New 1/144 Revell sub kit r/c conversion packages for 2010

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Last couple of days I've been playing hooky from the torpedo work and have been working up product to support the r/c'ing of the fine Revell 1/144 Type-214 and Type-212 kits. Lot of commonality between the the two submarines, so I'm getting some synergy from the dual effort.

Pictures are the masters for the type-214 fittings kit and a mock-up of the 212/214 SubDriver. This 1.25" SD will feature a LPB ballast sub-system. I had to devise a new type ballast tank vent valve, a sort of 'guillotine' type, that presented very little operating force yet was small enough to not increase the SD's sectional area significantly. Worked out pretty good -- you see the test-article just after some in-water testing. Like the control surface pushrods, the ballast vent will inter-connect to the internal servos through external magnetic pick-ups, eliminating the need of watertight seals between servo and linkages external of the SD.

You watch ... the moment I'm ready to go to market with these fittings kits and SD's, Revell will pull their tools off the production line!

David,

[Outrider]

Nice start on this. Looks like the 1.25 inch driver fits in well. The snort pump up front seems to be a good use of space, especially here.

What's the protrusion in slide #4?

The last photo shows what looks like new control surfaces with embedded rods. My son tried that with with the kit's control surfaces, but said the bow planes were too thin for the rod he had.

I think this SD is going to be adaptable to a wide variety of polystyrene hulls. It has "Special Navy" written all over it! Type IIA or Type XXIII

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Nice start on this. Looks like the 1.25 inch driver fits in well. The snort pump up front seems to be a good use of space, especially here.

What's the protrusion in slide #4?

The last photo shows what looks like new control surfaces with embedded rods. My son tried that with with the kit's control surfaces, but said the bow planes were too thin for the rod he had.

I think this SD is going to be adaptable to a wide variety of polystyrene hulls. It has "Special Navy" written all over it! Type IIA or Type XXIII

Yeah, the LPB pump is in the wet, the motor in the dry in that special forward bulkhead. But that left the problem of where to put the system mission switch. Fortunately there is space in the lid of the servo box as I only use three servos on this model. Today I'm figuring where to stick all the devices -- the driving issue with that is that I can pass only so many wires through the very small 1/4" conduit tube that communicates between forward dry space and the servo box and after dry space, so most of the electronics will go into the after space! That's where the motor is. Guess we'll see just how good those spark-suppression cap's turn out to be.

That 'protrusion' is the guillotine valve I devised for the ballast tanks that will use only the LPB for de-watering. The brass pushrod makes up to the magnetically coupled ballast sub-system servo. On the transmitter: left stick to the left positions the servo to open the guillotine valve, flooding the tank; right motion of that stick turns the LPB on, blowing the tank dry. The LPB induction is within the sail, up on high -- all I have to do is broach the sail and I can pull air down into the ballast tank. Dirt simple.

I'm just going to glue the bow planes on. Tell your kid that .030" wire will work to make those planes practical.

Oh, yeah! There seems to be an infinite number of plastic model submarine kits (in or out of production) that can now be adapted to r/c with the introduction of these little SubDriver's. Now ... is there a market for this happy-horse-doofer? That's the question.

David,

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

... I think this SD is going to be adaptable to a wide variety of polystyrene hulls. It has "Special Navy" written all over it! Type IIA or Type XXIII

Oh, yeah!

DSCN0042.jpg

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Move'n along ...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Only alteration of the type-214 SubDriver to get it to work in the type-212 is the use of a 'sliding' servo to achieve mechanical mixing of the pitch and yaw servos to drive the X-tail configured stern control surfaces.

David,

[Outrider]

Busy, Busy! You should take more sabbaticals.

Type-214: It looks like you made a scribing template similar to what you used in the D&E Type-212. I assume that the drainage holes are more about effective RC ops than about scale accuracy. (Which makes sense--the holes are on the bottom where you'll never see them when the boat is doing what's intended.) Magnetic attachment on the aft hull point seems much more serviceable than a machine screw. Haven't seen your prop yet. Assume you'll go white metal for serviceability and speed.

Type XXIII: Open doors... Wow, will you be able to make the SubDriver a static diver and a shooter? The Alanger kit looks nice with the SubDriver test fitted.

