Japanese Class A 1/16

[MFR1964]

Scope Up!!!, i'm back

Talking about scope up, made a sidetrack to do a other fellowbuilder a pleasure, he goofed around with building a Bronco Type XXIII, met him a couple of times to see if i could be of help, he made it lately to run his XXIII in the wild, and more important, after diving she resurfaced again, hats off to him.
He did have one request, wanted to have a scale scope instead of that blob of plastick on a stick, told him i could make this happen, took a scrappiece of aluminum and started turning,



Stage one, some stainless steel tube, and a scarppiece of aluminum, i did had to recreate the dimensions of my german scope, now archived for the future.



Coloured the aluminum with a sharpie and marked out the first dimensions.



Lower part has the right dimension for inside the stainless tube, working on the smallest part which contains the peroscopehead.



Turning the conical part of the scope, note that the smaller part not yet is to dimension, this gives you room to tweak with the angle of the conical part.



When the conical part is done you can turn down the smaller part under the head to dimension.



Finished product, ready for fitting it together.



As intended the scope slides into the tube with just enough clearance to add some glue.



To give a impression how big this part is, on my type VII those strange wires are also added, for some reason this was not added at the XXIII's scope.



Final check if i followed the right dimensions, after this i also added the scopesight and made a lens of epoxy for it, now this scope is his problem.

You will wonder what about the Ko Hyoteki?, well, between some other issue's i managed to do some stuff, first i solved the minute gap at the tailpiece,



This was my problem, due to the weight of the rearpart it sometimes wanted to separeate.



Drilled some 1 mm holes straight through the tubes, added some 1 mm copper false rivets.



Once pushed into their holes they secure the rearpart, when needed you can take them out.

to be continued.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Thanks Yannis, it was a pleasure meeting you and get a peek inside your cave, i hope everything is well now?

Manfred.

[bassplayer1]

Manfred, I've got no words!!! You are amazing my friend. By the way, thanks for the photo !!!

[MFR1964]

Shaped the divingplanes and rudders, also attended one other item, it seems the hull is a bit off at the end, it should match the diameter of the prop, but it doesn't, solution was, making a piece to make up the space.
Laminated some circuitboard and did some work on the lathe, resulting in this.



A composition of all parts, yet again i raped David's designed prop for my own purpose.



First step is placing the transition ring, it is kept at it's place with one conical 2 mm screw.





By moving the prop backwards i created a problem with the endcap, it could not be secured anymore with the present grubscrew, carefully i drilled some holes through the rear prop and tapped M2 threads into the endcap, this had to be done right in one attemp, i only have one prop!!
By using conical screws they are flush and won't be a problem with turning of the prop.



Two parts together, not a trace to see how the endcap is secured to the rearprop, Phew!!!



The rest is pretty straight forward, first prop is secured by a grubscrew, second prop the same way, this contraption gives a nice transition from the hull to the prop, once painted it will be not that visible.

Now i'm playing around with another issue, since the rearpart becomes heavy it gives too much strain on the magnets, giving me a minute gap between the hull parts, it's not a big issue, but i want to have this solved before i start annoying myself on this.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Get'n there, Manfred. This is going to be a beaut!

David

[MFR1964]

Take one nibble at the time and she will see water in the future, in the past i allready made some preparations for making the rudders and divingplanes,



First i prepped some laminated stuff with the aid of a roll of flat lead.



Took the dremel and cutted the plates rough into their shape, i inserted a copper tube during the lamination process, those black specs are mini grubscrews M2, those will secure the stuff onto the copper rods.



Next step was, making the final dimensions for both the rudder and divingplanes, took measurements for the allready build rearpart to get it right.





All parts testfitted at their place, next step will be, giving the parts some profile and start thinking at how to couple the steeringrods, i have some idea's but first the profiling.

Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Getting closer each day, Manfred. This is going to be another stunner when you're done with it, my friend.

David

[MFR1964]

Picked up the pace at the cave, David has been stuffed with the V80, so i have my hands free, i had to make a new protector ring, cutted some copper strips and started fiddling.



Clamped down al rods before i could start soldering.





This was the easy part, it revealed to me i had a issue with the hull, you can see the gap between the prop and the hull, have to make a ring to get me a nice transition, this item will be noted down on the list.



The final coupler on the shaft to my gearbox, pretty much the same style as used on the type XXIII, did this on both ends of this hull piece, so i can still take it off.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Glad i could help you out with some new hull parts, can you give me your postadress by PM, otherwise it will take much too long to get the stuff inside your cave

Manfred

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Much appreciated, pal.

First thing I'll do is bond the two halves together, then cut the top of the hull away from the lower at the waterline. Then work out the indexing of the two halves, and set them aside while other work is attended to. Thank you, Manfred!

David

[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.