Japanese Class A 1/16

[greenman407]

Beautiful work as usual Manfred. Glad to hear your still kicking around in the Garage, up to no good.

[MFR1964]

It has been some time, first had to finish up my second type VII, rebuilded the torpedo system and took my own type VII out of commision, took all hardware out of this boat, it will be re-used for the doomed Type XVIIb.
My own type VII is allready sold to another subbuilder, with plans to rebuild her in working order.
Let's pick up the thread where i stopped,





The conningtower itself is finished and ready to be molded, the plans are to do this next spring together with the hull.



This is my second version of the hatch, the first one had a wheel on top, Von made a remark about the wheel, there wasn't suppose to be a wheel, so it was removed, later on i ordered a book about the Ko-Hyoteki, i've got me a slap in the face and had to alter more things.



The third version was born, now with the correst hinge accourding to the pictures inside the book.



Also had to modify the inside, i decided to start from scratch, i'm pleased with the result, added also the hook which kept it open when on the surface.



Not sure if i showed this pic before with the propellors David made for me, a dryfitt to see if the size was allright.



Since the tempartures where dropping overhere i decided to build me some other hardware, those tubes are from windowscreens.



Dryfitting the netcutter and the future torps.



Builded a frame to keep both tubes together, still had to make the rear bulkhead which will hold the entire contraption, to be continued.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Nice Bart, i allready have the book about the Ko Hyoteki, but more pics are allways welcome, for now i'm working on both bikes for maintenance, they will be ready at the end of the week for testing, after that i'm going to start up the cave for some work on the hull.

[bwi 971]

Manfred, Von, David,

I thought I spent my some of my almost unlimited free time I have for the moment to dig in deep into the WWW for any information about your project........and guess what.......I .hit the jackpot all below pictures of the n°19.

grtz,
Bart

[MFR1964]

Thanks Von, this is the slow part, but it has to be done, once i've taken this hurdle i can speed things up by giving the plug a epoxy skin.

Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

Looks great Manfred. I have to get moving on my 1/16 boat soon.

[MFR1964]

I did mentioned the tower in the vid, i'll show what i've done sofar,



That shape at the rear of the tower was a bit of a pain in the ass, took some pine-wood and made this piece, kept it a tad smaller as the towercladding, you have to account for the filler.



Taped the surrounding and got me my first layer of filler.



Had to repeat this several times, so each time getting to the endresult, usually it will take three of four passes before you've got it right.



Almost there, one last pass with filler and this little piece is ready, these kind of things consume loads of time, but if done properly you get a good result.



Started with adding the panels for the navigationlights, used my aluminumtape to imitade the panels.



Same story at the other side, now it's time to start with the rivets and weldinglines, it will take a week of so to get this right, goal is still this spring molding the tower.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Last week the goodies from David arrived, i must say, some fine work on the props, he's still trying to pull me over to the imperial size, the props where locked with imperial sized grubscrews, thanks David!!!, has to buy a imperial size Allen Wrench, it was that or i couldn't remove the props.
As you guys know, we in Europe are metric lunatics, so i had to rebuild them to metric for fitting on my drive-train, made 5 mm shims and the problem was solved, i tried this first on the white metal set, simply to learn how it would go, then switched to the resin set and did the same trick.
At the end i will use the resin set because of the CG issue, David mentioned before that weight will be a issue on such a tapered hull, you don't have that much room inside to counteract with the foam parts, for now i've made a vid to show the progress and some fun with the props, enjoy

https://youtu.be/2xylqUJDmsM

Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

Thanks, that's what I figured.. I didn't blow my drawings up to scale and was working proportionally, on the 1/19th scale model. Have to give Dave a shout out here. I got the package with the props today,, sir. there wonderful!. Both sets to boot. Resin and metal. Perhaps I will make another B type Sydney style.

[MFR1964]

Von, about 129 cm, just like my drawing<br />
<br />
Manfred

[Von Hilde]

Manfred, what is the overall liength of your hull plug from the torpedo breach to the aft bulkhead ?

[MFR1964]

OK Guys, not much done on the sub lately, She Who Must Be Obeyed had some jobs on the list which had to be fixed, for now the rearpart is ready and i did something radical to the tower to solve a issue, pictures



Like the frontpart i can take off the rearpart by unscrewing it from the styrodure plug.



Placed on the workingbench, much more easier handling for placing the rivets.



48 rivets later and some scribing, you get this, i must say it was a bit of a learningcurve, at first i used the mold for drilling holes, had to cut the rivets to size before placing, it worked, but there was a catch, since you have to place the rivets on both sides i ran into trouble to get them even on their places.
The solution was simple but tedious, had to cut off the head of the rivet and just glued the toppart on, more work, but it solved the issue i encountered first.



My radical move on the tower asked for some demolitionwork, took the dremel cuttingdisk, and cutted away the rearpart of my tower, i never managed to get the shape right like i wanted, so i decided to go from scratch, it will take a piece of pine-wood to get me a better shape, the works will be continued on fixing this baby.

Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Excellent David, last week i got my grubby hands on that book with the nice pics, it had to come from Hawaii, finishing the detail works at the rearpart.<br />
<br />
Manfred.

[Von Hilde]

Wow! Those are magnificent. And old pictures of the full cage as well. Time for me to get cranking. Field day the shop, today, clear the decks, and stand by.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Manfred and Dave: Your Type-A propellers are almost done, guys. One metal set, and one resin set (if you can't get the c.g. right).















M