bhermann

Got back to Blogging today. Some progress has happened. I was not looking forward to the hull sanding. It actually went very well. A pleasant surprise! The weather was warm enough to sit outside so the whole house didn't get dusty.
The planking was pretty uneven and had various bumps and dips.
 
After some experimentation I used a foam sanding block and a small solid block. For the tight curves I used an appropriate diameter auto hose wrapped with sandpaper. I started with 100 grit to remove the high spots. Then used a generic, water based, natural color, wood filler from Ace to fill the dips an cracks.

 
As you can see, there's a lot of dips and cracks. I also experimented with using model airplane dope mixed with micro-balloons. That's the white stuff in the picture. I found the dope mixture dried quite hard and was difficult to sand. It did fill small cracks well.
This was done twice and then a pass with 220 grit. The hull now looks pretty good. There are still a imperfections and slight dips to fill. One more pass should do it.


 
The next step was installing the waist. The supplied wood was not long enough to run the entire length. I split it at the mooring chocks at the stern and the knighthead at the stem. Then trimming the stanchions which were deliberately cut a bit long. I used this neat little 1" sanding disk with a Dremel. Just have to be careful with the angle of the cut and not nicking the waist.
 

 
Here's the overview:
 

I finished the studding boom brackets and made the studding booms. The studding sail booms are just temporarily dry fit for now as I need to move them out of the way when I do the chainplates. At this point I'm declaring all the hull details as complete. Everything left to do (besides boats) is masting and rigging. I've never rigged a ship model though, and I'm not sure that I want this one to be the first so we'll see. I may do a couple of smaller ships first.
 

The cove looks pretty evident to me in the longer range photo, John.  I agree that keeping it nice and crisp during finishing will be challenging.  But then I wimped out and just painted a yellow stripe!
 
Bob

I decided to do some experimentation in the daylight today. I wanted to settle my mind about the cove. The cove shows up nicely close up.

 
Then I took another from a viewing distance of about two feet;

 
The scuppers show nicely - that was worth doing. The cove is almost invisible. The yellow paint line will stand out much more than the actual cove. My conclusion is painting the thin yellow line is better. It's a lot of extra work to make and to maintain the cove during finishing when the it will not be noticeable at viewing distance.

Did more work on the stern yesterday. Due to my lack of carving skill this is an iterative process. It's a fill, sand, check, fill job. Each iteration gets closer. To get the proper shape of the main rail at the stern I shimmed key points and slopped wood filler on, then placed wax paper, wax side to the filler, over the filler and pressed it into shape using scrap clamped into place to create the correct shape.
 

 
It turned out pretty close. Still some filling and shaping to do.
 

 
While I waited for the filler to harden I started on the main boom buffer. The brittania metal buffer is not so nice as "Retired Guys". He created an actual working boom buffer in scale. Be sure to check out his build log.
The supplied one cleans up pretty well and is mostly hidden but lacks some detail. The supplied plans have great detail on this piece for those with a mini-lath.
 
 

Today, I gave some thought to the cove below the waist. Looking at pictures of the prototype it adds a nice detail to the ship. It would be even more pronounced in color(yellow) against the black of the hull. I didn't see much about it in most build logs.
I made a simple tool to create the cove and experimented. The tool is a block with the backside of an old scalpel blade. The idea is to press the shape into the basswood rather than cut or scrape. The thickness of the blade(could be any rounded piece of metal) determines the width of the cove and the thickness of the shims on the block determine the offset from the edge of the plank. The depth can be controlled by how far the blade extends beyond the block. In practice the depth is easily controlled by hand pressure and the setting of the blade was not too important.
 

 
Below is a picture of the result:
 

 
This does a pretty nice job but requires a steady hand. With parts this small it's easy to slip. It wouldn't be too hard to make a jig that you push the plank through for a more controlled impression.
In the end, I decided it wasn't worth the difficulty. It still has to be masked and painted. When the ship is finished the detail would probably not be noticeable at a normal viewing distance. The grove necessitates a constant  cleaning out to keep it visible when filling and painting. It will be there but I'm not going to make a great deal of effort to keep it cleaned out. I suppose it'll serve as a nice guide for masking during painting.

Hi Bob, I've been using some it it for shims as well. I like the idea of doing the roofs with it. They should look very nice when finished.

John - like you, Bluenose was my first planking job and the filler was needed to hide my mess .  About the walnut veneer - I found other uses for it, mostly in covering the roof of deck structures, and also as a filler for a couple of the bulkheads that were just a tad too thin on their own.
 
Bob

John - like you, Bluenose was my first planking job and the filler was needed to hide my mess .  About the walnut veneer - I found other uses for it, mostly in covering the roof of deck structures, and also as a filler for a couple of the bulkheads that were just a tad too thin on their own.
 
