The great adventure of building a Nautilus! - Here is a attempt at building a Nautilus

[scott t]

This is my attempt at building a Nautilus.
Built from the art work of Dave Warren.
I traced my patterns from his art work in AutoCad.
Once drawn to full size they are printed at a scale
to give me a boat length of around 45 inches.


The boat profiles and stations are printed out and
ready to glue down to some 1/16" sheet pvc (shower surround).


Here the stations are ready to glue down. I didn't quite
perfect my glueing technique and got my fingers pretty sticky.


The trusty bandsaw was my tool of choice too
cut close to the pattern lines.




The final shaping was done with various sanding tools.
These heated the pvc and left a melted burr which was
easily snapped off or scraped off on a sharp edge of metal.

Now here is the disclaimer: It took me years to get to this
point so I don't expect to blaze to the end of this project!

I hope to be able to report some progress soon.

Scott T



Edited By Scott T on 1147731646

[PaulC]

Scott,

Excellent start! And a cool

Scott,

Excellent start! And a cool concept for the Nautilus. Looking forward to seeing the project progress.

[bob the builder]

I really like Dave's take

I really like Dave's take on the Nautilus, and I'd toyed with making an RC version of his boat. Excellent choice of topics, and I really look forward to seeing progress. Be sure to post here so we can all keep up with it!


Best regards,


Bob

[Guest]

I remember seeing the artwork

I remember seeing the artwork for that boat.

It's clearly Goffian inspired, which is no bad thing in itself, but still has enough differences to make it interesting.

Crack on!

Andy

[scott t]

Thanks for the encouragement gentlemen!

Thanks for the encouragement gentlemen!


Back at the bandsaw to cut slots to fit station bulkheads.
The material used is easily scored and snapped, which is what you see here.
After snapping it along the centerline the top and bottom parts stayed connected slightly (dumb luck) like a hinge on a car glovebox.
This let me saw both parts at one time and keep top and bottom slots aligned.


Here a piece of material is fitted in the slot to check for binding.
If it does not fit run it on the blade to widen the slot.


I ran into the part of the saw where the start buttons are located.
I was able to swap ends and continue cutting.
So far the pvc (shower surround material) has worked pretty good.
And the material may be cheaper than balsa wood if found at a freight damage store.


Here the parts have been cut and the top parts slid together.
The long thin parts are pretty flexible, but should stiffen and staighten when glued to the other parts.

I would like to add to my list of tools the easter basket in the picture.
It has been very useful in transporting the small parts to and from the bandsaw.
Two baskets might even be better to take one part and saw it and place it in the other basket.
The reason I say this as some of the parts are missing.

Well thats the easy part done. (only because its done)

Scott T

[scott t]

http://www.subcommittee.com/forum/50]CP_1196.jpg
Some progress on gluing things


Some progress on gluing things together. Hot glue hardens quickly and is fairly sturdy though it will not be my main means of holding things together.
I intend to fill all the voids with expandable foam, which should really stick things togehter.


Glue progress.


The top half of the frame work glued up with the lower half looking like a centipede crawling around behind.

-Scott

[modelnut]

You might try insulation foam

You might try insulation foam instead of that expanding foam you mentioned. The spray stuff gets out of hand quickly and is hard as a rock.

Insulation foam comes in sheets of various thicknesses and can be easily cut with a Foam cutter. I roughed out a few sculptures in foam and then covered them with putty. (Look here. Most of this page is my first sculpt.) I also have a NAUTILUS roughed out the same way. I really should take some pictures and post them. I stopped sanding on my N for a while because I got tired of the dust. Should get back to it soon.

Anyway. Give insulation foam a try. It saved me a lot of time and money --- and a heap of frustration!
Just make sure that the spine of you sub stays true. My second attempt warped and was unfixable (My NAUTILUS.)

-Leelan

[scott t]

Thanks for the suggestions.

On the

Thanks for the suggestions.

On the expandable foam, doesnt the foam cut easier after you cut through the crust? My plan is to overfill the voids and then trim down to the forms with a hacksaw blade. I saw them doing this on a home building show where they shot foam between wall studs and then trimmed them after the foam cured.
Does the expandable foam cut with the hotwire cutting tool?

What type of putty did you use? My plan is to smooth and texture the surface with drywall mud.

I remember seeing some pictures of your Nautilus and liked what you have done. Let see some more pictures, please.

-Scott



Edited By Scott T on 1149555863

[modelnut]

I don't know if your

I don't know if your bulkheads will stand up to trimming with a hacksaw like those home-repairs. It might but you be the judge.

I don't know if the hot-wire will cut the expanding foam. It might, but it will have to get past that rock-hard crust first.

I will take some pictures of my third attempt at the N and post them soon. In the meantime I will give you an idea of what I did.

This time I cut bulkheads out of cardboard and then cut 3/4 inch foam to fit between the bulkheads. That's almost what I did in my second attempt. But this time I went your route and glued them to two silhoettes instead of a simple spine. These two halves were then layed on a stiff table and sheet of MDF to keep them straight. Once the glue dried I sanded the excess foam down to my cardboard shapes.

Once this was done I sprayed the beast with Krylon primer - gave it a real good coat! The primer ate at the foam and exposed my forms to a depth of about an eighth of an inch. Then I covered the two halves in Apoxie Sculpt and sanded them down to meet my forms.

I am still sanding. I gave it a rest because the dust was starting to fill my apartment. But I may start sanding again soon. After all, I am not getting any younger and I do want to finish this model before I die.

-Leelan



Edited By modelnut on 1149618835

[aeroengineer1]

Another idea is to use

Another idea is to use modeling clay. I have seen clay used to make masters for a few boats, and I imagine that it might work.

Adam

[Guest]

The expanding foam is polyurethane

The expanding foam is polyurethane foam, and it won't cut with a hotwire- you need to use a styrene based foam for that.

The pink of blue insulation foam is the way to go if you want to hot wire.

I use polyurethane foam, as it is resistant to polyester resin. I find it very easy to work with rasps and sandpaper.

You will want to skin the end result with resin and tissue- this will make a very tough but light master. Finish off with polyester filler (bondo, evercoat etc.).

Andy

[anonymous]

Andy your right. Hey point

Andy your right. Hey point him to my type 17 scratch build thread if you can mate. I can't seem to locate it here on SC. thanks Andy.

Steve



Edited By U812 on 1149890481

[Guest]

Type 17 building thread



Edited By

Type 17 building thread



Edited By Sub culture on 1149951932

[anonymous]

Thanks Andy.

Steve

Thanks Andy.

Steve

[scott t]

Here is a question about

Here is a question about the center dive planes?

If the dive planes of the Nautilus where built tube like as in the picture, with a wedge shape behind the pivot,

would they form up and down forces as it pivots?

To me it looks like it would form a wing shape with the wedge and tail edge of tube and might form high and low pressure regions for forces up or down.

Or maybe leave the tube straight and pivot the wedge inside?

-Scott