1/96 Ohio SSBN/SSGN build underway

[pirate]

Kevin P,
What are you worried

Kevin P,
What are you worried about? All you did is tell me the capstan was on the wrong side and to add those raised parts on the dive planes. Other than that you let me know that the decoy tubes on the sides are no longer there on the recent boats, all of which is available in photos. But your stories are priceless. Without those, I just could not go on with this build. ; )

I'll get you all my chart tape source. It's on my other computer. And it was a search to find it.

Pete

[KevinMC]

Andy,

I purchased my chartpak tape

Andy,

I purchased my chartpak tape from an outfit called Delta Art and Drafting Supply, but I can't seem to find them any more. (At least not using Google.) I stumbled upon another place that carries it though- Check out ThunderboltRC.com, look under Building Materials.

[aeroengineer1]

I have a local drafting

I have a local drafting supply house that I get it from. You might call them and ask. They might not recognize it by name, I had to explain what it was that I was looking for, then talk to a manager, but they had a whole rack full of it in many colors and sizes. The smallest was 1/64, but it was a little wider, by a few thousands of an inch.

Adam

[Guest]

Andy,
ThunderboltRC.com, look under Building Materials.

Jackpot!

Andy,
ThunderboltRC.com, look under Building Materials.

Jackpot! Cheers Kevin.

Andy

[pirate]

Here's the source I used:

https://www.suppliesnet.com/index.asp?P

Here's the source I used:

https://www.suppliesnet.com/index.asp?P ... =GO&Page=1

[Rogue Sub]

Pete,

Do you still plan on

Pete,

Do you still plan on making this boat an SSGN possible conversion?

I was looking at the Georgia the other day and you would have to build a totally new superstructure and modify the hull near the sail to do so.

Kevin

[pirate]

Yes. It's all changes to

Yes. It's all changes to the turtleback. I should be able to make a casting of what I have, then add to it and make a new mold for it.

Although I suspect they may have installed the side aperture sonar arrays below the waterline too. What do you know?

Pete

[Rogue Sub]

dont know pete. Should have

dont know pete. Should have asked 5 months ago when they were in dry dock well see

[pirate]

I've been putting down detail

I've been putting down detail tape on the main portion of the hull, and have sprayed it and now begun sanding back down to the tape's surface. Man, is this ever tedious. More to report and pictures once I've completed, if I haven't sanded my thumb off by then.

Pete

[boss subfixer]

Hey Pete,
Unless your trying to

Hey Pete,
Unless your trying to get a manicure while working on the boat I believe your thumbs should be on top of the sand paper.
Can't wait to see pictures. (of the boat not your thumb).
Don

[pirate]

I made some good progress

I made some good progress in the last week.

I was working on sanding back the filler primer over the taped details i put on the hull itself. I found out something that I can give as a tip: DON'T USE THE BLUE PAINTER'S TAPE FOR THIS PROCESS. It turns out that was the cause of all my leftover glue problems.

On some of the later areas where I put down tape for detail, I used regular masking tape instead of the blue painter's tape. The masking tape came up with cleaner detail edges and no tape residue left behind.

And Adam, the denatured alcohol worked the best on removing that tape residue. Thanks for that suggestion.

Once I got it all sanded down the tape came up well and the details are beautiful. I even added some photo-etched strainer vents I purchased from Jeffrey LaRue for built-in detail that will be in the molds. You'll see some of these in the photos. They are on the strainers and MBV on the top side.


This is a picture of the top of the hull which is underneath the missile deck. I made lines on it to be able to cut away the desired amount to gain access to the mechanicals through removal of the missile deck, and not the whole upper half of the hull. One probably won't be able to install or remove a WTC, but getting access to turn the power on and inspect that everything is working properly would be possible. It's divided into segments to let one remove whatever amount they want and keep the opening to within the edges of the missile deck without measuring.






These pictures show the detail added to the stern top of the hull. Here you can see the MBV photo-etched pieces added. It also shows the raised safety track which extends back over the hull from the end of the missile deck.




