Piet

Hello everyone, - - - no, I havent been sitting on my hands but been very busy making the hardware for the mines and yesterday I decided to make the 6 mm pulleys for the torpedo loading gantries. I needed to do something less stressful than making all that teeny weeny brass hardware for the mines. I did cement a few of the made bolts and fuses to the 2 mines, primarily so as not to loose them. I think that most of the hardware I want on the mines are now ready to be cemented on except for the arming switch and 6 more track guides. Putting the loading tracks in the mine tubes will pose a headache for me It's the positioning of the tracks so that the mine will slide smoothly into the tube. The mine "rollers" that fit into the U channel tracks don't give any leeway if the tracks are not exactly lined up with the "rollers" on the sides of the mines. I put "rollers" in quotation marks because I am just cementing a few brass strips to the sides of the mines instead. Hope yuns don't mind I have also put a 3 mm brass rod in my Unimat lathe and as soon as the mines are done I'll start making them. That'll be a total of 10 of these little buggers. They'll be 1.5 mm wide and 3 mm in diameter. It'll be a slow tedious job but hey - - I have nowhere else to go right now. Okay, I did make a fe pics for my archive and share a few with all y'all. This shows one of the mines with some of the hardware on it like the bolts that hold the loading lid on and a few bolts on the sinker. There are 4 more bolts on the bottom of the sinker you can't see. Then I cemented 6 fuses, 4 facing upwards and two facing down. Two of the top fuses will be hidden by the track rollers that are not yet installed here but are to be made yet. There are still a few bolts to be added to the top lid and a few replaced. I guess you can see the hexagonal shape of the bolt heads?? This shows all six of the 6 mm pulleys. I have placed three on the drawing where they belong, the other three are for the other gantry. Here is a close-up of the two pulleys at the top of the boom arm. Hmmmmm, what do I see??? Some writing on them? Letters?? A name perhaps?? Let's see what it says - - - ah - - R e m c o Well, I told Remco that his name'll be placed on this boat for his generosity and great help - - - somewhere. I have a sneaking hunch that my father would hole heartedly agree!!! All the pulleys are made from brass rods he send as birthday present. Now I need to engrave the pulleys and opened one of the tool drawers under my work bench to look for my mini burs when lo and behold I had two guests coiled up amongst the stuff in the drawer. I found two beautiful corn snakes. If yuns like to see them go to "What Have You Done Today" in this forum. Cheers,

Astounding miniaturization Dave! The close-ups make it look much larger then it is and such precise rigging, Just outstanding work. Cheers,

Thanks to everyone for visiting and your likes. Hello Brian, I really appreciate your comments and am glad to have inspired you to try your hand at a sub model. They are an entirely different animal and not many models are build. Go for it my friend! Cheers,

Hello Boris, Wow, what an ambitious project! She served her country well, a brave ship with a brave crew. I don't know how much help I can be for you but I'll be looking for you. The best of luck with this project! Cheers,

This morning I ventured into the garage, my shipyard, to try and file these little nine eye brackets down to size. I put my Proxxon hand tool into its drill press and but a fine grinding wheel in it. The first eye bracket worked like a charm but I still had to do the final dressing by hand. It's now close enough to scale or at least it'll look okay on the mine. So, number one is done, eleven more to go. I managed to do two more and started on number four but ran into a problem with that one and had to remake it. That's the one Gwen took a picture of as I was grinding away. Even though the grinding wheel is very fine I can only use a very gentle tough on it. The brass is so thing that it tends to snag. But at least it is gentler on the fingers this way The afternoon, after lunch, I went grocery shopping at the local all natural organic vegetables. I cooked dinner to give Gwen a break, her back has been acting up again and it's hard for her to stand for the duration of making dinner. She appreciated it a lot and it was also very tasty Here are a few pics for my archive I share with you. This is my grinding setup for the eye brackets. It's also my soldering station. What's behind curtain 1 is my VOC ship "Surabaya." I covered it to keep dust from inundating the poor thing. Yeah, you'll still see some of the cannon port lid parts on the workbench. Here I put number 1 bracket next to number 2 yet to be filed down. The hole is 0.5 mm. Here I am approaching the grinding wheel with number 3 bracket. It will only work when I gently place the bracket on the "dragging" "leaving side" of the grinding wheel. Cheers,

