What I've Been Up To Last Week

[Bill Harris]

Good, I'd just come up with an enticement for Rose. An aeroplane ride.

Now to work on Palumbo-- I shudder to think of what sort of Foxtrot I'd get being his bad side... :wink:

--Bill

[Subculture]

Ahhh, Lazybee flyer.

Dead easy to fly, those.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Good, I'd just come up with an enticement for Rose. An aeroplane ride.

Now to work on Palumbo-- I shudder to think of what sort of Foxtrot I'd get being his bad side... :wink:

--Bill

Bill,

She loves airplanes.

Just got off the phone with Rick. He's getting ready to lay up your hull. Asked if I knew where to get a reliable water-soluble laminating resin.

David,

[Rpmtech1]

Yeah that titebond alphatic wood glue really wets the cloth out well, im gonna save a ton of money over epoxy!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Yeah that titebond alphatic wood glue really wets the cloth out well, im gonna save a ton of money over epoxy!

LOL.

(evil *******!).

David,

[Albion]

You're in luck. This morning she sold her interest of the contract to a third-party Turkish hit-man. Some guy named, Keyser Soze.

Watched it again only the other week. Mister Soze is not a man to be trifled with

[Bill Harris]

Yeah that titebond alphatic wood glue really wets the cloth out well, im gonna save a ton of money over epoxy!

Well, on a postive note, at least the hull isn't cast resin... :eek:

--Bill

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Anyway ...

Over the weekend I concentrated on the wheelhouse and completing the painting of the kit. The internal walls of the wheelhouse -- adorned with many very scale-like features -- had their pipes, gage faces and frames highlighted with various colors of Rub 'n Buff pasts ground into the work with stiff brush and burnished bright with a slightly moist paper towel.

.020" brass wire was cut and bent to form the many hand-holds that fit to the sides and top of the wheelhouse. These were secured in place with CA, then pickled so the brass would hold the touch up paint, blending them in with the rest of the hull color.

I also mist sprayed a brown/bronze color over all parts -- there you go, Andy! The green left as a just visible undercoat suggesting an uneven and interesting bleaching and corrosion effects between the metal alloy of the hull, its oxides, and paint system.

When the paint dried -- the automotive paints I use are 'production' quality and are very durable and dry/cure quickly -- I then scrubbed in a stronger acid (Ferric Chloride) over all surfaces to bubble out the rust from the underlying iron powder still embedded in all the corners, engraved lines, and at the base of the rivets.

You have to take care to wash and thoroughly dry the model before painting and using CA. The acid has little effect on the paint build-up, but the acid will inhibit the curing process of CA adhesive -- this type adhesives chemistry requires moisture and a high pH upon the substrates to be bonded in order to effect a good stick.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Before applying he mist coating of brown/bronze, I assembled the smaller parts, some with mechanical fasteners (I try to make the completed model as accessible as possible) and glue. You want to mist with everything in place so you achieve the same density of color to the adjacent parts.

In one of the below shots I show how the subtle brown/bronze color varies from the other side of the model not yet misted. The very light application is to 'suggest' the color, not to lay it down as an opaque layer. And by the light application, later acid washes can still get at and oxidize the underlying iron powder laid over the green undercoat.

An acid scrub over the misted brown/bronze brings the rust back to life -- several acid-rinse-dry cycles were required, some in localized areas only, till I achieved the desired amounts and locations of rust.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

After doing the basic painting and weathering of the model -- but before laying down the well flattened clear coat -- I installed all the light lenses. here you see the process as I installed the lathe turned little solid acrylic hemispheres that fit around the port and starboard saloon windows. The flat clear coat would 'frost' the surface of these otherwise clear acrylic pieces, diffusing the light bouncing from within -- a very scale-like appearance was the result.

I kept the saloon and wheelhouse observation windows as optically clear as possible, so those were not installed until after the clear coat went down.

