today's work

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

This big model demanded all the little details I could apply to it. That included the many ladder rungs that ran up from the waterline to the top of the sail. It's the small stuff that turns a toy into a proper display piece.



Some of the documentation and layout tools used to position the ladder rung stem holes. The two rather faded color photos were taken by me of the boat during one of her re-fits in Guam, as we worked the boat up for another patrol.

... Hell, I snapped those over a half-century ago. Sobering.





To the left are raw ladder rung blanks, still in the round. To the right are properly flattened ladder rungs ready for installation onto the model. These were made from annealed .020” diameter K&S brass wire.





A hand-press was used to flatten the annealed brass rung blanks.





This length of plastic strip was used to set, exactly, the height of the rungs off the surface of the models sail and superstructure.



The drafting compass insured equal vertical spacing between rungs and the temporary strip of masking tape insured correct horizontal spacing between the holes that would secure the stems of each ladder rung.



The moto-tool equipped with a .020” diameter bit drilling holes that will accommodate, via an interferrence fit, the stems of the ladder rungs.



Note the use of a modified set of pliers here – they started life as a common needle-nose type but were truncated and the tips ground back to better hold a rung yet not make contact with adjacent rungs as a rung was installed/removed from the sail and superstructure.



All of the ladder rungs are tight friction fits to the sail and superstructure, so no glue is required to retain them in place. This permits me to now remove the rungs and carry on with the painting and weathering of the model without the rungs getting in the way. The rungs will be painted separately and installed before the final flattened clear-coat goes down.

[Fishb0y]

I keep seeing all this artistry you put forth to recreate the boat in her original beauty! Then I remember all the mental pain and frustration this same boat caused when I was a baby Nuke...

[Albacore 569]

Excellent clear 'in close' photos as usual David. You answere dmy questio too...'annealed .020” diameter K&S brass wire' 0.20 diameter. .Thank you.

Are any 1/96 hulls of this class still around if I decide ot build a static model and donate to the Vallejo Museum?

Steven

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Excellent clear 'in close' photos as usual David. You answere dmy questio too...'annealed .020” diameter K&S brass wire' 0.20 diameter. .Thank you.

Are any 1/96 hulls of this class still around if I decide ot build a static model and donate to the Vallejo Museum?

Steven

Got my hull from Scale Shipyard three decades ago. Gee... I don't know if Lee is even alive. A very nice kit: good GRP layup and the resin parts were bubble free and of good form.
































David

[redboat219]

Did the Lafayette class have external countermeasure launchers?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Did the Lafayette class have external countermeasure launchers?

Just the two 3" signal ejectors. One in the bow compartment (torpedo room, where I was assigned most patrols) and one back in the engine room. The signal-ejectors were used to launch smokes, rockets, bathythermograph bodies, and evasion devices (Alka-Seltzer pucks and adaptive sound repeaters).

[wlambing]

Yes, ALL of the US missile submarines received the "Buick Roadmaster" launchers through various overhaul and Selected Refit Availabilities through the 1970s, into the 1980s. Control panel was located on the Conn for operation by the OOD. HWSNBN- :P

[Das Boot]

Were the bow planes a success or failure?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Were the bow planes a success or failure?

If you stood watches on the planes, they were a roaring success. If you were from the wardroom, they were a noise source and a liability to the boat's survival should things get out of hand. At speed they clanked a bit which not only partially masked our own passive gear but put out a big fat 'kick me hard' sign on our backside for all to hear -- bad ju-ju. As soon as the boat went to Groton for her yard-period the planes were put back on the sail where they belonged.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I'm just about done with the last of my stash of DuPont ChromaColor and ChromaClear automotive paints and clear-coat. They stop producing the stuff a decade ago.

So, I got to the internet and found that an outfit called, 'the Restoration Store' produces equivalent two-part (two-pack, 2K) acrylic urethane (AU, duh!) based color and clear coat systems. About five-hundred bucks later, and D&E Miniatures is back in the game.

And just in time to get some model submarines painted up and ready for this years SubFest at the Red Clay Resort, Cohutta, Georgia. That event going down in less than a month.

All you need in the way of paint is black, white, the three primary colors, clear-coat, flattening agent, the appropriate activator/catalyst/hardener, and thinner/solvent/reducer.

With a proper 'color wheel' you can mix any color needed from the blue, yellow and red primaries.





Nowadays the Navy paints its submarines basic black. You don't; we paint our toy submarines a very dark gray, to account for 'scale effect'.

Here I'm preparing the dark, dark gray for black, and a dark 'haze gray' for the Pacific scheme often applied to boats operating during the cold war. Horizontal surfaces black; the vertical surfaces dark gray. This scheme will be applied to the WEBSTER.



Penciling in the black-red demarcation lines prior to masking off the anti-foul red portions of the hulls.











The 1/96 WEBSTER, KILO, and BLUEBACK all masked off and ready for black paint.





Busy applying 'rust' to the Bronco 1/35 Type-23 kit. Hull's done and some of the rust has to be toned down a bit. Still have the sail to dirty up. Trying to get it ready for presentation at an IPMS meeting this Friday.

[Subculture]

What’s the shelf life like of these 2k urethanes?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

What’s the shelf life like of these 2k urethanes?

Before I launch into an answer to your question, Andy, I want to publicly express my admiration and appreciation for your years of positive and most constructive inputs within the pages of these forums. It was in fact you who directed us to this (knew to me) source of 2K acrylic urethane base and clear coats. For that, thank you so, so much, my friend.

Shelf life on this stuff if unopened is decades if stored in a cold environment. Pot-life of mixed paint and clear-coat at room temperature is about four-hours.

Andy!... you da man!!!!!

David
Old Dog, New Tricks (if trained properly)

[vital.spark]

I've used the same 2K paint from the same tin to do 5 boats over a 12 year period! The hardener tends to get hard after several years and will have to be replaced!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I've used the same 2K paint from the same tin to do 5 boats over a 12 year period! The hardener tends to get hard after several years and will have to be replaced!

Thanks for the tip. I'll monitor the hardener over time.

David

[Das Boot]

[QUOTE=He Who Shall Not Be Named;n173104]I'm just about done with the last of my stash of DuPont ChromaColor and ChromaClear automotive paints and clear-coat. They stop producing the stuff a decade ago.

So, I got to the internet and found that an outfit called, 'the Restoration Store' produces equivalent two-part (two-pack, 2K) acrylic urethane (AU, duh!) based color and clear coat systems. About five-hundred bucks later, and D&E Miniatures is back in the game.

And just in time to get some model submarines painted up and ready for this years SubFest at the Red Clay Resort, Cohutta, Georgia. That event going down in less than a month.

I’m sick of your talent. **** you,