Trumpeter 1/144 Gato build

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Well done, sir. You want fillets in there anyway. A little file work, a rub-down with some '000' steel wool and you're good to go.

M

[crazygary]

Prop guards are soldered and installed! Just finished soldering them,
so they're "in-the-rough" right now.

I'll clean them up in the morning, and add the angled supports under them
and into the hull.


Look, Ma!! I didn't melt the hell outta the hull!! WOOHOO!!!!!

crazygary, out!

[crazygary]

I'm definitely with ya on that one, M!!

It's good to have a "dee-dee-dee" moment once in a while! Make's ya feel that much
"more smarter" when ya don't screw something up!! Hah!!

I'm guessing that the 1/32" rod is a pretty sensible choice for diameter! Since 1" in 1/144 scale
is about .007" that makes the guards around 4 1/2" dia.! Sounds pretty o.k.!?

O.K.! 'Soon's the caffeine kicks in, I'm off to the drydock!
Have a good one!

crazygary, out!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

If I could gather all the things I've forgotten, I would be a frig'n genius! As it is now, I'll settle for ill-tempered functional-moron.

M

[crazygary]

M:
Thanks for the "duh" moment!
I've done that many times but it totally slipped my mind this time, as so many other things do periodically!!
Must be an "old fart" thing!! Hah!

Albion:
Great tool! I have a couple, but have gotten pretty spoiled with my little Iso-Tip!
Heats up in a couple of heartbeats and is really maneuverable! Good to have a few
options, tho'!!

crazygary

[Albion]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Ungar-7760-Soldering-Iron-Handle-120-AC-DC-/261409264095?_trksid=p2054897.l4276

For soldering, get one of these, with a screw in element heater. Although the wattage seems quite low, all the heat is generated at the tip, which means this punches well above its weight. I use this for everything from sheet brass, down to small wires. Provided parts to be soldered are clean, the tip is so hot that you can get a good joint and have the element off the workpiece before there is much heat soak.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Cut up a sponge into 1/4" cubes, each with a knife-slit half-way through. Slip a sponge 'heat-sink' onto the wire next to the hull, apply water to the sponge till it's saturated, then solder away with reckless abandon!

You're doing great work, Gary.

M

[crazygary]

O.K.!

I made up some prop guards based on photos I downloaded. Bent up some pieces of
1/32" diameter brass rod to look like this:

Here's a dimensioned CAD drawing of what I came up with, which looks to be pretty close
to what it should be:

Oops! Sorry, it's inverted from the real deal photo!! The end with the "compound bend" goes aft!

This is what it looks like attached to the hull, with the additional stiffeners:


They're mounted parallel with the molded-in waterline, which is defined by the
bottom of the masking tape. The guards are 5/16" above the waterline.


Once my little aluminum heat sinks arrive, the components will be soldered together, and the joints
cleaned up. Also left to make, and install, will be the angled supports which will tie into
the cross pieces, and into the hull, to provide structural support to the whole assembly!

I'm outta here for now! Must observe the fact that "it's five o'clock somewhere"! (Jimmy Buffet fan, here!)
Y'all have a great evenin'!!

crazygary, out!

[crazygary]

Happy Sunday, fellow "bubbleheads"!!

The reason for the "hole-in-the-deck":

The linkage sits up just about even with what would be the top of the deck.


This is looking at the bottom of the deck. The hole through it is about .100" x .200",
which is enough room for the linkage to sit as it should. I beveled the area around the
hole with a small file and a little sanding stick for good measure!!


Here's the top of the deck with the "auxiliary hatch cover" in place!
It's cut from a piece of .010" thick styrene and measures about .200" x .300", and
once painted should hardly be visable. This is a good thing, so that maybe Capt. Guidos'
crew won't be snooping around it and "wondering" what it's there for!!

In assuring a strict "no-pilfering" policy, our crazy "Eye-talian" skipper has posted a fair warning
for those who may dare to pursue their curiosity:


Have a nice-a day!!

crazygary, out!

[crazygary]

I gotta say, it was a pretty fun thing!! Thanks for "putting me up to it"!

If nothing else from all the machining years we sure as heck
learned patience, but you, my friend, have the hands of a "sturgeon"!! Hah!!

The kids today are too much into the "instant gratification" thing, so everything's
"hurry-hurry so I can play with it!" ( O.K.! I know, and YOU know that there's a joke in there!! Hah!!)

