Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

**thor** · 02-10-2011, 03:30 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

I have always greatly admired the work that Skip Asay did on the beautiful 1/35th scale Marlin kit. It is a wonderful blend of old submarine architecture with the next generation of electronics and a bit of improved hydrodynamics. I was VERY lucky to be able to purchase the manufacturing rights to the 1/60th Albacore kit and the 1/35th Marlin kit from Dave Keogh of SubTech. Both kits are going to be turned into fully tricked out kits with all of the detail you would hope for. The boats will now be produced in Epoxy glass. The Marlin will be the first to be released, which will be mid-summer of 2011. The Albacore is on schedule for a late fall 2011 release. These boats are perfect subjects to work on inside during the cold winter months. Being plastic, they produce little dust and no smell. Due to the cold, my shop is shut down for a while. This allows me to work on these subjects to get them ready for the upcoming sailing season.

To convert a vacuum formed kit over to an epoxy based kit you have to remaster the tooling. I am in the process of doing that right now. I will post the progress of the Marlin over the next few months, along with the new ballast system that is being developed for use in the Marlin, Albacore, and several of our upcoming kits such as SSN 571.

I first saw this very unique boat at a SubComEast fun run in the late 1990s. The boat has real character. Skip has always kidded me about my first line of kits being nothing more than a bunch of "Black sewer pipe with a sail". Well, I have to grudgingly admit Skip was right. Nukes are hard to tell apart at a distance. They are easy to model and build, but they don't have the character of a U-Boat, Fleetboat, or the Marlin.

I complemented Skip on his boat. He spun around and handed me the transmitter with a smile on his face. It was not what I had expected. This boat did not wallow around. Like all of Skip's boats, it drove like it was on rails. You can hold periscope depth all the way across the pond with almost zero stick input. Of course, a great deal of that is due to Skip's skill in building and trimming, but this boat is rock solid in every way. I was hooked! I had to have one.....the big problem being I had too many projects and not enough time. But, I always kept my eye on the kit waiting for the day when I would get the chance to pick one up and make it my own.

Several years ago Skip sold his business, SubTech, to Dave Keogh, of Pandan Model Boats, UK. Dave picked up where Skip had left off. A couple of distributors began to handle the SubTech brand. The availability of the Marlin kit slowly dried up as many changes occurred with SubTech over the next few years. I became occupied with several other projects allowing my "itch" for a Marlin to fade to the back of my memory.

That "itch" was immediatly brought back on the first day of the 2010 SubRegatta in Carmel. Skip walked up to me with a smile on his face and dropped that same Marlin into the pool right in front of me. I made the comment that I wish I could get a hold of that kit and bring it back to production. Skip was playing with the trim of his Marlin at the time while I looked on in admiration. He shot a look up at me and said is his usual, straight-forward tone "So what is stopping you?" He gave me the contact information for Dave Keogh and told me to get to work.

Of course, not wanting to blow a golden opportunity to finally get my hands not only on a Marlin kit, but the actual production rights I wasted no time in calling Dave Keogh. Wanting to re-focus his company on core products, Dave was very open to talking. After a few days of talking back and forth we arrived an agreement. Not only was Marlin my kit now, so was the famous Albacore!

I reflected for several weeks on how to re-introduce the kits. I finally settled on the standard format that I am known for producing. The kits will both be retooled to epoxy glass and multi media production. I realized that this was going to be a tremendous amount of work, but it was worth it. These two kits are classics!

So...here we go with the process of converting the Marlin over to epoxy glass production. My goal being the re-introduction of this kit at the 2011 SubRegatta in Carmel....I have a lot to work to do and not a lot of time for an effort like this....

Here is the updated drawing for the boat. Matt Munger originally drafted this beautiful piece up for Skip's original kit. I have updated it with a little bit more deck information towards the bow. The Marlin is going to have a superbly detailed photo etched .010" stainless steel deck that will drop into a nice little recess on the upper deck making it a perfect fit and self aligning.

An early Marlin being trimmed out in the pool...

A few shots of the hand made deck by Skip on his original Marlin model

Skip's Marlin posing for a nice surface shot at Carmel during SubRegatta 2010. Matt Munger took this neat photo. Thanks, Matt!

The Marlin was originally produced as a vacuum formed kit. Unfortunately, that means that there is no pattern for the boat in exsitence for me to work from. The original pattern is made undersize to accomodate the plastic thickness being pulled over the mold during the production process. The pattern is cut up into its respective production parts and used to generate high temperature aluminum filled epoxy plugs that the hot plastic is pulled over during forming.....

Of course that means that I have to produce a new, detailed pattern from which the molds will be patterned from. The best way to do this is to seek out a kit that has not been built yet and work it into a new pattern. The search began and one was soon located in the hands of Steve Fisher from Denver. He was very kind to place it in my hands knowing that it was going to be turned into a new production pattern for the new kit of the Marlin.

That brings us to where we are now. I have cut the excess material from the hull and conning tower halves. I have glued the conning tower halves together and they currently set in the soft jaw vise under compression until the cement cures.

