1/96 Ohio SSBN/SSGN build underway

[wayne frey]

Pete,
For those who have

Pete,
For those who have prepaid, do you think it may be feasible to be ready for pickup at the regatta.
(Did I mention I am driving up there in my van this year? )

[pirate]

I can't say Wayne. Hopefully

I can't say Wayne. Hopefully it's done before that. But it is first come, first serve.
It's 6-8 weeks for delivery from when I get an order, or start on those for ones I already have waiting. More than two at a time and that time frame increases. So it will be a good two-to-three months to fill the orders I already have once I begin the kit production. And I've got to finish the master and the molds first.
I just don't know at this point. If that's a possibility then I'll try to do that. That would save individuals some shipping costs.

As this is not my primary source of income, and not even really a business, it is not top priority on my list, but I'm working on it as much as I can. I've got some more to post from work last night. So it is moving along. Now, my next hang up that I'm trying to figure out is how I'm going to add the panel lines for the missile doors. The large half radius has got me stumped. But I'll think of something.

Pete

[Rogue Sub]

Pete,
Need me to be waiting

Pete,
Need me to be waiting at your front door? Ill do it!!!

[KevinMC]

Not like I need to

Not like I need to point out the obvious, but this thing is coming along great!

Hey, I'm starting to get in deep to the detailing on my Ohio hull using your chart tape process. Man, is that ever tedious! I can go for about an hour straight, then I have to rest for a while until the massive knot in the middle of my shoulder blades goes away. Then I can only stand that about three more times, each time getting progressively shorter to get the paralyzing knot, before I have to quit, rolling in agony on the floor.

I remember that feeling. But the pain of laying it down (and peeling it out again, just wait ) definitely pays dividends on your resulting master. I don't know if it's too late to mention but another trick I found with the chart tape is that you can add even more depth to your details by selectively alternating between 0.016 (1/64) and 0.020 width tape. It's subtle, but just like good weathering many of the things that make models come to life are details that are so subtle that the brain still processes them but you don't consciously "see" them...

[pirate]

Kevin,

You mean for like hatch

Kevin,

You mean for like hatch openings or breaks in the hull only?

Pete

[pirate]

I'm working on the details.

I'm working on the details. I'm moving to the bottom front of the hull where the main ballast tank louvers are. For large areas that need to be recessed, or in this case areas intended to be opened up, I use a process I call painted tape detailing. I wrote a short article in the SubCommittee Report trying to explain it with drawings, after not doing so well in explaining it in my SubRegatta Sub Talk presentation in 2006.

Part of the problem there was that I did not intend to describe it before giving my speech. So explaining it off the cuff without visual aids was not a good idea.

Here I will take another shot at it with mostly pictures. I'm using this technique to delineate the main ballast tank inlets in the bottom of the hull.

The first step is to again get a to-scale printout of the details you want to denote. You will need this plus a cutting surface, wax paper, tape, spray mount (spray adhesive) and some kind of carrier film. I use airbrush friskit. Friskit is a brand name, but that's all I know it by from my airbrush days. I guess you could ask for airbrush masking film if the clerk doesn't know what Friskit is. I've got a lot left over since most commercial art started being produced solely on the computer and I don't do much airbrushing anymore. You should be able to find it at a local art supply store or online.

Cut the plan sheet so that it's pretty close to the edges of the details you want. Then cut a piece of wax paper a little bigger, plus enough area to tape it down.

Tape the wax paper down to your cutting surface. Then put tape down on top of the wax paper in a large enough area to cover the area of your details.

Now you need to use the spray adhesive on the back of your plan sheet (spray enough to get it to stick, but not too much because it will need to be removed later. I use blue painters tape too.) Paste it down on to the non-stick side of the tape. I use 3M Super 77. This is REALLY sticky stuff, and made to be permanent. But I work with it so much in my job that I know how much to apply to still be able to remove it later. You'd be best to get a repositionable spray adhesive, not permanent.



At this point cut out the detail sections that you want. Be very careful not to remove any of the pieces that you cut out. Leave all of them on place.

Once you get everything cut, apply a piece of the carrier sheet over top of all the cut pieces. This sheet needs to be small enough to not cover any of your tape holding the whole thing down. The Friskit comes with a paper backing that covers the adhesive side. Peel and stick.





This picture above is showing the Friskit with its backing still on. I'm figuring how large of piece is needed to cover all the cut pieces. When it's stuck down it is clear and you can see the plan clearly through it.

Burnish the carrier sheet down good so that all the cut pieces will be sure to stick to it. Then remove the tape on the edges holding the whole thing down. Pick the whole thing up in one piece like a sandwich. Make sure none of the cut pieces fall out. Turn it over and place it back down flat.


Very carefully remove the wax paper from the pieces that will be the details without removing the pieces from the sandwich. I use a sharp X-acto knife.







