More Production Photos from The Cave

[greenman407]

Beautiful work. What color are those light grey panels?....................I can hear it already...................Light Grey. Duh

[Albion]

Beautiful work. What color are those light grey panels?....................I can hear it already...................Light Grey. Duh

So long as they aren't 50 shades of grey?

[Von Hilde]

excelent as usual Dave. I was wondering why you didnt stick a clear skylight on the con. The boat in the ditch pictures is the way it looks now after preservation. The Navy does the same thing for the aircraft static displays, because the original plexiglass has deteriated so badly from the sun's ultraviolet rays it has milked over and become obscure. Standard Navy practice is to paint the inside sometimes white, silver or black. Albicores display appears to be white. Heres a close up of her sail underwaySome of the early pictures of launching and commissioning appear to be no glass as well, but they ae low resolution and hard to distinguish

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Beautiful work. What color are those light grey panels?....................I can hear it already...................Light Grey. Duh

LOL. I owe you a better answer than that, Mark. Almost all of the model ALBACORE's, where the kit-assembler tried to represent those panels, had those panels painted too light. So, it was a 'darker' shade of gray ... if that's any help to you.



M

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

excelent as usual Dave. I was wondering why you didnt stick a clear skylight on the con. The boat in the ditch pictures is the way it looks now after preservation. The Navy does the same thing for the aircraft static displays, because the original plexiglass has deteriated so badly from the sun's ultraviolet rays it has milked over and become obscure. Standard Navy practice is to paint the inside sometimes white, silver or black. Albicores display appears to be white. Heres a close up of her sail underway[ATTACH=CONFIG]29856[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]29857[/ATTACH]Some of the early pictures of launching and commissioning appear to be no glass as well, but they ae low resolution and hard to distinguish[ATTACH=CONFIG]29858[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]29859[/ATTACH]

Yeah, if I had it to do over again (heh! ... I do, I got more of these to build), I would have vacuformed a clear dead-light for the thing. And I made the damned '560
sail numbers to big!

M

[Slats]

In the home stretch on this thing. I've already trimmed the 1/60 ALBACORE out in the local dive shop pool -- that done while in primer gray. Now, for the 'making pretty' stuff:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29849[/ATTACH] For hull numbers, ships name and draft markings I usually employ the Woodland Scenic line of dry-transfers. However, I did not have a font size large enough for the hull numbers that go on the sail. Nuts! Break out the proportional dividers and masking tape! I lofted the character outlines from the plan and laid them down on the sail with masking tape. Fortunately, 'Gothic' (block) letters and numbers are easy to do (no doubt one reason the navy has such an affinity for the style) this way. So, half a day invested in masking and I was ready for white paint.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29852[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]29850[/ATTACH] I broke out my nasty old Paasche H-model spray-gun, outfitted it with a #1 tip, and started blasting away with some thinned down water-soluble acrylic white. I first applied a bunch of over-spray protecting masking on the sail. While at it I painted the 'clear' dead-light atop the sail white to make it appear transparent. Looked like hell, I later polished it off for another try later with silver and some black streaking.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29851[/ATTACH] Yanking off the masking and, wa-la, hull numbers.

M

Freaking awesome as per usual.
You are the benchmark with that airbrush.
Good to see your back on ASSWIPE. How is your health David?

John

[Von Hilde]

You could make varients of the tower, If your going to produce some more. With and without the glass astrodome and with the forward windows. Numbers are no big deal, just a sand and repaint. If its just a prototype, I wouldnt change anything. Looks good just like it is. You should know when the boats come off the hard after OMAR and get the numbers repainted they use the BUPERS drawings for the font. The block letters are used for uniformity but the size changes for deployment aplication. Sometimes blacked over. or subdued shade of grey instead of white. Sometimes on a NATO or goodwill cruise they would be all geedunked up wih the ships patch painted on the tower and the name plaque attached somewhere.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You could make varients of the tower, If your going to produce some more. With and without the glass astrodome and with the forward windows. Numbers are no big deal, just a sand and repaint. If its just a prototype, I wouldnt change anything. Looks good just like it is. You should know when the boats come off the hard after OMAR and get the numbers repainted they use the BUPERS drawings for the font. The block letters are used for uniformity but the size changes for deployment aplication. Sometimes blacked over. or subdued shade of grey instead of white. Sometimes on a NATO or goodwill cruise they would be all geedunked up wih the ships patch painted on the tower and the name plaque attached somewhere.

.

