Piet

Lets get this guy on the shelf.  If you note the seven bladed screw, it might look like another propeller, but oh no.  Second and third generation Russian submarines benefitted from Toshiba selling Russia the machining equipment to produce such a fine balanced and precise screw.
 
Screws on submarines are so precise that in manufacturing each blade must be polished with the same number of strokes. Screw are x-rayed, balanced, and yes tuned. In dry dock they are covered, to prevent wind blown sand or debris from scouring the surface.  Even a scratch can cause a harmonic or what we call a "singing screw." Such a noise offender means death. The vortex dissipater is cast in resin and painted brass.
 
The ability of the Russia to use the technology from Toshiba closed the quality gap between the US and Russia.
 
Thinned black ink was used to fill the lines around the control surfaces.  Ink is great since it will fill the lines yet is easy to wipe off the surface if you get all butter fingers. Decals were made from photos.  I imported pictures into a program called GIMP 2.0 .  There I could manipulate the image to flatten or skew to the shape and size I needed. Since you cannot print white I used white decal paper. I scanned a swatch of the paint I made to the upper hull and used that to match the outline of the decal sheet. This would show up if at all as a small shadow.  Once satisfied the decals were printed and sealed with three coats of lacquer.  During application a decal setting solution was used.  In hindsight I should have applied coat of furniture polish to the areas to receive decals.  This would have made it easier to hide the edges.  Once in place selected decals around the water line were "distressed," to show wear.
 
Faint rust tracks from the limber holes were brushed on using dry pigment powder.  The silver gray of the acoustic window of the SHARK GILL Sonar was hand brushed to give it texture. what appear to be oppses around the window are in face correct.  The screw holes for the window mounting  are filled with putty and sometimes it is not the neatest stuff. 
 
The white line around the hull was also left kinda well... authentic.  Being at the water line and in the arctic makes getting the lines just so a little rough. 
 
One major system missing from the model is the anecroholic tiles. These square rubber tiles are vital in absorbing active sonar and holding in some of the passive noise offenders.  When my first submarine was fitted with them, we had a hoot bouncing coffee mugs off the hull. Then we got the bright idea to Armor All the boat  Big time booboo.  Once done the USS RAY SSN 653 was indeed a shining beauty. However there is a reason you do not armor all your brake pedal, seats or steps...you get the drift.  Adding these tiles would have been very difficult so I went with what I had.
 
The AKULA was given three coats of clear, and mounted on a stained poplar board.  I proto etched a name plate and secured the model and plate into the display case.
 
Kinda fun build and I hope it helps me draw attention to my books.
 
Chief               

Getting close to getting this bad boy on the shelf.
 
Found some major problems with the sail. The supplied masts PERT SPRING, (Satellite Navigation) SNOOP SLAB/SNOOP Pair are for the wrong submarine.  The supplied mast is for OSCAR II class SSNGN (KURSK.) The rear most mounted mast is called PARK LAMP (Direction Finder) it is not  easy to build, and if it were or even included in the kit the sail opening is not larger enough.
 
Here is what happened.  The Russian Navy employees several modifications of the AKULA class. Where as the hull of my submarine is an AKULA II  (971M) it seems Boris got his molds mixed up and I have a sail from modification (971MT)  There is only 1 AKULA thus far with this modified sail the GEPARD.
 
Seeing as how I am in a rush to use this for my book signing I decided to make the best of what I have until I have a spare minute to make proper modifications.  Boris was very embarrassed but heck it happen and it gives me a challenge.
 
Following primer the upper hull was painted using Tamiya Paints.  Russian submarines are not painted all black like our boats,  They are a very dark blue.  To make this paint I mixed 6 parts blue to 4 black.  This I airbrushed and allowed to dry overnight. Once dry I applied three light coats of  acrylic gloss. (This prevents paint peel when masking.) 
 
The hull was then masked at the water line.  A little note here: Western submarines are for the most part single hull. This means that when you see the outside of an American submarine you are seeing the pressure hull.  Russian subs on the other hand are double hull.  What you see is an outer hull that provides hydrodynamic shape.  The Russians call this "The Easy Hull."  Double hull boats are slower to submerge however they can be controlled better at periscope depth. 
 