Here you can see the stern deck-side with the missile deck installed. I've also attached the towed array fairing to the hull.


This shows how the detail on the front of the hull now lines up with that previously done on the missile deck.




This photo shows something I added at the stern-side of the antennae buoy doors. These are the little rollers that stick up from the deck. They are little sections of brass rod. I wrapped a piece of masking tape around the center of them, then painted the ends with the filler primer until some paint built up the ends. When the tape was removed it leaves a smaller diameter in the middle which resembles the roller portion of them.


Here are some of the strainers installed.


This is the stern keel showing the ballast tank inlet vents, auxiliary propulsion doors and the anchor bay door.




These show the ballast tank inlet vents at the bow. You can also see the torpedo tube doors.

Here are some more of where it stands with all of it together. The sail you can see sitting on the deck is a casting made from a mold that Matt Thor sent me. Although it looks wonderful, it is not dimensionally accurate, so I'll be making a new one once I get the hull done.







You may have noticed all the little pencil nick marks around and all over the hull. These are indicating where all the section welds are. I was going to add more of the 1/64 inch chart tape to designate these welds, and then have them in the molds as raised lines. But once I started applying it I realized it was probably too much to have them so pronounced at this scale. So I changed my mind and decided not to do it. If someone wants to depict these weld lines it will probably look better as painted detailing.

As this thing is coming together I'm falling in love with this boat. The lines are really sharp, and it is just an incredibly sexy, menacing looking machine.

My next step will be to make the photo-etched hatches for the deck. I'll be using the photo-etching kit I got from Micro-Mark. I'll try to get photos as I go so you can see the process. It's really not a complicated process, but it does need to all be done correctly and very accurately to get good results, and half of it is done in the dark, as UV light exposes the photo-sensitive materials needed to reproduce the image you want. And it's a time intense process. So once I begin I'll need to keep moving. Stopping in the middle and taking an overnight or longer break leaves the possibility of accidently exposing the materials before they're ready to be, or for longer than they need be, therefore ruining the piece. Then you would have to start again from the beginning. And it would waste material–MORE COST.

Until then...

Pete

[Rogue Sub]

Hey Pete,

My wife just looked

Hey Pete,

My wife just looked over my shoulder and saw this thing on my screen. All she said is "your gonna want one of those arent you" that was followed by a long sigh LOL. You know what this means? I dont have to ask anymore its just understood now

Dont forget that the safety rail is raised above deck half way up the slope of the turtle back to the aft shore power acces hatch.

I like how you did the wire rollers for the bouys doors. Do you plan on doing the rollers for the slits in the middle of them aswell?

Kevin

[pirate]

Kevin P,
I'm thinking about scribing

Kevin P,
I'm thinking about scribing those rollers inside the doors.

[pirate]

I tried to document the

I tried to document the photo-etching process the best I could. With much of it being time-sensitive tasks, and much of it in the dark, it was a little difficult. I am just so amazed at this little do-it-yourself etching kit that I have to show you guys.

First step is to get a detailed drawing of the part you want to make. Remember, everything black will be what gets etched. Now whether you use a copy machine or a computer printer, you have to transfer your drawing to some clear acetate to make a negative. I used some inkjet overhead transparency sheets from Office Depot. They work great. I set my printer to print the highest quality settings it has, NOT THE TRANSPARENCY SETTING, because the ink needs to be as solid as possible—not transparent. Make sure you read the sheet's instructions because which side you print on depends upon what kind of printer you are using.

You put the details you want etched on one negative, and the details you want to burn through on both negatives. Then when the negatives are placed on opposite side of the metal, the etched ones only burn halfway through one side, but the cut outs burn halfway through both sides to create the holes.

Here you can see my two pieces. From this you can tell that the outer ring is the only areas that will become holes. They are broken up by the little struts going across this opening so that the inner piece (that I want) doesn't fall off away from the outer piece (which is scrap) in the etching tank. It all gets cut away later.

