New Arkmodel 212A U-32 Kit

[Guest]

Arkmodel has prodused a killer of a new kit! At a great price for what you get it a good deal.

The quality has gone way up on this new kit desighne.
Made from injection molded high impact plastic with alot of details molded in and in 2 parts as seen in the pics comes this nice sized easy to handle sub.
The components are very well made ,one in for instence is the grey locking bayonet rings that will hold the 2 hull sections together.Made very preciesly and the fit is excelent!.
Even the stern planes have pree installed brass shaft and molded seats made to exact scale.
Also comes with 2 3.5 inch scale props of 2 desighnes,nice.A threaded stainless polished 4 mm shaft is also included with 2 bushings that run smoth.

The hull molding is prity good not perfect but very good and will make a hansome model,at least its not plain like the Robbe kit that costs more than double,why cant they do the same and add some nice molded in details for the money!

Anyway I am pleased with the decals and general parts of this kit ,it took only 52 eros from china and got here in under 2 weeks in great shape and good packing.

This kit will be fun to build and the quality is very good,oh the hull is strong like fiberglass to my surprise its must have some nylon in it and machines very well without the dangerouse fiberglass particles.

Look at the details underneath,prity good!

I will be installing my casing of course and it will be a completly bayoneted sub,and have a non pressurized dive system.

Arkmodel also sells there casing and complete dive system that is taylored to this kit and uses 2 bags and pumps.

Lots of detail and high quality and good price make this a sub I highly recomend for any stage of builder.

well Im off to the pond and run the new Telemetry sytem that is just too cool.

Dave AmurSub Yard

[raalst]

Nice !

Nice !

[redboat219]

what scale is it?

what scale is it?

[warpatroller]

It is 1/48 scale. I've

It is 1/48 scale. I've seen it on Feng's site before.

Dave - I think the entire Hull is made of an ABS/Nylon material. The propellers are probably made of the same material?

[Guest]

Yes ,I mentioned PVC /nylon

Yes ,I mentioned PVC /nylon mix not sure which plastic but the durability from cracking is very good compared to just PVC as in the Robbe kits and its strong!
You cant compress the sail sideways or from the top!

The ribs are very well made and even if they where not used the hull would be plenty strong for RC use.

The 2 scale props are exeptionaly well made with no blemishes and run prity true.There edges are as sharp as a knife and will cut the water nicly with litle cavitation.I havent water tested them yet to get an idea of the thrust to RPM ratio but they shuld do well.
She measures in at 45 X 5.5 inches beam I beliave.

I ordered mine at a previuse agreed price but now its a bit more and is a shipping was 52.00 eros and PayPal is a go,good deal!

Mr. Feng and Tina are great people to deal with and produce some great kits!
The Foxtrot sounds interesting.
Dave

[Guest]

Hi some more info on

Hi some more info on this nice kit.

The stern planes need just a little bit of block sanding on the bases so that they turn smoothly and the brass bushing have very little slop which is esential for this type of diveplane to work properly.

The other thing I noticed was the shaft horns for the planes ,the setscrews dont hold there thread and strip out ,cant be tightened.

So I had to use nylon arms and collars and stainless steel allen head screws that work much better and can be easily tightened from a distance with a staght allen wrench tool.I believe its 5/32 screws.

Also the addition of brass ball links to the horn asembly will greatly enhance precition movement also very important in this desighne ,Robbe did a good job on that aspect by doing the same.
Helicopters have been doing it that way now for years and it works very well.
Thicker 5/32 stainless steel shafts will be replacing the thinner ones supplied.At high speed the forces of the water will bend the thinner rod causing a miss adjustment af the planes and making the model unstable.

Other than that I dont forsee any more problems with the build.

Oh one other thing the props defuser cone has a thread in it the same size as the prop shaft ,but the shafts thread is not long enough to get to it and lock the cone in place,it would be nice if it did ,as it is I will have to make a stud that will work.

The acuracy of this kits hull is much better than Robbes as the upper stern is squarer and the inclination is correct compared to the Robbes rounded upper stern and no other hull details molded in.
The brass detailed sheet has alot of important details that are left out on the Robbe as well like the nav light window frames have screw heads as on the full scale sub.Nice little details make this a first rate kit indeed.










Ill be posting more of the build as I go along if anyone is interested.

Dave

[herrmill]

Here's what it looks like

Here's what it looks like up close in person.

Chuck

[Guest]

Is she not beutyfull both

Is she not beutyfull both on the water and out.

The blue deck is interesting ,is that scale ,looks great and would help in visability in dark water.