Double hulls can be a bit louder than single hulls due to mechanical linkage and other thru hull systems.  One advantage to double hull is reserve buoyancy.  With the vents grates and Kingston valves shut a Russian submarine is tight as a drum and can trim herself for a sea state.  The biggest advantage for the Russian subs is standoff distance.  Between the pressure hull and the "easy hull" Russian engineers have placed various materials in such a way as to mitigate the blast effect of an exploding torpedo. The theory is the overpressure wave of the explosion will be absorbed by the material and dissipate over the length of the hull rather than in one area.  While this might lesson the damage from an air dropped MK 46 or MK 50 torpedo, it is doubtful the system would lesson the shock and bending stresses imposed by a heavy weight MK 48 ADCAP or British SPEARFISH torpedo. Hopefully it will never be tested.
 
Ok once masked I painted the bottom half a mix of 7  to 3 red and black.  With this done I set it aside to dry while I worked on the masts.
 
Like I said I was having to make do.  The PERT SPRING was not to bad. I added the low horizon plates and painted it dull yellow and the plates black.  The SNOOP array was fixed up by adding the receiver elements at the top. I included a picture of how it should look. The incorrect RIM HAT(Over the Horizon Missile Targeting Receiver. was stepped where the PARK LAMP should be.  One of the hatches was open but no mast provided.  This hatch was for SHOTGUN HF Communications.  I made the mast by trimming the long leg from and LED, and painting the top gun metal. The hatch for the Submarine ID mast was also open. This was made by curing drops of CA on the top of a stick pin then turning it to shape using my moto tool.
 
Something interesting you might notice is the "Hogner Stern." See the long taper that sets the screw some distance from the control surfaces. This is Supposed to aid in maneuvering at high speed by offering less cross section.  One big draw back is that at slow speed and with the towed array deployed the screw seems to want to suck in the towed array. That can be very bad.    
 
Got some other stuff done but I will cover that later on.
 
Going Deep!!!           
 
 

Thank you for your kind words.  These AKULA class SSNs are a force to be reckoned with.  I have tangled with a couple in my day.  Last year the Russians deployed this very ship to the Gulf of Mexico. He went undetected for a month or so. That means a Russian submarine with nuclear tipped cruise missiles could have taken out any number of US cities within minutes.  It is also very humbling to model a ship that at one time may have been able to kill me in a flash. On the flip side I maybe could have done the same thing.     

Some more progress on the AKULA project.
 
Russian submarines trade drag for lack of noisy seawater pumps by using water scoops to feed in reactor coolant. These aft mounted scoops differ depending on boat and year built, so be careful.  I have included a chart to show which scoops go to witch boats.  To add to the detail I photo etched inlet screens for the scoops.  The scoops were then attacked and filets formed from putty.
 
    With all repairs and flaws filled, and sanded I gave the hull a primer coat to see it everything looked ok.  While this dried I began my research and design of the decals I would need to replicate VEPR K-157  (Wild Boar) It seems like a bit of overkill with the decals, however Russian Attack subs feature more than one type of detection system. These include Shark Gill bow mounted Active/Passive,  Hull mounted Flank HF/LF active/passive, MT-70 Under Ice Sonar.  AKULA also carries non acoustic detection systems.  These sensors like sonar are hull mounted above and below the water line.
 
Bumping an array or sensor with a tug boat is really not the best career moves, so AKULA hulls are heavily marked.  Some mistakes have been made and the results are costly and dangerous. Here is a shot of K-154 What you are looking at is the spherical array of the MK-503 (Shark Gill) transducers.  Not good....not good at all. 
 
The norm these days is for Russian submarines to display emblems and other art on the sides or front of the sail and even on the submarines nose.  Again research is needed to get the right emblem or markings.             
 
Once the decals were done. I then made the photo etched hatch covers for the sail.  The non acoustic sensor arrays (SOK) were made and installed.
 
A final coat of primer and we are ready to paint this bad boy! 

tightening up Lanyards

Today, I finished the first shroud, made the eye and added it to the stbd. foremast. Was real busy with the business today, so didn't get much done, but at least a little progress. The Lanyards are taught, but not finished, just tightened up for spacing. Now for Port.

Love the colors Popeye, very good choice    Try to scrape the cockpit floor to remove most of the glue spot.  At least it may reduce the area somewhat.
 
Cheers,

Outrageous - - - outstanding work Patrick.
 
Cheers,

That's looking very nice Nenad.
 
Cheers,

Thanks my friends for your replies
 
Third layer of planking of the bottom part of the hull is finished. Now I´m satisfied ( I used this progress on all of my ships )  
It´s time to continue with upper part.
 