Thank you again Popeye and give my best to your wife. I understand back problems, not for myself but Gwen suffers from it. Hopefully the docs can isolate the real cause and fix it. Hello Boris, yes, I saw your new log on the Tromp. A brace ship with a brave crew. I don't know how much help I can be for you but I'll be looking. Best wishes wit this project. Cheers to all,

Thanks Popeye for your concern. Visit went well, I even saw the MRI scans on the computer screen - - - hey, I'm nosy I wont know the results from the biopsy till a week from now when the doc will let me know what they found. The biggest problem is that he "ordered" me not to work on any projects that involves tools, especially sharp tools Sooooh, I have to stay out of the shipyard but that gives my poor finger a chance to heal some more. Cheers,

Hello Pete, Oh how sweet the lines are !! That would make for a great day sailer in a 1:1 version I marvel at your planking job, so nice and neat. Cheers,

Hoi Freek, ingenious and impressive! Lots of thought must have gone into this but then again you have plenty of experience with your KXVIII build, which should be of help. I love the video you made a few weeks ago. Cheers,

Hello Lukas, nice progress and I like what you did to the cannons !! Hmmm, does this model come "with strings attached"?? Kidding of course - - but I was wondering what the function is for the strings. If it serves a specific purpose for plastic models then when or if I start my Revel plastic Thermopile I could take advantage of it. Right now I am much too busy with the model of my father's submarine to even think that far ahead. Cheers,

Thanks to all of you who visited and your like votes and your comments. @ John (texxn5) : Good to hear from you and that you and Diane are doing well. We hope that you'll have a great time traveling through our great land. Keep safe and stay out of trouble Thank you for your kind words, but you make me blush @ Remco: Thank you Remco and I'm sure you and Rosette are enjoying your R&R. Yep, the mines are becoming a real model all on their own and I am treating them as such - - - following your signature statement I have looked at scale hardware but everything is still too large to my liking and besides, the satisfaction of being able to make something like that is always a good thing. @ Popeye: Thanks! @ Pete: Great name! Thank you too for your accolades. Yeah, not many builds have such a close personal attachment to them as mine. Today I tried to mount the Proxxon hand tool in it's little drill press and chucked a fine grit grinding wheel to it. I then very gently ground these eye brackets down to as small as I could but still had to final dress them with a fine file. I even managed to make the one shown yesterday a tad smaller yet. It does take quite some time to do this but the end result is quite satisfactory. I'll take a pic tomorrow afternoon of the setup and hopefully Gwen can take a pic as I'm grinding away So, I have now one of the 12 that I'm happy with and started a second one that needs to be made smaller yet. After all 12 are done I have to make the track roller brackets and the locking brackets with some other small stuff to come close to how they originally were. I also found a small tube of adhesive in a brand new box of Exacto knives. It says that it's good for metal, plastic, wood and leather. I'll try it first on some scrap brass and styrene, of which I have plenty Okay, tomorrow morning I'll be at the surgical center for a bladder look-see and a biopsy to see if the cancer is gone. I'll be back in the shipyard in the afternoon after lunch. All y'all be good now, ya'hear and Cheers,

