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

[harvey1847]

Hello Piet!

 

Excellent sketch on post #1008... With all the CAD, 2D, 3D, CNC... around it´s always a pleasure for the eye to see a good old fashion hand made draw! With a square set of triangles, pencil, rubber. No computers, just your hands your mind some music on the radio...Good stuff.

 

Good luck and good days!

 

 

Daniel.

[Piet]

Wow, thanks to the many who clicked on the like button, that's really encouraging.

 

Ahoi Mark, thanks for dropping in, it's always a pleasure "seeing" you here and your kind words.  Yeah, after seeing the mock-up on the boat I decided to make it just a tad larger.  In between some rest periods I started to redraw the gun and used the prints from the manufacturer as a guide.  I think it'll look a lot better.  I have thrown my back out weeding the front lawn last Tuesday and need to give that old poor back a little rest.

Yeah, I could make a few rounds that size on my DB-200 and make some black powder, then get some cotton balls from Sjors and bingo we can bango  

 

Hey Daniel, good to "see" you again too.  Hope all's well in your neck of the woods.  Thanks for your compliments.  Some time ago I did contemplate of buying drawing software but it would have taken me at least 6 months to basically understand it and how to use it.  Computers and me don't mix very well    So, I decided to just do it the way I was taught, T square, triangles and etc.  Thanks to a very understanding trade school director I obtained certificates in 13 trades that included technical drawing and illustrative drawing.  In my many moves I lost my drafting machine.  It was big and cumbersome so I'm back to T square and triangles.

I get a real kick out of doing this and used the same method when designing my VOC ship "Surabaya."

 

Cheers to all,

 

 

[michael mott]

 

 In my many moves I lost my drafting machine. It was big and cumbersome so I'm back to T square and triangles.

The thing about using a T square and Triangles is that it is a universal language that many of us me included used to learn how to draw. I now do use Cad a lot but it is amazing how many times I use my drawing knowledge to do things in Cad that are ingrained in the pen/pencil and paper mindset.  The practical geometry that my drafting teacher imparted gets used on a daily basis, I thank him all the time.

 

I like your sketch.

 

Michael

[Piet]

Thanks Michael for dropping in and your compliment.  After I was discharged from the Royal Airforce as an aircraft mechanic I wanted to go back to school and complete my studies for flight engineer with KLM.  Something happened and couldn't go so I solicited for a job as draftsman with a engineering firm in the Hague.  I also had an application in with KLM as mechanic and when they called to come to work for them I accepted and went to Amsterdam to work for KLM.  

Never got to actually earn a living as draftsman but, as you said, the training is invaluable.  Well, actually when i was director of QC and Engineering for an airline near Philadelphia I designed a cargo interior for a few of their aircraft.  

I'd love to learn CAD but at this stage in my life the time to learn it is not worth my while.  Too busy with modeling and my art.

I'm painting and drawing freehand between model building 

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hello fellow ship builders.  I have been taking it a little slow, trying to give my poor back a chance to "un-strain" itself  Weeding in Florida seems like a full time job, everything grows like the dickens.

 

In any case, that gave me some time to redraw the working drawing for the deck gun.  I made another sample gun from the new drawing and I'm much happier with that one.  So I started making the gun  

 

I made the base from two peaces of 2 mm boxwood with a 14 mm block in front that'll be shaved nicely rounded as the original shows on the photos I received from Freek.

I made the barrel also from boxwood.  I had a piece left over from the VOC ship masts.  Most of it was shaved off on my mast making fixture and the final rounding and tapering was done on my Unimat DB 200.  

Hopefully I can finish the gun sometime this week and then proceed with the torpedo loading gantries, for and aft.  That'll be a can of worms due to the small size of the tackles.  Everything will be made from brass.

 

Okay, enough of the jabbering and time to add a few pics.  

 

This is the redrawn working sketch for the deck canon.  Some of the measurements will most likely change a little as I proceed.

 

Here is the mock-up according to the second drawing.  I like the size much better, it's just about the right height.  Like I mentioned above, the actual canon may have to be adjusted here and there but overall it'll work out okay.

 

This block of boxwood was build up from three pieced and glued together to prevent warping. It was fortunately long enough for the barrel.  First I used a small plane to reduce the size and make it round enough to clamp it in my lathe.  Sorry, no pic of the lathe work but the taper was done using two hands and finalizing with a file and sand paper.  The bulbous barrel end still needs to be finished and then finish boring the barrel and put the rifle grooves in it - - - NOT 

 

Here is the almost finished barrel.  I did a Doris on the barrel end, I glued a strip of paper on the barrel end and will shape that nice an round, hopefully.  