Jan 

Here is the second layer of plankin of the bottom part of the hull. I used strips of paper 5 mm wide. It took me 3 hours to cut, glue and grind both of them. I always apply the glue on the surface after grinding.
Pictures show the second plankin before and after grinding.
The third one will follow - I´ll send some pictures tomorrow
 
 
Jan 
 
 
 

First layer of the bottom part of planking is glued. Now I´ll grind it and two next layers  will follow. 
After finising of the bottom part I´ll glue sides - each from one or two parts.
 
Jan

Hi friends,
 
decks are finised and glued. I made planking separately on the drawing paper and then glued them on based decks on the ship. The frame is grinded also - I´m usin sandpaper granuality 60. The skelet looks quite ugly now, but i´ll glue planking very soon
 
Jan
 

Thank you, dear friends, for your replies.
 
 
As you can see at first two photos, I used two wooden bars to reinforce the frame and for keepin frames at right angles
to the keel and for keeping of straightness of the frame and glued it together. Then I added a lot of horizontal ribs and glued them too.
I have decks prepared  - today I will glue them on the frame ( decks on pictures  are just basis for final !!  ). Then I can to grind the frame and start with planking.
( btw, I found out the Artensia Latina has the wooden kit based almost on the same plans )
 
Next progress very soon.
 
Jan 
 

That's looking very nice Nenad.
 
Cheers,

Love the colors Popeye, very good choice    Try to scrape the cockpit floor to remove most of the glue spot.  At least it may reduce the area somewhat.
 
Cheers,

Dear friends,
 
here is my new project - Santa Maria. As I mentioned, I want to have the Columbus fleet complete, so here is the third of them.
Construction of this model is based on plans from polish magazine " modelarstwo okretowe ( and as I found out, they took them from the book of " anatomy of the ship " series " ). Here  is the link:
 
http://www.modelarstwookretowe.pl/index.php?p=44
 
The first of images show how the ship will look. I improwed plans to 1:96 scale and start as obviously with framework. There is one mistake in plans - decks have no sag, so I improve it. Now I have to reinforce the frame with two wooden bars, make decks and add a lot of horizontal ribs . 
 
See you very soon
 
Jan

Hi everyone
 
Hope your week's been going well.  Rainbow's progress continues...my main objective though, has been to concentrate on the major bulkheads and cupboard, etc.  Once I'm happy that these are in place, then I'll start on the other details, such as the doors, mattresses, sink, galley, etc.
 
I hope you enjoy these photos.
 
Cheers
 
Patrick

More photos
 

 

 
Insuficient camera, there is no purple tone, all is in brown tone

Curiousity is direct enemy to our intention to go fast forward
 
I was not satisfied with deck color, and while I was cleaning rails, my attention jumped down to deck all the time, thinking ... can I do something to look better ... sanding, sanding, sanding, and again ...individual deck planks are not visible enough ... sanding sanding sanding ... how it will be if ... sanding sanding sanding ... could I try to ... and in circum
 
Yesterday I finished cleaning, and tried to "wash" part of deck under houses with rough brush and water
 
 
Hmmmm, not bad ...
 
Today I washed all decks, and sanded with 360 paper ... hmmm ... better, but, to much contrast
 
Then I mixed acrylic mat warnish with little tip of brown ( just to give some nice thin tone and to stay transparent) and this is it
 

 

 
And macro shot to have idea about color I get
 

 
I think this is better, and as nusproduct, it looks pretty old

it was a broken day at the table.......kept getting pulled away.......and then having to go for the dreaded hair cut.  death for the living when the admiral gets together with 'the girls' {I'd rather be cooped up in some stuffy craft shop}      Tuesday night,  I did get a chance though to fix the stand,  so the hull could be put on without scratching the keel....just stuffed some felt in the slots.
 

 
...not a flattering picture,  but there she is.   as mentioned,  the pilot house is the next point of interest,  since it need to be in place to continue the trawl assembly.   I had mentioned these wide strips of mahogany,  that I have.   I'll use a strip to do the floor.
 