Type-212: Will the mechanical mixing on the X-tail eliminate the need for an electronic mixer? Any possibility that Sombra could add an electronic mixing function to the SL-8 receiver itself? (It doesn't seem like that would be too difficult, and I suspect you'd really like to minimize the number of electronics you have to accommodate in the SubDriver.)

[Outrider]

SubDriver Electronics... Talk about putting a size 13 foot into a child's large shoe...

Let's see...receiver, ESC, ADF, LiPo guard, snort, ballast & maneuvering servos. That 1/4" connecting tube wouldn't be likely to handle many of those wires, so most everything electronic has to be aft.

Space must be at a premium everywhere in the little SubDrivers. I assume that's why the electronics have lost their shrink wrap cases.

Keep those photos coming!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

More subjects suitable for conversion using a variant of the 1.25" SubDriver:

http://forum.sub-driver.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2220&d=1261955520

[redboat219]

Nice work Dave. Can't wait to see a static diving 1/125 Type VII.
BTW, How does the guillotine valve compare to the usual SD poppet style vent valve in preventing leakages when closed?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Won't have an answer to that till I have more time under my belt with the new type valve.

David,

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Yeah, I'm providing a template for the end-user to mark-out the bottom of the little 1/144 type-214 model where he'll have to punch out the flood-drain holes. Just as you observed, much in the same manner as I did for the 1/96 Type-212 kit.

I would only go magnetic on a Z-cut hull if there was no gas type ballast system employed -- the sudden over-pressure within the hull might pop the two halves apart, sending the lower hull to the bottom and the upper hull to bob along, very lonely looking, to the surface. Since the little type-214 will only use a pump, the magnetic coupling of the two hull halves, without a screw back-up, is acceptable to me.

As to the X-tail mixing: No, if you provide a mechanical mixer you don't need (must not) electronically integrate stick to servo operation. Incidentally, with the computer type transmitter you can V/X-tail mix right there and not burden further the SD with a device and yet more load on that overworked BEC in there.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Full day on the 1/144 Revell Type-214 r/c conversion job: Finalized the SD design; worked out the stern plane and rudder yokes; after some farting around with wrong ideas, finalized the type universal that fits between SubDriver motor shaft and propeller shaft; and made up and tested a pair of control surface linkages aboard the model.

Before putting the SD together I leak checked the motor bulkhead and LPB bulkhead. This done by attaching each to a short length of 1.25" o.d. Lexan tube that's been outfitted with a hose at one end. I blow into the hose, dunk the tested bulkhead underwater, and look for leaks. Duh!

Concurrent with the mechanics I would take a break and deepen the engraved lines on the model with a pointed rat-tail file -- for production reasons, the engraved lines on an injection-formed kit are always too shallow. While I was messing around with the hull I place a little 1/8" i.d. Oilite bearing into the stern through which the propeller shaft would fit.

This is a small model, so I employed .020" brass wire as both the operating shafts and yokes that interconnected the opposed stern planes and rudders. Fortunately, the stern planes sit higher than the propeller shaft, so other than the U-shaped bell-crank I bent into it, it's a straight affair. Not so the rudder yoke-operating shaft, that item has the classic semi-circle shape to it.

You'll note that any slight misalignment between the SD motor output shaft and propeller shaft is taken care of by a short length of flexible hose fit between the coupler and propeller shaft -- this hose held in place with a pair of brass hose retainers.

The more I look and work on it, the less I like the kit supplied propeller. I might make a master and cast these things from metal.

I made little cast resin magnet holders to ease the chore of integrating them to the very small diameter control surface pushrods -- something I should have done way back when I started using these type magnetic couplers on the little Revell 1/230 SKIPJACK project. Live and learn. Bla, bla, blaaaa ...

David,

[Outrider]

Another day well spent!

Magnetic coupler vs. mechanical fastener. Split hulls underway are a very bad thing indeed. Sometimes following good advice is excellent insurance. "Never operate a sub in water you wouldn't swim or wade in."

X-tail mixing presents an interesting conundrum for you. In cases where you (the designer) decide to omit mechanical mixing, that means the SD must be big enough to incorporate an electronic mixer, such as in the 1:96 U-212. (Either that or the end-user uses a transmitter that incorporates a mixing function.) Something to think about for instructions...