Yuns are probably wondering what's the old Flying Dutchman been doing, not having posted an update for a few days. Well, Piet has been busy working on some of the mine detail parts. But I also had to do some yard work, otherwise Gwen the Admiral, may get on my case and I want to keep her happy. She has enough troubles all of her own, health wise. Okay, I needed 12 lifting brackets for the two mines I plan to make, 4 for the sinker and 2 for the mine body, and 32 of the cover lid bolts, 16 per mine. I have 5 of the bolts made that still need to be to filed a little smaller yet to make it look better scale wise. I have also made the 12 brackets but need to make them smaller as well. I have a problem though - - - In holding them between my thumb and index finger for the final shaping I managed again to file the skin off my index finger, which is now sore Checking the 12 I made with the drawing they are still way too large, scale wise. The problem now is how am I going to hold them and file them down to half of what they already are. The brass brackets are already so delicate and small that holding them with pliers to file them is near impossible. And now with my "file support finger" out of action I need to figgure out something else. Hmmmm, I'll try a very fine grinding disk in my Proxxon hand tool, clamp it down solid and then I can possibly use a very small pair of pliers to gently grind them down. I need to give my poor finger time to grow new skin on it I have attacked a pic of one I managed to dress down quite a bit but think they need to be even smaller when looking at the drawing. The mines won't fit in the tubes otherwise. Oh, the pleasures of challenging yourself to do the impossible, but we'll steam ahead anyway Okay, here are a few pics for yuns to scrutinize. I have added the drawing I am using then you can see what I mean by having to make them tiny. Even the 0.7mm bolt heads are still way too large for my scale but that'll have to do. Yeah, perhaps I can buy some of these things from model train suppliers put I just like to try to make everything myself. I have added this drawing with annotation how the lifting eye brackets look like. When compared to the scale mines I made they are extremely small. This is a top view at extreme magnification with my little Nikon "coolpix" camera with 12.0 megapixels. Yuns can see that the foot still needs to be filed down some to mak them round rather then oval. It's just about 3 mm long and 2.5 mm high. I can also nock a little odd the top too, I hope. The pin is a 0.5 mm sowing pin. I like the size of the hole that allows me to make a 0.5 mm brass hook to attach to. Now, if I am very careful in using my little Proxxon electric hand tool with a very fine grinding disc then I think we can make music Here is a "moved" pic kinda taken from the side. This is number 1, eleven more to go Four for the sinker and two for the mine. Cheers,

Thanks everyone for visiting and your likes, it's much appreciated. Hello Popeye, thank you for your very kind words. Yes, it seems that I am challenging myself to add more and more detail. But then again, I am retired and time is of no consequence, within bounds of course. There are alway home and yard chores to do. Thanks for the input on glues and cement, I think I'll stick with the two part epoxy I already have, the fast cure and the slow cure stuff. Too late to start experimenting with some unknown cement at this time in the game. It never occurred to me to look for plastic bolt material. I figured I have these tiny brass nails and give it a try. It really goes rather quick making them once you have the rhythm going It's boring up to a point and again, it's a challenge to me. Stick around and see how it all turns out. Cheers,

Again my thanks to all who visited and clicked the like button. After some much needed yard work, at least needed according to my dear bride Gwen, the Admiral, I decided to spend some time in the dockyard, after lunch that is. I continued with the mines and made a new one but this time without the loading endcap. I tried to leave the sinker on and managed to make it come out okay. The final shaping was done by hand off the lathe. The endcap will be made from basswood, that'll give me a better opportunity for the attaching bolts. Talking about these bolts. yesterday I mentioned that I won't even try making the heads hexagonal to mimic bolt heads but the temptation was just too great so I tried it with one small brass nail. Hmmmm, it is actually possible after all I need to file the nail shank down to 0.5 mm or smaller and the head will shape up nicely to less then 1 mm. This revelation excites me and am looking forward to the results. I now have two mines out of prototype and can proceed with the actual models. I'm asking myself, why am I doing all this extra work - - - just cement some brass rods in it and no one will be the wiser - - - problem now is that I know I can make them, and so does Gwen, the Admiral, and all y'all too I also made the two U channels for inside the mine tubes for the mines to ride in when loading. They are made from 0.1 brass shim stock and measure 0.5 mm high and 2 mm wide. This is according to my scale and checking it for fit it should work. I have also received the brass rods for the pulleys !!!!!! "Jan", the shipping clerk, did a great job packing them !!! Sooooh, I can now start making the pulleys but want to finish the mines first, hope yuns don't mind Okay, here are a few pics of today's work. I did not make pics of the real mines I made this p.m. they are pretty much the same as the prototypes, except much better looking. These are the U channels for inside the mine tubes, the mines have rollers on the sides that slide in these channels when loading. There are also brackets 90 degrees away from the rollers that keep the mines centered inside the tubes as well as part of the locking system. There is a lot of hardware on these things, but I don't know yet how far I'm going with it. I don't know yet what kind of cement I should use. The tubes are Styrene and these are brass. First thought is epoxy because I need some time to position them properly. Any thoughts from the Styrene experts will be welcome. This is the tool I used to bend the slivers of brass shim, 4 mm wide that I had to trim down after they were bend. I first had to grind the ends of the tool flat and straight to remove the abuse from a gezillion years of use Hey, it works and that's the main thing. This is the prototype bolt-head I made as a try-out project. The hex-head is not easy to see in this pic, the next one is slightly better. I do need some higher magnification then the 3X I have, all this is done by guessing, counting strokes with the file and rotating the clamping pliers 60 degrees each time. On the next pic you can see that I have to file one side some more, but this is only a prototype. A better picture of the "bolt" for the loading cap. Cheers,