All light lenses and windows were adhered in place with a well thinned water-soluble 'wood glue'. It dries clear and is next to invisible if any gets onto the observed portions of clear parts -- the perfect 'window' adhesive. Unlike the window, the light lens were pushed into place after wetting their cavities with the glue. The windows, on the other hand, were first press fit into their respective frames, then the white glue was brushed, from the inside, to form a fillet that bonded the inside flange of each hemisphere to the surrounding frame.

I'm showing off just some of the primer, paints, clear coat, and weathering agents and tools employed on this job. The NAUTILUS required custom mixing of the primary colors. Other than some touch-up brushing, the ugle red, single-action gun, with the #3 tip, was employed to lay down all paint and clear coat.

Consultation with my research folder directed me as to orientation of the wheelhouse hydro-plane operating handles. It was a tight fit of that item between helm and port window. I worked it out. Other than that issue, the kit supplied parts fit like a dream.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Well, the client comes in this weekend to get checked out and pick up his long overdue turnkey Disney NAUTILUS. Time to burn the midnight-oil and wrap this puppy up.

It's all the last minute, little **** that takes the time and so greatly adds to the 'frustration factor' of these turnkey jobs. I'm always late! I hate 'em! No more!

And I'm not happy with the kit supplied rudder, so I'm going make a new one out of RenShape -- a bit bigger than scale. The operational Nautilii drivers out there have reported that the boat suffers from a very poor turning radius. So, everything I can do to tighten the yaw rate will be an improvement, I figure that the bigger rudder, coupled with the yawing propeller, will help turn this model in a respectable manner.

As I started dry-fitting (always check part fit and compatibility with adjacent structures before committing to glue -- use spit, rubber glue, or tape to temporarily hold things together) the helm and hydro-plane operating levers pedestal to the deck under the forward portion of wheelhouse, I found that I had to reduce the thickness and height of the pedestal. I used several production photos of the full-scale NAUTILUS set to identify the location and height of these items in relation to the big port window to better identify where it went. Only after I could successfully place the wheelhouse onto the superstructure without making contact with the control lever pedestal did I commit attachment of the pedestal to the wheelhouse deck with CA.

The two internal wheelhouse side-wall pieces (richly detailed and picked out with Rub 'n Buff colored waxes) were CA'ed in place and a scratch-built deck added. This is the point where you start to appreciate the utility of making all the sub-assemblies attach together with mechanical fasteners: you have the ability to dry-fit, cut, modify, paint, weather, and modify without having to tear glue joints apart when you find (and you will!) that something is not fitting or looking right.

As with the little light lenses, the two big wheelhouse windows were glued in place with thinned down white-glue. But in this case the windows were first pressed into place within their circular frames -- early on, before priming the parts, I cut the rims of the windows to make tight friction fits to the frames. A bead of the white glue was then chased around the interface point between the clear acrylic hemispherical window and frame with a brush.

The wheelhouse joins to the superstructure with a strong-back in the center and a 2-56 machine screw forward.

In turn, the superstructure joins to the upper hull half with a nut that runs up onto a stud that projects from a support plate at the center of the superstructure, and forward and after 2-56 screws.

The attachment of the two hull halves is achieved by a set of radial capture lips forward and a single 4-40 machine screw aft -- the head of that screw accessible through a hole drilled into the bottom of the skiff (small boat) well. A magnet within the well and a magnet in the boat permits quick and secure holding of the boat in place within the superstructure well.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

It's late/early, I'm tired, and this god-awful turnkey job is killing me. And the customer will be here to pick up the work this weekend. I'll make it, but just!

The little skiff, the work-boat that fits into a well on the after superstructure, was outfitted with little disk magnets, and a matching set was inlaid into the superstructure well. A hole through which a 6-32 machine screw is accessed is within the well and is accessed by removing the boat. A single mechanical fastener connects the upper and lower hull and is within that hole.