Dave

[pirate]

Very nice!
I'd guess those

Very nice!
I'd guess those scribe lines are a bit big for scale, but it's still a nice looking model.

[Guest]

Yes the scribe lines are

Yes the scribe lines are a bit deep and large but nice work.


Dave

[Guest]

Here is some more mods

Here is some more mods I have done.

The 2 ribs are assembled with 2 stainless steel shafts and nuts and lock washers supplied.

The inner diamiter is 110mm as are the locking rings.

Since I won't be useing the Arkmodels inner caseing I had to make the inner diamiter smaller by some 4 mm to fit my caseing.

This was done with a section of shedule 20 4 inch irragation pipe.

I still needed 2 mm more and that was from the socket side of the same pipe ,2 sections cut and glued in place while the tube is inserted to insure alighnment.

The tube is not glued in.
Now the caseing will slide in and fits with no slop at all.

The 2 rings are glued onto the special ribbs and at the proper location in there rottation and set asside checking that there not missalighned.

The instructions are in Chinese but the pictures are very good.

Well till the next time.

Dave

[Guest]

Another was to use the

Another was to use the supplied "T" brass bushing and glued it on the out side of the hull,that way the cones end has thrust washer or hull protection from fishing line ect.
I thought it was better than just the plain bushing as per the diagram.
It fit without any modification.

Just had to be sure it set true or the shaft would be out of allighnment

[junglelord]

I love the innovation and

I love the innovation and clean work and photos.
Thanks as always....I learn from ALL of your post.
Cheers
Dean

[Guest]

Thank You JungleLord! http://www.subcommittee.com/forum/icon_biggrin.gif

Its

Thank You JungleLord!

Its great to see the interest and feedback and your posts are great to read as well Dean!

Dave

[Guest]

The next mod I have

The next mod I have done was to make the internal ribs assembly be able to be removed from the hull.

Since the hull is a tubular type and in order to ballance the sub at any stage of construction and beyond this mod was necessary,not only that but to prevent the need to make 2 large opennings in the bottom of the hull for ballanceing as shown in the booklet ,was not to my liking and I had to find a way to acomplish the same thing..

The instructions show the ribs and bayonet rings glued in place making it impossible to remove the inner "core" section just the casing.

If one needs to add foam or lead to say the bow area than with the core removed it is possible ,however only if the above lead and foam is glued to the core and NOT to the hull.

The 4 inch white tube is the sleeve for the casing on which the ballancing items are stratigicly placed ,as we all know that in subs ballance is everything and is as important as watertightness, at least to me.

Six glued in place stainless 4/40 size female spacers first screwed to the rib with button head allen screws ,just the right size to clear the 2 bulkheads when the ring is assembled then glued in to make the system work.

Before that happened I marked the locations to be dremeled out so that the ribs will pass over each stand off.If not done in this sequence the ribbs will never come out!

Its easy to do with goop which works perfectly with this material and sub in general ,it is my favorite glue in all my subs,it gives without cracking and peels cleanly,you just cant sand it.

The other mod is for the hydraulic masts and operational dive planes.
This was a challange in that the hole casing comes out the stern and with a twist,so I had to think of a way to make it disconect in a totaly blind and inacsessable area.
By useing magnets the sail planes will be connected via push rod from the stern dive plane rod,the rod runs inbetween the outer and inner sleeve and casing,there is a gap of about a 1/4 inch that a rod has plenty of space to run in.

You wonder well how does the casing stay inplace if there is a large gap in cercumfrence?

Well ther are those marveluse locking lugs and hooks they make the difference in the circumfrence and the fit is perfect! Just a bit of belt sanding on the shorter sections are needed,for some reason that mold was a bit larger by a few mms.

Also very important is the stern plains stearring horn mod,I went with ball links and stainless allen head screws all 4/40 and lock nuts and 1/8 stearing horns,then made and atached the larger stainless 3/32 shafting and bent them in place so that the X tail control is attained,this is only one side and the horns are done with the pivots moving in the same direction,if not 4 servos would have to be used and thats overkill.

The Robbe kit was that way and I corrected it right away.

Then there is the stern access door ,that part is good and should be done as its impossible to gain acsses to the control rods and prop shaft ,should the aft section of the casing be removed.I added the 2 side stops to further bulster the 2 tiny screws,in the field this area could see stress.

The diagram shows the cut in the sleeve that will allow the casing to be removed when the masts and sail plains mechanism is installed.

Dave Amur Sub Yard


















This diagram is another possible way to move the sailplains and shows the hydraulic masts.

The inner Core with sleeve ,later foam and lead will be added.