Japanese Class A 1/16

[MFR1964]

Despite i'm posting nothing, there is still activity inside the Cave,



Last spring i met this wonderfull guy in the real, had to travel to the Island of Korfu in Greece, i knew Giannis was living there, so i contacted him by mail to try to meet up, as the picture shows we did at his cave, that man is a wizard, seen lots of stuff and we had a good chatt about everything.



Dugged up the molds from the V80 and started prepping them for building hull number three, as you guys know David had lost the hullparts during the flood a few years ago, and since i had the mold i promised David to make a replacement.



After prepping het mold i added the gelcoat for starting with the first layers.



The rest is pretty straight forward, adding layer after layer, David had the request to make it a bit thicker, i went for 1 mm wall-thickness.



This is alllways the exciting part, pulling the hulls from the mold, you often wonder if the prepwork went well, i must say, the result was better as the first pull for David.



After cleaning up the flash it is time for sanding inside the mold, this way you know all edges will be equal, so both hull parts fitt together without much of a seam.



After sanding i cleaned up both hull-parts and the mold, the mold is still in good shape, i guess she will survive a few more pulls.



Still have to do some minor things, but a dry-fitt was possible, it's still funny to see two of the same hulls together.

Did this in small steps the last few months, for now the Cave is closed due to the high tempartures, it's like living inside a oven, she has to be boxed up for sending it to David.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

This tensionwrench was my issue, due to the present tensionwheel above on the tower you can't remove the tower easely, David mentioned the use of magnets, so i altered the construction.



Step one was placing a little magnet at the base of the tower, next step was placing a tin plate at the bottom of the tensionwrench, now you can remove all stuff at will.



This was my first solution for the bowpart, a simple hook to take away the cable, but i was not satified, it had to be more scale yet simple.



After some work i ended up with this, it looks like the cable connector at the tower, but it has a twist.



You can swing open the lockingbar to release the cable, it uses the tension of my cable to stay locked, simple and no tools needed.

For now i have to rebuild the propguard, i'll strip down the old one from it's bars, they wil be re-used at the new one, allready did some homework for making the rudders and divingplanes, they are now laminated and drying, can wait to get the full picture.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Ah, so those magnets are strong enough to hold the wires, i've got me some work to do tomorrow, thanks for the tip David.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Hey, Manfred

I've been using those little (but powerful) magnets to hold the jumpers to the sail. Easy make/break arrangement.

David

[MFR1964]

It has been busy inside the Cave, placed the connectionshaft from the SD to the gearbox, glued down the stabilising fins and did some work on the tower.






First some showpictures, she is rigged up in full dressing.


While gueing down the fins i could do some work on the tower, managed to get the hatch placed and drilled some ventholes.


By using some tubes i could connect the shaft from the gearbox to the SD, poured in some glue on the brackets and let her dry for 24 hrs.


Here you can see those brackets complete with their bairings for guiding the shaft, still have to make the special connectors on the lathe.


Once the fins where glued i could add the propguard, unfortunally i have to redo the propguard it is fitting too tight and deforming the shape, you can take the part off as one unit.




The bow netcutter is placed with a M3 screw, by turning the reinforcment-rod you can take it loose.

For now i have to solve the problem with my cables on top of the boat, in this configuration it's not possible to take off the tower when needed, and the connection to the bowpart is not easy to take off without loosing parts.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Now the magnetic thing is done, i could start with some other things, first i attacked the conical shapy thing, it was obvius i needed more room to play with the connection for my rudders and divingplanes,



First i made a base-plate at the end, secured it with conical screws.



Removed the base-plate and took the dremel to hollow it out, by doing this i can easely access the back-part for installing the rudder/diveplane thingys.



Inserted the gearbox inside with the aid of some brackets, it can be removed by loosening the screws, used no bearing at the end because the gearboxshafts are supported by the gearbox itself.



This is the beginning of getting a connectionshaft between my gearbox and the SubDriver, those things present will be the supports for the shaft, connecting both sides of the shaft will be done in the same way as with the type XXIII.
Have to make some receivers on the lathe for that, the receivers will be placed on the shaft, prefenting it to fall out of the rearpiece hull.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Thanks Guys,

The no tool needed part has his roots from the XXIII, tools like water in some mysterious ways, they allways dissapear.
This time i wanted to use the SD as standard as possible, yes there will be some mods, but not that much as with the type XXIII, i will keep everything KISS as possible (except shooting torps).

Manfred.

[HardRock]

Outstanding work.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Wow! Excellent engineering on display here. Not one tool required to access the principle assemblies. Very, very smart work, sir.

David

[MFR1964]

Uploading went fast this time, phew, as you will see it is working the same as with the type XXIII, only with some more parts, enjoy

https://youtu.be/dryDDMjzKcE

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Finally all magnets are glued down with epoxy glue, tested the hull and found me a solution to keep the SD kiss inside the hull, pictures



Those little gritters are strong enough to lift part of the hull with attached tower.



On one side the magnet sticks through the hull, the one inside the tower is glued down inside a little tube.



A peek inside the tunnel, at the end you can see the five magnets i used to keep the rearpart together,



I used this pin connection as the solution to keep the SD inside, on the pins itself there is a small tube placed, simply to give me each time the same distance when placing the SD.



Added a small notch at the other side, this will prefent the SD from sliding back and fort, you also can see the other two holes at the top of the SD, which are part of locking the SD at the front side.



Added those two pins at the two shooter part, those will insert into the holes present at the SD.



Once placed, it should look like this, the two shooter part will keep the SD at the front, and the two shooter itself will kept at it's place by the frontpiece of the hull.
Also have made a vid to show how this will work in the real live, when you get the hang of it you can separate the boat within 15 seconds into four pieces, have to upload it first, be patient.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Before i started to play around with the magnets i made a vid to show how it should work in the field, talking about magnets, i'm halfway in the process, it's tedious work and my fingers are covered by superglue, once done i can switch over to the epoxy-glue, allready boggled the brain about securing the SD inside, i have a idea which should work.

https://youtu.be/DZySEn5RHZQ

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Going slow, but getting there, the magnets are arrived, so i've got my plate full.



This is the endplate i modified for holding the launchsystem, one tiny problem, in this configuration it's blocking the way of inserting the subdriver.



This hurdle was taken by making a tube and plug system, it looks like the connections i've made for connecting the hull parts, it's a snug fit, but you can pull it off by using both hands.



This reveals the opening at which the SD can be shuffed in.



When finished it should go like this.



At the back you've got the drivingshaft and all connections for the rudders, divingplanes and emergency bouy.



Yesterday those guys arrived, magnets in different sizes, i figured out at which place i can use each magnet, you guys have to wait for that, first solve some other issue's.



Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Thanks David,

Wanted to keep it as simple as possible, radial cuts is asking for troubles, but done this way all parts are pretty easy to access, not the complexe way as with the type XXIII, although it gave me the experience for this boat.
Tomorrow i'm going to order some magnets for finalising the connections of all hull parts.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

This is great stuff, Manfred.

David