Japanese Class A 1/16

[Von Hilde]

here is a big picture of the port side step position. left foot step. starboard side is for the right foot, and is more forward position. this boat is the 18. it does not have the scope fairing or the anti fowling rails, which double as grab rails for climbing the tower. They were not put on that display, altho they were on it when she was raised. note the layers of the plating lateral to the officers position. the alaska boats show the plating clearly. side peep holes, are not oppositely concentiic either. They are slightly asque. port side is aft a few mm. Pilot sits eye level. Looks port with left eye and right with left eye, for lateral vision.

[Von Hilde]

Sheeting the riveted,armor plating to the tower.

[Von Hilde]

Manfred, Look what I foundHO scale and O scale railroad accessories around $3.50 each, I orderd one of each. 10mm-15mm for the antifowling cable pulley. Also found a small pulley in brass, but jewelry, 25mm $35 I'll go with the resin, but I had thought of making one from brass, if it were to function, with a miniature turnbuckle, but that would not be the case in the 1/24th model.

[Von Hilde]

My tower weighs 44grams right now, but there will be more weight with the anti fowling guards and the pully system. I kind of have to keep it light because of no external keel to put weights in, and it may tip over. I sheeted it with different gauges of aluminium sheet as well as trusty old beer can, in a few places.You will notice that the drawing, is different than the pictures of the Ha19. Periscope is slightly forward on the real boat, and not centered in the middle of the fairing, like the picture. BTW, the 19 is the boat in the Washington DC picture on the bond drive, and again, the color pic at the Nimitz museum. The crusty tower is the 8 boat, the one In New London, also the other black and white pic, being raised. Another issue, is the scupper holes, or slots at the skirt of the tower. Rivets and weld seams are well defined on the photographs, some are not included in the drawings. Im thinking of leaving the imperfections, like the voids and pits dents ect. When it gets the black It will look like the real deal, dented and dinged. 105mm just a bit over 4". If you can get pvc 4'' id that should get you close on the outside dia. Is that what you are going to use to make the plug mold?

[MFR1964]

Wow Von,
You are fast !!!!, what kind of plating did you use?, and what is the total weigth of your tower.
Me on the other hand, still on the hunt for the right tube, searched inside the local stores, nothing, only 100 mm, i need 106 mm, if i don't find the right diameter i'll end up with 100 mm and will fill it up until 106.
Still searching more pictures about the tower, like to see the details, i'll show you my lastest harvest,



The other one's are from a Class B type, but it seems that the tower is nearly the same compared to the Class A,




Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

Today's tower work.

[Von Hilde]

I to, have started the framework for the tower. The crews compartment below is intigrel to the tower, as the periscope housing will be secured to it an will be lined up with the towers hole.

[MFR1964]

Von,

It will be some time before i can produce a hull, my job is sucking up some of my freetime, for now on the move with the conningtower.



Made some paper mold and fixed them to the CBP stuff by using Pritt glue.(easy to remove, since it's waterbased)



Took the diamant cutter wheel and cutted out the right shapes, before i did this i drilled 3 mm holes in both parts, one on the place of the antenna, the other on the place of the scope, those holes will be re-used.
By using threaded M3 brass i could adjust the right height, and lock this with M3 nuts.



Some time ago i bought this copper plate tower, i provides me with four different thickness of plates, now the hunt is on for finding a right tube with the diameter of the hull at the place of the tower.


Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

I would like to buy one of your hulls, if you produce some. You can put my name on the top of the list. I would love to build a 1/16th scale boat. 1/24th is ok for a desk top, but a big one can stay tied to my dock. Ballast system with torpedos. as well. I have been looking at the tower, and thinking about its construction. I will solder up a wire frame, then epoxy the aluminium plates. First I will construct one from wood frame and paper, using the paper for templates. Lots of creative bending and shaping up around the top. It will be fun. I better get cracking on the type IXs and get them off the bench. Finally got the e mail today, my radio was shipped, and on the way. I ordered a 1/72 Ko Hyo kit from Japan as an inspirational cheater bar. Crutch as it were. Better than a 70 year old picture to look at. Box of gears on the way too. In my mind, I see my package in the cargo hold of a 747 35000 ft flying across the Pacific. In reality its most likely a Chinese guy, in a Coolie hat, standin at the helm of a Junk, squinting his eyes in the monsoon gale, thats blowing the boat backwards to China.

[MFR1964]

This will be interesting Von, i will go the classic way, using David's tutorial pics from Adam, want to make a mold, there will be more people interested in this boat i think, on the other hand if something get damaged i can replace those parts.
Today i marked down the templates for both the upper and lower part of the tower, also on the hunt for some tube with the correct diameter, need this as a mold for building up the tower, so the dimensions will be right, aim is to get a instant fit to the newly build hull.


Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

I started on the center section, "crews compatment" since its the basic can, and wtc location, and the heart of the boat. Entirely different process of building. of course. Keeping with my tradition in scratch building, I will utilise as many things as I can with materials available around the house, rather than buying material outright. Sort of like the Japanese did when they built these things. Mitsubishi shipyard just took a round boiler tank, that was already designed and tooled up for constructon, at the Yokosuka shipyard's assembly plant. They built the first two 'A' model "target" boats, using the tanks as the center compartment, adding on the aft section built around the dyno and driveline. Bow was built in a seperate area with the tubes and and compressed air bottles. So looking around for some 3.25" rings, which is the 1/24th scale equqivilent of the hull section's diameter. Give or take a decimal.establish a position for the keel.

[MFR1964]

Von,

I share your idea, it also had crossed my mind, more to cut down the lenght for transportation, i'm thinking about deviding the boat into three section just like you've described, using a kind of bajonetlock combined with strong magnets, this way you have both access to my two shooter and the rear part, in the middle part a SD, all connections made by magnets except the driveshaft.
Just spewing out idea's, not sure if they will be practical, we'll see in the future.
Started with cutting up one of the drawings for making the basic layout of the tower, i ordered two actually, one for cutting up and making molds, the other for reference, as a base i will use copper cladded GRP plates, which will be plated with thin sheet copper, basically the same way as i did with the doomed XVIIb.


Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

Manfred,, When you make the plug for the mold with the Ren Shape, there wont be much to turn on the lathe, just a simple spindal, correct? Are you going to construct it in sections? I was thinking, I will seperate the hull sections,into 3 main hull parts and the bow section seperate as well as the rudder and plane sectons. In Genes drawing on the 1 foot scale line. Respectively , I will call them sections. So, Bow section, goes to the 11 foot mark, stern starts at the 66 where the seperation bolts are. The main hull from 11-66, front slightly taperd from 11-25.5 center section can no taper 25,5-42 and the after longer taper 42-66. So basiclly two cones and can in the middle. For me that wont take long to build with aluminium and JB weld and epoxy. Less time than for that box, that kept me awake for a couple nights. The bow section will require some thought however. Lots of cool detail, and compound and complex bending of plates. Almost as crazy as the type IIa. I'll watch you to see how you build the tower. Thats going to be the fun part. Aft section is basic Blimp, but lots of nuts and bolts wires and weld seams. more fun. Like you said in the beginning of this thread, I must be crazy as well, to put another plate on the table" but this thing has got me by the Cojone's.

[HardRock]

Just looking for it now. It was about A$65.00 landed here when I purchased it a year ago. I can't see it there at the moment. If you can't find one, let me know and I'll swap mine for a few 65/76 torpedoes.

[HardRock]

Slick! Good catch. Web-site?

M

HobbyKing warehouse in Hong Kong.