Old tub lives again

[RonP-UK]

My old 32nd Parralell type VII has been around for 30 years now and has suffered badly after two house moves. Many of the bits and pieces have been lost and it has languished on a shelf for way too long so I decided a couple of weeks ago to get the old tub down off the shelf and try to turn it into a half decent model. The hull is suprisingly close to correct but it does have a couple of major faults. The fuel tanks (the bulges on the side) are way too long but I am going to have to live with that as I dont fancy carving up to that extent. The stern section is quite wrong to production drawings but strangly correct for the type VIIc42A. This was a project boat that in fact was never built and superceded before production by the VIIc42c. I find that very odd and suspect that Simon Smith used drawings from Rossler but didnt read the text in its entirety. First step was to strip the hull of its aluminium plating and rivet details and follow up with a good rub down and removal of all hull fittings. The original vanes, guards,prop supports etc are way out of scale so will be replaced. One encouraging thing was that after over 10 years of sitting on a shelf gathering dust the ballast tanks fired up straight away and still worked just fine. I am in the process of drawing up a deck for etching and I guess that must be the first step so as to ensure that the rivets line up with the gaps between the deck slots. A couple of pics attached, the eagle eyed out there will notice that the compass housing has disapeared on the water shot. This was the result of a duck.

[Tugfan]

What became of Simon and his molds?

[RonP-UK]

Not a clue mate.

[Kazzer]

......... I am in the process of drawing up a deck for etching ..........

Ron. We're bringing out an etching kit shortly. Not sure if we can ship this to the 'old Sod' but maybe we could do the job here and mail them to you?
I'd be interested in seeing your art work, never the less.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Adding to Mike's comments and offer, Ron: would .015" thick brass be suitable for this monster?

David,

[Subculture]

Blimey, she has suffered a bit over the years. Nice to see a colour picture of it- only saw it in black and white before.

[RonP-UK]

Actually .010" would do the job as I intend to support the deck on angle frames (as per prototype) every 5/8" I will send the artwork through for your perusal and approval. I have completed the deck but still have the bridge and one or two bits to do before it can be completed. Boy have I got some soldering to do.
As a byline I am going to Cuxhaven in the spring to measure up what I think is the only surviving 88mm deck gun on the correct c32c Lafayette gun mount. The idea is to computer model it at full size and then reduce to 32nd scale for rapid prototyping but that could be done at any scale once drawn. Maybe a 1/6th would be nice for the mantelpiece.

[RonP-UK]

Yes Andy, she has suffered very badly over the years but I owe a lot to this boat, she served me well for almost twenty years and has sailed all over the place in some very hostile water, she was rammed by a 15 ft queen Mary and attacked by dogs, gease and Pike. She has been in numerous collisions with other boats both surface and subs and sailed in salty and brackish water of unknown depth. She has fired her torpedos in front of the then lady Diana Spencer, been on TV and film on a few occasions and has been the test bed for my more crazy ideas over the years and yet never once has she failed to surface after a days sailing and never let me down when I arrived at a venue. She would sail for 3 hours continuous and at a far greater speed than scale if needed and has sunk two surface boats in anger and 5 as a demo. I estimated with a friend some years ago that she had covered over a thousand miles in her time and yet all the running gear is still fine with little wear on any thing of importance. She deserves this refit but what then I wonder, she is a heavy boat to move around and my old muscles protest these days so I guess she will be checked out and run for a year or so and then go up for sale but we will see.

[Rpmtech1]

What became of Simon and his molds?

He probably found a business that was actually lucrative:biggrin: lol

32nd had some neat models. Nice looking boat, would like to see more picts.

I have an old warhorse type II that has had many adventures like you were talking about. Sank in 25' of saltwater in the sea of cortez in mexico. I went diving the next day and got it back. Actually it dident really "sink" I was showing off to some chicks on our boat and forgot to run the compressor to charge the air flask before I dove, DUH! Was dusk already so it slept on the bottom.