Hello Jud and Boris, thank you both very much for your kind words. Jud, this build seems to have taken a life all of its own. My original intend was to just make a small model of the sub my father was heavily involved with during her build back in 1938 - 1939 and also sailed on her. The plan was for a scale of 1:100, not much detail work but when I got the plans for the O 21 at 1:50, thru the help of Remco, I changed my mind. I also got the actual lines and many photos through Remco, Gino and Amateur Jan so I could start with this build. After the build was wel on its way I saw a picture of the O 21 model and liked the detail work. The rest is history. The problem though is that nothing was prepared for a lot of the things I am now trying to add. It's like overhauling a car engine through the muffler I am lucking out that I'm able to do already so much more then planned. But - - - it's all to honor my father and the brave crew that sailed on her and did their part to cause the enemy as much harm as possible. Boris knows the history behind this boat and many others and we have become great friends. Stop by more often Jud, together with the many others, my dockyard is big enough to have a large crowd. There is always a pot of coffee brewing or a good Belgian beer Cheers to all,

Hello again, I played around a bit with one of the prototype mines to see how the hardware would look. In doing so I saw several problems with making them all in one piece. Soooooh, I decided to make them in three sections, the loading lid, the mine body and the sinker. As explained to Popeye I'll have better control over making the body shape. It won't add that much time to them but they'll look much better. As the pictures show I was not particularly careful in cementing some of the hardware to it, it's "just" a prototype to play with. Now that I figured on a better approach I'll be much more attentive to detail. This shows some of the hardware that'll be cemented to the mine. There are still a few pieces missing but I figure I'll make them for the real McCoy. No sense in wasting more time on the prototype. This is a close-up shot so you can see my impatience Okay, I moved - - - here is the prototype next to the drawing so yuns can see that the hardware matches the drawing. A top view next to the corresponding drawing. I may make the loading cap bolts from small brass nails and file the round heads into hexagonal shape to mimic real bolt heads, hmmm - - perhaps not Here I used sewing pins and the heads are still too large. Cheers,

Thank all of yuns for visiting my shipyard and your like votes !! Hey Popeye, having looked at them closely now when working on the one prototype I have decided to make them in three pieces. reason being that it's almost impossible to get a good enough "barrel" like look on the mine body itself. There will be the loading cap, the minde body and the sinker. When they are made I can then cement them together. There are also a few pieces of hardware on the sinker that will then also be easier to attach. Yes, indeed, I'll try to make them as close to the originals as i possibly can. I'll put one mine in the tube with the lid open. I promised John texxn5 that this lid will be hinged and operable. This in itself will be a daunting challenge because of access to one part of the hinges. I'm still thinking about how to do that. Don't forget that this too is an afterthought. There will be a second mine that'll be placed on the display board with a or a few spare torpedoes and a couple of cases of Heineken Cheers to all,

