Welcome to our forums. For the best in R/C submarine kits, components and accessories, be sure to visit the Nautilus Drydocks
If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Yeah, the work of some nut-job over in Jersey. You know the type, Ken: all soup cans neatly arranged in the kitchen cupboards with all labels in line; peas neatly arranged on his plate before he'll even consider sticking a fork in them; fixates on building party-boat models with interiors that no living person will ever see... that kind of guy.
How did that metal prop you built for the Ray Mason Nautilus pan out, Dave. Did it deliver any improvement over the original item?
Don't know, Andy. Never did an exacting comparative study. These days I don't employ the thrust and current measuring equipment to do a proper analysis. I'm just an above average gear-head with only intuitive abilities, not the science or engineering levels of knowledge and discipline required to conduct such a study.
Though in the past, I did dabble in propulsion efficiency/performance work with some cobbled together gadgets (now residing in the sheds; rusting and paint-peeled homes of black-widow spiders and carpenter ants).
David, After this boat,did you learn a lesson and didn't do this insanity in an future boats's? Who's idea was this, your's or Ellie's?
LOL. Yeah. Back in the day's when I was so desperate to pad out my resume and extend myself into every conceivable aspect of the Craft. Yes, I learned my lessons well.
Today, an old man, I find myself more comfortable taking the skills I've refined and call on them only when suited to a task -- no more over-the-top make-work like the AKULA scribing; though instructive such activity was taxing on time and energy. Today, with all that accumulated skill safely tucked away in my hard-head, I build for fun, not exercise or to expand a business. No longer the hungry experimenter -- today I'm just a simple hobbyist.
I've always been the shop leader here. At the beginning of D&E Miniatures, Ellie would sometimes comment on my obsessiveness, but never objected as to the reasons why. She simply would look for a task she could handle and get to work. She was also the business gate-keeper -- she politely, but firmly, kept the fan-boys away so work could proceed without interruption. As some would discover, Island people are very nice... till they're not!
That gal never doubted my passion and abilities, and always threw in an extra pair of hands once a process or job was established and understood. A real trooper. We worked a two-horse shop: one lead, one follower. The perfect marriage.
After epoxying the hull of my party boat, with fiberglass cloth, I scribed the plank lines into the hull. Since each line was probably scribed to different depths, I filled the lines with Nitro-Stan, then wiped the hull down with Acetone wiping an even amount of it away giving me a slight even indentation.
The indentation was enough that it gave me the effect I was looking for which was a wooden planked boat.
Multiple ways to do things. I did not encounter a problem scribing into the cloth, so I probably had enough layers of epoxy or did not scribed deep enough to catch the cloth.
Anechoic tiles- scribed individually or integrated with casting?
Scribed in after the fact. I made sure to lay in a heavy gel-coat at the beginning of the GRP layup -- just to make sure the later scribing onto the surface did not hit glass fibers.
Took Ellie and me about a week to work out the process and execute it. What a total pain-in-the-ass that job was!
Leave a comment: