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

[texxn5]

Hi Piet, I am reposting this to your log for your benefit.....thank you my friend...Proost!

 

"Well, after 6,967.8 miles door to door, and 24 states, in 90 days, we have arrived back in Willis, Texas (slightly north of Houston) our home. This has been a fascinating journey through which we have revisited places we have been before, seen old Navy buddies, college roommates, family, old friends and met new friends, visited museums, and wooden ships, national monuments, and then to our ultimate goal to go back to Disney World. Managed to knock off a few items on the Bucket List, and arrive back home safe and sound. And also found some good Belgian Ale to top it off with......thank you Piet. Many thanks to all of you who put up with my rambling and photos of what we were seeing and doing, and many, many thanks to those of you we met along the way......you ALL truly made this an unforgettable experience. Thanks to the Niagra Museum in Erie, Pennsylvania, and to Henry (popeye2sea) for an incredible lifetime experience with the USS Constitution, the Charles W Morgan, Mystic Seaport curator, as well as the ship itself, (and more to come later as I can share with all of you......after the restoration is completed in March), Dave (lambsk) in Charleston and his lovely Admiral Fran, and last but not least by any means Piet (The Flying Dutchman) and his lovely Admiral Gwen and a great introduction to Fine Belgian Ale.....I am very glad that I could share this with all of you.....my extended family. Next season we'll venture off to the West, and try to cover the rest of the United States and perhaps I can even meet the infamous Augie along the way, and hopefully others since we'll be passing nearby. Anyway Mates, thank you all, and I have moved the Morgan back into the shop, along with all of the paraphanalia I took along that I never used, and tomorrow or the next day the shipyard will be open again. And to my friend Sjors....."Permission to come aboard Sir?".....pictures to follow."

 

Take care my friend, and give our love to Fran....

[Piet]

Thanks to all for the "like" votes!

 

@ Andriaan, Popeye's suggestion on using locating pins could help if the deck is a snug fit over them. It is the simplest method, give it a try.

 

@ John (J. Lad), thank you for your encouragement and yes, we are certainly concerned about you all "down under."

 

@ John (texxn5),  Thanks for the narrative of your long journey and it was totally our pleasure meeting you and your darling wife Diane.  Looking forward seeing your build up and going again.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hello all y'all,

 

Today was a little frustrating with a minor setback    I tried the cemented dive planes but the port side is not secure on the inboard hinge pin.  Soooooooh - - - I'll have to redo that one again.  I even put some anti seize compound on the pin going through the keel and on the ends of the bushings to prevent the epoxy cement from sticking to it.

I'll give it one more try and if that fails then I'll have to go to plan B, which is using the 1.5 mm pipe as a hinge pin.

 

I made the net/cable cutters for the leading edges of the dive plane outboard brackets.  I purposely left these un-cemented so I can still remove the dive planes.  They will only be cemented in place when I am positively sure the center hinge pins are secured in the dive planes.

 

I filled the rudder slot with wood filler and finished it off nicely.  Did not use paper to cover it.

 

I also cemented both engine exhaust pipes into the fairings.

 

Well, I made a few pics of the problem causing dive planes anyhow and the other things mentioned above.

 

This shows the net cutter cemented to the leading edge of the outboard dive plane hinge bracket.  It's still not cemented in place yet. I used 5 minute epoxy cement, the same as I used for the inboard hinge pin.

 

Another view of the net cutters installed and the dive planes.

 

I painted the exhaust pipes with flat black as well as the well they come out of.  

 

An overall view of what was accomplished today.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[Jim Lad]

Looking good in spite of the setback, Piet!

 

John

[popeye the sailor]

second that John........a daunting assembly indeed!   looks great Piet!

[Paul Salomone]

Hello Piet,

 

Looking better by the day.

 

The propeller drive assembly and the rudders are a wonder. What about the prop blades? I suggest copper sheet.

[texxn5]

Very nice. She's really starting to look like a sub. Just a minor setback, and you'll be off and running. Thanks for the kind words.....

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for your likes and kind words, REALLY appreciate it.

 

Fixed the minor inconvenience with the port dive plane    Was done in about half an hour!  Cleaned it up and used 1 minute epoxy cement, well - - - the tubes say 5 minutes but after I mix the required amounts it seems I have only one minute.  In any case, it works and the side brackets are now also permanently cemented in and checked for level.  Used slow curing epoxy this time to give me the time to fiddle with it to make sure they are level.

