Hr. Ms. O 19 1938 by Piet - FINISHED - scale 1:50 - submarine of the Royal Navy Netherlands in service 1939 - 1945

[Senior ole salt]

-

I like to hold parts between my thumb and index finger while filing and drilling small holes and use my finger as a guide.  Well, you can only file so much and then the skin is also gone     No problem though, our bodies have this build in self repair thing and before I need to file some more stuff it'll be healed and good as new      

 

Ah !! spoken like a true sailor.

[Piet]

Ahoy SoS, welcome to my shipyard.  You think there's hope for me - - - becoming a true sailer????  I'm an airplane guy, I make'm, I break'm, I fix'm and fly'm.  My father STRONGLY advised me not to go to sea and so far I have been able to keep my promise.  However, besides having high octane and JP5 in my blood I also have some salt water too 

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

I want to again thank all yuns who visited and clicked "like," much appreciated!!

 

Guess what - - - I found a baby picture of me and thought all yuns would like to gaze at it.  Yup, even then  I was a happy, handsome little devil 

 

Piet's baby picture.

 

Other then that I managed to semi complete the installation of the port side dingy hatch door.  Only the hinge pins still need to be shortened and secured and then painted.

I have made a start with the starboard side hatch doors and hope to be well on the way with that one too.  I most likely won't complete that installation because Gwen and I need to go pick up her sister and husband at the Sandford International Airport.  I also need to help her in tidying up the house some more, she has twisted her knee and it's really hurting.

 

I had Gwen take a few pics of me filing the hinges and drilling the holes for yuns to see that I was not kidding.  Senior Old Salt says that true sailors do that, hmmmmm, I wonder where I picked up that crazy habit       Airplane guys do the same thing.

 

I am also adding a few more pics of the dingy hatch doors on the port side.

 

Self explanatory.  You can't see the file resting on my left hand index finger due to the angle of the camera.  The admiral is not well adapted to camera's but she tried her best. 

 

Self explanatory but don't do this at home 

 

This shows half of the hinge assembles cemented to the deck beam port side and I have temporarily shoved a brass rod through all of them to check for alignment.  I have also strung the other halves to the rod to check fit with the hatch door installed. Seemed okay.  So I went ahead and cemented them on the hatch door, see next pic.

 

This shows the both port side hatch doors in the Proxon vice, this way they won't sag and I used the 5 minute epoxy this time. 

 

This pic shows the port side hatch doors installed.  I still need to shorten the hinge pins and secure them and finish painting them on the inside.  When they are all done and neatly painted and trimmed I'll make the final pics.

 

Cheers, 

[michael mott]

Terrific work on the hinges Piet.

 

Michael

[WackoWolf]

Outstanding detail work. Nice and clean. Thank you for sharing this with us. Keep the pictures coming.

[amateur]

Nice details!

 

btw based on your age I would have expaected a picture like this one:

http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/?/nl/items/PKL01:F-66-034

 

Jan

 

[Piet]

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping in and chatting, it's much appreciated.  I trust the Admiral served enough refreshments to y'all?

 

I couldn't respond yesterday because the Admiral and I went to pick up her sister Eileen and her husband Sjoerd from the Sandford airport.  It made for a long day, we were early, the Dutch airline forgot to tell us that they were still using standard time    In any case it was very nice seeing them again and we had a nice visit with them in the hotel when we got to Daytona Beach.

 

Thank you Michael for your approval on the hinges.  Tedious work to say the least.

 

Hello Wacko Joe, thanks for dropping in and your kind words.  I'll try to keep them pics coming but am afraid that the next two weeks they might be rather slim.  Being busy entertaining Gwen's sister and husband.

 

Hoi Jan, Thanks for your approval, it means a lot to me.   I'm glad you found a pic of my sister !!     She was a year and half older them me and much prettier too as you can see!        I do really appreciate the link you included, man . . . I spend quite some time looking at the old pics from the colonies.  Nostalgia set in - - - we call those pics "tempo dulu."  For us, the colonists, they were really the happy times with fond memories - - - till the Japs spoiled it.  