It's hard to tell with this item, but the back needs to be a mirror image of the front, so that when they're laid against both sides of the metal all the details line up to each other.

Using registration marks of some kind, you place the two negatives against each other to line them up, then tape them together.


The piece of metal, when covered with photo-sensitive film, will slide between the two negatives. The tape will keep the front and back registered.

At this point you cut a piece of metal to accommodate the size of the image you're using. (this is shown here for sizing, but it is also how the piece will fit between the negatives when it is coated with the film. I can't photograph it because it has to happen in the dark.)


Before you can coat the metal with the film, it has to be cleaned. The kit provides some little emery cloth pads to polish up the pieces with water. Here you can see the polished up pieces-three of them and the polishing pad at right.


After the pieces are cleaned (polished), the photo-sensitive film is applied to the wet surfaces of the metal. This picture shows the film on the front and back of a piece of metal. I realized later that the laser from the camera to focus on this in the dark exposed the film to enough UV light that this piece did not turn out.

When I say in the dark, I mean that the photo-sensitive film cannot be exposed to any, or at least very little, UV light. The kit recommends using those yellow bug light bulbs so you can see what you're doing. They work pretty well.


Once the film is applied to the metal it's still wet. You have to rub any bubbles out from under the film, then put it in a waxed carrier and run it through a heated press provided in the kit. This seals the film down to the surface of the metal.


Here you can see the plexi-glass carriers used to hold the negative to the film laden metal for exposing it to controlled UV. Once the film has been adhered to the metal, it is placed in the negative set that was taped together before, then in between the two pieces of plexi, and clamped together so nothing can move, again, all provided in the kit.

It gets exposed to UV light on both sides to expose the film. The instructions give many options on how to do this. To give you an idea of the power of the sun, if you expose your film to the sun at 12 noon, it can only be for 10 seconds. If you use a 100W light bulb, as I did, it must be no more than 4 inches away for at least 10 minutes. Obviously the 100W bulb is a more controlled environment. But that sun is one powerful star.

The piece in the plex at the top is just a scrap to show you how it gets set up. The piece at the bottom is one that has already been exposed. Again, the camera screwed this one up. But you can see where the light hit it it got darker. The dark areas will be set with a chemical, and the light areas (the areas you want etched) will wash away to expose the metal to the acid. Pretty cool.


As i stated, now the piece is set in a chemical bath to process and set the film so it will no longer react to light. This chemical is highly diluted to do this, so it's pretty mild. This is a picture of the piece fully processed, so I could easily take a picture without it effecting the film any more.



Now... ON TO THE ACID BATH! Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. All the things you see are in the kit, except I got a few more of the little Tupperware tubs. The metal is placed in the acid bath for specified durations, and rinsed and repeated, like washing your hair. My parts took four segments of 5 minutes each to completely etch through the holes and nicely etch the details.

The part is suspended on the clear stick in the acid. The little pump bubbles the acid to agitate the part and the molecules to work more evenly. Even so, you still have to rotate the part in the tank for each 5 minute segment.





This is the nasty stuff. It is ferric chloride acid. They tell you to have a full bucket of water on hand to quickly dilute the acid in case you spill it. Must be careful and wear gloves, and apron and eye protection.

Here are the etched parts right out of the acid tank. You can see I couldn't wait to start cutting away the scrap before removing the photo-film. I did this first so I wouldn't have to wait for the film on the scrap areas to get removed too.


Next step is to remove the etching film from the part. This is done with the same chemical used before diluted to process the film, only this time it is full strength. Putting it in the chemical bath for only a few minutes completely dissolves the etching film.



And here's the finished part, all cleaned up and laying in its place on the model.





So, not bad. I think if you wanted to get a laser etcher, like FX Models, that would set you back at least $5k, this was only about $120. I don't even know if you could get a laser etching service to scribe your model for that. This is a pretty nice alternative, and you can do as many parts as you want for that $120 plus added supplies when you need them.

Pete

[Rogue Sub]

I hope your looking hard

I hope your looking hard boys because that is the most saccurate hatch I have seen yet!!