Once you've got all the wax paper removed from the detail pieces you can go one of two ways. If you're really gutsy, you can try to remove all the waste paper and tape area from the carrier sheet leaving only the detail pieces still sticking. This isn't so tough if there's only a few detail pieces, but if it's a large area like I'm doing here it would be very hard. So I left it all intact.

Take your sandwich of details, flip it back over so the sticky side is down. Position the whole thing over your model where it needs to go. If you notice in the pictures, I cut my detail sheet in such a way that one end lines right up with a landmark on the model for easier positioning. I also kept the center line so I could line it up.


Push it down over the model and burnish down all of the cut detail pieces so they stick to the surface. Then carefully peel back the carrier sheet from the sandwich. Make sure all the pieces stay on the model in place.



If you didn't already remove the waste paper, you can do it now. You'll notice that none of it is stuck to the model surface because the wax paper is still covering the tape underneath it. But go slowly and make sure all the cut pieces come out okay without peeling off the surface. If some weren't cut completely you may need to finish those cuts to get them to separate. And even hold the pieces in place with something so they won't pull up with the waste paper. Again, an X-acto knife works well here.





After the waste is removed, I go back and re-burnish down all the pieces to make sure they're stuck good.

Since when I'm finished I will sand the paint back down to the surface of all the tape and chart tape used to make the details, I will go ahead and now remove the paper that is spray-mounted to the back of the painter's tape, leaving the painter's tape in place. That will keep all the levels close to even and make it easier to sand everywhere more consistently.





I'll use this same process for any where that there is a lot of details in one area that have some expanse to them like these vents. I'll do the stern ballast tank louvers the same way.

------

I'm going to be adding details to the top of the missile deck. Some of them will need to line up with those on the forward deck. So I need a way to make sure that the missile deck always goes back down in the same place and can stay there.

To do this I fit a little piece of 1/8" brass rod into the front end of the missile deck where it meets the forward deck. This will act as a little tab, sliding into a hole made in the forward deck edge, and always line it up in the same correct place and keep it there.




I will add a tab to the back end of the missile deck too, but when building the model, the builder will have to determine how they make a hard physical attachment of the missile deck to the main hull. An easy answer will be to use a screw of some sort. You'll see what this rear tab looks like next time when I get the pictures downloaded from my camera.

Later,
Pete

[pirate]

Got the back tab made

Got the back tab made for the missile deck to register it in the same location every time. THis is just a plastic eye used for wood carving ducks and such. You can buy them in little packages of 50 or so. I also use them turned upside down and dropped into uncured RTV for keys when making multi-part molds. Leaves a nice little half sphere dimple.





In the mean time while I'm thinking about how to do the details for the missile hatches, I worked on making the stern planes. In the molds that Matt Thor sent me, this one was missing. So I had to re-fabricate the flap to fit. AND YES, KEVIN PRICE, I DID INCLUDE THOSE LINES YOU POINTED OUT. Thanks buddy. Your help is invaluable.





I'm working on the mold for this new part now.

Pete

[Rogue Sub]

Yeah baby!!! I was hoping

Yeah baby!!! I was hoping to get one of these to display for the Sub ball this APR!! Get on it buddy!

[Rogue Sub]

Pete,

Before you go any further

Pete,

Before you go any further on those stern planes contact me.

[pirate]

Well, the stern plane molds

Well, the stern plane molds turned out.


I was struggling over how to do the missile door hatches with tape or what, considering the half-circle edges.

But Don Evans gave me a great idea on how to do it. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.








Now only 12 more to go, ugh.

[boss subfixer]

Man that is looking sooo

Man that is looking sooo sweet! Just picture me as Homer Simpson drooling and making that sound he does! I'm glad the idea worked out for you.
Which trident are you thinking of doing for yourself?

[pirate]

all the detail lines are

all the detail lines are on the turtleback-Yea! Kevin McCleod was right, though it may be very tedious putting them on, in the end it makes a huge difference. Here's where I'm at:









Then I started painting over all of it with the auto-filler primer.









Next step once I get the primer built up deep enough to hold the details, and it is allowed to dry for a few days to get good and hard, will be to sand it all back down a little to be able to pull up all the tape.

[wayne frey]

Pete,
Awsome work!! Between this

Pete,
Awsome work!! Between this and the Report work, you are the man!
It is facinating to watch this build...

[pirate]

Thanks Wayne. I was wondering

Thanks Wayne. I was wondering if you were still looking in. I haven't heard your nagging for a while. : )

It feels good to get something accomplished on this. And the more I get done, the more I want to work on it, and the more I want to see done. I'm amazing myself on this one. Wait 'til you see it in person. I think it's looking pretty awesome.

Pete

[KevinMC]

That looks fantastic Pete, and

That looks fantastic Pete, and I love the trick for laying the radius around the missile doors. What material did you cut the radius guide from? Cardstock? Styrene? ("Enquiring minds" want to know so I can try it on the missile doors of my next scratch build...)

Now, we need to work on spelling McLeod correctly...