Start Saving your pennies!

[Kazzer]

We're up to something! We've acquired some excellent molds of 5 1:96 SCALE MODELS BLUEBACK, KILO, SIERRA TRENCHANT and one more I can't recall off hand. (Help me David, what's the last one here?)

HWSNBN is busy setting up the workshop to produce these products and they should be available withing a couple of months.

If you want to put your name down for one, let me know please.

[greenman407]

The Sierra sounds extremely mesmerizing!!!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Well, that cat's out of the bag ...

... Now that it is, let me say: Mike has hit solid gold with his purchase of the entire line of 1/96 GRP and resin Small World Models r/c submarine hull kits. As I'll be the point of manufacture (in turn I'm training and turning over the glass and resin work to the very capable Kevin Rimrodt) the masters, GRP hull tools, and RTV resin tools arrived here last week.

I've examined and have started evaluation fabrication of two hulls of the goods received.

You guys know my capabilities; my talent. Which is first-class. And I say right here and now: Dave Manley is, in many respects, a superior model engineer, tool maker, and fabricator! This declarative statement made after close examination of Dave Manley's work and my just completed lay-up of three evaluation sets of GRP hulls from his KILO and BLUEBACK tools. Those tools, like the other three, are in excellent condition and their design permits quick and relatively easy production -- those two properties equate to less labor, hence lower eventual selling price. But, we are a long way from establishment of the retail price .... so don't bug me, Kevin, or Mike about what the eventual commercially available kits will cost. Just know this: you will pay dearly! Got a problem with that?...

... You want cheap? Go to the Wal-Mart toy department.

Right now it's late at night and I'm not slogging through the rain, to get to the shed to find out the name of the kit (one of five) Mike forgot. Yeah, I forgot it too, it's Japanese and that lingo is hard to not only say, but remember ... I'll post the name of that 1/96 diesel-electric ALBACORE looking submarine kit tomorrow. Just know this for the moment: It's a beauty, like the others.

Oh! .... reviewing our recent e-mails. It's the OYASHIO. There!













So, You guys are in for a treat in the next year, as we roll out these kits in the catalog. But, there is a lot of work for me to do to get the resin tooling put in order -- configured as how I like to do production. And some of the masters too have to be re-worked to incorporate features that will enhance the already high quality of these fine kits.

Here are some shots of the masters, tools, and even the preliminary hulls I pulled of the KILO and BLUEBACK:

The BLUEBACK, SEIRRA, KILO, OYASHIO, and TRENCHANT GRP hulls.



BLUEBACK resin tool masters



SEIRRA resin tool masters

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

KILO resin tool masters





OYASHIO resin tool masters



TRENCHANT resin tool masters

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

And some inside-baseball as to the eventual production process as applied to the GRP hulls.

OK, enough of the pretty pictures. Back to work.

... please, stand-by.

M

[bwi 971]

Very nice hulls....difficult to choose…..Package deal please (probably have to sell the car).

Interesting to see the integrated index lips.....isn't it difficult to figure out how much cloth and resin you need to apply in order to have a perfect seem?
I also like to see how the stern pieces are done…. plenty new goodies to learn here.

Grtz,
Bart

[Peter W]

Oh no, a Sierra, my missus is going to go mad when I ask....

Stock SD's or something new and bespoke Mr M ?

Peter

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Oh no, a Sierra, my missus is going to go mad when I ask....

Stock SD's or something new and bespoke Mr M ?

Peter

It'll be a lengthened 'standard' 2.5" SAS, single-motor, single-shaft job. Wont' know how big the ballast tank has to be till I assemble one of these hulls and find out how much water the above waterline portions displace, then add ten-percent, and we'll have it.

M

[Slats]

So much for being secret. ...Sierra please. The sail photo is seems to be that of a Sierra II? - the bigger of the two versions. This boat comes in at 45" in OAL so 1/96 scale is a nice size. - Wow I just said something nice about 1/96....

Am hoping however it will take a 3" SD not 2.5". But David will need to obvious put one together first. This boat will have a beam of just over 5". A 3"SD should be able to sit just below the surfaced WL, - you would expect that being Russian there would be a fair bit of hull above the surfaced WL and associated reserve buoyancy to overcome and given the radius advantage that you get from volume calculations you can save a fair amount of ballast tank length with a 3" diameter tank over a 2.5' and SD length too with less crammed conditions.

Folks over the years I have done a lot of fine tuning to improve the handling of my submarines, and am a compete nut in putting grids out over plans to find the COR to establish the COG and the mid point of the free flood tanks I use. In my experience I like to use the maximum diameter SD I can get below the surfaced WL. This way I am concentrating the ballast tank ballast as close to the COR as possible. Longer / narrow SDs and tanks whilst lowering the COG, tend to mean in some boats you have more pendulum effects at either end of both the ballast tank and SD to overcome, usually be adding more counteracting weight, that is not required in shorter fatter setups. I also would add, that I like wider shorter setups for access and less cramped quarters for my gear. Anyway M2CW. If it can take a 3" David - please pursue that.

Glad to see a good selection of Grp boats back on line.
David assures me the 1/60 Grp Albacore is in the works too.

Cheers
John

[greenman407]

A Sierra will be a good companion to my Oscar in 1/96

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Great photos, Mark. By coincidence I was training Kevin today on glass layup on the do's-and-don'ts of Manley type tooling -- I had him working the SIERRA tool. Enjoy:






And some master refinement and additional items added to the BLUEBACK project:












John makes a good argument. I'll investigate the utility of the 3" SD in this hull.

M

[greenman407]

OH by the way. I incorrectly posted a picture of the stern of a Yasen in amongst pictures of Sierras.

[Kazzer]

Here are some photos from The Cave showing the update on the sail for the Blueback. Nice work David! Now I've sucked up, -GET YOUR FINGER OUT and get me some product, you bum!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Here are some photos from The Cave showing the update on the sail for the Blueback. Nice work David! Now I've sucked up, -GET YOUR FINGER OUT and get me some product, you bum!

I'm dancing as fast as I can, Boss. Almost finished with the upgrade masters. Should be doing the upgrade tooling by the weekend, then on to production.

M

[Kazzer]