Engraving. Excellent point, especially given the type and amount of primer you recommend. Hobbyists transitioning from hobby shop paints would be used to putting on fewer (and thinner) coatings. That said, it's important from an accuracy perspective to know which lines are the result of panel joints and openings and which are the result of welding. (I can just see you saying "duh," but, as we both know, kits get released all the time with engraved lines where raised welds should be.) There are plenty of raised weld lines on the U-214 prototypes. The kit's welding beads may or may not need adjustment, but it's important not to get carried away and start scribing lines into the hull that should be "outies."

Bearings and flexible shafts are good. So are metal props. Kit prop doesn't look horrible, though I'm uncertain as to accuracy or about the possibility of variations (variations seem likely, given this is an export sub). My sense is that, should you decide to go metal, the end-user would get more accurate and more serviceable propulsion. Few end-users would complain if you added a metal prop to the kit.

Seems to me I remember some knucklehead making an unsolicted suggestion about casting resin magnet holders. Glad to see these in development/production. Way better than CA and baking soda IMHO.

Looking forward to hearing about sea trials.

JFC

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Another day well spent!

Magnetic coupler vs. mechanical fastener. Split hulls underway are a very bad thing indeed. Sometimes following good advice is excellent insurance. "Never operate a sub in water you wouldn't swim or wade in."

X-tail mixing presents an interesting conundrum for you. In cases where you (the designer) decide to omit mechanical mixing, that means the SD must be big enough to incorporate an electronic mixer, such as in the 1:96 U-212. (Either that or the end-user uses a transmitter that incorporates a mixing function.) Something to think about for instructions...

Engraving. Excellent point, especially given the type and amount of primer you recommend. Hobbyists transitioning from hobby shop paints would be used to putting on fewer (and thinner) coatings. That said, it's important from an accuracy perspective to know which lines are the result of panel joints and openings and which are the result of welding. (I can just see you saying "duh," but, as we both know, kits get released all the time with engraved lines where raised welds should be.) There are plenty of raised weld lines on the U-214 prototypes. The kit's welding beads may or may not need adjustment, but it's important not to get carried away and start scribing lines into the hull that should be "outies."

Bearings and flexible shafts are good. So are metal props. Kit prop doesn't look horrible, though I'm uncertain as to accuracy or about the possibility of variations (variations seem likely, given this is an export sub). My sense is that, should you decide to go metal, the end-user would get more accurate and more serviceable propulsion. Few end-users would complain if you added a metal prop to the kit.

Seems to me I remember some knucklehead making an unsolicted suggestion about casting resin magnet holders. Glad to see these in development/production. Way better than CA and baking soda IMHO.

Looking forward to hearing about sea trials.

JFC

Another thing that tempered my worry about the hull opening up and splitting while underway is the fact that I expect these little 1/144 scale and such sized r/c submarines to be operated in reflecting and swimming pools -- places where you are assured recovery should the magnet fasteners fail you.

I'm still working out the final 'recommended' arrangement of internal devices within the SubDriver. The goal is to insure space for a V/X-tail mixer (for those using this SD for the 1/144 Type-212). But I do recommend that you either mechanically mix at the servos, as previously illustrated, or to use a programmable transmitter and do the integration there. And you're right, I'll have to take care to fully explain the three mixing options when we get around to writing up the type-212 instructions.

Yes, points well made concerning the thicker primer and paints I use. Without an enhancement of the supplied engraved lines found on these kits, they will be lost by time the clear coat goes down. As to raised 'weld' lines. I think it a fools errand to represent these in the positive on such small scale subjects, better to engrave them and let the shadow they produce represent the raised bead. Frankly, with such a small scale I don't represent weld beads (they are ground down on the prototype anyway), I settle for the access hatches, doors, hand-holes, torpedo tube shutter doors, barn-doors, access hatches, and such.

You're skillfully pushing me to make new props for this fittings kit, aren't you? Damn you, word-smith!

Hey, a good idea is a good idea. The dedicated magnet holder castings was a natural progression -- should have had them done in time for the SKIPJACK fittings kit release (they are, now). See: Zeus does cock his ear in the general direction of the great unwashed every now and then.

David,