1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

[roedj]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

This is pretty cool filler paste, it starts off red and when ready to sand it turns white.

Tom,

Very nice work. Please tell us what is the "cool filler paste" you used and what epoxy you applied over the blue foam.

Thanks for your time,

Dan

[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Hey Dan,

I am using the West System Epoxy 105 with the West System 404 High Density Filler.

The spackling product I used was DAP Dry/Dex (Got it at Lowes)

[roedj]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Tom,

Thanks for the info.

Dan

[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Well the sanding began this morning and here is the progress after 2 hours.
It took a total of almost 5 hours to complete this.
OMG..I can barely move my right arm now and my right thumb is numb.

[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

The hull came out very smooth.
Here is a shot with the next primer layer on it.
It has maybe 20 or so pin holes which need a bit of spot filler which I applied this evening.
On to the wet sanding tomorrow.

[petn7]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Beautiful work

[boss subfixer]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Tom I have to agree with the others this is a very nice build, keep up the good work.
Now I also have to comment on your work area. If that is your shop I'm jealous and I hate you.
Just kidding about the hate you part but I am jealous.

[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

With a good coat of primer down, it is time to start laying out the lines for scribing.
I wanted to first add the centerline for the top and bottom along with the waterline cut-line.
A neat little trick I did was to wrap a strip of paper around the main section of the hull and
mark where the end overlaps. I then spread it out on the table and divided it by 4 and made tick marks on the strip.
I then wrapped it back around the hull and bingo...4 evenly spaced locator's.



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[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

I then set up my height gage with a marker attached to it and after double checking that
both the bow and stern at the centerline tube were at the same height and level, I
dragged the maker down the side. I also marked off the curve around the bow by simply
rotating the hull.



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[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

I was thinking that this would now be a good point to remove the hull from the centerline tube.
One little twist and it broke loose from the tube and it just slid off. That could have been a bad scene
as I have read with some guys having that issue with the hull not wanting to let go.
I will now need to make a temporary holder/stand for the hull and finish off the bow and stern ends.



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[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

This is kind of cool.
The actual anchor from the USS Grayling.
I have driven by this park a few times while going up North on vacation and had no idea this was there.
I will have to make a side trip and get up close and get some pictures of this neat artifact.
It will no doubt be the closest I will ever get to the real Grayling SSN. Especially since it was scrapped.



http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM1Y ... 646_Anchor

[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

With both ends of the hull filled in and finished, it is time for the scribing to begin.
I thought I would try something a bit different and take full use of the CNC machine.
My first step here is to create a .DFX file of the plan view from the drawing and import
it into my CNC program. (White lines in the picture below)
From here, I began to re-trace all of the curves and lines. You can see the progress in the picture below.
Once I get an area completed, I am going to take a piece of thick transparency film used in copy machines and tack
it down with 3M spray adhesive to a board on the CNC bed.
Then with a 1/16th end mill, I will cut all of the outlines out.
This will produce a crisp edge cut in the transparency film. I can then lay this onto the hull, tape it in place
and begin to scribe the outlines.
Lets see how this works...........



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[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

With the transparency film tacked down to the board, I ran the program and cut out all of
the objects.
I had to slow the feed way down so it would not lift the film off the board as it cut through.
Here is a shot of the cutting all completed. It came out just as I hoped it would.




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[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Here is a pic with the film applied to the hull ready for scribing.



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[tom m]

Re: 1/48 USS GRAYLING SSN-646 STURGEON BUILD

Nice.....
The thickness of the film (0.005) is just right.
I was able to scribe around the formations with the edges being firm enough to
run the scribe around it without deforming the film.



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