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IIRC, it's a radar detector. There are several of these stub antennas mounted around the shear assemblies. Let's the boat know they're being painted. I could dig more, but that's the gist.
IIRC, it's a radar detector. There are several of these stub antennas mounted around the shear assemblies. Let's the boat know they're being painted. I could dig more, but that's the gist.
I continued on with details on the shears. The kit SJ radar leaves a lot to be desired. I chopped the screen part off,
modified the kit part so that it would mount on a brass rod and hold the new screen at the right angle. I wanted to finish it
so I went ahead and started on the photo etch replacement. To hold everything straight during construction I used
some Blue-tac as a work surface.
It was fiddly work but it looks WAY better than the kit part. I attached a mounting pin and finished work on its mount.
Next was the DF loop which I was hoping to just cut off the sprue and mount. Unfortunately it looks nothing like my reference photos.
Unhappy with all the knobbyness I ground it down to just the loop and made my own more prototypical knobbyness using
Evergreen strip and bending it around as I glued. Some attention with sanding sticks knocked it back to the right look.
On a pin...
A kindly soul, Bill, answered a question for me earlier regarding what turned out to be radar detection devices mounted on the shears. He said they came
in packs and he was right, the more I looked the more popped out at me. Had to have em' and scratch-building was the only way.
Ok get these tools, they made this project a breeze. The super thin razor saw and mitre box are from Umm (Unique Master Models) Awesome.
I took a page from the Porteous handbook and chucked some spare sprue in a drill for a poor-mans (that's me) mini lathe to turn the ends into
conical shapes like on the real thing and sawed them off flat. I punched out some slightly wider disks, drilled the tops and installed tiny little masts.
By Sunday P.M. these new additions were mounted on the topmost area of the sheers. Work will commence downward from here to include some bracing,
lookout stations and a searchlight. I am also thinking of gluing in some lines of solder on and around things to represent electrical wiring. Maybe.
Stole a few minutes and worked on a detail section of the bow. There are some perforated grates for what looks like a flood opening for the bow buoyancy tank at the chin of the boat on either side of the keel. You can see them in the restoration shot below of USS Drum (SS-228) in Mobile, AL.
I really liked this detail so I wanted to get it on the boat before I joined the two bow halves. The Eduard photo-etch sheet with the conning tower details has two parts to depict the grates. My order arrived this week so I cut off the part and held it to the bow. To me, the grates on Drum are flush with the hull so I decided not to glue the PE grate down but instead use it as a template.
I taped the part to the hull and found a small drill bit that matched the hole size. Then I proceeded to drill out each hole.
After a lot of twist drilling I removed the template and found this. Not bad. Although there does seem to be a reinforcement running down the center of the 1:1 grate in the Drum photo that creates a gap in the holes. Will have to ponder that.
The holes for the grates also appear to be approximately the same size as the rows of holes in the stern that I need to replicate. I will report back if this proves to be correct. It will be nice to have a template in hand to knock that out too.
Really came out nice! Using the PE part s a drilling template is a great idea. Much better than trying to install it flush with the hull. (been there, done that with my Type II)
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It all looks great!
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