Matt Thor's Alpha 1/72 scale

[goshawk823]

David. Are you thinking Greg Sharpe?

[trout]

I failed to acknowledge the excellent work Wayne Frey did in publishing his highly informative picture-book, Russian Submarine: Guardians of the Motherland. He traveled to Russia, injected himself within the social circles of active and retired Russian submariners and gathered from them, and other sources, photos and drawings of modern Soviet era submarines seen nowhere else outside of secured libraries and Western intelligence services.

I made extensive use of this book as I prepared the masters used to up-grade the 'old' 1/72 ALFA kit -- initially produced by a Canadian... who's name, unfortunately, escapes me for the moment (a little help, so I can credit the originator of this excellent kit).

David

I also heard Wayne got thrown in a Russian jail for the photos he took. Is that correct?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

David. Are you thinking Greg Sharpe?

Yes! Yes, Greg Sharpe. An excellent model builder. Those ****ing Canadian's!

Greg Sharpe, Dan Kachur, Rick Teskey, Kevin McLeod, Bob Martin. Must be something in the water up there.

Thanks, Sam.

David

[trout]

I see I spelled Alfa wrong, it is not Alpha, but Alfa. Fixed it where I could. Sorry for being a ignoramus.

[redboat219]

David's first RC sub. Looks like lower half of the ventral rudder is all-flying

[JHapprich]

Nice Akula!

[Tom Spettel]

I also heard Wayne got thrown in a Russian jail for the photos he took. Is that correct?

Wayne…. Last time i talked to him he was in i think Taos NM
and was into harleys. I asked him if he had some better pics of the bow section of the alpha and maybe some vic 3 shots but dident want to talk about it. He was worried his new friends
at the office of naval intelligence would give him a call and have another chat with him. I guess he knew some people there on a first name basis.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

David's first RC sub. Looks like lower half of the ventral rudder is all-flying

Good catch, Romel. Yes, my first 'working' r/c submarine. A 1/96 AKULA. This hull derived from tooling Ellie and I made in support of an industrial display we were commissioned to build for the Librascope company in the late 80's. Here are some pictures of the work we did for the display piece and my r/c version which was assembled shortly on the heels of the commissioned model.

Point of interest: I originated the acronym, WTC. The 'WTC' originally stood for Water Tight Container, not Water Tight Cylinder. The renaming occurring after I switched from custom formed the AKULA's GRP water tight boxes to water tight lengths of Lexan cylinder. The acronym soon become the world standard as to how to describe any removable cylinder used to contain r/c submarines internals.

Second point of interest: Nick Berge, unknown to me at the time, originated the use of removable plastic cylinders to contain a model submarines internals. Not me. Look this guy up -- he was the UK's Skip Asay.














































David

[trout]

That is some fun history.

[redboat219]

can you describe how this works?
I initially took this for a mast elevation/retraction mechanism for the Akula

until I noticed it mounted horizontally inside the ballast tank
vent/blow valve?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That is some fun history.

Yeah... like watching sausage being made in a filthy European kitchen.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

can you describe how this works?
I initially took this for a mast elevation/retraction mechanism for the Akula

until I noticed it mounted horizontally inside the ballast tank
vent/blow valve?

Pneumatically actuated ballast tank poppet vent valve. Actuation and blow gas coming from a reduced CO2 supply.

[Subculture]

I have one of those models. I’ve gotten as far as trying to get the hull halves to align, as the molds were beginning to show their age for some of the finer details.

Ramesh built the boat around sixteen or seventeen years ago, and I recall back then the hull parts needed a bit of work to get them plumb. I think there was probably some issues with the tooling from the start.The issues were easy enough to correct for anyone with a model or two under their belt.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I also heard Wayne got thrown in a Russian jail for the photos he took. Is that correct?

Wayne had an 'interesting' stay in Russia. And an even more 'interesting' time trying to get back home. Wayne sometimes exhibited a bit more enthusiasm than sense. You can quote me there! His so-called Russian hosts bled him dry while he was their 'guest'. Once they washed their hands of him Wayne had to rely on me, Ellie and other Americans to get his ass back home.

[Subculture]

Second point of interest: Nick Berge, unknown to me at the time, originated the use of removable plastic cylinders to contain a model submarines internals.

if you’re going to do a search, it’s Nick Burge.