate and identify the malfunctioning stern planes servo. A long xacto blade severed it from the surrounding support structure. In went the new Hitek metal geared micro servo. I cant do anymore with it today as the silicone needs to set. The original Zippy Lipo that I used in this sub has long ago bit the dust. Ive got a heavier one that will go in its place. DRAT! I just drained the Kiddie Pool. Ill need to re-trim for surface and submerged trim. Then we will be looking at finishing up sanding the body filler and getting some paint on.

[greenman407]

I drug it out again and tried to re-trim it. I got it real close but its sooooo sensitive. Its the only sub that I have that gives me this much trouble. I wonder if its not a consequence of the dimensions of the hull. You know.....narrow but deep. We will keep working on it. I havent been happy with the rudder linkage setup so I removed the Klikons and went for a direct attachment to give me positive movements. One of the problems is that the tiller arm on the rudder is so short ,to fit inside that upper area that you lose good range of control but its workable. I also am not satisfied with the Lepton receiver. It doesnt seem to have the interference rejection capabilitys of the SL-8. So I changed it out for a Sombra Shadow. We will see how that works. Also the Thor APC gave up the Ghost(a false religious belief). In other words......it bit the dust. So I replaced that with another APC. The silicone seal is hardening. Pictures to follow.

[greenman407]

In this last picture, I am testing without the upper hull in place because I want to observe the ballast tank. I want to observe the speed at which the water is coming in and being expelled. Because the vent is located at the rear of the ballast tank, you need a slight amount of downward angle to get all the air out.

[redboat219]

There's your problem, you're giving it too much drugs...

[greenman407]

HA! That was a Good one! Im going to show my nosey side here and ask you ...........what is a redboat? Instead of a yellow submarine, do you have a red one? Just asking?

[redboat219]

Found it in Tom Clancy's book Red Storm Rising, it's used to denote an enemy Russian sub.

[greenman407]

So today I spent some time getting her ready for paint. Sandpaper and body filler..........and more sandpaper. I got the upper hull and sail/conning tower painted first a grey primer and within 15 mins. I went back over them with Smoke Grey to represent the light grey color that my paint scheme calls for. I spent some time finishing up the sail by installing all the hand rails and doing some body filler touch up.
As far as the lower hull is concerned it will be painted a darkened Charcoal grey. But before I can do that Ill need to complete the finish work on it.

[greenman407]

This is what we are shooting for. Below the white line is dark grey. Above the white line is light grey.

[greenman407]

Today I was able to devote a few hours to it. Scuff sanding the whole thing as well as working on a few problem areas. I hope to get some paint on the bottom hull tomorrow.

[greenman407]

Looks like tomorrow was last year. I did get some Dark Grey on the bottom hull. I had to make it, blending light grey with a dark grey(which was too dark) to achieve the desired color. I spent a lot of time filing and sanding all the seams which for some reason seemed to have a slight mismatch, even though I put the pin in the hole during assm. Also, to my embarrassment, something got on the hull in storage, that melted the Evercoat and ran down the side. It didnt hurt the plastic, but whatever it was didnt like the body filler. It smelled like Turpentine or something like that. So I had to reapply evercoat to address what was melted. I got a good primer coat on and the paint came out very well. I still have to tape off and paint the white stripes and then put on some clear flat. Keep in Touch.

[greenman407]

Using an inexpensive laser level, I established the angled white line and placed some marks on the hull to tape too. The line is also the seperation between the dark grey and the light grey. I also finished the sail with its masts. The painting operation continues. Originally, I had installed an APC purchased from the (other guys). It didnt work so well. So I purchased an ADF2 from Caswell and put it in its place. WORKS PERFECT! Thanks Kevin Mcleod.

[greenman407]

Im looking at the height of this scope and am saying to myself. Its way too high. Then it occurred to me that this is a little submarine, as evidenced by the large diameter of the scope mast. So I guess it looks ok. I wonder if the Bronco people are going to come out with another large submarine? I hate those little 1/400 models that have flooded the market.

[MFR1964]

Nice work Mark, you''re getting there, as for the scope, the lenght had to be that long because of the schnorkelmast, with the scope you just can see over the schnorkelhead, during underwater travel they tend to go up and down, in real live there was a kind of mechanical levelkeeper onboard, it wasn't that accurate, so the boat went up and down within a few meters, when your scope is too short, the conningtower will break through the surface, a captains nightmare.
Correct me if i'm wrong, but the germans used 7 or 9 meter long peroscopes, depending on which boat, on my type VII they are 9 meters long.

Manfred.