Bob

John - like you, Bluenose was my first planking job and the filler was needed to hide my mess .  About the walnut veneer - I found other uses for it, mostly in covering the roof of deck structures, and also as a filler for a couple of the bulkheads that were just a tad too thin on their own.
 
Bob

Very nice start, John.  That will give you a great basis to work from.  I used decals for the Bluenose name at the head, still haven't figured a way to do the stern lettering yet.  I did the scrollwork by hand.  You can find the details in the summary log I posted (link in my signature).  Looking forward to watching your build develop.
 
Bob

I debated about adding the scuppers. They were so small I thought the detail might not be visible on the finished model. After looking at other build logs I decided they were worthwhile. It's a nice detail if done properly. By having them painted the same color as the waterway they stand out nicely against the black. I'm still undecided about the cove just below the waist. On the prototype it's quite noticeable and the color is yellow. Some people just paint a yellow stripe and others create the actual cove. The problem is how to make such a small detail  in a uniform way. Need to make a tool to get this right.
 
The scuppers turned out pretty good except the plank leaves a noticeable line that needs filling. Of course filling will also close the scuppers and they will need to be cleaned out later. Just have to deal with that when the time comes to sand and paint.
 
There was no wood supplied with the kit the right height for the quarterdeck scupper plank. I made a jig using a drill press and sanding drum. The fence is positioned to the finished size of the plank from the drum. Then it's just a matter of carefully feeding the plank through.

 
The actual scuppers turned out to be the easiest part, but tedious. I had a file the thickness of the scupper width. It just took a bit of file/check/file to cut them. This makes a really neat slot with square corners. There are a LOT of those little things!
 

 
Here's the finished result. Please ignore the rough planking job. This was my first attempt at planking and the last part is much better than the first part.
 

Hi Bob, Thanks for the info. You must have a very steady hand to do that scrollwork! I was thinking I might try decals for the scrollwork. I could scan the drawing and print it on the decal paper. The prototype does appear to have depth though. I read one log that used a 3-D printer to make it.
I looked through your log. Wish I had done that before I did the scuppers. That was a great way to do the layout.
John

Very nice start, John.  That will give you a great basis to work from.  I used decals for the Bluenose name at the head, still haven't figured a way to do the stern lettering yet.  I did the scrollwork by hand.  You can find the details in the summary log I posted (link in my signature).  Looking forward to watching your build develop.
 
Bob

Very nice start, John.  That will give you a great basis to work from.  I used decals for the Bluenose name at the head, still haven't figured a way to do the stern lettering yet.  I did the scrollwork by hand.  You can find the details in the summary log I posted (link in my signature).  Looking forward to watching your build develop.
 
Bob

Still waiting for my professional photographer to show up.... I think it will not happen, as he is probably hiding in his basement....
 
Anyway, I wanted to look quickly and very superficially at the cost of building such a model. We will assume you already are in possession of a bunch of tools, including a Dremel hand machine with a nice set of bits.
 
The kit itself is around $450, the RCSubs PE sets add another $270-300 depending on how far you are going, $50 in glues of all kinds, $100 in paints (The Humbrol paints coming from Europe to paint the hull and deck cost me close to $50), LEDs (close to 50), electric motors and many yards of very thin electric wires, the stand made of wood and brass tubes, switches and many little things here and there. We are probably not far or slightly above one grand. Even more if you start buying books and DVDs on that subject.....
 
But when you look at the time it takes to build such model, it is no more than $3 per day which is less expensive than beer or tobacco. We all know that the cost of our passion is no object and as such should be disregarded.
 
I have immensely enjoyed building this model and being able to present it to you readers and enthusiasts. I have to confess that your support and encouragements have been my fuel to continue through that, at times, difficult endeavor. In retrospect, I just cannot believe that this thread was visited close to 80,000 times over a period of 16 months.
 
Thus, to conclude that Build Log, let me offer you some last pictures of the model and of the real thing. I simply hope the model will not terminate like the real submersible....
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Although it is not completely clear how U-552 finished its days, I think it was scuttled before the Allies could take possession of it in one of the Brittany ports in 1945.
 

 

 

 

 
Yves

Test fitting the tubes ,  added the  detonator housing

Thanks very much Dave, Robin, Eamonn, Michael, Gary and Denis for your very kind comments, I think these parts were the last items of metal work to be made did just finish the last handle, will need to blacken them.
 

 
Now have to the finish the painting of cove , adding ship name, scroll work on the hull, look for all the small stuff like eye bolts and rings etc etc that I have not added yet then will start to paint some of the items in my parts box, then I can start to assemble.
 

