Mylo's 1:25 type VIIc/41 part III

[mylo]

Step 84]


The bow and

[b]Step 84]


The bow and stern upper deck castings were glued into place. Once dried, some minor sanding was required to flush up the casting with the contour or the hull. Some filler was used to create an invisible transition at the very tip of the bow.








More to come.


Mylo

[mylo]

Step 85]


This pressure hull

[b]Step 85]


This pressure hull step is only required for a static model only. An R/C conversion is going to require access to inside the hull for the WTC. Some sort of modified pressure hull is possible to allow for this. I will likely experiment with that in my r/c version of this sub.

Since it looked......stupid.....to have the two hull halves together and be able to look all over into the sub through the flood holes, I installed a pressure hull to give a realistic appearance when peering in. I was not looking to model in detail the pressure hull of a VIIc/41, but instead, just wanted to have something in there so that the model didn't just look like......two epoxy hull halves put together. I decided to go with metal tin because I liked the convincing look of the painted tin, it had just the right amount of "bendiness" in it, and I just thought it would work well. What I discovered is that tin is very hard to work with and having to build the complex shape of the pressure hull was not easy. The saving grace was that this is not a complete pressure hull, but only a dummy (the hull, not the builder). As such, I only needed a full circumference at the very bow and stern where the flood holes are located on the underside. The rest is just the upper half of the pressure hull.

I used pop rivets to build the ends of the pressure hull with the conical shape that it has, that being it tapers and gets smaller near the ends. These end caps were then inserted into the hull and epoxied in place. I then used one long piece for the upper part of the pressure hull for the remainder of the sub giving it the proper curvature. This pressure hull is far from being a scale model of the real deal, but it is convincing when observed through the flood holes, which was all I was after. The shape is close enough and took a lot of "tin bashing" as it was. Once painted, it looks like a.....pressure hull. Mission accomplished.






More to come.


Mylo

[tmsmalley]

Wow - goosebumps Mylo. Thanks

Wow - goosebumps Mylo. Thanks for sharing this - this thread will be a very valuable resource for we lesser skilled modlers!

Tim

[mylo]

Tim,

I maintain that the

Tim,

I maintain that the greater part of my "skill" is just grit determination.

Building a pressure hull ??.....what do I know about building a pressure hull ? I had to first figure out how to use a pair of riveting pliars because my initial plan of using duct tape was a total flop....I didn't know which end of the rivet went where. Never touched a piece of tin in my life, you should have seen the show I was putting on. Downright embarassing. ....but...got 'er built.

I'm trying to emphasize this point to guys thinking about scratchbuilding. Jump in, get your hands dirty or it'll NEVER happen.

Mylo

[anonymous]

Tim,

I maintain that the

Tim,

I maintain that the greater part of my "skill" is just grit determination.

Building a pressure hull ??.....what do I know about building a pressure hull ? I had to first figure out how to use a pair of riveting pliars because my initial plan of using duct tape was a total flop....I didn't know which end of the rivet went where. Never touched a piece of tin in my life, you should have seen the show I was putting on. Downright embarassing. ....but...got 'er built.

I'm trying to emphasize this point to guys thinking about scratchbuilding. Jump in, get your hands dirty or it'll NEVER happen.

Mylo

Words to live by. Mylo pick Merriman's brain. He will get you on the right path to making that pressure hull. You'll do a job on that too as is evident by the boat you just built.

Glad to see someone besides myself and raalst comment on this fantastic build.

And Tim. You built a great boat from scratch too!.

Steve

[mylo]

Steve,

The pressure hull is

Steve,

The pressure hull is built, ...as far as I'm concerned. I could spend considerable time on the pressure hull alone I'm sure, but that's not my goal with this boat. I would prefer to save my "harass David credit points" for some other project. This is very likely the only time I'll have to do the fake pressure hull because this is my only static display model. Any others will be for r/c conversion.

Mylo

[pirate]

Mylo,

Where are your posts from

Mylo,

Where are your posts from previously in this build?

Pete

[mylo]

Pete,

My apologies for not

Pete,

My apologies for not responding sooner, I was out of town.

My entire VIIc/41 build thread consists of 3 separate threads (for whatever reason, the forum wouldn't allow me to run it continuous as I got a number of "errors" and so had to create new posts).

Type VIIc/41 Scratch Build.
Mylo's type VIIc/41 continued.....
Mylo's type VIIc/41 part III

You can follow to entire process by accessing these three in that order.

Mylo

[mylo]

Step 86 ]


The first

[b]Step 86 ]


The first thing I realized when it came time to install all the armatures is that I forgot to make a casting for the prop shaft hull mounts. These were made as per all the other castings. The installation of the armatures was just a matter of flush sanding up some pieces for a better fit, using tape, clamps, zip ties, and whatever else to hold the things in place, and then Epoxy them to the hull. Once the epoxy was cured, I went at it with my rotary tool with a very small little grinding bit, and then finished up with some sanding in the areas where the epoxy was applied. All of the armature work was done with the hull inverted. Given that this particular sub is a display only, the installation of the armatures was much easier than if it was to be an r/c sub as I didn't have to have any of the rudders/dive planes actually function. In an r/c sub, this phase would take considerably more time using brass rod mounted directly into the dive planes/rudders as well as bushings to allow for the brass rod to function as a rotating shaft. I got a bit of a freebee with this sub.