 

Okay, next post I'll add the pics of the finished dingy hatch doors.  Talking about pics, I need to check all my posts and see if any are missing.  

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Today I was able to install the starboard dingy hatch doors and gave it one coat of paint on the inside of the doors.  I still need to give it one more coat and then touch-up the outside and some needed trimming and futs'n with it, as usual.  I always find stuff to tweak here and there. 

 

This shows the dingy hatch doors installed and closed seen from the port side.  It still needs touching-up paint and some dye for the slats and whatever else I see that needs to be prettied up. 

 

This is looking forward and uh oh, what de we see?  Ah, I need to to redo the wooden slats on the starboard doors   I didn't see it on the model, but does it show up on the pictures though.  They need to be toughed up anyway.

 

This shows the hatch doors open with the first coat of interior paint in dark grey.  The dingy loading / unloading crane beam acts as the center hatch door support.  It'll hinge on a pivotal brace just aft of the conning tower.

 

This is looking forward with a plastic boat acting as a temporary dingy 

 

Cheers, 

[FreekS]

I think the dingie would be upside down!

 

Build is fantastic!

 

Freek

[Gino den Ridder]

If the dingy (in Dutch: vlet, a dingy is made of rubber, and inflatable) was upside down then it would cause an air bubble to exist underneath. Now, I think that submariners don't like air bubbles to escape from their boat when submerged. Especially when 'the other party' is looking for them...

Edited March 19, 2014 by Gino den Ridder

[FreekS]

On K-XIV class the dinghie (het jolletje) was stored upside down. I think there would have been a drain hole or two in the bottom to let air out during diving (i made those on my RC model of K-XVIII). Those would be plugged bythe crew when used. With the jol right side up if would remain full of water and be hardto handle I think. But I don't knownthentrue answer for O-19!

 

Freek

[ianmajor]

Piet,

 

Fabulous work - and ever more great information emerging on subs in your log. Not only did I not consider that subs might have had dinghies but that they might trap air when submerged. All obvious really - but only when someone points it out!

 

I can't wait for the next installment.

[Piet]

My thanks to the many who visited and clicked the "like" button", and you know who are are     it's much appreciated.

 

To Freek, Gino and Ian and others who may have silently questioned the same thing, thanks for your comments on the dingy or jol in Dutch.  Lat year I guess, Gino and I had a private discussion about this little dingy or jol about the same issue.  Was it stored upside down or right-side up.  The question is of course either we have an air bubble trapped inside the little boat or it's always filled with water when right-side up.  Either way, the solution would obviously be holes do let the air escape or to let the water drain out.  This all sounds very logical and without having much or anything to go by it'll become a guessing game.

Before I had concrete proof that I was fortunate to obtain in the meantime, I opted for storing the dingy inside side up with a few bung holes in the hull somewhere, but most likely the stern bulkhead.  They could have used either rubber or wooden "bung hole" plugs to close the holes.  

I also thought about wear and tear on the holes, how would they hold up in use.  Where would these alleged holes be, in the bottom hull planking?  Would they be thick enough?  Would there be some sort of reinforcing?  

 

However, when Remco send me a copy of the general layout of the O19 and a few other drawings from the Dutch Naval Archive, the dingy shows stored in the inside out position.  See copy 1 below.  I enlarged that particular section for y'all to see that it was placed in the inside out position with the bow forward.  See copy 2 below.  Right now I'm not going to argue with the drawings and accept them as fact.

I also have a few pics of the O19 when on Ladd Reef where they were just extracting the dingy from it's little "house" and lowering it into the water.  As y'uns can see the dingy is already in the inside out position hanging from the loading boom  See pic 3.  Ah, but we could say, well they could have turned it over before the pic was taken.  Yes, they could have but is that what happened?  Without anything to go by the best we can do is give it a "swag"        and no one would be the wiser, at no fault of ourselves.

 

I just was extremely fortunate to have received the needed info from my dear friends Remco, Gino, Boris and Fred Huijgen, not only about the dingy but other details as well.  

 

Lo and behold, I also received a few pics of the O21 where they were in the process of taking the dingy out of it's little hangar.  See pics 4 and 5.  Here we can see clearly that the dingy is in the inside out position on it's cradle.

