Russian Rocketboat OSA II

[MFR1964]

Each time adding more parts to the upperstructure and the deck.





Adding ladders, doors, ventilation shafts and railings.





Adding the last details to the radar, like electronic boxes and the entrance door.



It's starting to grow, but she's still a bit naked without the launchtubes.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Finally after much sanding it could receive the first coat of primer, more to see if i needed to rework the structure on the bad spots.









In general it wasn't bad, but she needed some more filler and sanding.

As i decribed before, it's a rocketboat, and what is a rocketboat without real rockets to fire?, a new challence started to get me some live rocket tubes.
Since the launchmechanism was the most important thing i started with building the inside of the tubes and tried to figure out what would work good.



These are the rockets i use, only during december i can buy them at the shop because of new year, they are called baby rockets, small enough to fit into the launchtubes.
Next step was to make me some fire proof containers to fit inside the future launchtubes.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

The launchtubes are made from PVC, to encounter the heat by the launched rocket i made a fireproof container which i can slide into the tube, at first i only used a rod to guide the missile, this didn't work, had to go back to the drawingboard, ended up with the tube inside the container, this is working well, pictures.



The container made from thin copper plating.





Glued a tube on the rocket which slides over the rod, this design failed, i had to figure out something else.



The container can slide into the PVC launchtube, this way loading the rockets becomes easier.





The first steps in making the launchtubes, i had to make a kind of flange from styrene to support the hatch.



After doing this four times, i started detailing the launchtubes accourding to my drawings, and believe me, it took some time to get this right.


Manfred.

[greenman407]

WOW! This thing is moving right along!

[MFR1964]

There is more to come,





The final prototype complete with all the details.



The evolutions to get me the right hatch with the final one on to the launchtube.

Painted the launchtube and added the controlmechanism for lifting the hatch, once approved it was time to make the other three launchtubes.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

It's time to blow the dust from the post, each year i build a few months on the OSA II, last week i started up some work on the boat, first i'll show what i've done before.



Some serious productionwork had to be done, i started with building the brackets.



All covers from the tubes had to be made, a lot of time went into these, mainly because of the shape of those covers.



Some more mechanics for inside the tubes, used some springs from old ballpoints, brass tubing and some copper rods.



Some more fun at the productionline, the fire proof containers for inside the launchtubes, i personally hate production work, but this boat deserves it.



Base plates made from plexiglass, shown here in the first stage of completing.



Despite my hate for productionwork it started to show some result, three more launchtubes.





Placing those tubes onto the deck was great to see, i now could imagen the endresult, still some hard work to do.



Motivaded by dryfitting the launchtubes i had to build the mechanics to make them work, allready had a working example which i had to copy into three working mechanics, to be continued as soon as possible.


Manfred.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

It's just this sort of nuts-and-bolts stuff I love to read. You're a mad-man, Manfred!

M

[MFR1964]

It's showing my dark side David, always loved that Russian stuff, as you allready know there is a thin line between being a genius or barking mad, building on the OSA is fun, it's giving me a oppertunity to sharpen my skills.



Since you love nut and bolts, here is some meal to enjoy, those things are the finished mechanics to open up the covers, the switch is part of a safety mechanism for the live rockets, i'll show that later with some old vids i made before.







Completed the build of all launchtubes, the mechanics i build before are incooperated inside and beneath the launchtubes, not yet ready to use, since all things still have to be connected to my reveiver.





At some point in my build i got contacted with a Russian modelbuilder, he provided me with some good drawings, had to replace all panels on the upperstucture, and started to build some railings.





The same story with the radardome, the first one was way too big, with my new Russian drawings i managed to get it more scale, it's stepping you back all that work, but it's worth it.

Making those tubes work was the fun part, i allready knew that the mechanics to open up the covers worked, still had to rebuild my transmittor and made the electrical connections inside, a little demonstration how to open up the covers from the launchtubes.



Manfred.

[herrmill]

Holy.... WOW!!! Stupendous work Manfred!!!

[MFR1964]

Thanks Chuck,

It was a awfull lot of work to get that far, LOL, moving covers!!!!, i got at least inspirated to get some more work done.

Driving this beast is another story, most annoying that high speed!

Enjoy the old maiden vid, still unarmed, what a shame with all those targets around me.


Manfred.

[trout]

That is amazing, Manfred. Inspirational for me to see the progress and work that went into the OSA.

[MFR1964]

Thanks Tom, i know it's a lot of work, progress will always be slow on this project, simply because i build on her only during the summertime

Still have to post more, untill we end on the point what i'm building right now.

I sadly can only post one vid at the time, so here's the next one, a little demonstration to show how all things work with connected glowplugs and safety system, from this point on i was ready to fire some live ammo.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Just one last teaser for this evening,



I've delayed this job much too long, not that there was not enough info/pictures about this subject, so i bit the bullet and started building.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

Last few days we enjoyed some heavy rainshowers, this took the temparture down, a nice oppertunity to spray some primer,





Placed on a piece of scrapwood all builded items from last year, they turned out much better with some primer.



Some more things placed at the upperstructure ready for some paint.



Placing/glueing the thrustdeflectors behind the front launchtubes, the rear launchtubes simply blowed it down the aft deck.



Painted the wooden planks and nav lights, resque bouys painted white and red and so on, so many little things done, she is finally starting to look like the real stuff.

Next little big project will be, the radarmast, like i've shown before with my tease picture, i allready started to solder the simple stuff, biggest challence will be the radar itself, i've got loads of pictures about that radar, Boy, i hate those Russians, so much complexity with a maze of tubes.


Manfred.

[MFR1964]

I've been playing around with the soldering iron, but first i'll show a old vid, just to get the complete story on the track.

Firing live rockets can be fun, but when they have a unpredictable trajectory it becomes dangerous, my intial design failed, which i've shown on the vid, so it was back to the drawingboard to find a new solution.





First, there is a kind of reinforcement at the base of the mast, used some styrene to copy that.



Sanded down the reinforcement at the base, marked down the different heights at the mast and dryfitted the first copper creation.



I'll stop moaning about that hated productionwork, because somebody has to do it, there is only one man present at the Skunkworks, yep, that's me.





The reward of my productionwork, it seems to be much work, but it took me 4 hours to build this, i have to say, those are the least complicated one's, still one to go before i can start with the radar itself.

Manfred.