1/72 HMAS Rankin (Collins Class)

[Slats]

Thanks guys..much appreciate it.

David, I won't promise you a hull at this stage.
I don't own the lower mold half and I assurred Allan at APS that this will be a one boat project for now. That said, let me get this sucker running and I'll talk to Allan.

Whilst its a pretty basic upper hull, I am very happy with how my first efforts of master / mold / hull turned out. The lower hull half needs some alignment surgery to mate properly with the new upper hull. I am capable of doing this as per the OTW Trafalgar (my HMS Trenchant) required it. I am of the view that I might convince Allan after I do that surgery, to allow me to use the lower "corrected" GRP hull then as a master and make a new lower hull mold and hull. If he does so I'll ask him if he minds if I make 2, then David a hull will be yours and we won't be swapping anything - you have done enough over the years to help me. But I respect Allan's property rights and will respect his decision on this.

I must say that whilst I have been in the sub and target game for 15 years I never up until now had the guts to make a sub hull. All of my scratch building efforts have been target hulls and I have pretty much been a sub assembler. If I can get the photos of my efforts making the master and mods I did on this, I'll happily post them here on the Subdriver's forum.


Best
John

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Hey, John!

If you're in a position to do so, how about working up a swap deal with me for one of your 1/72 COLLINS hulls?

David,

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Nice, NICE work, John!

People: You have no idea how long and hard John has been at this project. When I first hooked up with him I thought he was just another anal-retentive, 1/72 freak over there in OZ land. But, as you can tell from his writings, he's also pragmatic when he has to be and follows through, no matter the problems presented by the current situation. He's what I call a 'fearless model builder'; he takes chances but more importantly, he just keeps at it till something works.

Foreigner's!

David,

[Slats]

Guys,

High time on back on this project (this year).

For those who might not be aware this project started some 3 plus years back.

Initially I ordered a Defence Models and Graphics Collins - that was not to be so I ordered a 1/72 scale APS Collins class kit (which is has a completely wrong upper hull - a situation that Allan at APS models acknowledged some time back), and set about modifying it in late 2007.

The main problem with the APS Models kit was the upper casing on Collins - it was too narrow not high enough and not round enough.

I somewhat ambitiously decided to use a mix of materials to rebuild the upper casing (I supply photos later), using styrene and GRP. I came up with a dead on shape and dimensionally correct upper casing and upper hull, ambitiously thought about using this as the upper hull in the boat.

As David aka God jumped in he said forget using it as the actual boats hull- use the upper hull as a master, make a mold, and do so in a timely fashion as what I had was a mix of materials that had all differing expansion properties (in fact styrene was underneath GRP). What happened next - the styrene expanded all on its own and cracks appeared everywhere before I could make a mold or add details to the master and then mold.

I was disheartened and was going to chuck it, when Andy (Subculture) suggested I could save it. But disheartened and with Defense Models and Graphics now saying Collins was back on their radar I shelved the project......Then DMG refunded my money and I now 3 and half years after paying them still no boat. So I took Andy's advice and fixed the cracked master.

I had previously contacted Allan at APS Models to get his permission to make a mold and one upper hull for myself. I contacted Allan again to let him know again of my re-interest in this and he assisted with the process.

The result is I now have a superb correct upper hull half for my 1/72 scale Collins Class Submarine, HMAS Rankin.

A big thank you to Allan at APS models, David for his no nonsense encouragement and Andy for putting some wind in my sails.

This year I hope to have this boat put together and sailing.

The upper hull half is pretty much devoid of details. I found the master I made very unstable and as you can see it pretty much ****ted itself after the mold was made.


Here you see the upper GRP hull produced from my master and mold sits on top of the lower APS GRP hull. The middle upper hull is the master. The mold is in the front of the picture.



Next is a close up showing the now rather had it master and mold



Finally a shot of inside the mold



John