 

While I was waiting for the cement to cure I proceeded to carve the outlines on the ballast tanks for the mine tubes.  Could only do the port side.  Pix will follow this evening because I have to get my iMac fixed.  I need to call the Apple store in JAX for an appointment and that in itself is a daunting task, at least for me.

 

I'm using my HP Pavilion laptop for the time being.

 

Thanks again folks and cheers to all,

[Piet]

Hello all,

 

@ Paul, copper sheet for prop blades.  Sounds quite reasonable, if I can find some copper sheet.  Frankly, I haven't really looked for it yet.  I have some nice brass, more difficult to form though  .  We'll see what I can find, copper is the preferred material for ease of handling.

 

As mentioned in my previous post the re-cementing of the port dive vane went rather smooth and quick.  Okay, now what to do?  I figured to start indicating the mine tube loading doors on the port side.  I made a template from card stock and drew the outlines on top of the center ballast tanks.  With my trusty #11 exacto knife I carefully cut into the fake steel plates.  After one try I had to sharpen the blade, it was tearing the paper instead of cutting.  I have a super fine sharpening stone and oh boy does it cut nice.  I cut two slanted parallel cuts separated only by a fraction of 1 mm and removed a sliver of paper to indicate a very narrow groove.  Once this is filled with some more poly urethane and then paint it should be enough to show the location of these lids. 

 

I also added the center bar in the torpedo bow and stern door handholds or whatever they are and picked again at the seams of all the plates,  I guess this'll be an ongoing project till I'm quite satisfied with the finish before I paint the finish coats of paint on.

I suppose that tomorrow I'll do the starboard side and then put on another coat of poly to let it dry overnight, ready for another sanding with fine sandpaper.

 

I'm slowly running out of things to do below the deck line, then it's on to the con and everything above the deck, hurray  

 

I have an appointment with the Mac store Friday morning to get my iMac fixed. It's 3/4 of an hour drive to Jacksonville (JAX as the 3 letter identifier in airplane talk) and there may not be enough time for work on the sub.  I already miss my iMac   Just to reduce the size of the photo I had to search for how to do that on this HP laptop. 

 

Okay, I took one photo of the mine loading doors an hope you can make it out.

 

This is hand-cut by following the pencil line and who said that "old" people don't have steady hands  

 

Cheers,

[Paul Salomone]

Hello Piet,

 

Just send me a private message with your home address and I will send you a piece of copper sheet. I have loads of it.

[popeye the sailor]

what 'old people'..........all I see is 'mature modelers'      I'd be s***less to make cuts like that..........fantastic work!

[Piet]

Thanks everyone for visiting and like my progress.

 

@ Paul, message sent, thank you for your offer.  I was holding off because I needed to buy much more then I'll ever use in ten lifetimes   I was thinking of buying a copper pipe, cut off a small piece, cutting it lengthwise and flatten it.  Here too, an 8 foot length?  Hmmmm, no, we'll use Paul's method  

 

@ Popeye, yes, "old" is not a good word to use in the presence of "old" people     I don't know what got into me         Making cuts like that is easy, the brain tells the hand that holds the knife to follow the black line as the eye directs it, simple       

 

Today was more touching up here and there but added the fake steel reinforcing plates over the hinge pin bearings of the rudder and dive planes.

I also installed the center bars in the handhold or mooring openings on the starboard side and cut the outlines of the mine loading doors on the starboard side.

Oh yeah, visited the dentist early this morning for him to look at how the surgery is healing.  He was flabbergasted that after a week he could already remove the stitches. He was pleased and I'm a happy camper  

 

I also started with cutting out the space for the mushroom anchor. I'll model that one from a piece of dowel I have laying around.  I don't know yet if I can make it workable, we'll try.

 

No pictures today.  Hope to be able to put another coat of poly on the boat tomorrow after I come back from the Apple store in JAX.  

 

Cheers to every one,

[Piet]

Thanks fellows for visiting and your like votes, appreciate it very much!

 

Today was an almost total los for any work in the shipyard.  Traveled first thing in the morning to the Mac store in JAX to get my iMac fixed.  They did determine that the hard drive had augured in and crashed but because of it being more then 5 years old their policy is they can't replace the defunct hard drive.

