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I did the fine sanding on the conning tower and started preparing it for molding. It was given a coat of sealer & glaze to block all the pores and tomorow I'll start waxing. God help my elbow!
Thank you very much for the coments and, yes, I'm going to sell kits of this If everything turns out OK!
About the wrench flats you're right, they look ugly, don't they! I'm going to turn a new hub after I finish with the molding business!
Thanks again, Yannis
Finished with the mold. It needs a good cleaning and then I'll start waxing again to produce the first part. It didn't come out as good as expected but I think it'll do for now! I'm going to remold it at a later stage as I'm not very happy with it!
Taking advantage of the time between the wax layers I made the last detail on the deck just behind the sonar dome! I used a piece of mesh cut to size and it was glued in place with a little cyano. Then it was covered with self adhesive aluminium tape wich it was pressed with an eraser to form the lines of the mesh. I'm quite pleased with the resolt! Sorry about the black & white photos but something went wrong with the camera!
This is some professional work! i like the details, very nice.
If i may offer a suggestion, Lose the polyester resin for tooling. Its too brittle for molds with details like you have and wont last in keeping all the details clean. Epoxy makes way Tougher and longer lasting molds. You cant use chopped mat with epoxy, but you'll find that woven cloth uses less resin for the same stiffness as the mat.
Another thing is that polyester does not bond to epoxy. So if you have epoxy molds and make polyester parts, it releases easier for this reason if you miss a spot with the release agent etc. Also polyester resin shrinks quite a bit, so the parts kinda loosen up by themselves making release easier. Unfortunately Thats another reason why polyester molds are not very good, shrinkage.
Hello Yannis
I am speechless!!! please send pictures often. I am enjoying your build. a real Master piece. did you work up your own plans? all the best craig
Hi craig
Thank you for the comments! For plans I used a 3view drawing which I downloaded from the net and lots of photos!
Is your Typhoon a scratch build or is it from a kit. I bet it is a monster in size! My sub's name is not katsonis, is going to be Amphitrite! Katsonis is a type 214(Papa class). I made one of those sometime ago and you can see it in this forum under the name ΠΑΠΑΝΙΚΟΛΗΣ 1/48.
Just a small update! The progres is VERY slow due to work obligations and luck of time! Anyway I've managed to add some detail on the top of the sail and now I think is ready to be molded in RTV
Also did the antiskids on the deck and cut the hull as shown in the photos! The reason I did this is that it gives me the option to produce three diferent types of 209(conversion kits are going to be made) just by changing the deck! The types are 209/1100,209/1200 and 209/1200AIP. The hull itself is going to be molded in GRP while the sub sail and deck are going to be molded in RTV
Moving along nicely. Please tell me thats epoxy for the mold gellcoat.
Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you, it's not epoxy, it's polyester gelcoat! I thought to go that way just in case I'll have to do some changes or mods and I won't waste some good and expensive material! If everything turns out OK then I'll go the proper way! Here is some more photos and a couple of videos just for the fun of it! I hope I don't bore you to death!!!
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