1:72 GRP Kilo Sort out

[Kazzer]

This is the Kilo from Arkmodel. I wanted to see how difficult the build was, considering that the sections had already been glued together.

The upper and lower bow section were joined, but the joint line didn't line up with the joint line of the hull, which seemed a little odd. I had to cut the hull in half along the waterline joint using a Japanese saw.
Once I'd done this, I used some fiberglass tape and epoxy to joint the bow to the lower hull.


I made tags for the hull alignment from strips of styrene and glued them in place with epoxy mixed with Cabosil. The Cabosil thickened the resin to make it a thick paste.



I placed a larger tab forward under the superstructure, I wanted a large surface area to bond to because this tab will get a lot of use. The blue ttape here shows where the waterline changes from the bow section to the hull. I am puzzled as to why they would do this, but it didn't really make any difference to the build.




Here is the first alignment with only a few alignment tabs installed. I am very please with this so far.




I might have to do some minor repairs to the edges of the hull where my pitiful sawing skills wandered off here and there. A competent sawyer would have not made such blunders.

All in all, A good mornings work and I can see the end in sight! THIS folks, is a damned fine model!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Neat! Can we see a shot or two of the complete kit contents?

M

[Kazzer]

Here is the fittings kit as supplied

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

That's a beauty! I want one!

M

[Slats]

interestingly Mike, the stern cone appears in "fittings kit supplied" photo above.

I'm glad its working out for you.

J

[Kazzer]

interestingly Mike, the stern cone appears in "fittings kit supplied" photo above.

I'm glad its working out for you.

J

It's Feng's photo. Nothing I took! I can't see a cone in the kit though. Why would you want one? I am throwing a lot of that stuff out - totally unnecessary.

[Slats]

It's Feng's photo. Nothing I took! I can't see a cone in the kit though. Why would you want one? I am throwing a lot of that stuff out - totally unnecessary.

Its a preference issue Mike.
The back end of the Kilo is a tight little tapered area - most subs are but this in my view is more so. The stern cone itself is evidence of how tight. If you have the choice of doing a neat little sub assembly of the rudder, prop bearing, and rear planes off the hull there are some installation advantages.
One of the biggest bug bears I have about subs is sticking my hand up the hull and dealing with long nose hemostats etc to install the rudders and rear planes, as nothing short of a baby's arm would fit with respect to the limits imposed by the upper stern cone section. Find the hand cramps up doing this after awhile. Now imagine doing this with almost no hand restrictions at all. No need for long hemostats etc.

Yes the new Kilo hull eliminates the need for stern cone, but in this particular sub, the assembly I believe would have been easier with the stern cone. That said, the suggestion I have for the Kilo - in ridding yourself of the stern cone, is don't do a traditional Z cut at the rear. That is, take advantage of the fact there is no upper rudder, and simply have the entire rear upper hull as one piece, so there is no upper fixed hull section to navigate at the stern. Before anyone tells me that's what Feng suggests and why he dumped the stern cone, bear in mind this designed as a bayonet fit boat (typically set up for dry hulled operations) and not an upper / lower hull WTC wet setup.

Best

John

[Kazzer]

I agree with you entirely John. As I looked at the boat last night, I was trying to think why everyone cuts these boats the way i did. I had the same trouble with an OTW Valiant (So much so the frustration drove me to giving it to HWSNBN, where it now lingers in his 'models to do graveyard').

It just makes so much sense to leave the upper nose cone attached to the upper hull. In fact, I think I will cut the damned thing off today. The other advantage of doing this is there is no joint to try to hide on the upper hull - much tidier. it will also stop the upper hull sides from splaying out.

[Subculture]

The sheerline boats tend to split completely top and bottom. However over the long term I've noticed they tend start to bow a bit, I guess this a little bit more of a problem with polyester glass boats than epoxy (AFAIK, no company in the UK kits an epoxy glass sub). Also it can be a bit of fiddle hooking up the rudder.