 

I trust that I have now satisfied the questions and opinions, and accept the shown facts that the dingy was indeed stored inside up.  How the water drained out when surfacing I'm going to leave up to our imagination.  At this scale it's not important but I do have my thoughts about that   .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

[Piet]

Well, it's been a few days since my last post and thank you all for your patience    I have been busy entertaining Gwen's sister and her husband - - - soooooohhh - - - nut much work was done.  But it's all been very nice and great for Gwen to be able to chat with her sister, getting updated on all that's been happening with the family back in Holland.

 

However - - - - I have been able to sneak some time in between all this family stuff though 

First I redid the slats on the dingy hatch doors, starboard side, they are now looking straight.

 

Next I completed both AA guns by adding some things to them and painting them.  So in effect, the conning tower is completed except for the antenna wires, but those will be done as the final last things on the boat.

Next month I'll start making the deck gun, I think.

 

Here is the pick with the completed AA guns ready for action !!

 

Forward and aft AA guns completed and placed in their buns, ready for action.  They can be completely pushed down and the lid closed. They have hand wheels on the sides to swivel the guns up and down for tracking aircraft and shoot them sown.

 

Cheers,

 

[Jim Lad]

Great job, Piet!

 

John

[WackoWolf]

Beautiful work Piet. Love the detail. Keep the pictures and post coming we are always watching.

[mtaylor]

Lovely work, Piet.  

[popeye the sailor]

your progress looks very good.......the guns are very well done.

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for visiting, for your most generous comments and your "like" votes.

 

Still no time yet to spend in the dockyard, still involved with entertaining Gwen's sister and her husband.  We went to St. Augustine yesterday to visit the alligator farm / zoo, most impressive.  Traffic was horrific, too many people due to "spring break."  

There is a replica of some sort of 16th or 17th three mast ship tied up there but Gwen read a sign that said it's a restaurant.  Guess we'll have to go for a look-see.

We also visited the old Spanish fort and I took a few pics of the cast bronze canons.  I really need to go out into the bay to take a few pics of the fort from the water side, there are a few paintings brewing in my mind of Spanish treasure ships tied to the docks in front of the fort.

 

Well, at least this post has some nautical info   

 

I hope that next week I'll have more time to devote on my dad's O19.

 

Cheers to all y'all,

[michael mott]

Very interesting stuff that I am learning about submarines in your build log Piet, thanks for the historic pictures.

 

Michael

[Piet]

Hello Michael and thanks for dropping in.  When we arrived back in Holland after the war from the Dutch East Indies in 1947, I received three or four glossy black and white photos of the O19 when she was launched and one when she was commissioned with two pics of my father.  My uncle, who was my father's best friend gave them to me, that was all I had to remember my father by.

 

It was not till I started this build that I began accumulating a massive amount of photos through the help of Remco, Gino and Amateur Jan.  I am glad all who visit enjoy the pics and related history, It's obviously very close to my heart.

 

Cheers,

[mtaylor]

Piet,

The story behind O-19 and your passion has made this build special to a lot of us.  I know it has for me.

[Sjors]

What Mark is saying, also counts for me Piet.

 

Especially that the sub is build just around the corner of my house and re - build at the other end of the big pont !

By another Dutchman !!!!!!!!

And you've got the skills to do that.

Chapeau !!!!!!

 

 

[Piet]

Thank you all for your very kind support in your comments and "like" votes, it's not just for me but I see it as including my father who, I'm sure, salutes all of you.

 

Mark,  Sjors and all,  I may seem to include my father a lot in my posts but y'all understand that he is the reason for this build and thus - - - - -

For many this is just history and interesting but If I can make this history come alive and make you all a part of it because one of you on this forum is a living link to that history - - - that'll make me extremely happy.

 

Yeah Shors, the O19 was indeed build close to where you live but we also lived nearby in Vlaardingen. But that was way before you were a gleam in your father's eyes    

 

Well, on to the next model, the deck gun, which has several parts or models, as Remco so aptly states !!