So, I drove back home, had some lunch and then went to DBA (that's Daytona Beach in airplane talk) and brought the computer to the Geek Squad at BestBuy.  They are going to install a tera bite hard drive in it.  All the other stuff I need to do to this poor thing I'll have to try to myself or bring it back to the Mac store.  I'll have to cope with this laptop till I get my Mac back.

 

I'm still having a problem in reducing the size of my photos, forgot how I did it a few days ago.

 

I did manage to put another coat of poly on the sub though, now it has some time to dry so I can sand it again.  The few pics of some detail work are parked on the desktop till I find the way to reduce their size.

 

I wish all of yuns a very good weekend and happy modeling.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hello everyone,

 

No word yet on my poor computer but I finally found out how to reduce my photos on this laptop  

 

I made some close-ups with my Cannon with the 100 mm micro lens.  Unfortunately the lighting in the shipyard was low so the depth of field was too narrow.

In any case, I thought to let you see why I keep picking at the little details to clean up.

 

Tomorrow I'll be sanding with 360 or 400 grit paper, maybe even wet.  Then I need to make and install the net/cable cutter to the vertical keel portion that supports the control surfaces and the props.

I'm coming close going topside    

 

Okay, here are the pics I wanted to post yesterday.

 

This is a shot of the starboard dive plane with the "steel" reinforcing plates over the hinge pin bearings. Same on all other control surfaces on both sides/

 

This is a pic of the starboard stern torpedo door. A detail of the center bar in the mooring thingy (I think).

Now you can see why I keep picking at things to clean them up. The hinges are at the aft end and the doors are pulled hydraulically open inward.

 

Here are the bow torpedo tube doors with the same kind of mooring thingies. Sorry but I can't come up of the correct words for these things. The hinges for the bow tube doors are in the front and also pulled hydraulically open inward.

 

Another shot of the starboard dive plane with the reinforcing plates.

 

Cheers,

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up, Piet.  Looking very nice, mate!

 

John

[ianmajor]

Piet,

 

That looks great. The "teeth" show up really well.

[Piet]

Thank you all gentlemen for looking in and your kind comments.

 

Yes, Ian, she can bite now   

 

Today was spend sanding and again sanding.  I also wiped her down with a damp rag with some solvent to remove most of the sanding dust.  Tomorrow some more touching up and fiddling around trying to correct some of the ragged edges    and then making more "teeth" for the vertical portion of the rear keel.

 

When she looks satisfactory then I may paint the lower part of the hull in red.  When that's dry it may just be the right time to start prepping for the conning tower      The hull part above the waterline can be painted any time and it'll be green.  Everything above the deck will be a light gray with a teak colored deck.

 

Cheers to all,

 

 

[texxn5]

Hi Piet, happy to see the progress.....once paint starts hitting it she'll come to life....outstanding. Sorry about the Mac. Looks like Sjors is getting a storm....we don't know what those things are .... do we???

[popeye the sailor]

nice bit of progress.....looks great! 

[Piet]

Hello everyone and thank you John, Mark and Ian for dropping in.

 

@ John, a storm, Sjors is getting a storm?  What do you mean he is getting a storm, Sjors IS a storm        Well, I hope for all the Dutchies that it'll cause no damage and harm.  That must be the same storm they are having in England.  We do know about them things, they are called hurricanes here.

 

Okay, today I spend again quite some time picking at some "stuff" on the boat but I figured I should test a piece with paper with poly to see if my enamel primer will stick.  It seems okay but I'm still nervous though painting over the poly but the enamel primer and poly should be compatible.  

 

In the meantime I made and installed the net/cable cutter to the vertical keel, turned out quite well.  I also put one light coat of primer on the exposed wood parts of the dive planes, rudder and prop shaft supports. It needs one more coat.

 

Then I started to make the mushroom anchor and prepped its little "house."  I intend to make it so that I can either leave it in or drop it down.  For a static display it may look okay.

 

I may put a coat of primer on the hull so I can see better where any blemishes are that still need to be corrected.  The sun should be shining and it'll be nice and warm so I can paint outside.

 

Here are the pics of today's work.

 

Well now, the pics will not upload    I'm using the Admiral's MacBook pro laptop and reduced the size to the recommended amount and even much less for a trial but no dice.  Right now I have no idea why it wont behave     Computers, give me an airplane to work on and I'll fix anything on them things, but computers?  Infernal machines they are.

 

Cheers,

 

 

[Piet]

Hello all, I reduced the size to a lot less pixels and this confuser likes it, so here they are.  Hope yuns can still see them without a magnifier. 