 

 
I really should use a different glue......white glue is water based......and we all know what happens to thin wide wood when water is applied.....curling!   very hard to work with!  I also found another bottle of paint that had met it's maker.   the caps have this plastic cone in it.......I suspect it gives the cap a very poor seal.
 

 
previously,  I tried working with brass to make some of parts I'm going to need.   I found that I'm poorly set up for that at the moment,  so I'm going to settle with making the parts from sheet styrene.  I'll see how this works for me 
 

 
the second bottle of 'dark ad gray'  was good....so I painted the dash it's base color.  I don't think the interior will have the visibility factor.......but I'll do a little in there anyway. 
 

 
the floor is finished......but not as well as I would have liked......not to mention the white glue blotch in the middle...which I failed to adequately clean up.  looking from a few angles......only snippets of the floor will ever be seen....so the heck with it.  I gave it a coat of semi gloss.....I may give it another to bring the sheen factor up....it will hide it better.
 

 
I also cemented in the blank for the entrance.......I knew I had cut the opening a bit too large,  but I had some bone headed idea about counter-sinking the door .......to add demention {if that's a word}.   but it turned to dementia........and equated to nothing more than an indention.   go figure.......and then the thought about a window kicked in..........
 

 

 
I still have those planks strips that I had ripped {thickness-wise} with the scroll saw.   I painted the best parts and threw the rest away.
 

 
....and that's when the camera tried to lie to me.......think you know someone this long.....and they try to stab you in the back!   I had painted the stabilizer booms.......when I took the picture,  it tried to tell me that I had not painted one side,  on one of them.  OK......I'll give you the benefit of the doubt......bad light and angle.......white is such a suck - up!
 

 
here is a better picture.....I hope
 

 
I'll see what I can do today.......it's snowing again.  may have to run out and buy some new shovels...my son broke the home made 'pusher' shovel.......the shaft was made from 1 1/2 inch round stock.  I made it to push the loose stuff down the driveway,  after the  'first wave'  shovels had remove the bulk of it.
    it wasn't made as a  'digger'  shovel......and that's what he was doing......broke in three pieces.  oh...well! 

Noticed today that I've taken the copper too high,so have removed a couple of strips.Just got to paint it black now.The good thing about the copper tape is it's easy to remove,it just peels off.Glad I never used the copper tiles and superglue!
Also added the portholes to the captain's cabin.

Ok, back to the build. 
 
I found my 1:48 scale vinyl.  It turned out to be the foil around the top of a wine bottle.  I wrapped it around .06" (3" scale) plastic sheet.
 
That's all for now.
 
Bob
 

 

Still humbled and speechless here. I come to this build every single day just to get my fix of re-inspiration. Like going to church on Sunday.

Young America - extreme clipper 1853
Part 109 – Pin rails/Hawse holes/paint
 
Since the last post, the four long pin rails were made and installed.  The first picture shows one being pinned in position.
 

 
These fit up under the main rail and are glued and bolted to the toptimbers.  Paint was filed off these first.  The rails are cherry.  Most of the main deck natural wood structures will be of this species - slightly darker than pear.  The pin hole drilling was aided by the right angle drill in the picture.  The wood blocks help keep the rail up until the pins are in.  In the next picture the rail is ready for glue.
 

 
Before the hull could be painted, scuppers and hawse holes needed to be fitted.  In the next picture the hole for the smaller of the two hawse openings is being drilled out.
 

 
These openings are parallel to the keel on the lines from the chain tube openings on the main deck.  They slant down to emerge at the correct position on the outside.  Small pilot holes were drilled then enlarged to fit metal tubes.  The tubes are shown in the next picture.
  

 
After fitting, they were epoxied in, sanded off flush and rounded off.  They will eventually get painted red.
 
All of this was in preparation for painting the hull below the planksheer.  This consumed most of the time since the last post – reminding me why I prefer not to paint models.  My father used to say painting covers a multitude of sins – until it dries.  He was right as usual.  This is especially true with gloss finishes.  The next picture shows the finished starboard side.
 

 
The paint is fluid artist’s acrylic, thinned and applied in several coats over acrylic sanding sealer, then rubbed out when dry between coats.   Why gloss?  I may be wrong, but I do not think flatting agents for paints were invented until the 20th century.  I am sure in 1853 the paints were linseed oil and lampblack – or white lead for the white. Definitely gloss but probably not this smooth.   In any event, the hulls of these clippers were usually finished as smooth as practical given their size.
 
The last picture shows the view from the stern.
 

 
The planked area below the black on this side will be metal sheathed – once I get comfortable with the paint finish.  The planking on the port side extends only a few strakes below the channels – no sheathing required.
 
 
Ed