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Where's the RING you should ask

Where's the RING you should ask

By the way Vivian, where are the wedding photos? You know what they say, if there’s no photos it didn’t happen! Just sayin’.........😉😁😁😁

Just take care not to heat it to much ... it will burn away, so no torch. Keep in mind it will deform more easily too

I agree with Mark. Hold off doing anything drastic until you can check that it's right (from bitter personal experience - far too many times).
 
Steven

Thanks Popeye! Good to see you here! I'll be rigging them sails in no time! (Well, soon, I Hope). 

But that wouldn't be fair, it wouldn't be a tube as depicted in the "brochure". Besides, RGL wouldn't stand for it!

I have started a little bit this large kit with the front torpedoes room (basically following the instructions more or less). The first step is to put together the roof of the front room. Ceiling is drilled with 3 mm bits for the White LEDs that will provide some light in this cramped compartment. The Trumpeter kit is short of a few details which I have added after studying some interior pictures and the movie Das Boot. The modifications are made with Evergreen pieces: 

The added pieces are the rails used to move and support the torpedoes holder. The whole roof will be painted with a very light gray.
 
Yves

Cool, rust it up ! 

But that wouldn't be fair, it wouldn't be a tube as depicted in the "brochure". Besides, RGL wouldn't stand for it!

Folks,this model is the realization of a childhood dream. As long as I can remember, I have had a passion for submarines and more specifically for the German Type VIIc. A few years ago, Revell Germany proposed a very impressive model of the Type VIIc at the scale of 1/72 that was a nice match for their re-issue of the Matchbox Flower Class Corvette. 


A lot of negative things can be said about the Chinese quality and products, but in the domain of plastic scale models, they created a renewal, a revival of that discipline that no American or European companies have been able to even get close to. It started with their Bismarck and USS-Arizona in the scale of 1/200 and they have been relentlessly offering multiple models each time, bigger and bigger. The upcoming Titanic at 1/200 is another proof of their energy and commitment to this form of Hobbies. The models offered, the molding, packaging, artwork of the contents, quality of instructions and the size are absolutely unmatched by European or American manufacturers. Tamiya, being Japanese, remains in the leading group, but you pay for it.

Their 1/48 U-Boat U-552 kit is probably the biggest kit that can be found on the market today, at least it is in my small collection.  The following shows the box weighing 22 pounds resting against some of my pinball machines: 

That model is massive with a length of 1.440 meters, near 5 feet. The kit includes more than 1100 parts and is extremely well presented, packaged and molded as are the modern Trumpeter kits. All the parts are arranged into three large boxes with delicate parts carefully wrapped with bubble shields. The main hull and rear hull are located in their respective boxes, impervious to shocks and mishandling.

Three booklets come with the kit: Instructions for assembly (70 pages), instructions for colors (20 pages) and a flyer for painting and assembling the 50 some crew members. 
 
on the PE side, it is very limited and spartan: 

However, two PE solutions are available:
- Eduard with 3 sheets of PEs for the hull and conning tower 
- RCSubs with a fantastic offering (slightly more expensive than Eduard but ten times better and more protypical) of PEs, including the infamous Enigma machine in the scale of 1/48 - https://www.rcsubs.cz/index.php/photo-etched-sets/20-sets-for-u-boat-viic-1-48-trumpeter-06801

 
I have not made up my mind yet, but I am leaning very strongly towards RCSubz which allows to redo the entire deck and part of the hull, in brass. They are currently sold out but working hard to produce other PE kits.
 
The amounts of parts is overwhelming: 



I have not replicated the instructions here, as it can be easily found on the Internet. Instructions are very precise, clear and are leading you step by step, towards a successful completion of that large model. 
 
The hull is provided with a grey side and a clear side: 


A lot has been said about that kit and numerous people have built it on the WEB. The best realization (in my humble opinion), being a French modeler who turned that kit into a museum piece with a galore of extra details. His Build Log can be found here: http://www.laroyale-modelisme.net/t20510-u-552-trumpeter-echelle-1-48 (in French): 


Here is another shot from a different builder, showing a beat-up and heavily rusty Type VII (Revell kit): 

People have been complaining about the clear acetate used to mold the Port side of the submarine and the starboard of the conning tower (mishap!!) and wished that both parts were molded with polystyrene. The Trumpeter kit insists mostly on the inside of the U-Boat and it is clearly what the Chinese tried to do with this massive kit. The Trumpeter kit is an enlargement of the Revell kit and all mistakes of the original Revell kit regarding the hull, have been carried over to the Trumpeter model. 
 
