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Who is John Galt?Comment
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Permit me to introduce myself: I'm David Douglass Merriman lll One of the finest scale model builders you'll ever have the pleasure of knowing.
Introduction made.
Ellie and I formed D&E Miniatures nearly fifty years ago. A sole proprietorship business, we initially built industrial display pieces for defense contractors, one-offs for collectors, and also produced and sold both vacuformed and cast resin model kits. We later expanded our activities to include work for the motion picture and TV industry designing and building effects miniatures, and concluded our business producing product for the r/c submarine hobby.
My first r/c model submarine was a spin-off of a job we did for the Librascope company, a 1/96 scale AKULA submarine they used at trade-shows to illustrate the 'Soviet Threat' to potential customers. The model you see hanging from the ceiling.
Built in the late 80's the model was basic of detail, and some features just were not correct with what we now know of these boats today; the display was 'best guess' for what the AKULA looked like -- based only on some grainy pictures gotten from a Jane's Defense Annual and a few other even more dubious sources.
About a year after that job I took the tooling and laid up a hull and cast resin and metal appendages and produced an AKULA suitable for radio-control. My first r/c submarine. The innards went through many, many iterations, but eventually I had a reliable, well running model submarine.
Years later I gave this boat to a friend who operated it a while with some success. The model eventually wound up recently in the hands of my Torpedoman buddy, Dave, 'Jake' Jacobson.
The time had come to repair damage and get my old AKULA back up and running with a new r/c system and removable water tight cylinder. That work is ongoing and should be wrapped up in a week or so.
Who is John Galt?Comment
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Resurrection at it's finest!Comment
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Who is John Galt?Comment
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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!
Last edited by He Who Shall Not Be Named; 07-25-2025, 09:06 PM.Who is John Galt?Comment
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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.
Just saying.Comment
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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?Comment
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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.Who is John Galt?Comment
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How did that metal prop you built for the Ray Mason Nautilus pan out, Dave. Did it deliver any improvement over the original item?Comment
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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).
Who is John Galt?Comment
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Who is John Galt?Comment
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Who is John Galt?Comment
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Who is John Galt?Comment
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