On the TRUTTA we kept our sail hull number weld-beads up there, but I don't remember ever having her numbers up in white there (I would know, I was the #1 flunky on deck-gang) other than Change-of-command, and other such functions. Most of our time, the boat operated in friendly waters about the Caribbean. But, on occasion we embarked RM type CT's, and we circled Castro's 'island paradise' collecting their radar and other RF traffic -- so no hull numbers, and no running lights for us. Usually three or five days snorkeling, trying to keep the ECM antennas above the chop. Ugh!

The Boomers never had the hull numbers on the sail, except for the occasions you mentioned, Dave. We even ground off the weld-bead 'cheat-marks' off the sail -- I was told 'their' satellites could make them out in IR. Yikes! So, the only time I had those numbers up on the sail (yup, deck-gang again!) was crew-change between patrols.

[Kazzer]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29851[/ATTACH] Yanking off the masking and, wa-la, hull numbers.

M

Grammar Police Notice!

Wa'la????? Wa-la????? GOOD GRIEF! I thought I'd told you about this before. It's supposed to be French you tosser! VOILA! Which means "There!" or "There it is!"

Americans!!!

Oh! Wait! I'm one now! Bugger!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Grammar Police Notice!

Wa'la????? Wa-la????? GOOD GRIEF! I thought I'd told you about this before. It's supposed to be French you tosser! VOILA! Which means "There!" or "There it is!"

Americans!!!

Oh! Wait! I'm one now! Bugger!

I perform fantastic feats of Craft and all you see is the lint on my sleeve!!!!!!!!

WFT!!!!!

When I detail your 1/72 KILO I'll do it with fire-crackers!

M

[Von Hilde]

.

On the TRUTTA we kept our sail hull number weld-beads up there, but I don't remember ever having her numbers up in white there (I would know, I was the #1 flunky on deck-gang) other than Change-of-command, and other such functions. Most of our time, the boat operated in friendly waters about the Caribbean. But, on occasion we embarked RM type CT's, and we circled Castro's 'island paradise' collecting their radar and other RF traffic -- so no hull numbers, and no running lights for us. Usually three or five days snorkeling, trying to keep the ECM antennas above the chop. Ugh!

The Boomers never had the hull numbers on the sail, except for the occasions you mentioned, Dave. We even ground off the weld-bead 'cheat-marks' off the sail -- I was told 'their' satellites could make them out in IR. Yikes! So, the only time I had those numbers up on the sail (yup, deck-gang again!) was crew-change between patrols.

I got yer deck gang right here shipwreck, fancy paint and all. Did the deck apes take care of the MOB life ring on the bell when diving and surfacing and, about that mahoganey/ gold leaf name plank, stowed underway? I thought I saw some of them ended up in the Boat Bar on Duval on the wall at one time. Lots of boats decomissioned and sold to other countrys out of Key West harbor. Of course quite a few bubbleheads left a lot of memorabillia and personal stuff behind, in that place, in those days, when they were decomissioning the fleet boats. I was thinking that you could actually put raised numbers with fine wire glued to the plug. Might be a bit painstaking, but surly doable. I have used wire and monofiloment glued on the hull to simulate weld seams in the past. Ive been thinking of getting a 3DOODLER pen to experiment with, for just such an aplication. Liquid plastic that hardens in seconds for 3 dimentional sculpture. Possibilities are endless with that thing. Promo videos of it are kind of lame but someone with a little creativity and an eye for detail could make some spectacular stuff. I see the possibilities of easy wintwrgardens and railings, a 1/72 scale rc zeplin with intricate plastic framework and model airplane parts. All could be drawn with precision, rather than freehand as in the video commercial with the artist and the Eifle Tower.

[Von Hilde]

You could wire in a m-80 scuttling charge in that Kilo on an electric match, in a misterious little black box in the WTC. Power switch starts the manual egg timer. When you hear the ticking, STEP AWAY FROM THE MODEL! rather briskly at that, "Annalog aint always that precise" the Master Chief always said, chomping on that stogie that he just lit the fuse with.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

The standard white 'Gothic' block-letter and number font seen on United States Navy vessels is available as press-on type dry-transfers from several sources. But getting them in various imperial scales in white is not so easy. So far, the only reliable source I've found is an outfit called Woodland Scenic. Which presented me a problem with the 1/60 scale ALBACORE. The markings available to me did not present number font (height) to that scale for the draft numbers. The draft numbers I chose are a bit over-size for this model. Oh, well.

Also, there were no transfer numbers large enough for those required for the sail '568' hull numbers, so I went old-school with those, painting them on.

