Bronco Type XXIII in 1/35th scale

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Well, I stand corrected. Romel's suspicion that I can get a video camera into that sail proved correct. I can either get the little 808 key-chain video camera-recorder, or my little Swann video camera-transmitter in there. The 808 takes on-board video and saves it to a little SD card for later playback. The Swann camera-transmitter sends the video signal back to shore where the Driver, wearing a pair of virtual goggles, see's, real-time, what the camera sees. Either system will fit in the Type-23's sail.

Here I'm using Andy Lawrence's very well crafted 'teardrop' watertight enclosure to house the 808 video-recorder unit. As you can see it's a perfect fit within the models sail



The camera-transmitter employs the Caswell-Merriman WTC -- specifically designed for the little Swann camera-transmitter. That kit has provision to run a length of coaxial cable up to a mast atop the sail, that shielded cable terminating in a little 2.4gHz antenna that has to be above water in order to get the camera video and audio signal to the shore-side operator. Within the WTC is the camera-transmitter, 9-volt battery, BEC, and associated wiring.

As you can see, the operator uses a set of virtual goggles through which he see's and hears what the camera see's and hears. The audio is a very useful sense to have: you can hear overhead traffic as will as other submarines in the area, and the servo and motor sounds inform you as to how the boats behaving.



The arrangement for the Type-23 is very much like what I did for the 1/16 KAIRYU, Moebius SEAVIEW and Scale Shipyard 1/72 SKIPJACK -- With the real-time video straight to my eyes and ears I drive from the perspective of the boat itself. Very neat!

[goshawk823]

I've been saying for years that the conning tower of the XXIII could be a great camera platform...(someone just had to make one small enough to fit in there.) I figured the life raft canister cover in front could be made to be removed to leave a lens opening...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

It's possible to go a lot smaller than the teardrop enclosures I made. They were designed to give the minimum drag when mounted externally and also to allow the attachment of small wideangle lenses, which I've found are not really required with the wide aspect of the newer HD cameras. It also allows the fitting of a larger capacity battery as the standard 2530-250mAh lipos only give about 40minutes recording time on a good day.

However with an oddity like the Type XXIII, and its cartoon like conning tower acting as streamlining, a less optimum shape made up of simple plates of lexan could be constructed, which wouldn't be much bigger than the camera itself. Easy to construct too so long as you can wield a saw and files.

Working into the wee hours I found that your little tear-drop shapped 808 camera enclosure fits just fine within the Bronco Type-23 sail. Pictures later. A great looking product you have there, Andy!

David

[Subculture]

It's possible to go a lot smaller than the teardrop enclosures I made. They were designed to give the minimum drag when mounted externally and also to allow the attachment of small wideangle lenses, which I've found are not really required with the wide aspect of the newer HD cameras. It also allows the fitting of a larger capacity battery as the standard 2530-250mAh lipos only give about 40minutes recording time on a good day.

However with an oddity like the Type XXIII, and its cartoon like conning tower acting as streamlining, a less optimum shape made up of simple plates of lexan could be constructed, which wouldn't be much bigger than the camera itself. Easy to construct too so long as you can wield a saw and files.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Looking at the last photo with the open life raft container hatch it's begging for one of those tiny keychain cameras.
With the snort/SAS mast, is there still ample space inside the sail to fit one?

The trouble is I need to provide a watertight enclosure for the 808 type camera, not enough room for that. However, on second though, the smallest such enclosure I have is one Andy Lawrence provided me, the perfect egg shape. Stand-by, I'll see how that works, Romel. You might be onto something here.

David

[redboat219]

Looking at the last photo with the open life raft container hatch it's begging for one of those tiny keychain cameras.
With the snort/SAS mast, is there still ample space inside the sail to fit one?

[Warpatroller]

David, your progress looks great! Am watching from my hotel room.

I believe the deck planking would have been removed from the hull prior to going on patrol, but it works well to disguise your holes.

Don't let the guys needle you about the lack of asymmetrical flood holes in the bow. That may not have applied to ALL boats of this type.

I was on board the Pampanito SS-383 Balao fleet boat, here in San Francisco, today. I took several photos of her and will post them when I return home.

Looking forward to seeing a video of the XXIII!

Steve

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I don't know how to get video out on the Net. I'll take stills though, Sam.

David

Change that: Tom said he'll help me get the video out on the net. Stay tuned, sports fans.

[goshawk823]

Looking good! Will you post a video of a run, David? It looks great sitting at waterline...

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Good stuff, Tom. Thanks

As to the need of venting the upper hull so I don't catch bubbles of air during the dive, I punched a lot of holes atop the deck. These holes hidden under the eventual planked deck pieces, but right now right out in the open. When I do the final trim, I'll have to stick all pieces in place to get the actual displacement, but right now it's good enough to leave these fragile (read: breakable) pieces off-model till I'm done with it. also punched holes into the stern to insure the quick and sure escape of bubbles as the hull goes under.