 

Cheers, 

[Piet]

G'day to all and thank you very much for looking in and your likes, it's much appreciated.

 

I continued with the deck gun in between some domestic chores.  The main parts are made but need to be refined yet.  Still a lot of work to be done with the small details.

I'll post two pics of an actual deck gun that Freek send a few month ago for yuns to see what I'm trying to achieve.  They disappeared from my build log and have not yet had the chance to put them back.  BTW, quite a few pics have disappeared, arch 

 

The actual deck gun on display at the Navy Museum in den Helder, the Netherlands.

 

 

This shows all the major parts for the gun.  I finished the barrel and inserted a 3.1 mm copper tube in the muzzle end.  It will be attached to the center part with a wooden dowel, which is shown above left of the gun.  The aft part is attached with 2 small 1.5 mm brass tubes and a 3.1 mm copper tube in the lower center as part of the barrel.  The two small tubes are most likely for the shell casing discharge gas to the breech assembly.  I am inserting a 3.1 mm copper tube through the center part for the hinge.  The hinge pivot pin is a 1.5 mm copper tube.  I cut two 2.5 mm long 3.1 mm copper tubes to be cemented to the base as hinge bearings, I put them on the base unit just below for yuns to see and where they are supposed to go.  Hinge bearing retainer straps are from 0.2 mm brass shim stock that'll be cemented to the base kinda modeling it after the real gun.  I hope to be able to also use very fine sewing pins as the attaching bolts.

As you can see there is still a lot of work yet to be dome but so far I'm pretty happy with it.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Thank you all for dropping in and your likes, it's much appreciated.

 

Well, I had a change in plans.  Instead of cementing the small pieces of tubes to the base unit and using a smaller diameter tube as pivot pin I decided to use pivot bearing pillow blocks instead,  much like the real gun.  I had to remove the already installed copper tube from the central barrel housing and replace it with a longer one that would now rest on the pivot pin bearing billow blacks.

 

So far this worked quite well but now I had to make the closing saddles for the pivot pins and used a thicker brass sheet for that.  I cut a few strips of 2 mm wide and shaped it around a steel pin of the same diameter as the pivot pins.  This did pose a few problems and had to scrap two till I had what I wanted. 

 

I also glued the barrel to the center barrel housing using a 2.5 mm diameter wooden pin.  I was quite happy that everything lined up nice and straight 

 

Then I started with the gun adjusting wheels and got as far as making the rims.  The five spokes will be another story and need to make a jig for them.  I also made the 90* drive unit for the gun rotation mechanism. 

 

This was all I could do today, not much progress because I had to do some necessary correspondence after lunch.

 

Okay, here are a few pics.

 

This picture shows the two baring pillow blocks for the barrel unit.  I cheated by installing one piece of tubing through the barrel unit instead of "bolting" them individually to each side.  Hmmmm, I may fake the attaching hardware with paper parts. There is not much space inside the base unit.  These bearing saddles are from thin brass stock and epoxied in.

 

Here we see the gun barrel glued to the center barrel housing.  Both barrel pivot pin bearing saddles are now epoxied in.  We also see the hole for the future rotation pin to the deck plate.  The pin is made but I want to wait till most of the detail stuff is finished and installed to the gun.

 

This is a shot looking at the business end of the gun.

 

I put the barrel assembly temporarily to the base unit but had to keep it from tilling forward with a small pair of pliers.

 

This shows the 90* drive for the gun rotation adjustment wheel.  The rims are made and waiting the spokes and drive pins.

 

Here you see one of the wheel rims temporarily placed on the drawing of the base unit to look for fit.  Looks okay to me.

 

This pic shows the barrel unit pivot pin locking saddles.

 

Another view of these locking saddles

 

Cheers,

 

[popeye the sailor]

nice looking gun so far........

[Jim Lad]

Nice looking gun, Piet!

 

John

[mtaylor]

Nice work on the gun, Piet.

[Piet]

Thank you all for visiting and your like votes.

 

John, Popeye and Mark, thanks for your encouraging comments, really appreciated.

 

After spending a few hours in the front yard trying to remove some pesky and stubborn ground cover that has crept into my grass I ventured back into the garage aka shipyard. 

I decided not to overdo the hard yard work because my back is still not back in good shape and won't aggravate it.