The three pronged saloon window braces had sprung out and had to be heat-warped back into shape -- this easily done by forcing a brace into a stencil circle of correct diameter, then applying heat. The thermoforming aspect of the casting resin kicks in and the treated part retains the new shape once the resin gets back to room temperature.

I installed about five-ounces of lead weight, positioned up forward so that the boats longitudinal center of gravity would fall about at the center of the SubDriver's ballast tank. Trial amounts and location of countering buoyant foam were rubber-banded to the outside of the hull, the ballast tank vent left open and the boat dunked into the test tank. I worked the amount and position of the foam to get the boat into submerged trim. Once that was done I blew the tank dry and checked for correct waterline in surface trim. Moving some of the foam to the above waterline areas got the boat to float in a scale like manner. Surprisingly, the trimming task only took an hour. That's the exception, not the rule!

I then cut up the foam and glued it into the hull -- most of it high up, but just below the waterline.

The rest of the evening was spent making a new, larger rudder and touch-up painting -- a job that seems to never end on this particular model submarine.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The lead weight (only one piece was needed) was secured within the hull by passing a 4-40 machine nut through it and into a threaded hole in the lower hull that extended into the external keel of the NAUTILUS. Very simply. This will permit removal of the weight should I want to increase/degrease the amount of fixed ballast weight in there at a later date. When you needlessly glue things together you deprive yourself the flexibility to change/improve things later.

RTV is the ideal glue to bond the flotation foam pieces within the hull: It cures quickly, will not attack the foam, and the bond between foam and hull is not so great as to present a problem pulling the foam off should the need for trim alteration arise.

I made a new rudder, as the kit supplied rudder (the client got an extra rudder when he purchased the kit, so I had two of them initially) was about a quarter-inch too short in height. This compelled me to make a new one out of RenShape modeling board. Knowing what a pig the Disney NAUTILUS is in the turn, I took advantage of the situation by making the new rudder not only taller, but a bit longer in cord. I increased the rudder area by about five-percent.

Once the new rudder had been primed and sanded I pencil marked cheat lines to guide me, as I built up the rivets that adorn the rudder with little drops of thick formula cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesive. This works if you lay down a very base chemical coating to the work -- the high pH accelerates the cure of the adhesive, not giving the drops a chance to spread out. The work went very quickly (because it was getting to be three in the morning and I wanted to hit the sack!).

[Bill Harris]

Beautiful work on this boat. Love the way the color has worked out.

I'm suprised that the wood glue works on the windows/lenses-- I would have supposed that it would fail on extended contact with water. Are you familiar with Pacer Formula 560 Canopy Adhesive? It dries clear and adheres plastic canopies to fuselages very strongly.

http://www.supergluecorp.com/zap/zap-glues/formula-560-canopy-glue

--Bill

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Beautiful work on this boat. Love the way the color has worked out.

I'm suprised that the wood glue works on the windows/lenses-- I would have supposed that it would fail on extended contact with water. Are you familiar with Pacer Formula 560 Canopy Adhesive? It dries clear and adheres plastic canopies to fuselages very strongly.

http://www.supergluecorp.com/zap/zap-glues/formula-560-canopy-glue

--Bill

Bill,

Yeah, a proper 'weathered' effect is not achieved with a blast or two from Krylon rattle-cans! Any moron can squirt paint ... as so many of you illustrate with your common, boring, uninspired paint jobs presented here and at the other forums.

A paint job that captures the look of the prototype (an effects miniature and full scale stage sets in this case) involves research; professional grade consumables and tools; off-model tests of consumables, tools, and techniques; an established methodology (though you have to be flexible enough in your approach to capitalize on 'fortunate accidents of discovery'); and the single-minded confidence and aggressiveness, like that of an old Tom-cat banging a less than thrilled skunk.

As to the white-glue I use: Like the acrylic water-soluble paints, this adhesive, once dry, forms a hard film that is water resistant and will not break down, even with prolonged immersion in water.

David,