Hello everyone and thank you all for visiting, I'm overwhelmed with all the likes, I really appreciate it. After giving some blood for tests this morning I guess I wanted to try my hand in making a mine. I needed a dowel of 8 mm so I got an oak dowel of ¾ inch. Cut a short piece off and stuck it in the lathe and went at it. I think I got pretty close to make it look like the drawing. These are just prototypes and still need some dressing with sand paper and thin wood filler to close the gaps between the grain. Oak is perhaps not the best material for it but after they are sanded down and painted the grain'll disappear. I'll experiment with them. I could leave it like this but then I figured why not put all the other hardware on it and the loading guide channels in the tubes. Okay, I guess I'm now in the model mine making business Why not, while I'm waiting for the pulleys I might as well make some of the ordinance, like mines, torpedoes and deck gun shells. Deck gun shells????? Hmmmm, I was thinking about it. I need some hard hitting stuff to fight off Sjors' big ships with all his guns Not much else is happening, so I'll make another mine or two and put the rest of the hardware on it. The guide rails in the tubes on the boat are 2 X 0.5 mm brass U channels and I'll have to make them myself. It's just something I want to try as a challenge. Well, here are a few pics of my prototype mines, at least I can mess with them and see how they'll look like all dressed up before I make a the real McCoy. This is a copy of a page out of the Vickers Type T mine manual that shows the method in deploying a mine. This is also a copy of a page out of the Vickers Type T mine manual. It shows the dimensions and hardware. Lots-a little parts. This a close up view of the two prototypes. Cheers,

Hello everyone and thank you all for visiting, I'm overwhelmed with all the likes, I really appreciate it. After giving some blood for tests this morning I guess I wanted to try my hand in making a mine. I needed a dowel of 8 mm so I got an oak dowel of ¾ inch. Cut a short piece off and stuck it in the lathe and went at it. I think I got pretty close to make it look like the drawing. These are just prototypes and still need some dressing with sand paper and thin wood filler to close the gaps between the grain. Oak is perhaps not the best material for it but after they are sanded down and painted the grain'll disappear. I'll experiment with them. I could leave it like this but then I figured why not put all the other hardware on it and the loading guide channels in the tubes. Okay, I guess I'm now in the model mine making business Why not, while I'm waiting for the pulleys I might as well make some of the ordinance, like mines, torpedoes and deck gun shells. Deck gun shells????? Hmmmm, I was thinking about it. I need some hard hitting stuff to fight off Sjors' big ships with all his guns Not much else is happening, so I'll make another mine or two and put the rest of the hardware on it. The guide rails in the tubes on the boat are 2 X 0.5 mm brass U channels and I'll have to make them myself. It's just something I want to try as a challenge. Well, here are a few pics of my prototype mines, at least I can mess with them and see how they'll look like all dressed up before I make a the real McCoy. This is a copy of a page out of the Vickers Type T mine manual that shows the method in deploying a mine. This is also a copy of a page out of the Vickers Type T mine manual. It shows the dimensions and hardware. Lots-a little parts. This a close up view of the two prototypes. Cheers,

Thanks for dropping in Andy and your like. Stay safe !! While I am waiting to start turning the pulleys I started to prep for the next possible projects like mines, torpedoes and the dingy. Ah yes, the dingy - - - that'll be a challenge. I had to find the drawings for the mines and the dingy and print them out so that I have the measurements and the lines for them. Then I figured I might as well make the attaching hardware for the antenna wires and the antenna wire lead-in tube to lead the antenna wires down to the radio room. I also made the DF antenna and mounted on the forward shield of the bridge tub. Then I made the small flag poles at the bow, the stern and on the aft part of the con, right behind the snorkel exhaust pipe. I also painted the gantries in the standard light greay. Touchups for the rest of the boat will be done much later. At this time it was 1730 hrs and I had to feed my koi carp, they were about to jump out and drag my wife in Below are a few pics of the current status. Yeah, my build dock is a little messy, just too lazy to clean it up for the pics or carrying the whole thing outside. I'll do that at the appropriate time when all the gantries are completed. This is a bow shot showing the small flagpole for the ensign. The DF antenna is difficult to see on this picture. The gantry is still loosely stuck into the deck. I'll wait with permanently cementing them in till all the pulleys and tackle cabling is on. This is a stern shot showing the stern flagpole and the main flagpole on the aft con, right behind the snorkel exhaust pipe. That one is also difficult to see on this shot. The aft gantry is also just loosely stuck into the deck. Yeah, the propellers also need to be made yet. This is the conning tower looking aft. Here you can see the DF antenna, it's kinda obscured by the bell. Also the antenna lead-in pipe. The antenna support cables will be fastened to the bridge structure and the antenna wire is laced to that. Cheers,