[b]
Step 87 ]


Prior to installing the armatures, I gave them all a couple coats of the dark grey paint. I also masked off the area that I wanted to remain the lighter grey of the upper hull before the armature installation. The masking took some time. Like pretty much everything else, it was trickier than I was expecting. Once all the armatures were done, I finished off all the dark grey portion of the hull. Other than that, the most difficult part of the hull painting was finding the right colour of paint. I looked EVERYWHERE for a flat finish, dark grey, spray paint. The only one I found was Krylon Dark Grey Primer. It turns out to be very accurate....as far as I'm concerned.






OK, ...NOW....this thing is starting to look like a U-Boat.

As can be seen in the above photo, I built another display stand for this hull. The reason I didn't want to continue using my "builders stand" is that I didn't want the bow and stern supports to damage the finish on the hull, as my display stands are not going to have these. (These bow/stern supports on my builders stand is for added support, given all the handling).

I also have been busy building a complete other tower for this U-995 display sub that does not have any weathering. The tower is done and ready for install.

Unfortunately, I completely botched my upper deck casting (the only one I was able to cast from my destroyed rubber mold) doing some experimenting on it. So...it's back to the drawing board from scratch to come up with an upper deck. That's the next phase. By God I'm closing in on having this U-995 on display.


More to come


Mylo

[mike dory]

Mylo, Great looking boat. Have

Mylo, Great looking boat. Have you picked out a ballast system for her yet? Best Wishes Mike Dory

[mylo]

Mike,

*When* I finish my

Mike,

*When* I finish my r/c version of this sub (and not just this display model), and am looking at putting r/c guts in it, my focus and goal with the model will be to have it function as close to the real deal as I can, with scale speeds (prop shaft rpm), turning radius, dive times, etc. I'm looking to reproduce a 1:25 U-boat in more ways than just it's looks. Having said that, my ballast system will use pressurized air. If I can engineer it, I would like an on board system to charge the air, some sort of small, electric air pump. I intend on installing a 6" x 48 " WTC to make room for these kinds of toys.

We'll see, I'm going to be a while before I start doing any mechanical engineering.

Mylo

[anonymous]

Looks super Mylo. Can't wait

Looks super Mylo. Can't wait until I see you do the RC version but this will well do!

If you get a chance post some pictures of your work on this boat at my forum. There are many on subpirates that don't frequent SC.

Keep at it Mylo.

And you SC guys. Really this man deserves a round of applause from this the oldest Sub organization on the net. This has been one of the best building threads on SC or any RC site. Put him in the next SCR!

My 2 cents.

Steve Neill

[rick]

Yep, gotta agree. Mylo, thanx

Yep, gotta agree. Mylo, thanx for taking the time to document this for us all to see. For those of us that lack the space and skills to tackle a project like this, which includes myself, it was a real learning experience to see just how much work is involved. What an undertaking!! Thanx again....Rick

[mylo]

Steve,

Your compliments, as always,

Steve,

Your compliments, as always, are well received. I'll post a picture of the completed model on your forum. I have been in contact with Pete and have intention on doing a multiple edition documentation of the build in SCR, ....after I edit a whole shit load of stuff out and condense it considerably.


Rick,

Your comment concerning "space". Yes, my ship yard is extensive. I have turned my basement (with the exception of the laundry room) into my model building workshop complete with all kinds of wood, metal, and fine model building tools. Many of these tools I bought specifically for this build after coming upon a "challenge" that needed a tool to solve. (I think I have every kind of sander you can buy) The area you see in all the pics is my 9' x 4' working table where the large parts are kept and worked on, but I use my entire shop on fabricating and assembling many other parts. The point I'm slowly getting at is if you are contemplating a scratch build, particularly a large scale one, make sure you DO have adequate space to not only put the sub, but for the multitude of tools you are going to require. The last thing I want to do is discourage anyone from trying a build, but you might as well get a dose of reality right up front. ....in addition to money and time, you need space.

The work/time involved, ....... THAT is the true eye opener of this build thread to anyone new to it. Don't let common sense and good judgement stop you from taking on a build.

Mylo

[mylo]

** UPDATE **

I've recently

** UPDATE **

I've recently received the balsa stripwood that I need to rebuild another main deck master. (If you recall my original master was destroyed in making the rubber mold, and that mold destroyed in making the casting...and finally, ...me destroying that casting by tinkering with it). I have been busy with this new master. I'm making some improvements that will result in a nicer main deck casting. As most things, the second time around is not only easier, but results in a nicer final product.

I also had to redo a portion of the lower hull colour. After staring at it for a while, I decided "something" wasn't quite right. Further examination revealed that I had painted this lower colour 1/4" too low. If you look on the bow photo in Step 86, you will see three flood holes very close to the tip of the bow. These flood holes are supposed to be included in the lower hull colour, not the upper colour as I did it. The hull was masked off again with the lower hull colour 1/4" higher up. After completion, things looked much better in terms of the ratio between the upper and lower colours, that 1/4" made the difference. ......I did this while I was waiting for my stripwood.

.....things are progressing, one stumble at a time.


Mylo