Nov 4, 2004
Received my kit today and wow is it allot of stuff. I ordered my kit from Ships n' Things. I've had a couple of orders from these folks and I've gotten nothing but great service.
Nov 16, 2004
Finally got started tonight and got the control tray dry fitted. Some of the tabs needed trimming to fit the slots. All the slots need to be scraped or filed to open them up a little. Need to disassemble it and do a little clean-up and then reassemble it and glue it up.
There's a thread going on over at the SubCommittee on building this kit.
Dec 5, 2004
Got the front hull section cut out. Also installed the grills for the flood vents. I found out the grills for the front hole can be bent and installed instead of the aluminum mesh supplied with the kit.
Dec 8, 2004
Got some advice on additional references from Rui Matos, aka skipper, over at of all places Armorama. I found One at Amazon (USA) and the other at Amazon (DE), books are linked below. Thanks Rui.
Also been looking for a radio. I think I've found the one I will get, more later.
Dec 13, 2004
Ok, ordered a radio last Friday, Dec 10 and received it today. Folks at Harbormodels were great.
This is the radio I ordered. Came with four servos. I found other for a little less but they only had two servos.
Here's what it looks like in the box.
Got the hull sections cut out tonight. Thing is going to be big. That's the Revell 1/72 scale Type VIIc above the XXI hull pieces.
Dec 25, 2004
I did a little testing and found two glues that work really well on the hull. One is Weld On 1802 a fast and thick syrupy consistency. I'm using this in my build. Also using Plastic Welder, I found this in the glue department at Wal-Mart. I've also found it on line. I also found at the local Lowes (super hardware/lumberyard type store) a cleaner for PVC/CPVC to clean the plastic before gluing. I've tried several other glues with poor results.
Got some work on the forward section done today. I didn't want the bulkheads up against the vents. So I ground back the plastic to clear the vents.
Dec 28, 2004
Got a delivery today. I ordered some pulleys and belts for the rudder from SDP/SI. I want to try and replace the bell cranks on the rudder and prevent cutting a hole in the hull for clearance. My plan is to move the bell crank forward and connect it to the rudder with the belt and pulleys.
Got the vents replaced on the center hull section. I had two grills short shot. I emailed Robbe and they told me to talk to the US importer and supplied an email. Emailed them twice with no reply. I then emailed Robbe again and am still awaiting a reply. I friend at work who is from Germany told me to wait as things are slow this time of year.
So, I took some evergreen strip and fabricated some replacements.
Got some work done in the last few days. One thing I found out is to sand the opening in the bulkheads for the WTC. Also did some more soldering on the shaft that seals the WTC. The plastic weld mentioned above is great for the basic assembly.
I've been on vacation for the last week and between honey-dos I gotten allot done. All the major hull work is done. I've kind of been putting off fitting out the WTC. Never done this before so I'm a little hesitant but the time has come. After trimming the flange from the hull, I'm happy I went to the extra effort to reinforce the interior with plastic wield. I think I will glue some sheet plastic to reinforce the bottom of the hull. I'll just cut some sheet plastic to size glue it on and then blend it in.
There are a couple of threads going on about building this kit at the SubCommittee and RC Groups.
Got some more done in the last few days. I was wondering through Radio Shack and found some LEDs that will work perfectly for the navigation lights in the sail.
Jan 24, 2005
Got some more work done on the sail. The gun turrets should be set into the sail not sitting on a ledge. I opened up the pits for the turrets. You can see in the photo the area in red. This area behind each turret should also be removed. I'm going to leave it as it really can't be seen.
You'll also need to shorten the length of the turrets. I just glued some plastic scrap to the inside walls of the turret and then sanded the front and front corners down until they fit the turret openings. I also plan on sharpening up the corners of the turret hatches as they are to soft.
