Delta Submersible - restoring a wreck!

[steveuk]

Great news - a package

Great news - a package arrived in the post today.
New windows, new ballast tank material, new LED lamp holders, and some extra kit parts that will really help to fit her out with detail.
Thanks Norbert.

[steveuk]

Progress update


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/Stevesmodels/Subs/Delta%20submersible/stage%202%20rebuild/th_70sterndrain.jpg
The rear ballast tank

Progress update



The rear ballast tank drain tube was not in the right place.
So whilst the rear cone was off I moved its position further back and onto the centre line.





Detail of the real sub tail fin.




Model tail fin showing problem areas. Note how; the tailfin is fixed too far back and there is a vertical step at its leading edge where it meets the hull; the rudder hinge has been fixed the wrong way around; the hull bolt detail has been drilled away.




The problems have now been fixed..
The whole tail fin was taken off and has been moved forward to meet the hull line and so the vetical step on its leading edge is gone. The outer corners have also been rounded off.
The square holes above and below the prop shaft have also been moved slightly to the correct position.
The rudder hinge parts have been swapped over to the correct sides.
The damaged hull bolt details have been repaired.
Also I modified the stern light housings from round to elipse shapes.

[steveuk]

Back on the case after

Back on the case after a little rest.

So, the propguard has been cleaned up and refitted. I changed the chunky support struts for more in scale appearence.
Here is the old reminder and now the new look.

(click on image to enlarge)
The Old


The New look propguard

[steveuk]

The resin hull parts had

The resin hull parts had been fixed on very out of whack. So now they heve been cleaned up and fitted correctly, then faired in smoothly with car body repair putty.

Again a reminder of what it used to look like - notice the horrible join line where the front cap of the pressure hull had been fited badly to the hull cylinder - seen just aft of the porthole guards .

The Old look hull



And now the new smooth look hull.



Also the stern cone had the same treatment.
Actually the whole stern cone had been fitted so badly the prop shaft was actually pointing up toward the back.
You can also see in this picture that the stern running lights have been fitted.

[steveuk]

Next came the metal deck

Next came the metal deck and hydroplane pushrod fittings. You can see how the metal deck parts had been bent badly. They were not evenly bent to shape, and worst of all they had been formed the wrong way round - the deck piece with the slot for the hydroplane pushrod had ended up on the wrong side.
So I cleaned them up and flatened the two deck parts back out on the bench vice anvil with a hammer and then bent them into the correct shapes.

The Old parts (note the slot for pushrod is on the wrong side)





I made up some deck support strips from spare plastic sheet and glued them in to correct position on the hull.
You can also see in this picture the pushrod seal tube fitted into position in the pressure hull.
Notice at this point the internals and pressure bulkhead have been painted their light blue colour.





And here the re-shaped deck pieces seen dryfitted.
You will probably have noticed by now that the hydroplane arrangement has been altered away from the current design of one large offset diveplane. After discussion with the client we agreed to go down this route and give this Delta an experimental dive plane arrangement ..call it flight II. He preffered a symetrical design, and it seemed like a natural exploration. In keeping with the real Delta I have constructed the dive planes out of clear perspex.

[steveuk]

Next up I tackled the

Next up I tackled the keel. Norbert supplied me with some plastic parts when he sent the window replacement set - and so I had a brand new keel. So this was a simple box to construct.
I was not happy to just glue the keel straight onto the plastic tube, knowing it has to hold all the weight of those two heavy lead bars inside it. So I have glued in some metal pins which are screwed and fixed through the hull.

Here is the Delta with the keel now attatched.





Here are some pictures below showing what she looks like currently. The pushrods and linkeages are all just dryfitted for this photoshot. They will be removed again until the sub gets its spray coat of paint.
The forward nose cone similarly is not permenantly fixed yet - Currently I am waiting to recieve the Sikaflex. Until it arrives I can not proceed with fixing the windows....

Current stern view


Current front view

[Wheelerdealer]

Looking good, I didn't think

Looking good, I didn't think it was possible after seeing the sub in its original state

[steveuk]

Thanks Wheelerdealer. I'm glad you

Thanks Wheelerdealer. I'm glad you like the progress I've made.

I've done some more work on her. The window guards are nearly all fitted, and I had to scratchbuild some parts that were completely missing. I will take some photo's of that real soon.

I've had a few personal problems at home which is why I am taking things a lot slower on the rebuilding than I intended. (A loved one is a lot more important than a hunk of plastic!)

So yeah, more pics coming real soon.

[steveuk]

Ok here are some more

Ok here are some more progress pics.

Restoring the window guards - I stripped, flattened out and then re-bent the original metal window guard pieces that had been badly fitted to the hull. After re-shaping them I fixed them onto the hull with medium superglue and formed the weld lines.

Some of the window pieces were totally misssing, so for those pieces I have had to scratchbuild replacement parts from some spare Aluminium plate. eg positions for running light housings.

Still to be made are the small window guards which lie immediately aft of the portholes.

At least, you can see the progress so far.

[robert]

I LOVE minisubs. Is this

I LOVE minisubs. Is this kit still available from the producer? I tried checking the site, but I can't read much German...

[steveuk]

Yes the Delta kit is

Yes the Delta kit is still available. Click on the British flag bottom right of main page to see the English language version of the website.

http://www.modelluboot.de/

[robert]

Thank you! That's an awesome,

Thank you! That's an awesome, and large, kit. I may have to succumb .

[Guest]

Most of the site is

Most of the site is in english too, you just click on the little union jack symobol at the bottom of the page.

Here's a direct link to the Delta page, in English-

http://www.modelluboot.de/KITS/DELTA_Or ... LTA_E.html

[steveuk]

Unfortunately this might have to

Unfortunately this might have to be the last photo in this series as the time deadline came and the client preffered to collect his sub and carry on finishing off the painting and adding detail himself. I might see it again when I visit him in which case I can take some more pics.

Well he is quite happy that this little Delta was indeed rescued from the scrap heap and lives to sail another day..

[Guest]

Haven't seen you about on

Haven't seen you about on this forum for ages- whatcha been doin'?

What happened to those winged submersible kits- have they been canned?