I needed to verify that the rudder linkage could be made up without need of cutting the hatch I've done on this model. The ideal is to push the rudder operating shaft up from the bottom, first up through the lower rudder support, through the rudder, up into the upper rudder support and into the bell-crank bore, then slipping an Allen wrench in there to tighten up the rudder bell crank to the upper end of the rudder operating shaft. The operating shaft made fast to the rudder proper by a set-screw set into the rudders port face. A 1/8" diameter vent hole atop the upper rudder support permits observation as the bell-crank is set into the rudder operating shaft. It worked!



Got the gross trim in (no detail parts added yet, so displacement will go up a few ounces later), and the boat was surprisingly easy to dial in. As is my practice, I started with the ballast tank full and once submerged trim was achieved, I emptied the tank, and moved foam vertically to get the proper surfaced trim.

To my relief I find that I've put more than enough ballast tank in the SD to pull the detailed model down beneath the waves. When I calculated total displacement of the kits above waterline portions I designed the ballast tank to hold about 120% of that weight, and it seems I'm well within that ball-park after todays trip to the kiddie-pool.

The SAS worked fine, but only after I added more weight to the snorkel float in order to insure it's pulled down off the induction nipple when up in the air, yet subject to a partially evacuated cylinder. Now, when the boat surfaces I can hear the 'pop' of the weighted out-of-water snorkel float falling away, opening the valve, immediately issuing a 'whoosh' sound as the cylinder gulps in air to break the partial vacuum created when the LPB took a suction on the SD's interior. All these little adjustments are noted and will be incorporated into the production parts.

[trout]

Here is a reference

Circled in yellow, you can see (I hope) the far side is outlined in dashes.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You're running fast David, how does she behave in the water?, nice solution those hidden drainholes at the keel, must copy that.



To please you ever more, i know it's a bad picture, but you get the idea, it's taken from one of those Uboot im Focus books.
Wether you do this or not it's all up to the builder, i allready plugged up the symmetrical floodholes and cutted some a-symmetrical one's, you know me, love the details.

Manfred.

That shot makes Sam's point. Good catch, Manfred. You, sir are that very rare bird: Historical nit-picker of the first-order, detail-freak AND prolific Model-Builder.

David

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Ha!
Ah David, I've missed your sweet talking ways.... lol
That just happened to be a detail I remembered, because I cut my fore and aft upper hull separations on my OTW boat in about the same place you did with your saw, and I had to cut through one of the limber holes, because of the offset.
I understand that you're doing a representative model of the class. I also know that every boat had it's own mods, so unless you have photos of a specific boat after it was underway, it's all speculation...
I continue to be impressed with all the detail that Bronco did put on this model. I can't wait to see yours float and sink and float and sink...(repeatedly...)
cheers!
-Sam

LOL. Sam, I love ya, pal!

(for you slobs looking over our shoulders: Sam and I go waaaaay back. Sam is one of the nicest guys on the planet AND he actually finishes his projects and gets them in the water. I bet the moment he hit the 'enter' key he cringed, realizing that he just opened the gates of hell, cautioning ME about some obscure prototype detail -- I never miss a chance to rant. And he knows that! Toss me a floater and you had better jump into a hole.)

And I agree with you 100% Sam about the great job Bronco's done with this kit. Other than the vertical hull split, there is not a thing I would re-engineer about this kit -- it's almost designed for r/c conversion.

Had the thing in the water last night and this morning. I'm in the "where the hell does the foam go now!??? phase of trimming. Pictures tonight/early morning, guys. The SD's ballast tank seems to be the right size, but won't be sure till I put all the little above-waterline detail parts aboard for the final trim outings. If all goes well, I'll have this thing in the lake tomorrow.

David

[MFR1964]

You're running fast David, how does she behave in the water?, nice solution those hidden drainholes at the keel, must copy that.



To please you ever more, i know it's a bad picture, but you get the idea, it's taken from one of those Uboot im Focus books.
Wether you do this or not it's all up to the builder, i allready plugged up the symmetrical floodholes and cutted some a-symmetrical one's, you know me, love the details.

Manfred.

[goshawk823]

Ha!
Ah David, I've missed your sweet talking ways.... lol
That just happened to be a detail I remembered, because I cut my fore and aft upper hull separations on my OTW boat in about the same place you did with your saw, and I had to cut through one of the limber holes, because of the offset.
I understand that you're doing a representative model of the class. I also know that every boat had it's own mods, so unless you have photos of a specific boat after it was underway, it's all speculation...
I continue to be impressed with all the detail that Bronco did put on this model. I can't wait to see yours float and sink and float and sink...(repeatedly...)
cheers!
-Sam