 

I made a jig to solder the hand wheels together and proceeded to cut the spokes from the same brass rod as the wheel rims.  I used a tiny bronze nail for the wheel shaft.

I removed most of the head and put the nail in a hole at the center of the jig with enough space so I can slide the spokes under the nail head.  

Next I used a couple of clothes pins to hold the spokes to the jig in their assigned location in the jig so that I could solder one spoke at a time to the nail head in the center. 

 

After this was done I cleaned all extra solder away and clipped the spokes to fit inside the rim.

 

Next I placed the rim on the jig surrounding the spokes and clamped a steel office clip to hold it all together and also act as a heat sink.  It required just a light touch with the soldering iron to solder all the spokes to the rim.  

Now came the job of adding the tiny handle to the rim and clean it all up from the extra solder.

 

This doesn't look like a lot I accomplished but it was time consuming and between losing a few spokes and some that were not cooperating it still took a few hours, including the cleaning up of the extra solder.

The spokes are not quite at the correct angles, they must have drifted out of place when clamping them with the clothes pins.  But as we say in the aviation world - - - You'll never notice it from 10,000 feet   I know, I know, that's not really Piet's way and who knows - - - I may remake them later with a better jig and clamping arrangement.

 

I also drilled a few small holes in the barrel assembly pivot pin bearing caps for the simulated bolts.  I'll use tine bronze nails instead after I epoxy them to the base unit.  Hmmm, I probably need to paint the inside of the base and the gun grey before assembling it.

There are a few more details to be made and installed but the gun is getting close to be placed on the boat.

 

Okay, time for a few pics of today's effort and for my own file.

 

This shows my jig.  A piece of soft wood whereon I scribed groves for the spokes and the rim.  I drilled a small hole in the center for the wheel axle.  I didn't notice that two of the spokes had drifter out of their groves and proceeded with the soldering.  After all the spokes were soldered on the pin and took it out of the jig I noticed it and tied to redo the two culprits but started to make a real mess and had to start over.   Then I just gave up and cleaned the center before soldering the rim to the spokes.

 

This shown my heat-sink arrangement.  This worked quite well.

 

Here is the completed hand wheel on the jig before cleaning the extra solder away.

 

Here I am holding the finished hand wheel.  Sorry about the dirty wingers, that's the sap from the ground cover I was pulling out of the lawn grass 

 

Cheers, 

 

 

[Sjors]

Piet,

 

Amazing that you can make such tiny stuff.....

I have all ready problems with the big stuff.......  

I think I'll gonna be visiting old Mister Wilton       

O no, not possible......maybe one of his children then ????

I want them showing this build !!!!

 

[Paul Salomone]

Hello Piet,

 

looks like I missed quite a lot. wow some very good workmanship indeed.

 

the gun barrel looks a wonder. Do you consider buying a small lathe?  I know that tools cost a lot of money, but believe me - it pays off - saves you quite a lot of time.

The small guns on of the Scharnhorst, especially the twin 105mm anti-aircraft mountings, shall be made up from 900 pieces, and I have to make seven of them. I am seriously considering moulding or a 3D printer. a couple of guys at the club purchased 3D printers at a price around 1500 US Dollars from China. The brand name is Wimbo printers. They are good printers. the guys at the club are more into automobiles, so they use them to cast wheels and dashboard items. But believe me, the detail is quite impressive. They even, managed to reproduce the brand name on the tyre and the wheel hubs.

[Piet]

Hello everyone and thanks to the many who dropped by and clicked "like."      

 

Hey Sjors, believe me my friend, that small stuff is a bear to make with a lot of tries and scrap and loosing some pieces that just "twang" away out of my tweezers or pliers.     

Hmmmm, if Mr. Wilton were alive and heard my name he'd be turning red with anger    My father sure gave them a hard time during the build of the real boat and her sister the O20.

 

Hello Paul, welcome back and welcome to my dockyard.  Yup, I made some progress since your last visit, but that's what you get when being busy with other pressing things in life.

Yes indeed I do have a Unimat DB 200 lathe and use it quite a lot.  The barrel was made on the lathe and as I mentioned in a previous post I used both hands to make the taper.  One to gradually feed the tool in and the other to gradually back the slide tool holder out.  The final shaping was done with 320 grit sand paper followed with 400.  The wood is box thus nice and hard.  I just didn't want to shift the Head Stock to make the taper.

 

Well, I'm afraid that a 3D printer is out of the question as are a few other nice tools like a mini table saw, planer and whatever.  I have to make due with what I have and hand tools.  This takes a little longer but I like the challenge and have nowhere else to go.