 
Also thanks for all the likes until next time
 
Regards
Richard

Looked at Gary's (FriedClams) Bilge pump on his 1920 New England Stonington Dragger and he built a Edson Model #2 so looking at the drawing of Bluenose supplied it did not look the same so I have gone with the drawing.
 
 

 
Made some rough sketches 
 

 
Machined the body first out of 5/16" brass bar here it is just taken it off the lathe
 

 
Machined the top brackets
 

 
Once all that was done, cut the part were the water would flow out and ground sides so that I could solder a piece of bent brass to the body, also machined the bottom tabs for mounting pump
 

 
Then parted off then press fitted it upside down onto a piece of wood and machined the excess metal between tabs also drilled the holes in tabs for mounting.
 

 
Then made the mount plate with a small piece tube for easy of gluing to deck
 
 
 
Blacken the mount plates and made them so they would be parallel and flat because the deck has a curve, did carve out a step so they would sit right 
 
  
 
Next was to make the plunger this was .135" dia 
 
 
 

 
Next was to make the links, I took a piece of 1/16" tube machined the sides to get .049" then soldered this to a piece of brass same width, but I did notch it with the angle as per drawing
 

 
After some cutting drilling and clean up got the links looking as per the drawing supplied then made the handle started with the width of the tube hole then filed to shape, got to do the second one, blacken the two pumps at this time
 
 
 
Got them just sitting there not mounted but they turned out ok
 

 

 
Thanks to everyone who made a comment and all who looked in and and left a like do apricate.
 
Regards
Richard
 
 

120 timberheads have been gauged and installed. The cap rails then steamed, bent to form and installed along with the bow grating and taffrail. I wish that the final painting of the transom area was cut cleaner than my skill allowed but I'm going with it.

Torpedo tubes fabrication coming along,  looking at maybe  2 more weeks to complete

Post 21
 
 
Fitting the Steering Box.
 
 
 
The Steering Box and related fittings present the most fiddly modification.
 
 
The kit has a simplified all in one bench pattern (51) which incorporates a knee at the stern, doubler, and aft thwart against which the steering box butts.
 
 
Muirneag differs both in the size and position of the steering box and the layout of the thwart, knee and doublers.
 
 
There is a fair bit of trial fitting to get it all to sync together involving making separate parts.
 
 
The first job is to get the position of the steering box fixed and to cut away some of the stringer to allow the aft thwart to sit down just below the level of the rail top.

7931(2)
A spacer is used to position the box the correct distance from the companionway.
 

7922(2)
The next step is to work out the run of the rudder chains thro’ the hull to the steering rods which protrude beyond the box.
This particular chain I discarded in favour of a finer version with 26 links per inch.
 
 
With that done the box can be safely glued down along with the aft thwart.
 

7934(2)
The tricky business of shaping and fitting the doublers and stern knee can then be done.
 
Why 'doublers' I don't know, they are for all practical purposes rails.
 
For the doublers I am using 4mm Pearwood strip, edge bent to suit the line of the stern. These need to sit flush with the top rail line.
 

7947(2)
Trial fitting the wheel, it always helps to have a scale figure handy.
 

7945(2)
The height of the wheel above the box has been reduced as covered in Post 13.
 

7975
The wheel is quite a delicate item, so the stem slots into a micro brass tube fixed in the steering box which allow for its removal.

7978(2)
It is a slightly simplified design with the spokes radiating from the hub simply bent into the vertical position to provide the hand grips.
 
 
In reality the spokes extended beyond the rim and the hand grips were either bolted or welded in position.
To replicate this at 1:64 scale would be a stretch too far for me.
 
 
I will leave the final cleaning up of this area until the rudder is fitted which is the next task.
 
 
 
 
B.E.
18/10/20
 
 

Fabricated torpedo tube brackets and locks.   Took allot of time but I’m happy with the result.   

I’ve been working on the smoke stack / vent that mounts on top of the main cabin house. I really wanted this to be copper so again, there was a bit of a learning curve.
 
I started by placing 2 pieces of Blu Tack  on a carbon block. Cut a piece of 3/32 brass tube at a 45 degree angle and aligned them for soldering.
 

 
After soldering I cleaned it up a bit, cut it to proper dimensions and glued a brass washer on the short end where it will meet the cabin top.
 

 
For the resting block I used a small piece of 1/16 square brass stock and filed a notch for the pipe to rest in.
 

 

 
Still have some cleanup to do on this piece. But now that the skylight, vent and compass housing are finished I can finally get everything mounted on the cabin roof.

I am waiting for a professional photographer friend to come over and do some nice quality pictures, but he is struggling with the software of his Sony cameras or too scared to come to my place.... Go figure. In the meantime, here are a few low quality pictures I took of the finished model.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
I will try to add more pictures taken at night, as it is more dramatic.
 
Yves