Mike and I Are Producing a New Sub Kit

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I need DELPHIN documentation!

Mike has recently purchased an industrial quality vacuforming machine. We want to exploit it. The idea is to produce small to medium sized vacuformed hull, resin, and metal r/c submarine kits. The first victim ... er .... project is the little German DELPHIN high-speed demonstrator operated near the end of the War.

Hey, a kit of that thing worked big-time for Norbert -- it should be a money-maker for us too!

The Caswell-Merriman DELPHIN and follow-on kits will be cheap (a relative term), accurate, easy to transport, present a painless assembly task, and will be fun to drive.

Provide us with plans and all useful documentation dealing with the lone operational DELPHIN and win a prize. Or .... don't, and suffer my terrible wrath!

Also, if you have any recommendations as to kit subjects you want to see worked up (don't get stupid!), lets hear 'em.

An early DELPHIN attempt:



David

[Scott T]

How about a vacuum formed torpdeo. A nose and tail cone and two halves for the torpdeo body.
They could be used as is or built into a Marder type submarine. Used on a seehund model. Used to
build a allied chariot manned torpedo. Then again you want a money maker!
My plan was to use some pvc pipe for the body but needed to fabricate some nose and tail cones.

[Subculture]

Perhaps consolidate your existing range e.g. you have the micro Skipjack, but are hamstrung by Revell discontinuing the model, since you largely reengineered that kit with a new tail cone, planes etc. why not go further and make a new hull and sail master, with corrected bow and deck profile, and vacform the beasty (maybe a resin sail). A reverse vacform could capture scribe lines too, although would be more tricky to do I guess- only ever done vacform over a positive plug.

Perhaps you could add to the micro range e.g. Albacore, Permit etc.

But then again perhaps the market is poor for these tiny models?

The market is thick with high end expensive sub kits- never known the amount of choice available now. But the choice for low cost entry level models is dreadful, and that is where the market opportunites exist IMO.

Think HFM Deep Dive VI, Robbe Seawolf etc. None of these models were perfect, in the case of the former some serious defects, but that was largely due to poor design of the watertight box (which wasn't). The defects could be engineered out, without inflating the cost of the kit's components. You could get either of these models in the water for the same sort of money as say a Tamiya buggy. Neither were scale, but I don't think their owners gave a stuff. They were fairly small in size, but large enough not to be fiddly- I think that is an important point.

[trout]

My findings came up short.

This one pops up frequently.
I will hunt for plans.

[Subculture]

The French plans are the best reference to date for this boat, but still there seems to be some discrepency around the hatch area when you compare with the photos of the prototype.

AFAIK, there were three boats built, the original, which was scrapped after a collision with a test vessel, and two others which were dynamited to prevent them falling into enemy hands. So it's a difficult craft to get information on.

[Subculture]

1/24th scale Delphin hull spun up from a bit of hazelnut. Appendages under construction. The line you can see almost in the middle was turned in, and will be the split point fior the hull, as per the original. An aluminium bayonet ring will be machined and bonded in at that point.

[trout]

Since others have produced the Delphin, why not try this?


And the X-1 is at the Groton Submarine Museum. Simple design might be an easy pull.
Or go with a sportsman version of the Akula like this one:


You know, subculture is correct. Make up your own sub. If it is a beginner sub, then design it just for that purpose. It does not have to be modeled after a real sub. In some ways, not being modeled off of a real sub frees you from the comments about this or that is incorrect or not accurate. Call it USS Ellie, LOL.

[vital.spark]

Here's another one, the Fenian Ram. This one's great for Mike as Holland built it to attack the British!! It still exists as you will see at the following:

http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/FenianRam/index.html

[Subculture]

Always thought it was a paradox that Holland's designs ended up being the first adopted by the Royal navy. Probably polished him off!

[redboat219]

How about doing a vacuform RCable kit of your 1/192 Sturgeon and LA class.

http://www.steelnavy.com/images/2007April/STURGEON5khV.jpg

[roedj]

Never understood the Delfin. Was it supposed to carry an external torpedo?

Anyway, the Delfin as built by Norbert Brüggen was very simple. No ballast system - dynamic diver. Single propeller - at least the ones I saw at the Carmel pool. Opened and closed with a bayonet ring system. And fast -- very fast. The first thing to beak off was the schnorkel tube sticking out of the top - generally in collisions with other ships or the side of the pool because controlling thie thing at the speeds it traveled was nigh on impossible unless you were raised with a Nintendo game controller in your hand - I wasn't.


Subcuture, IMHO, has the right idea - design your own. Don't make it a "rivet counter" special. Make it about 18" long - dynamic diver only - no ballast system - super positively buoyant - hard to lose in the pond, lake, etc. Let the customers paint it any color they want. Matt Munger attaches one of those glow sticks to his and runs it around the Carmel pool at night - visually exciting - great fun - a real crowd pleaser.

My two pfennigs worth,

Dan

[Subculture]

The Russian Mikro-mir 1/35th Delphin kit shows a torpedo slung underneath, but I've seen no information to suggest that this was tried on the original. It would have seriously compromised the hydrodynamics I think. Rossler's book claims a towed mine was tried.

The original boat was a dynamic diver, although a small trim tank mounted underneath the driver (pilot?) was incorporated to address the issue of the shifting centre of bouyancy that the offset acrylic bubble created once the boat dived.

Delphin needs minimal power to get to scale speed being close to ideal in hydrodynamic termas. An admiralty constant of cb 210 was measured for the protoype, compare that with a Seehund at cb 70 (lower still with torpedoes fitted)

[greenman407]

This is all I have been able to come up with.

http://uboat.net/types/delphin.htm

[greenman407]

Heres a guy , John Parker, who has made one. Perhaps we could contact him.

http://graysubs.tripod.com/jparker/submarine_models_built_by_john_p.htm

[Subculture]

That site has been up for a few years. it's a nice little Delphin, but quite a few details are out. Depends how fussy you are I guess.