 

Good luck with the adoption process !!

 

Cheers, 

[Piet]

Good evening or morning to all.  After a simple dinner with my dear wife and watching a nature show on TV I'm back to report what we accomplished today.

 

I could only do some work in the PM because this morning I had my fifth cancer treatment and the aftermath was a little uncomfortable and needed to stay close to the crapper 

 

After lunch things kinda felt better and I was able to do some assembling of the deck gun.  And - - - wouldn't you know it, I lost one of the gun pivot bearing caps, it went flying to somewhere and I had to make a new one 

This time I decided to forego the epoxy cement and just nail the suckers to the mount body.  This worked quite well and then I cemented the two hand wheels also to the gun mount body and the central pivot pin with the turn plate.

 

Of course I forgot to paint the inside but that's not a real problem, I still have enough access to it.  

 

Next I started to make the 4 hand holds and the pedal rod at the lower front of the gun mount.  I used the tiny bronze nails for the posts and 1.5 mm brass tube s to shove a 1 mm rod through as the hand hold.  The pic below shows it better then i can describe it.

 

Well, that's it for today and I hope to get a good night sleep

 

Deck gun in profile, ⅔ finished - is lacking the hand-holds and a few other details and paint.

 

This shows a close-up and yes, it may look a little rough but the pic is taken on a macro setting.  You can see how I installed the two pivot pin bearing caps with the tiny bronze nails and the heads acting as bolts.  Yeah, I could have filed hexagonal heads on them but, but, but - - - hmmm, maybe later???  

At least I inserted pieces of wooden dowels in the pivot pins to act as the locking nuts and yes, they have the spanner groves in them  .

 

This shows the aft end of the gun, we can see the breech and some more details

 

The shows the front view of the gun assembly as it is as of this evening.  I hope to complete the deck gun tomorrow, if not then there is always another day.

 

This shows one set hand-holds.  It worked easier then I thought.  I first filed the bronze nail heads flat on top and "tinned" it.  Then I cut 2 mm pieces off of the 1.5 mm brass tube.  I inserted the nail into a block of wood so the head was kinda flush with the wood surface.  Then I picked each piece of tubing up with a pointed toothpick and placed that on the tinned nail head and soldered the two together.  Worked like a charm.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Well. the saga of the deck gun continues but first my thanks to all who visited and clicked on "like."

 

Oh - I guess I could have finished the deck gun today but I wanted to read some more from the book I bought about the "Battle of the Java Sea" by Jeffrey R Cox.  I learned quite a lot on the details that lead up to this battle and the actual action.  It took Mr. Cox several years of research that took him to Japan, Australia and Indonesia as well as here in the Naval Archives to put the puzzle pieces together.  It's a shame that he left out statements from the surviving crew of Hr. Ms. Java, the cruiser my father lost his life on.  My father was mentioned where they were looking for him.  However, I do have a draft copy of that chapter where he is mentioned and will put a copy of it in the book.

It's a very good read and am glad I have the book.

 

So then, after lunch I again ventured into the garage to continue work on the deck gun.  I installed the hand holds but they are not cemented in yet.  I also need to make and install the foot pedals and the simulated elevation mechanism under the barrel assembly.  After that's done then I think the gun is pretty well complete and can be placed on it's mounting plate on deck.

 

Over all I'm quite happy with it and am confidant that all the file scratches will be hidden with a coat of paint 

 

Here are a few pics I'm putting into my personal archive.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

The gun looks great Piet, the hand holds turned out really nice. Bravo.

 

Remco

[harvey1847]

Amazing Piet! looks so tiny and mighty and with those wheel and details makes one think about not painting this jewel...

 

What´s the size of the AA for real? 76mm, 88?

 

Have a good weekend!

 

 

Daniel.

[amateur]

You're going the same route as Remco: an ever decreasing size of your details.

The funny thing is: it triggers remarks on the 'larger' parts.

I think you should consider redoing the eyebolt up front. The detailing on the other metalwork is far better.....

 

Will the gun be sprayed in one colour, or will there be lettering and other details?

 

Jan

[FreekS]

Great looking gun Piet! Are you going make the seat for the gunner also?

 

Freek

[Jim Lad]

That gun has turned out very well indeed, Piet!

 

John

[Piet]

WOW, I'm overwhelmed with all the responses, about 23 or so, thank you all for visiting !

