Small World Models 1/96th Blueback Kit Restoration

[thor]

Here is an image of the updated sail tops as of this morning.

[thor]

A little more progress from yesterday. Trying to get all of these surfaces sealed together as a solid volume can be a real pain in the backside. But we are in the home stretch now. Now, on to the sail side surface detail then add the scope mounting plate internal to the sail cavity, then lastly the mounting base and mounting screw holes for affixing the sail to the hull. There will be two versions of the sail available for this kit; the Blueback in her late configurations and then the early Barbel, as launched, sail with no sail planes and different details.






After the final detailing is complete a full sail will be printed out to look for any issues that need to be fixed before moving onto the stern appendages.

[sam reichart]

That sail looks awesome in the shadowed 3D pic. Great stuff Matt!

[salmon]

David remastered the sail.
Did those get to you?

[thor]

Hi Tom! Yes, Sir. I have it. I am getting away from the old rubber mold & urethane method of production in all areas where it can be avoided. So, I won't be using it. When I can cut the time to produce a kit by 50% or more and provide a better product by adapting to more advanced production methods its really hard to justify using the "old school" methods. All of my kits are going to be converted to this type of production. Only the hull will be hand made from epoxy glass.

[salmon]

Matt, I get it. I find 3D printing to be a great way to create and try new ideas. I began mixing different resins to create something that I find works better for me. Anyways, I look forward to what you create.

[thor]

Thanks, Tom. Have you tried the extra strength resins? There are a couple that I've been extremely impressed with. Their strength rivals or is superior to the standard urethane we've been using for a long time and they are more stable at elevated temperatures. The dowside is they are pricey! But the time and labor savings more than offsets the cost.

[salmon]

I haven't tried extra high strength resins....the combination that I am using right now is Siraya Tech ABS-Like Grey and Tenacious in a 80/20 mix. It make the print jobs not as brittle and better resistance to breakage when dropped. Still is strong and I can tap threads into it. What extra high strength resin do you like?

[thor]

It sounds like you have a very good combination there. I like the E-Sun ABS-Like Hard, Tough Resin. It works well. It has even worked well so far as a good candidate for propellers. There are several new semi-flexible ultra strong resins that will be entering the market in the next year. Phrozen has two new super tough, semi-flex resins that are due out in the spring.

[thor]

After a short break in the action for work I am back on the Blueback for the rest of the year. I hope to have the first kits available shortly after the New Year 2024. After MUCH looking and digging into boxes of stuff Don & Bob were able to locate the hull masters for Blueback, Oyashio, Sierra, & Kilo! I am still missing Trenchant, but I can re-create a new hull master from the very worn-out old molds if we are not able to locate the hull masters for the kit. Many thanks to Don & Bob for turning their shops upside down looking for these! This new situation will make bringing these olds kits back to life much quicker and with greater fidelity to Dave Manley's original work.

[thor]

Here are the Blueback Hull Masters laid out on a parting board for inspection. Overall, for 30 year old masters, they are in good shape! I have some filling to do and lots of scribe line clean-up. I will detail all of that here in the forum. This will take only a fraction of the time of what I was planning to do which was to create all new hull masters by pulling a very heavily laid up glass hull out of the very work out molds. Now, I can go straight to molding this kit up after repair and clean-up of the masters.

[sam reichart]

Hadn’t heard from you in a while. Was hoping all was OK your way. Those masters do look pretty good for how old they are. Always thought that this kit was an interesting boat. I know it was a popular model back in the day. Hope it will be again.

[thor]

I have re-attached the lower-forward section of the bow permanently to the lower hull. Z cuts can be very finicky to fit up properly and they do weaken the hull requiring additional support at the cut. To make thing easier for the modeler the lower hull half will be presented as a single piece.

[thor]

A bit of work was completed today. The Blueback masters are interesting to work with. The core of the masters is ren-shape (Filled Polyester Block) which is comprised of about a half dozen smaller blocks glued together with polyester resin. These blocks were hand shaped down the the final form of the Blueback hull and they are quite accurate. That is a testament to the quality of Dave Manley's original work.

The black exterior that you see in these images is actual polyester gel coat. This makes the scribing repairs especially frustrating as gel coat is very brittle and likes to chip while being scribed. The other issue is the gel coat is 30 yrs. old which makes it a bit on the fragile side anyway. Because of the age of these masters every glue joint has flexed from mechanical loads and thermal contraction and expansion which transmits through the gel coat as cracks. Each crack has to be chased out, secured, then patched. Once the cracks are stabilized I will get the hull masters rough primed and start the long process of cleaning up the scribing.

[gantu]

Hi matt I think I do have a Trenchant hull.