The 1/96 SWM BLUEBACK's a quick look

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

you right didn't think about that, Maybe fishing wire will ease the pain, the strong dyneema stuff HMPE, it's stronger then steel so you can keep it very very thin,




Close but no cigar sir, Technical Department counting 64 tugs.

grtz,
Bart

No problem. I may yet have to try a bridle harness. But that possibility just diminished as a did a tow-test of the stabilized camera case and a single line tow. This trial showed a rock steady orientation of the camera housing in motion about the roll, yaw and pitch axis. But won't know for sure until I get some camera POV to examine. For now I think this will work. However, I have to wait for the HD 808 cameras I ordered to come in. And Andy's suggestion to increase battery capacity was taken to heart -- the new cameras now have 250mAh Lithium-polymer batteries.

I ordered two HD (1080p) 808 style cameras (which have their own batteries) and two spare batteries. Stuff will be here within ten days. Can't wait!

A while back Tom Chalfont gave me a camera case for the 808 camera he developed -- I'll have to give that the same treatment once I validate the towing rig on Andy's case.

David

[bwi 971]

But that puts the bridel knot right in front of the cameras field of view.

you right didn't think about that, Maybe fishing wire will ease the pain, the strong dyneema stuff HMPE, it's stronger then steel so you can keep it very very thin,

You must be a tug sailor.

Close but no cigar sir, Technical Department counting 64 tugs.

grtz,
Bart

[Subculture]

Always interesting to see different approaches- a circular control surface wasn't something I'd considered. Wiring in an external battery is well worth doing with these fob cams, as the built in item only gives about 20-30minutes of juice, and that's when it is in optimum condition. A 3-400maH lithium cell from an old lipo pack past its best will give you plenty of running time, a 4gb card will give you an hour or so of filming time.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

can't you use a bridel for towing she will follow nicely that way?

grtz,
Bart

But that puts the bridel knot right in front of the cameras field of view. But your point is well taken, that type harness will damp out the side-to-side wandering.

You must be a tug sailor.

David

[bwi 971]

can't you use a bridel for towing she will follow nicely that way?

grtz,
Bart

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Good to my word, I did some work over the weekend to make Andy's wonderful little 808 camera enclosure a proper tow-body. Doing so by adding a ring stabilizer and ballasted the thing to keep it from rolling.



Andy, a few years back, sent me this perfect little streamlined waterproof case for the 808 video camera. A marvelous little thing. Very well crafted.





First modification was to put a towing pad eye at the bottom, as far forward as I could. I had already sized a hunk of lead to fit on the inside, under the camera, to stabilize the case in roll and to render the entire assembly neutrally buoyant. I towed this configuration around in the kiddy pool and found -- not too surprisingly -- that static stability was marginal. This, as is, is not a stable platform while in motion underwater. So....





I made this 'ring stabilizer' at the end of a boom long enough to put the units center of pressure well behind its center of gravity. The unit is now dynamically stable. You can see the hunk of lead I came up with to stabilize the platform in roll as well as getting the unit to a state of near neutral buoyancy. The boom is removable from the tear-drop shaped body -- a fixed tube set into the back of the body accepts the boom. Makes it easier to transport and handle if the boom and attached ring-stabilizer are removed.




This is the end-game: a towed camera to 'follow' the submerged model submarine as it maneuvers. The camera faithfully keeping pace and turning with the model as it zooms around the pool. I'll have to bend the boom to work out any unwanted yaw and pitch offsets found during tests. After that, it's a simple matter of turning on the camera, placing it in Andy's waterproof bullet, and making the unit up to a mono-filament line made up to the submarine. "Ready for my screen-test, Mr. DeMille".

The example here is using some nasty twine so you can see it. In operation I'll use mono-filament fishing line which is invisible underwater. We'll see!

David

[Subculture]

That's it. I designed it to be as streamlined as possible so it would hopefully work okay on smaller boats without dragging them out of the water. At the time I made them, the 808 cams were pretty close to state of the art. things have moved swiftly on since then, although you can still pick up the 808 fob cams inexpensively, and the 720p model still gives very respectable looking results.

The daddy would be something like a Gopro session 5- native 4k resolution, pictures will knock your eye out, and it's waterproof, so no case required. being a small footprint all it would need is a streamline tail to reduce drag. Sadly the performance comes at a price premium, and they're more than ten times the cost of an 808.

Perhaps Bob could work out a deal with Gopro, say if you put their logo on your films, they may supply the kit for free. They like to see their devices used in unusual action style.

applications.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You should get that little 808 cam eyepod enclosure I sent you rigged up on a towline- you'd get some great shots to cut in amongst the footage shot from the poolside. Worth hooking up a larger battery too as the onboard item is only good for about 30 minutes I find.

Andy, you are absolutely right, I must make good use of that perfect little 808 camera enclosure. I'll work on it over the weekend. Thanks for the reminder, pal.

This is what his pressure-water proof little camera enclosure looks like:







Just accommodates the little HD key-fob, 808 video camera, as you can see.

David

[Subculture]

You should get that little 808 cam eyepod enclosure I sent you rigged up on a towline- you'd get some great shots to cut in amongst the footage shot from the poolside. Worth hooking up a larger battery too as the onboard item is only good for about 30 minutes I find.

[SSN SonarTech]

Another awesome piece of work

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Different bit of the submarine.

Oh! .... those.

Again, an attempt to illustrate the shading of 'dished' portions of structure. In this case settling-in of the fiberglass sonar dome windows over their geodesic dome support matrix. Not tiles.

As a diver aboard the WEBSTER I had occasion to work the free-flooding bow spaces to perform anchor, bow plane (only Boomer with 'em!) and torpedo tube inspection and maintenance. When first entering the bow -- before my kicking around stirred crap off the surfaces, turning visibility to zero -- I marveled at the complex and futuristic looking under-structure that supported our plastic sonar window.

And when doing security swims (a requirement when arriving at or ready to leave a new berth) on the outer hull, I could make out the slight dishing of the GRP window over the support structure. Even in those days I was an excellent model builder, dedicated to accuracy and detail work. Hence my penchant for representing everything I saw and felt and did on the boats.

Here's a quick look at how I do it:







David

David

[HardRock]

Different bit of the submarine.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

This one is a bit different. I like the multiple banding in the green of the hull and of course you have taken seagull poo to a new level. Seems the green is "greener" as well. And I just noticed the tiles at the front. Excellent.

Not tiles. Simulation of hull plating 'canning' between frames and stringers.

David

[HardRock]

This one is a bit different. I like the multiple banding in the green of the hull and of course you have taken seagull poo to a new level. Seems the green is "greener" as well. And I just noticed the tiles at the front. Excellent.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Though it's been running in primer gray for some time, I finally got around to painting and weathering the thing. A complete WIP is in the wings, but here's a quick look at the completed model:



















Here's the thing before the paint-job making the North Lake safe for democracy: https://youtu.be/hkBUMyUnVpg

David