Trumpeter Seawolf building thread

[Guest]

Well while I had to wait until tomorrow for the putty to dry on the Washington plug I decided to start my Seawolf.

Now rather than sink a bunch more money into another WTC as an experiment I thought I'd try the Kilo WTC I already have. Should work if it's trimmed right. So lets see.

Dave if this doesn't work out I'll be hunting you down for another WTC. Just doing this for kicks.

First then I need to assemble the impeller unit. The supplied prop won't work so I decided to take Dave's route and make my own. Problem is I was out of brass stock and copper in flat form. It's 8 at night and no where to go get any so I started think about other materials.

Although ABS is not a likely candidate I thought I should try it as I was bored to death. I cut a circle. Marked the 8 blades. Cut them to the hub where I had attached a 1/8th wheel collar and then bent them to pitch.

After that I made a small spinner out of plumbers epoxy and backed it up on the under side with more to give the blades strength. then a little thin CA at the base of each blade to really make sure it was secured to the spinner and back.

Now they are nice a strong. Ran it in water and much to my surprise they held together and moved a lot of water.

So this is a cheap and simple way for those of you that are short on tools for metal work to make your own prop for this Seawolf.

Next I'll assemble the impeller unit.

More tomorrow night.

Steve

[anonymous]

As you can see there

As you can see there are two props or fans. The first one I made was backwards pitch. Dummy!

Steve

[bigdave]

Steve,
If you are going

Steve,
If you are going to try and inclose the fan inside the ring between the other parts be careful with the thickness of the fan. There is not much room inside. I had to modify the thickness of the ring with thin plastruct so I could give myself more room, and move the tail mount closer to the front of the ring. Just one observation on your plastic blades. If they flex inside the ring under water pressure(And I think they will) you will hit the flow correctors and BAM! BTW- my prop is about 1/4" thick. I also assembled mine with a Rulon bearing in the end that never needs oil as once you glue the whole rear propulsor together that's it! Email me if you have questions. Dave.



Edited By Bigdave on 1111023204

[anonymous]

Thanks Dave. That's much appreciated!

Steve

Thanks Dave. That's much appreciated!

Steve

[anonymous]

Byron.

thanks man those are cool

Byron.

thanks man those are cool pictures! Makes me drool.

Well I'm back at the Seawolf as I wait for the epoxy to dry on the Washington.

I used a Subtec stuffing box from Mike's Sub works for the bearing. Had it so why not use it.

I flat sanded both the stator blades both front and rear to give me more room for the prop. I'll add the aft stators after I make the linkages and set up the rudders and elevators.

Now to build that ship in a bottle and get the feathers all working. I'm going to just make the elev full flying rather than cut out the feathers. More bite that way.

Steve

[anonymous]

A bit more progress tonight.

A bit more progress tonight. Now that that's all done I can move on to the hull next.

steve

[anonymous]

Well I just hooked everything

Well I just hooked everything up and the rudders and elev work great. Now to lock off the tail section and move on.

Steve

[turbobearcat]

Well I just hooked everything

Well I just hooked everything up and the rudders and elev work great. Now to lock off the tail section and move on.

Steve

Steve
looks good so far, the biggest think I have yet to touch is a latching system for the upper and lower hull. I have the stern guled to the top half of the hull and the nose will be to the bottom half, that woudl take care of securing the ends but in the middle is where the fitting stinks and the need for a latch
needs to be developed.

The only problem I'm seeing with that setup, I should ahve guled the stern to the bottom half unless my WTC fits to the upper half of the sub...which I wonder if that that is ok?
If not it's going to make for a strange connection from the shaft to shaft.. I rather place the motor in the wet and solve this issue

Mark

[collins class]

Just to give you an

Just to give you an incentive, a Japanese modified Trumpeter at sea


From the Japanese Model Submarine Society Japanese Model Submarine Society There are more details about their Trumpeter conversion here as welll. Here are a few more pics from the site...






The Japanese folks have a canned WTC called a "Tamo2" that they use in a lot of their static model conversions and this is an example of one of them.

Looks like they use the stock prop from the kit, but affixed outside the stators....

BYron

[anonymous]

Hey thanks Byron. Cool stuff.

More

Hey thanks Byron. Cool stuff.

More progress today. WTC installed and everything works very well including the prop. I just used two small screws to hold her together. Also works great.

Finished off the model build itself and now she's in the paint shop.

More tomorrow.

Steve

[anonymous]

Out of the paint shop.

Out of the paint shop. Now for the scum line and weathering. Oh and decals.

Sea trials this weekend. Ya I'll get video.

Steve

[collins class]

Mate you have the more

Mate you have the more innovative solution so great job. I will be interested to see Dave's WTC when he has it ready. I look forward to your sea trials.

One thing I am wondering is whether you used any stiffening bulkheads in your build out of the hull. I know it is thick as styrene goes but was wondering about the level of hull flex under load. I was looking to put a glass spine and ribs in mine.

Byron

[anonymous]

Byron,

I don't think it will

Byron,

I don't think it will be a problem really. She's strong. the supports your seeing are just to lock down the WTC.

Steve

[turbobearcat]

Byron,

I don't think it will

Byron,

I don't think it will be a problem really. She's strong. the supports your seeing are just to lock down the WTC.

Steve

How about locking the hull halves together Steve?

I glued my stern to the top half of the hull and I'm thining about the nose glued to the bottom half..

I feel I made a mistake doing this but I have to live with it, another thing is I might just leave the motor in the wet if
I can't mount the WTC to the top half the hull, is this a problem to mount it high?(WTC attached to the top half of the hull) I'm thinking that it might be a problem if I do this but I'm going to try and make this work but I need feedback right now.. any ideas?

Mark

[anonymous]

Mark,

Ya that is a problem.

Mark,

Ya that is a problem. If you can break it or cut it a part. It will be a pain to mount the WTC any other way really.

The two screws work so well at holding the hull together I'm suprised really. Solid as a rock. Better than the Kilo.

If you used Tamiya extra thin glue to bond the parts you could put some more on the seem and it should release the parts. Other wise use a razor saw.

Steve