Building the french suffren sna

[Albacore 569]

Steve,

As far as I know, the "Marine Nationale" has used only black paint since the 1960s.
The last submarine to be painted in shades of green was the Narval class vessel, which was repainted black following its refit.
The photo appears to have undergone poor post-processing to me.

cheers

I think you are right. I agree, its just some blue tint added post processing. I wil stick to my planed blacks.

[Akula54]

Steve,

As far as I know, the "Marine Nationale" has used only black paint since the 1960s.
The last submarine to be painted in shades of green was the Narval class vessel, which was repainted black following its refit.
The photo appears to have undergone poor post-processing to me.

cheers

[Albacore 569]

Your pictures have and x-tail.

Yes, the Suffren has an' 'X tail'. The photos above are related to the Rubis class project parallel and behind the Suffren construction. doing both sametime with the
Suffren about 85% complete. The Améthyste is 5% (stern) to set up control surfaces on her only. I have been having health issues and sorry for lack of posts related to Suffren.
Yes there is a X stern on Suffren Dah. You Hockey puck! lol.

[Scott T]

Your pictures have and x-tail.

[Albacore 569]

New work photos of a Suffren class SNA. Great busy shots. Downloads state S635 which is Suffren's hull number herself, so likely this boat is Suffren. I am going to change the casing sail color to add some more blue tint now based on these photos. Suffren model approaching completion. Blue looks practically like the same shade on late war USN F6F Hellcats F4U Corsairs, etc.

[Albacore 569]

The Rudders are different top and bottom it looks. There will be an offset in axis between the vertical and horizontal planes. The upper rudder axis will be a bit offset to the forward half bites into the stream so it's more a balanced rudder in function.

The subs in the rubis class all had major upgrades, the Amythyste rebuilds on the first 4 of 6 boats, then another major upgrade in the early 2000's. All to make them more effective and considerably quieter. They are considered a bit noisy in the quieter end of things. But the Rubis managed to successfully pass through the Ticonderoga's and La subs and Arleigh Burkes screens to sink a number of times the USS Abraham Lincoln in wargames.

Now the Suffrens are taking over. The Suffren's are twice the size, and half the crew, vastly quieter and you tube 'the subbrief' suggests one of the best sonars and quieting in the world now. French engineering in their ships and submarines tend to get it right.

The Rubis class aren't the hottest subs out there, but they are very important in the French learning curve on their submarines. I think the reason why the Suffren design took way so long (I think 15 years?) was to learn and catch up technologically learning from the Rubis class. The Rubises to me are small crowded as sub crowding goes slower plumper Skipjacks.

New Builders thread for Rubis Build Rubis class SNA Perle (S606) - The Sub-drivers Forum

[Subculture]

Very unusual rudder arrangement on that boat, the upper rudder looks like it has almost twice the moveable area of the lower rudder. Wonder if that’s to offset sail induced roll?

[Albacore 569]

Suffren still progressing well. Getting ready to paint.

Mean time getting long lead time items for the Rubis class SSN (SNA) either will be Perle or Améthyste

STL files in 1/64 (same scale as Suffren) ready.

Keith Benders prop arriving next week.




Suffren

[RCSubGuy]

I can’t say as I’ve ever run an X Tail. Can you tell a big difference between this and a regular vertical and horizontal set up?

X-tails are 1.4x more effective than traditional cruciform rudders. HUGE difference in control.

[Akula54]

Just found this eshop with files for 1/72 Suffren Class.

Fichiers 3D STL Suffren RC 1/72

The designer chose ne part X-tail rudder, not very accurate but sure it will be efficient.

[Albacore 569]

Final design for Suffrens X stern linkages. Will solder together today. Donut silver magnets roll and move freely on arms. Larger concentric diameter brass tubing will act as guard rails to keep arm and magnets aligned in relation to each other. The surrounding metal is brass and non-magnetic, so the arms won't impede the is rolling wheel magnets moving freely. After some adjusting and tinkering finalized on this. No slop simplest. Be sure to rotate one wheel opposite so they attract instead of repelling...lol

[Albacore 569]

Update: I've been in shop doing overly too much thinking on my X stern arrangement. Tried three or four different ways to facilitate the same thing. All worked but some cleaner and easier than others. I think I have it all dialed in now exactly what I like. Since the Pump Jet pivots side to side it handles the rudder functions with its shape and thrust vectoring. The stern planes in my arrangement because of the swivel jet only needs to move together creating up and down forces

Final arrangement will have one servo arm instead of two (as seen below). Two magnets now will click securely the two cross arms together, one magnet each on each cross arm. In an earlier version a connecting rod was used connecting the two cross arms, but it caused too much binding and alignment issues.

But drilling a whole into two magnets & slipping each magnet down the rod connecting that way will make the system run smooth and easy. The magnets are smooth & cylinder shaped so they stay connected but roll against each other with little to no friction maintaining a precise connection and spacing between.

In the back on pump jet shaft is a thin wide washer. It acts as a spacer, so the prop blades don't have any 'slop' fore and aft, and acts as a floating swinging side to side thrust block.

[Albacore 569]

More work- the pump jet swivel finished (solid & smooth) stern planes in,

[Albacore 569]

How to CA glue the X stern rudders after careful alignment first without mucking up glueing everything solid?

Painted black first the gap between the fixed and moveable X stern surfaces. But more so, the black shows minor
surface imperfections better.

Once the stern sub-assembly is done & tested, it will be attached to the submarine's stern and puttied, sanded / painted.

The glue injection passage on the stern plane wing tips then will be puttied over & sanded closed completing the 'surgery'.

Stared at these parts a long time watching my favorite show at dinner time (Star Trek TNG) first before figuring something out.
Glad I used brass tubing instead of solid rod this time.

[Albacore 569]

I can’t say as I’ve ever run an X Tail. Can you tell a big difference between this and a regular vertical and horizontal set up?

I am not really doing a X stern in function in actuality. So don't use as a typical X Stern control set up. This set up externally will be a X stern - is true, but because my Suffern model will employ a unique experimental pivoting pump jet, this stern plane arrangement here is in function being used only as a horizontal stern plane. All four surfaces will move in unison up and down only. No 'mixer' will be needed in this case. It's a radical solution to enhance pump jet models turning ability in the pond I wanted to try out.