Japanese Class A 1/16

[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

[MFR1964]

Time to make a new update, i've cutted the hull into 4 parts, initially i wanted to make two cuts, but the conical rearpart gave me some trouble, since i have to place all moving parts into this part, and i've got big hands, i decided to make the third at the double row of rivets, giving me room to play inside the little conical part.
Next task was to make all connections for the hullparts, i seems funny, first make one hull, cut it into four parts and rebuild it back into one hull, pictures.



At the end i've got me this, working on this every day into the weekends.



The two-shooter, temporarely fixed with bolds to the forward bulkhead, still have to make the provisions for making it removable from the bulkhead.



The studs that will keep the conningtower to it's place, it will be secured with some neodyne magnets.



The frontpart can be placed without taking off the two-shooter, have to make the pin-connections on the frontpart, made this such way so you can tinker with the tubes without taking the complete model apart, no king of complexity this time.



Rearpart number one, same method as the frontpart, securing it yet again with magnets.



The last rearpart which gave me some trouble, with this configuration i can reach inside to get the moving parts working, the gearbox can be placed inside with plenty of room for the steering rods, same trick with securing it with magnets.



This was my aim, getting one hull again, for now i have to order my magnets, they will be different in strenght and sizes, i mostly need round one's, probably some rod-type one's, still have to make my wishlist, for now it's looking good, most of the components are pre-build so i can speed up the pace.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Thanks Tom,
She turned out nice, it was a bit tricky to take the saw and cut her up in three pieces, i must admit, it will be four pieces at the end.
The rearpart is not easy to access, so there will be a next cut near the double rivetline, giving me enough room to fiddle around.(think gearbox and rudder/dive planes)
She has to be reinforced first when i want to do that, the seem is now together with pure epoxy, have to add some additional strenght with glassfibre.
As for running, first solve the back together chapter, yet again i think magnets and pins, type XXIII style, another advantage will be the shortened length for transportation.

Manfred.

[trout]

Manfred, this is really coming along. Enjoyed this video and the sub running too!

[MFR1964]

Thanks Bart,
I must admit, it took some sweat and elbowgrease to get to this point, i lacked the time this summer to make a start with the hull.
For now i hace to reinforce the parts and start working to get it back in one piece.

Manfred.

[bwi 971]

you lucky you.

grtz,
Bart

[MFR1964]

I don't know about you guys, but i've got me a happy newyear gift, a very good start for 2018.

https://youtu.be/p_Px3ci1Mr8

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

No hulls yet, still working on the mold for the conningtower, when ready i'll start up the work on making a hull and conningtower.

Manfred.

[Albion]

Joins hull Q if there is one. My Koryu is 1/20 and same dive module would work here. I was fortunate enough to go diving in the Kavieng area of Papua New Guinea in 2001. One of the dives was on a WW2 era Japanese merchant wreck. About 50 m from the main shipwreck was an A class which had been on the deck of the merchant when she started to list.

[MFR1964]

Sorry for the late respons guys, it's busy in the cave, i'm pushing to get the molds ready before the low tempartures hit me.

Tom, as for more hulls, i have to see about that how the final hull will come out of the mold, from that i can see what the amount of time will be to build more.

As for the work allready done i'll give a update,




First i had to follow the drill of building a jigg to hold the plug.




Playing around with some clay to patch up the void between the jigg and the plug.




Using a simple tool to remove the clay, from this point on you have to act in one move, when finished reworking the clay i added the mold-release.




The gelcoat added to catch all the details of the plug, now you have to wait for the moment when the gelcoat becomes sticky, normally it takes half a hour, but since the temparture is lower i waited for a hour to be sure.




Added the first layer of glass and epoxy, used chopped strands to catch all sharp corners, you're out of the dangerzone when this layer has dried.



Building up the layers is pretty straight forward, it took me a full week every day to build up the mold on one side, cleaned the outer edges with the dremel.




Prepping the other side for the next run, yet again it took me a week to complete the other side.



The fun part after a few weeks, splitting the mold, due to the simple shape it came loose without any efford.



The other side also loosened, with this mold i made it with fewer layers as with the V80 and the type 17, this gave me some flex for loosening the plug, it worked out well.



As for the details, they came out well, the plug was only slightly damaged, lost some weldinglines as some rivets, but nothing what can't be replaced on the plug, one big hurdle taken.



Right now i'm in the proces of making the mold for the tower, making this jigg was a differend story, i followed the path used on the balconygerat of my type 17, stiffened the jigg with some copper rods, for now i'm playing with this, to be continued.


Manfred.

[HardRock]

Here, here. Great looking boat.

[trout]

Manfred, That is an amazing sub! If you re going to make some hulls, let me know the price and I will see if I can afford one. That is truly a work of art as well as a reflection of your craftsmanship.

[MFR1964]

As promised the rest of the story, after placing the weldinglines i had to move over to placing the rivets, used the laser again to mark out the places of the rivets, started with the easy one's at the bow and the stern, a job pretty straight forward.



The more difficult one's where the ventholes for the batteries, made a template and drilled the holes, inserting the rivets to finish it up.



This one was more complex, luckely i had some documentation profided by David and Gene, together with a book from this sub i went making the templates for making this, you also can see the double row of rivets at the stern.





I decided to use primer instead of glue for locking up those rivets, this way i get nice sharp rivets without the trouble of removing the excess glue, gave her a total of three layers of primer, more to be sure that those rivets stay on their place.





Last but not least the final layer of paint, done this to get a smooth surface for making the mold, for now i have to make the bracket for holding the plug and prep her for building up the actual epoxy mold, this would be my first in adding all details on the plug itself, to get all the details i'm going to use a gelcoat at the first stage of building the mold.
I took me a few months to get to this point, running the gauntlett between the honey-do list, my house, the bikes and some other minor things, normally i prefer to build the mold during the spring because of tempartures.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Tom is right, i bought a simple laser that could project both the horizontal and the vertical lines at once, placed it on a tripod and moved the boat on the workingbench.
Added the fishinglines as imitation of the weldingbeads, one catch, use braided line, it better simulates the weldingbead.
Be patient, the rivet adventure will follow soon, all i can say, it was al lot of work/time to get those in complete with all the hatches.

Manfred.