We all understand the process of dry-transfers: a wax like marking of appropriate font, size and color(s) is loosely adhered to a carrier film. The self-adhesive marking is laid against the work, secured against shifting, and the carrier film side of the marking is burnished to press the marking onto the work were it ... hopefully ... achieves a tight adhesive bond, so that when the carrier film is pulled clear, the marking has been left (transferred) onto the work.

But, not always -- working with dry-transfers is an acquired art. There are so many things that can go wrong: the marking is incorrectly positioned; the marking is old and lost much of its adhesive properties; the substrate of the work is not receptive to proper adhesion; the ambient temperature is too low; improper stowage has resulted in dirt and dust contaminating the markings surface. And so many other variable to make you crazy as you try to employ these type markings. The ideal substrate to apply dry-transfers is a gloss surface (more contact area than a bumpy flat or semi-gloss surface). And the surface should be cleaned with a mild de-greaser such as Prep-Sol or denatured alcohol. Use a tack-rag between applications.

The problem with dry-transfers is their relatively short shelf-life (old farts like me measure time in decades). What were soft, easily applied transfers one year, are found to be very stubborn to leave the carrier film after a few years of careful storage. However, I've found that you can 'reactivate' the adhesive property of the markings by heating them up a bit with a hot-air gun. That's what you're seeing here. I tape a group of markings down on some wax paper (the wax won't permit easy transfer of a marking should it get too hot when face-down to the wax paper), heat the group a bit, then reverse them and heat again. The markings and backing film quickly go back to ambient temperature, but the 'stick' has been restored to some degree and will be good for a day or two -- plenty of time to do what you gotta do.

The toughest job when applying dry-transfers is getting their location on the model correct. You can not have enough orthographic drawings and photos on hand to help you with placement. Before even opening the dry-transfer package you want to identify the position of the markings by placing 'cheat' strips of masking tape onto the model. You'll use these cheat lines and points to get the dry-transfer down right THE FIRST TIME. However, you'll be pleased to know, if you get it wrong, you can lift the offending marking off the model with ease by grabbing it with a piece of masking tape. The marking will pull off either in its entirety, or bits at a time. No sweat, keep dabbing the masking tape down over the offending marking till it's all pulled off. Try again, dummy!

Notice that this particular job involves placing a radial strip of cheat-line (masking tape) around the bow and then marking it to indicate the position of each draft marking. The multi-point proportional dividers is a great aid when doing this kind of lay-out work.

And this is a great demonstration of the need to convert a projected view, as would be seen from the side (or study of an orthographic profile drawing), to a developed lay-out of the draft numbers which in fact are elongated, but appear of uniform height when viewed from the side (such as the view the topside-watch has when he walks the pier taking his hourly draft readings). The projected-to-developed spacing can be done mathematically or physically during the lay-up process, where the spacing graduations along the radial cheat tape reflect this 'elongation' between the draft numbers, above and below the LOS.

The ideal burnishing tool is a ball-point pen -- the rolling ball over the backing film only imparts a compression force, that acts to push the marking into the models surface. The rolling ball contributes little lateral force; a force that would push and pull the marking during the transfer process -- this sheer force ripping the marking, ruining the job.

US Navy draft numbers indicate one-foot vertical increments between the numbers; each number is six-inches tall, as is the distance between the draft numbers. The '3' on this rudder indicates that the rudder at the base of that mark is 23-feet above the boats keel. As the scum line is at the '3', then that indicates the boats normal surfaced waterline in surface trim.

You'll notice in this example that the numbers are a bit scrunched together vertically -- I went for the larger of the two choices the dry-transfer sheet gave me. Oh, well. Sometimes you have to be pragmatic about it and trudge on with the job.

This ratty copy of a shipyard shot of the ALBACORE phase-2 stern was a vital piece of information. Not only for rudder and hull draft marking placement, but also helped me work out the propeller dunce-cap, and stern plan-horizontal stabilizer interface. Note that the after draft numbers also extended down onto the hull proper.

M

[Von Hilde]

You amazed me again. I have scads of wax letters tuffed away in my signage crap. Never thought of using them as decals on models. Thinking outside the box, one upmanship kudos a pa ti. Now I have to go dig thru the box and find the small font page of Japanese Hiragana & Katakana characters.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

You amazed me again. I have scads of wax letters tuffed away in my signage crap. Never thought of using them as decals on models. Thinking outside the box, one upmanship kudos a pa ti. Now I have to go dig thru the box and find the small font page of Japanese Hiragana & Katakana characters.

Hey, just passing on what the Greats handed me, Dave.

As long as the adhesive properties of the 'wax' to the models surface is greater than that of the carrier film, a successful transfer is likely. Chemical and/or heat treatment of the carrier film can enhance this differential in your favor. Experiment!