 

Cheers, 

 

[Piet]

Hello all,

 

Well, my wife's sister and husband departed last Monday to go home to the Netherlands.  I may now have a little more time to devote on the O19 model between some needed domestic chores.

Yesterday I spend most the time in the front yard though, weeding and mowing the grass.  In doing so I must have strained my back and it hurts like the dickens, so I took it a easy today.

I calculated the measurements for the deck gun and made a rough profile sketch to see how it would look on the boat.

 

I'll make a cardboard cut-out first, if that looks good then I'll either finalize or redraw it.  I'll also make sketches of the rear and front before cutting wood and / or metal.

 

This thing turns out to be smaller then I figured and may have to forego the rack and pinion gearing inside the gun mount.  The barrel assembly will rotate though as well as the entire gun.

 

Here is a copy of my sketch.

 

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

 

This thing turns out to be smaller then I figured and may have to forego the rack and pinion gearing inside the gun mount.  The barrel assembly will rotate though as well as the entire gun.

 

 

We do expect you to make everything working just like the real one

 

Remco

[amateur]

uhhhhmmmmm....

You're not applying your own standards to the rest of the world, aren't you?

 

But, Piet should be able to live up against these standards.

Real life ammunition would be even better. (btw what kind of ammo was used in these guns?)

 

Jan

[Piet]

Thanks to all for your like votes, it's much appreciated.

 

Remco and Jan, you guys have more confidence and faith in my abilities then I deserve.  The desire is there but it's practically impossible.  I couldn't even buy the tiny gears to make the barrel movement or the gun mount movement.  Did yuns see the measurements?  

Oh I know yuns are just mess'n with me - - - but I love it.    

 

Hmmmmm Jan, life ammo - - - well, perhaps if we put a few 22 caliber rounds in some Preparation H and shrink them - - -  but even then they'll still be too large 

According to the spec sheet the deck gun was an 8.8 cm (3.5 inch) rifled barrel, and fired shells, much like a high powered assault rifle.  That works out to a bore of about 1.76 mm for the model.  Now we all know that the German 88's were a fearsome gun and very effective but still no match for the 6 inch guns on the US subs like the USS Cod I visited last year in Cleveland.  Compared to them these were just pea shooters.  The shells were stored below and brought up via a "dumbwaiter," or lift as Dutch and our English cousins would call them.  At least the US subs didn't have an elevator, chock one up for Dutch ingenuity 

 

Cheers to all,

[Piet]

Well, instead of making a cardboard model of the deck canon I made one from that pesky balsa wood.  When I placed it on it's base and looked at it with my eyes at deck level I think that it is a tad too small.  Reason being that according to a few photos I have with crew members, it shows that the barrel pivot point is at waist level or top of the side railing and the top of the gun to just below the shoulder.  

Naturally I used by body to measure and I realize now that I am rather small thus the discrepancy.

As mentioned above, it's a rather small gun but a little larger then I am showing here (see pic below)

 

Soooohh, I'll add about one or two mm to the overall height and one mm to the aft side.  The reason for this is that turning axle below and in line of the barrel pivot point I need some more material at the backside.

 

I'll redraw the gun and at the same time I can now also draw the front, rear and top views as a guide to make de canon.

The barrel is another issue.  It'll be made from a brass or copper tube, encased in either skulpy or wood. The canon base and top will be from wood with perhaps the base covered with brash shim.  Just thinking out loud, I'll see what develops.  I'm not going overboard with this thing [pun intended], as long as it looks like the canon on the actual boat.

 

 

Perhaps you may think that I'm being anal about a few mm but this is such an easy thing to do right.  When we consider that the AA gun deck is at eye level then the top of the gun should be at the con handhold.  There is also a base platform to consider that'll raise the gun by 1 mm, so I'll really have to watch my next measurements.  But I think that you all agree it's a little too small, wether it's 1 or 2 mm.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[mtaylor]

Piet,

You're the one with the references... from the pic, it looks great but if you say it's too small, then that's what it is.  

 

Hmm.. a 1.75mm round... I can turn some brass rod down and bore it... maybe some pistol power and a bb? I'll send it to you and you can make it a muzzle loader and fire it periodically just to irritate the neighbors?