**thor** · 02-10-2011, 03:34 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Here are are a couple of shots of the Marlin conning tower joined and ready for finishing in preparation for the addition of the detail I have planned for it.

The main components of the kit have now been joined. It is now time to turn the upper and lower hull halves into stable patterns by providing a good plywood frame on all sides and inside the parts.

One of the features of the new kit is that the stern will be molded as one piece onto the lower hull section. That means that all of the appendages will be premolded onto the stern cone, one piece, with shafts and bearings already in place! What a time saver for the modeler and it assures 100% accurate alignment of the stern appendages, rudder, and stern planes....

I prefer to use CA and 1" tape to join the components after they are seam glued with solvent glue. This makes for an almost indestructible joint.

The only inaccurate section of the Marlin is the bow. The bow should come to a nice sharp point instead of the blunt nose as it is now. This will be corrected after the upper hull half is mounted on the plywood frames.

More shots of the CA and fiberglass tape joint. These are very easy to do if you use latex gloves and medium viscosity CA. Simply lay a nice glue bead down the underside of the tape...press into place and hold until it sticks. Then, coat the upper surface of the tape joint with CA and force into the weave of the cloth with your finger. Again....make sure you are wearing a latex glove. You can hit the joint with Zip Kicker if you feel the need, but it is usually not necessary. Before placing the cloth into place, make sure you sand the joint area with 180 grit paper first to create a nice "tooth" for the tape to grab.

More progress on the conning tower. I have most of the panel lines in now....will start to work on the mast penetrations next....

The scribing is almost complete on the Conning Tower. Here are a couple more shots....

I have filled the bow to upper casing joint and have not finished sanding it down smooth. I will post photos of the hull progress in the next couple of days...

The tower is almost done! After all this detailing that has been done, I have changed my mind about how to produce this tower. It will be replicated in reinforced urethane. That way the pattern is gently molded with RTV to maintain the pattern in pristene shape, as well as provide a very nice part that needs little to no prep work.

Well...Change of plan. Skip told me going with a urethane conning tower would be a big mistake. Therefore we will be going back to producing the tower with an ultra light layup of CF and glass. The Marlin needs to be kept light above the waterline. Thanks for watching out for me, Skip! You know how much I like this boat...

**thor** · 02-13-2011, 11:44 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

My buddy, Bill Lambing, caught a few little details that I have missed. One of them is the bulges on the port and starboard upper aft Conning tower.

Here is the real thing:

Here is the scale conning tower (The fairing is roughed in for now. Still needs finishing)]http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii179/mdthor/Marlin/sidemod02.jpg[/img]

How's that, Bill?

**wlambing** · 02-15-2011, 09:50 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

As they say in France; "Mucho Goodo"!!!!

B^)

**bigdave** · 02-16-2011, 10:26 AM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Wow!
What did you scribe that with a laser!! BD.

**thor** · 02-16-2011, 11:15 AM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

LOL. Have you ever tried to scribe styrene?

Yuck! It is a fabulous material, but it is real pain in the butt to scribe!

Its taking longer than planned, but I think the wait will be worth it!

I am aiming to achieve the same level of detail on the hull. Jeff LaRue is working up the Photo eteched Deck and detail parts for this boat. His work with PE is truly unbelievable.

Matt

**thor** · 02-21-2011, 05:09 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

The Conning tower is complete..... that is unless Bill points out more of my screw ups!?!

Here are a few shots of the new conning tower for this kit...

A shot of the miscellaneous pieces for the tower. I had to make these all removeable to be cast seperately. The tower will be layed up of super light Carbon Fiber and bagged for a super light and strong laminate...

Now on to the hull! We are almost there...

**Rogue Sub** · 02-21-2011, 05:36 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Here is a look at some fitting of the MCS system that will be used on this boat. The MCS sits a bit forward due to the 12" long drive shaft that was used with the original kit. This will not be an issue with the re release.

**boss subfixer** · 02-21-2011, 08:12 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Matt,
With all due respect to Skip and his work, WOW the tower looks sweet!

**Rogue Sub** · 02-21-2011, 08:17 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Its way more better then Bills scribing

**wlambing** · 02-21-2011, 08:56 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

a) Not enough hands to hold and scribe at the same time.

b) You try living in 16% O2 for as long as I did and still draw a straight line! ;^)

B^P

**wlambing** · 02-21-2011, 09:14 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Killer sidelights!!!!! Retractable,I hope??

I might just have to think about selling a grandchild to get me one of those "replacement" parts!!!!!!!!!

Anybody need a pair of slightly used crutches, or, maybe a cane??? Low mileage, paint still good!

B^)

**Rogue Sub** · 02-21-2011, 09:25 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

how about the Harley?

**thor** · 02-21-2011, 09:29 PM

Re: Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Bill,

You've been a tremendous help on this project! You just name what you want and it is yours.

Matt

Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

Albacore and Marlin Kits to be Re-introduced

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