I just wanna thank the hell outta whoever invented the "Opti-Visor"!! The man is a god!!!!
(Sorry, M! No "blasphemy" intended! LOL)

Back to the drydock!!

crazygary, out!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That is so slick! Wonderful job. Hey ... I was just kidding, but you made it work. You've got all the linkages so tightly done and hid from view -- you've done everything right so far. You got good hands, pal.

M

[crazygary]

Hey, Moe!! Hey, Larry!! Nyuk, nyuk!!

The "crazy one" is back!! Abandon hope all ye who enter here!! Hah!!

O.K.! We have forward plane retract float in place.

I drilled a 3/32" hole in a piece of 1/8" x 1/4" styrene and temporarily anchored it in place.
In hindsight, I should have drilled it a little smaller, but this will work fine!

The float itself is a piece of closed cell foam that was leftover from my little Revell 1/230 Skipjacks'
1 1/4" SD. That's a nickel sitting on top of it for size comparison.

The float is a little too light to retract the planes, but I'm considering adding a bit of weight to it by
sticking a penny(?) to the bottom of it with a little silicone, which should help considerably. ( or not??)


This photo was taken at the bow looking aft.
As is clearly visible, the port plane doesn't retract all the way against the hull.
I'll have to shorten the operating arm to correct that. The starboard plane "pegs" before the port side is all the way in.
Should be a "no-brainer" fix!

As there's not a whole lot of room in this area (Really?), the planes will still be in "dive mode" when she's at the surface,
but at least they won't be flapping around like some crazed seabird!! From the outset of the "challenge",
I was pretty sure that this would be the case! Oh, well!! I gave it a good shot!! Once back on her stand though,
they'll be folded in all the way! I'll take the little victories as they come!!

But just the fact that they work at all, in such a small model, got me pretty "stoked"!! The "old fart" here
still has "it"! (Wonder if antibiotics will clear it up? LOL)

Next up, I think, will be a shot of primer inside the hull, after a little clean-up sanding! Then I'm "goin' in"!!
Gonna "bite-the-bullet" and glue the hull halves together! Arrrgh!!! Pray fer me, y'all!!


That is all!

crazygary, out!

[crazygary]

Many thanks, M!

I certainly do appreciate such words from "The Man"!! Still trying to maintain the "K.I.S,S, principle" as much
as possible in the hopes that my particular "methods" are of some help to someone else looking to r/c this little gem!
And of course, any methods can be improved upon! Mine are by no means "definitive"!! Not by a long shot!! Hah!!
But, they're workin' fer me!!

The digital camera I have is an Olympus FE-320. Had it for somewhere between 3 and 5 years, and am still amazed
at the clarity it gives me in such close range shots!! She's a little 8.0 megapixel model and has served me very well
since I've had her!! I have a 1Gig XD card in it and have yet to fill it!

The software I'm using to interface with it is Olympus Master 2, and is really user friendly! I like it alot!! Besides,
it came with the camera!! ( A big "plus"!)

Kinda rainy here today, so I'm looking to get the pushrods mated up to the servo magnets and maybe a couple of guides for them
so they don't get all "pretzeled up"!!

I also want to trim off those center "straps" that I left at the outset of the build to maintain upper hull alignment. They're in the way
when it comes to working on top of the servo box, and I don't need the aggrevation they cause!! (LOL)

Have a good one!

I'll be Bach!!!!!

crazygary, out!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Gary,

Excellent photography there -- the care you have taken to illustrate the linkages and internal arrangement is most instructive. I'll follow your lead when it comes time for me to get my little 1/144 GATO to work.

Good stuff, sir!

M

[crazygary]

Happy Wednesday, y'all!!

Got my rudder and aft dive plane control rods made up and ready to link up
to the servos. The rods come in 12" lengths, and it takes every bit of it to reach the servo box!!

The rods are 1/32" diameter brass rod. The ends are 1/16" o.d. brass tubing, "coined" and drilled to connect
to the 1/32" rudder and dive plane "shafts"! The "open" end of these parts are CA'd to the 1/32" wire pushrods.
The little black "keepers" are really tiny glass beads and will keep the rod ends where they need to be!




I still need to make up a couple of magnet holders, and CA them to the rod ends, so they'll mate up with the magnets on top of the servos in the 1 1/4" SD.
That "strap" looking thing right above the servo box doesn't need to be there. I found that the hull will stay together nicely without it.
Good thing, cuz I can sure use a little extra room above the servo box!! It'll also make SD installing and removing a whole lot easier!!

May need to put in a couple of guides for those little rods to prevent them from bending!!?
I'll find out later!

crazygary, out!