Thanks again everyone for visiting and enjoying my efforts. Hello Anthony, it's always a pleasure having you come and visit and your kind words. I'm also enjoying this build and try to do it justice. Hi Popeye, thanks for the comments, yep, this build has taken a life of its own but there are limits. There will be a lot of paint touch-ups as we progress. I'll wait till the gantries are finished and I won't have to work in between all the "stuff." That's also the reason I'm holding off on putting the identifying numbers on it. Hello Mark, thank you for your compliments, appreciate it very much. Hmmmm, yes, double stick tape, good idea. Trying to be so careful with putting these little parts up on a high shelf I just forgot and thought they were out of the way. Me - domkop. I'll do the double sticky tape now for sure, thanks for the hint. Okay, more to come in a followup post. Cheers,

Unbelievable - - - what can be done to a ho hum plastic kit to make it something special!!! I like your thinking, out of the box !! Cheers,

Let's see, what did we do today - - - oh yeah, I mowed both the front and back lawns in the morning. The weather was nice, not too warm and not too cold, a nice 80 F. Well, I thought it was time to cement the dingy tackle handwheels to the aft lower con. But first I had to mask that part to make it ready for the flat black paint. So I put the handwheels on the deck next to the con for safe keeping and started to mask with Testors masking tape. Now it came time to cement these little buggers to the con - - - but - - - where are they ???? They were no longer on the deck where i put them. My guess is that in doing the masking I inadvertently nocked them off the deck. I looked on the build dock, nothing. Then on hands and knees on the floor, still nothing. Then - - - about a few feet away and behind from where I worked I found one Okay, now at least I didn't have to make two again. But I didn't give up and expanded my search area and - - - found number two, this time about 6 feet away near where my VOC ship build dock is. Pffffhhh - - - and that's not the Dutch pfffff but a sigh of relief. Okay, I mixed up some 1 minute epoxy cement and cemented these escapees to the con. And while I had some mixed epoxy cement I also cemented the front and rear gantry boom securing fixtures to the deck. In the meantime the handwheels were secure enough that I wanted to give that area one coat of flat black paint before going off to lunch. After lunch I put a second coat of paint on and removed the masking tape. It came out pretty good but may need some more flat black, will see tomorrow. I also managed to drill a few holes through the deck for the boom tackle cables to go through so I can demonstrate the operation of loading torpedoes or whatever. I also primed the rest of the tackle hardware and made a few more pulley pins. Here is a picture of the handwheels on the painted con, at least we can see them here The reason for the black paint is that that area gets rather hot when running "trimmed." i.e. when snorkeling. That thick pipe is the shroud with the thinner pipe in it you see sticking up is the engine exhaust. The actual exhaust pipe is here shown stowed but can be moved out for demonstration purposes. The outside of the crew hatch, shown here in the closed position, is also painted black but that'll come tomorrow, maybe. Now I also have to find a light fixture to stick in the gap you see. Cheers,

Thanks to everyone who visited and left a like, much appreciated and humbling. Hello Mark and thank you for your kind words. Yes, there are imperfections but most will be covered up with paint Please don't make be blush, but - - - Hi Popeye, thank you too for your kind words and then to think that originally I didn't have all this in mind and thought to build the model at a scale of 1:100. But as we progress I'm getting rather attached to her. I just hope that my father would have liked it as well, even with some of the imperfections. Here's to you pappa cheers,

Beautiful work Dave, and thanks for showing your method. Cheers,