Feb 6, 2005
Just order some 20mm flack barrels from Steve Nuttall.
http://halfliferefugee.homestead.com/HLRsite.html
Feb 13, 2005
I'm in the US and didn't want to purchase a set of metric drills. So I found a little chart to convert metric drill sizes to inch.
|
FRACT SIZE |
# SIZE |
METRIC SIZE |
DECIMAL INCHES |
|
5/64 |
|
|
0.0781 |
|
|
47 |
|
0.0785 |
|
|
|
2 |
0.0787 |
|
|
46 |
|
0.0810 |
|
|
45 |
|
0.0820 |
|
|
44 |
|
0.0860 |
|
|
|
2,25 |
0.0886 |
|
3/32 |
|
|
0.0938 |
|
|
|
2,5 |
0.0984 |
|
|
|
2,75 |
0.1083 |
|
7/64 |
|
|
0.1094 |
|
|
|
3 |
0.1181 |
|
1/8 |
|
|
0.1250 |
|
|
|
3,25 |
0.1280 |
|
|
|
3,5 |
0.1378 |
|
9/64 |
|
|
0.1406 |
|
|
|
3,75 |
0.1476 |
|
5/32 |
|
|
0.1562 |
|
|
|
4 |
0.1575 |
|
|
|
4,25 |
0.1673 |
|
11/64 |
|
|
0.1719 |
|
|
|
4,5 |
0.1772 |
|
|
|
4,75 |
0.1870 |
|
3/16 |
|
|
0.1875 |
|
|
|
5 |
0.1969 |
|
13/64 |
|
|
0.2031 |
Well, it's been awhile since I posted to this build. I had some things going on that got in the way of the build.
So, in the last few weeks since Christmas I've got allot done.
Started on the electronics for the WTC, motors installed, temporally installed servos, batteries, speed control, receiver, and the battery for it.
Installed the master on/off switch. I had a problem. I reversed the part that the switch mounts to. So I wound up installing it farther to the rear under the servos.
I assembled the stuffing tube. Just had to soldier some tubes to the main shaft. Here is where I found another really big mistake on my part. I had glued the end cap on upside down. I finally ended up cutting the rear framework off and re-gluing the two together. I now know the glue I got from Wal-Mart is going to hold up well.
Installed the fin caps on the rear planes. I also glued some scrap plastic over the seams to reinforce the joints on the hull. I also glued scrap plastic on the hull where the dive planes are located. I did this to square up the edges and take up some slop in the dive planes.
I also built a system for the running lights. I plan on using a 9v battery in a box in the conning tower for the lights. I found a plastic box and slide switch at Radio Shack that fits perfect. I installed a divider in the box and mounted the switch on it. Then drilled a hole for the rod and installed a bellows to make it water tight. I then drilled a hole for the wiring to the LEDs. Wired up the LEDs and checked everything. I next glued some flat scrapes of plastic from the kit onto the box. My plan is to use this to prevent the see through effect from the vent holes in the conning tower.
Also installed all the railings and hatches on the conning tower.
Been doing some more work on the boat. I've made a new stand out of PVC pipe and some fittings.
Also got started on the rudder. I would like to say I decided to not use the square stock provided. I just misplaced it. So, I found some brass round stock to use. First, I drilled an enlarged hole in the timing gear. I used my mini lathe but turned the headstock by hand. I had found out earlier, even on the slowest setting that the gear would deform due to excessive heat. Then I turned down the brass rod to fit the gear. The added benefit is there is now a shoulder for the gear to rest against. I'll put something on the top of the shaft to hold on the gear.
I'm hoping to get more swing on the rudder with this set up. The results I hope will help in turning.
Got some work done on the rudder. I really didn't like have a lump on the rear of the hull. So I rebuilt the rudder system to work with a timing belt and some pulleys. I built a mount for the big pulley. I then opened up the rear pulley and turned down the rudder shaft. (See above.)
The first picture shows the pulley pulled part way out.
Then I cut out the protrusion and filled in the holes on the two hull parts.