Despite these limitations, that kit remains an absolute must have (for submarine enthusiasts) and offers incredible potential for kit bashing and a level of details rarely obtained in naval plastic kits.
 
I am not planning to start the building of this kit any time soon (other priorities to take care of) but still wanted to present it to you and perhaps get the motivation to tackle the biggest plastic model of my life.
 
Yves
 

But that wouldn't be fair, it wouldn't be a tube as depicted in the "brochure". Besides, RGL wouldn't stand for it!

I know, but how you will shape it and make the tube, isn't laddy

Thanks for your warm welcome mate
 
Roll the PE around a metal rod ... that's the easy (not very creative) part. Getting it glued, without the rod inside, and keeping it round ... now that is a different muddle. You do, however, get the hang of it when I look at the picture. i am more curious as to how you will make the open end for the tube, that is a lot harder

That should be enough if you are a fervent Ikea modeller ...
 
They just would have to cope now, wouldn't they ... When I look at Musashi (old tool) with FlyHawk and Pontos PE sets, that would be about the same, instruction-wise that is.  You just start at the beginning and muddle through. A bit like every model you've made ...

Thanks for your warm welcome mate
 
Roll the PE around a metal rod ... that's the easy (not very creative) part. Getting it glued, without the rod inside, and keeping it round ... now that is a different muddle. You do, however, get the hang of it when I look at the picture. i am more curious as to how you will make the open end for the tube, that is a lot harder

Hello Dan,
 
Your Leviathan built is coming along great and a real pleasure to follow.  Beautiful work.
 

You probably already know this, but perhaps not all of your readers do.  The snail shaped fans are called “centrifugal exhaust blowers”.  Mounted directly onto the motor shaft inside the spiral housing is a squirrel cage impeller.  The intake to the blower is always into the center of the impeller on the side opposite of the motor.  The exhaust is out the end of the spiral.  So what appears to be an end cap is probably an elevated cover or hood protecting the blower from rain while still allowing the blower to exhaust.  And just like the name implies, they are installed to exhaust a given space or area.  Here in the US, the capacity rating is in CFM (cubic feet per minute) and its application is sized according to the volume of space to be evacuated and how many air changes per hour are required.
 

Here is a photo of a few blowers sitting on the manufacturer’s production floor.
 

So, that’s all the irrelevant air handling minutia that I know. 
 

Looking forward to the continuation of your build.
 
Gary

I know, but how you will shape it and make the tube, isn't laddy

That should be enough if you are a fervent Ikea modeller ...
 
They just would have to cope now, wouldn't they ... When I look at Musashi (old tool) with FlyHawk and Pontos PE sets, that would be about the same, instruction-wise that is.  You just start at the beginning and muddle through. A bit like every model you've made ...

Well, shut my mouth. . . I should have known that a builder as skilled as you was way ahead of me.
 
Dan

Hi Dan not all the bulkheads were place yet.
 
I have now glued them all together after cutting a 1/8th notch in each to give a 1/4 inch by 3/4 inch slot I have dry stacked them to see how it all looks
later today I will cut a piece 1/2 x 1/4 and fix it to a board then assemble the bulkheads with balsa filling between to shape them to the final before making the ribs. after the shaping I am going to make the floors and set them in slots next to the ribs. The top plate for the keel will sit onto the floors then the keel will sit onto it. the ribs are short of the top plate by 1/2 inch according to Roger to create a limber gap running the length of the hull. so the garboard strake will be a key one tying the lot together.

 

 


Brunch is calling
 
Michael

Better, and it seems to be final solution

Thanks for your warm welcome mate
 
Roll the PE around a metal rod ... that's the easy (not very creative) part. Getting it glued, without the rod inside, and keeping it round ... now that is a different muddle. You do, however, get the hang of it when I look at the picture. i am more curious as to how you will make the open end for the tube, that is a lot harder

That should be enough if you are a fervent Ikea modeller ...
 
They just would have to cope now, wouldn't they ... When I look at Musashi (old tool) with FlyHawk and Pontos PE sets, that would be about the same, instruction-wise that is.  You just start at the beginning and muddle through. A bit like every model you've made ...

Well done Jo