 

@ Remco: Thanks !!!  Well, before I installed them I thought that the tiny bronze nails were too thick and I hand filed them down to a much smaller diameter.  I'm happy with the way they came out but don't ask how my poor fingers are  

 

@ Daniel: Yes, the deck gun will also be painted in the same grey as the rest of the upper works of the boat.  I'm going to attempt to still make the rack and other parts below the barrel and the exposed parts of the gear of the rack will probably be black.  The two AA guns are 40 mm Vickers and the deck gun is 88 mm.  It did do a great job in actually sinking a few Jap freighters, denying them to resupply their troops.

 

@ Jan (Amateur): Thank you so very much for your compliment, I love the challenge in trying to make things as small as possible and Remco is an inspiration.

Yes indeed, the larger parts begin to look LARGE in comparison and yes, I'll be remaking the eye bolt up front, it's too large.  Thanks for bringing that my attention.  No problem, just a few minutes. 

 

@ Freek: thanks !!  No, I don't think I'll make the seat, I pretend that it's stowed away in the forward part of the conning tower, under the forward AA gun.  Hmmmm, he says with a straight face   I figure it's in the way, especially when submerged it's more of a drag.  The crew can retrieve it when they must use the gun.

 

@ John (Lad):  Thank you John.

 

Remember that a few posts ago I mentioned that one of the gun pivot pin bearing caps just "twanged' away and I had to make a new one?  Well, yesterday, when working at my computer during my lunch break, I just happen to look down on the floor and guess what???  There was the missing part!  My guess is that it must have dropped on my moccasin that I normally wear.  Well, okay - - - now I have a spare.

 

Okay, enough of the small talk and thanking everyone for your comments, it's now my bed time for my beauty sleep      Hope to do some more work on the gun, I like to see it finished and go on to the torpedo loading gantries.

 

I with all y'all happy modeling and,

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Continuation of the deck gun saga 

 

Hey Freek, look what I found in the con storage area - - - the gun operator seat !!!    

 

No, really, I couldn't resist trying to make the seat anyway.  After i cemented the seat to the gun base I noticed it wasn't quite the way i wanted it but I'll correct it tomorrow afternoon after my doctor visit.

I made the foot rests too and that's now cemented on.  We are making progress   

 

I also made a start with the barrel elevation rack. Not a simple job now that the barrel is mounted but I'll have work around it somehow., we'll see.

 

And Amateur Jan - I have made a brand new eye bolt for the front of the gun, much better this time, agree?? 

 

Okay, here are the few pics showing the seat installed to the gun.

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

The seat looks great Piet!

 

Remco

[popeye the sailor]

you've done so much with the gun since I last saw it......it looks very good! all the detail really adds to the functionality.....wonderful....well done!

[FreekS]

Fantastic you even made the footrests for the gunner ! . .

 

Edited April 14, 2014 by FreekS

[Sjors]

Piet,

 

Amazing what you are doing !

When you are ready with the canon, you can shoot real  grenades ???????

And will you also put that sign on it ?

It is forbidden to climb up the canon ??        

 

[popeye the sailor]

gonna look great when you get some paint on it....nicely detailed!

[Piet]

Hello everyone and a special thanks to all for your birthday wishes on my 80 years on this planet.

Also my thanks to the many who clicked "like" when visiting, it's really appreciated!!!!

 

Hello Remco, Popeye and Freek, thanks for your comments.  Yeah, Freek, i didn't forget the foot rests!  But didn't make the other small thingies on that rod - - - just too much for now. 

 

Hoi Sjors, thank you too - - - you mean - - real grenades?????  Hmmmm - - - now I have to make grenades too ??? in addition to mines and torpedoes ????  I'll never get done with this thing if yuns keep pushing for more stuff     

You want to see an old Dutchman tearing his hair (singular! ) out as he runs for the hills ???  Come to think of it, not many hills in Florida     And no, that sign won't go on it - - hmmm - - is that what it says ???       grapjas   

 

Well, just one more item to make for the canon and then I can paint it.  Yes Popeye, it'll look great all painted up, at least it'll hide some of the roughness. 

 

Now, if I had the talent Doris has in making people figures then I may be tempted to make a gunner sitting on that seat   

 

Cheers

[amateur]

A gunner on the seat.

Would be nice, only to see how that fits: the wheel is between teh seat and the footrest, and it seems to me that these gunners should have awfully long legs.

 

(picture of a gunner on the seat would do as well, I guess )

 

Jan

 

btw: how on earth (sea?) did they remove the shells and seaweed from within the mechanism?

Edited April 16, 2014 by amateur