 

 

 

This is the mushroom anchor still unfinished.

 

Here I placed the anchor in the receptacle.  I plan to attach a "cable" to it so it can appear to be ready to haul back up when I leave it outside the boat when on display.

 

This is another shot of the anchor to give you some perspective.

 

Cheers,

Edited March 15, 2015 by Piet

[Piet]

Hey Popeye, you like it eh, me having trouble with computers       

Airplanes is my game but that's in the past, now its ships and art, yeaaaaah   

 

Are we having fun yet?  Hope to hear from the computer fixit shop soon and get my big Mac back   

 

Cheers,

[racouch444]

A rich and warm, heart wrenching story.  To me your task will be a monumental one, and I am looking forward to your log and wishing you the best of success. 

[Paul Salomone]

Hello Piet,

 

Just a note to advise, that I am mailing the copper sheet this morning. You should receive it within three or four weeks.

[texxn5]

Nice anchor, glad you explained that when I was there, I think the cable attachment is a great idea...

[Jim Lad]

That's an interesting type of anchor, Piet.

 

John

[Piet]

Thanks every one for visiting and your like votes.  

 

@ Recouch444, thank you for your kind words!  Yes, this build has special meaning for me and brings back memories, many good but also some not so good.  I am thoroughly enjoying this build though.

 

@ Paul, again many thanks for helping me out with the copper.  Fortunately I made it so that I can install and remove the prop hubs.

 

@ John texxn5, ah yes, I remember we talked about it and I have attached a "cable" to it and it's now snugly put into it's little house.  It's just a pain to stuff all that "cable" back into the hull     Forgot to take a few pics today but will do so tomorrow.

 

@ John (Lad), yeah, this type of anchor is a little different then what we are used to.  It's much like a thick satellite dish.  The idea is that the edges dig into the sea floor and bury themselves into it.  The older subs also had a small regular anchor stowed on the forward side of the deck frame.  

In the meantime I have made my model anchor a lot thinner and also hollowed it out to make it dish shaped.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

 

Hello everyone, again.

 

Well, today was going to be THE day of painting the sub with an enamel primer.  I used this primer before and it dries nice and hard.

I took it outside next to the garage and put it on one of the Admiral's large plastic garden barrels as my paint station.

Then I used my shop vac to blow all the dust off it after the sanding I gave it in the last couple of days.  Then wiped her down with a damp rag with solvent.  I used a primer in a "rattle" can from the local hardware store, like Krylon but dries harder.  I put two coats on it and let it sit in the warm sun for a few hours.

 

In the meantime I put the mushroom anchor back in the lathe and cut it down thinner and hollowed it out to make it into a dish shape.  Then cemented the anchor post into it with 5 minute epoxy and also put an eye bolt inside the hull to hold the anchor "cable", which is just a piece of heavy black rigging line.

I drilled a hole in the center false vertical keel for the anchor post and made and installed the eye bolt into one of the frames.  Then fastened the anchor cable to the eye bolt and the anchor and stuffed the cable inside the hull.  The anchor fits nice a snug in it's little "house" and all we see is the rounded bottom of it, quite neat to look at.  The Admiral asked where the anchor was so I told her to bend down and look under the bow, ooooh, she said, I see it's bold head.  Weird Dutch humor     

 

She really liked the looks of the boot now that it's painted white.

 

I mentioned in a previous post that with the primer on it I should be able to see all the blemishes and sanded through spots, etc. 

Well now, this afternoon I took the boot outside and sat in my lawn chair in the shade with some 400 sandpaper and scrutinized the hull for any of that funny stuff and was pleasantly surprised how few little thingies I found that needed some attention.  I did sand it down very lightly to remove some of the grittiness from the paint and it's looking really good, I am a happy camper         

 

So, I guess we can now put some color on it. I have a gallon of semi-gloss enamel called "Roasted Pepper" that we used for our front door.  I love the color because it's not a fiery red but more a subdued red.  It's the same paint I used for the VOC ship gunport lids.  It'll be red up to the waterline and above it a forest like green, which I have not picked out yet.

 

Well, here are two shots of the boat just painted with primer.

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

 

[texxn5]

Wow Piet, a major milestone......break out the Leffe........

[Remcohe]

Piet all the work you put into the hull paid off. She look tremendous!

 

Permission granted to be really proud of yourself ;-)

 

Remco