Akula 1/144 Scratch built

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

starting to look like a proper work-space, pal.

David

[bwi 971]

After 9 days of sorting, boxing up and labeling I'm almost finished.......a few days more and the job will be done (machinery shop still pending)….....and I have some shelving space left
In order of appearance pictures showing:

• The drawing table
• The workbench (extraction hood in top right corner)
• The small parts organizers
• Shelving for treaded rods, tubing and rods (all labeled)

Grtz,
Bart

[bwi 971]

Work and machinery shop ready, 140ft² of perfect engineered workspace (yes that's arrogant, I know, so What??)

Working on the WTC.
Just to find out that a mini pump controller and a 25W soldering iron does not work together.

Ordered a long-needed soldering station.
All images sponsored by "she who must be obeyed"

Grtz,
Bart

machinery shop

[bwi 971]

Yesterday I trimmed her, finally....one of the cat's snatched one of the tubing so I had to purchases a new one, now it’s blue instead of gray.
I added the safety rail and some other details like the handrail iwo the SB entrance door in the sail (0.3mm).
Today I applied the gray/black on the upper hull.....she is looking blingbling for the moment but a coat of semi-gloss will downgrade the effect.
Tomorrow the antifouling will be applied.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

What a looker, Bart! Keep at it, pal.

David

[bwi 971]

Still going.......yesterday I applied the antifouling......just a little short on the red me think, as I compared it to the antifouling we use on our tugboats, but I'm OK with it.

Despite I used the masking tape trick from HWSNBN, A small piece of gray paint came off when the tape was removed (white spot near the waterline in the picture below), touchup can be done.
The recess of the parting line still need some paint too, this will be done with my fine airbrush, when repairs are carried out on damaged paint.

Yesterday and today (long days and short nights) I concentrated on the final boat-stand, one side is in Russian (Cyrillic script) the other side is in English.

Grtz,
Bart

[bwi 971]

No more bling bling, I applied 4 coats of matt varnish, below are some general shots and some close ups (the white particles are dust and fabric particles, for the moment she is like a static cloth).
The parting line was adressed and the paint damages were repaired.

Smile your on camera

[george]

Hello
Really incredible work you have done. I have to ask you, in one of your shop pictures, there is a wall of black half PVC looking tubing mounted on the wall, like a rack for project submarine work on the go. I think I see a curled front edge though. Is it a halved PVC pipe for the project holder and what is the front long edge curled or an optical illusion?
Thanks for posting.
George

[HardRock]

Outstanding work Mate. And even more outstanding to realise that all this came out of your head and not out of a box. I look at those gratings on the sail and it reminds me that you are a total maniac. Shine on, you crazy diamond!!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Bart must be destroyed!

David

[bwi 971]

Hello
Really incredible work you have done. I have to ask you, in one of your shop pictures, there is a wall of black half PVC looking tubing mounted on the wall, like a rack for project submarine work on the go. I think I see a curled front edge though. Is it a halved PVC pipe for the project holder and what is the front long edge curled or an optical illusion?
Thanks for posting.
George

[*]Shelving for treaded rods, tubing and rods (all labeled)[/LIST]Grtz,
Bart

It is made of standard rain gutter, cut into required lengths. They come with the neccesarry supports, so quick and easy fitting, damn I'm practical.

Grtz,
Bart

[bwi 971]

Bart must be destroyed!

David

Please queue at the back of the row which is long but distinguished

grtz,
Bart

[bwi 971]

Just to make sure I stay in the top 10 of the hate list.

Work on the SOKS and the Escape and a small valve wheel that goes in the top of the sail.
I made a de-aerating hole in the sail iwo the escape.
I did not like the look of it so I made the hand wheel of the escape too, the hole isn't so pronounced that way and still it matches the original.
NO I will not tell you how long it took me to make it.
Valve wheel with spokes is made from 0.2 mm brass wire and is 2mm in diameter.

Grtz,
Bart

[bwi 971]

Hi Gents, I'm back.

The appetite to build was gone....after a nice holiday in Scotland I'm back on the job.

Fabricated collars and a coupling for the bow plane mechanism

I was installing the rudders, plane and yokes and it became quickly clear that too much accuracy is not always good……the clearance of rudders and planes after painting was to little…. they didn’t move freely…………. had to sand all of them.

Today I was installing the yokes.....that was fun couldn't get the dive planes work properly.....I ****ed op very good.
I knew I had a problem with the stern bud I didn't expected this. I even redesigned the yoke but that failed too.

I was aware of the alinement problem of the diveplane rods but I thought could get away with it but now it seems I screwed up massively.

I can make them work with brute force but eventually that will lead to a mechanical breakdown, so for me that is no option.

What I’m planning now is to cut off the stern completely and make a new one rudders and planes included, everything else will be half assed solutions. Jeez what was I thinking.

Grtz,
Bart
(head hanging in shame)

Collars an coupling bow planes




rudders and planes sanded (Obsolete now)

[HardRock]

Hold on there Big Fella. Take a step back and use that thing on your shoulders. There will be a simpler way than cutting off the stern of your boat. Think about it for a while first - you're giving me heart burn.