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

[harvey1847]

Astonish Work Piet!

 

I Knew that was going to be "functional". Just amazing... Cant wait to see the torpedos hanging around...

 

Happy modelling!

 

 

Daniel.

[popeye the sailor]

SHUT UP!!!!!   AWESOME!!!  ...........and in the back of your mind,  you probably thought you couldn't do it    that assembly is going to look so cool........already so much so!   boy!!!........what you sub-boys can do!   .........and we thought you folks don't get out much!  

 

sub - mersably speaking,  of course............really Piet,  it looks really good!    

[Piet]

WOW, I'm overwhelmed by all the likes and your very kind responses, thank you all.

 

Hoi Remco, no, I did not shove a rod into the tube because i already knew that it would be too bulky for the scale.  Even a 0.5 mm tube would be too big.  I just wanted to see if it would work and indeed to make the real thing I need to fill the tube with something and this case a rod would be the best instead of the traditional sand.  A life size thimble is about 12 mm at its widest point, now divide it by 50 and we come to a very improbably small size to work with.

I used a modified round jawed pair of pliers and the collapse is not that serious, I could even tap it back some into its round shape.  

This pair of pliers have round conical jaws so I can bend all kinds of different radii. I modified the tips by carefully grinding them to much smaller diameter.

 

This miniature stuff is taking its toll on my fingers though     but that's why I let my fingernails grow a little larger then usual for a man.  It acts like a more solid guide then my poor skin 

 

Hi Daniel, thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it.   Well, instead of hanging a torpedo on the aft gantry I figured to hang a mine on it dangling over the side where the mine tubes are.  It'll be too busy with a torpedo and the dingy so close to each other.

 

Hey Popeye,  wow, what accolades, thanks!!!  I need to be careful now that I don't get a swelled head with all those compliments     but I'll fight that - - - nah - keep them cards and letters coming, I love it when people appreciate my work and it spurs me on to do better.

 

Actually no, after I drew out the "come-along" assembly I already figured it would work.  Sub boy??  No, actually my field was up in the air, airplanes, where instead my father loved it below sea level   

That day when he left to sail with the fleet to battle the Jap navy he made me promise not to seek a career at sea.  Well, he already knew that I loved airplanes and wanted to become an aircraft engineer and pilot.  Even with all the roadblocks thrown in my path, I, in a way, fulfilled my promise to him, which makes me very happy.  

 

Today we didn't accomplish much.  I accompanied Gwen to the doctor for her back and other things.  She finally decided to seek some medical attention.  Ever since we moved to Florida we didn't have a "family" doctor and this was a good excuse to find one so I also signed up for the general aches and pains.  

 

I did start with the 3 mm pulley brackets for the dingy boom.  This will REALLY challenge my ability to make all that stuff to scale.  When yuns get a message from Admiral Gwen that I ran off into the boondocks screaming and tearing my hair out, you'll understand      I already screwed up one part and have to redo it.  There were some strong words used like "domkop," and "idiot."  But so what, I just laugh and shake my head. Tomorrow is another day and a fresh start.  My brass junk pile is mounting up 

 

Well, that's it for tonight.  I'll be editing some posts where the pictures disappeared.

 

Cheers, 

[NenadM]

Hey, what kind of eyes are you usung to make this sweet things? Microscopic? Can we order them fron E-bay ?

 

Just amazing and breathless !!!!

[Piet]

Hello Nenad, good to see you again in my shipyard, you are always welcome - - and I love your humor!

 

Hmmmmm, eyes on E-Bay eh?  That would have been cheaper then having had a double cataract operation done.  Well, actually that didn't cost me a penny, insurance paid it   

Right eye is 20 / 20 and left eye is now 25 / 20, not too bad.  I also use a 3 X magnifier like reading glasses.  Works great for me with good lighting.

 

Your CS is coming along real great my friend, I love the looks of her !!

 

Cheers, 

[Piet]

Hello everybody and my sincerest thanks for all who visited and clicked like.

 

So today I had to remake a few of the 3 mm pulley brackets for the dingy loading boom.  They are all still in the rough state and require a LOT of filing to produce the final product.  I'm afraid that I have to leave them a little larger then scale otherwise they cannot be handled.

We are definitely not going to do 0.1 0r 0.005 millimeters    Even so, I'll try to make them as small as possible so that I can still drill the holes for the hooks and the pulley sheaf pins.  This'll be a try as I go project, that's why the extra brackets - - - yeah, my mammy didn't raise a dummy 

 

Here are a few pics of today's status.

 

Here I have laid-out all the pulley brackets in the same order as the dingy boom arrangement shows.  The 2 top ones are for te load pulleys.  I made a spare for each one just in case I screw up.

The middle four are for the idler pulleys and the bottom one is for the hook that holds the dingy or whatever is needed to be hoisted.

 

This shows how I intend to hook-up the top idler pulley.  This particular method is employed in aircraft control cabling.  The "ball end" is crimped to the cable with a special tool.  They may not have had this system before WW II and could have used a brass soldering system with regular steel cables.  The other end of the cable is attached to a thimble that's bolted to the boom.  I'll try come up with simulated thimble and a hook.  I like the idea of having everything in a quick disconnect method.

 

This shows the bracket that's hooked to the top or end of the boom.  When you look at the sketch on the top picture the ends above and below the pulley will be the most trying parts to model.  I just need to have enough material for a hole to attach a hook to the top end and a "ball end" on the lower part.

 

This is shows the top end of the boom with the load pulley.  I'll use a hook to attach it to the boom and a bal-end on the bottom instead of a thimble. 

 

Cheers,

[dewalt57]

Outstanding detail work!!! 

 

AL

[Twister]

Piet,

 

I am of course officially in awe of your phenomenal creations and the only way I seem able to get my head around the sizes of the components you're working on is by convincing myself that (despite what you've stated to the contrary) your hands must really be the size of dinner plates with fingers in proportion.

 

Keep up the amazing work...

 

Regards,

 

Row

[Piet]

Thanks to all for hitting the like button, it's really appreciated.

 

@ Al:  Thank you again for visiting my build and appreciating my work.

 

@ Row:  Thank you for the compliments, I'm blushing    Well, you'd better believe me about the size of my hands, they are really rather small with long, thin fingers.  That trait runs in the van Warmerdam family, many artists.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

After some garden work I ventured back into the garage a k a shipyard, and tried to finish the dingy boom pulley brackets.  Got all but one done.

 

The raw parts were already made last Friday so I could dig right in.  I started with the top of the boom "loading" bracket.  That one seemed to be the most troublesome because of its shape and not much to hold onto.  

I shaped a small piece of wood to fit inside the pulley location and now I could hold it with a small pair of pliers and my left hand fingers.  This worked just fine and I managed not to ruin it.  After this was done I made two hooks to attach into the holes at each end.  Holes are #77 drill bit for all.

 

Next came the idler pulley with that funky ball end to the cable that attaches this pulley to the top of the boom.  That worked out okay as well, so far no goof-ups      I used a piece of 0.021 inch rigging cord as cable, poked it through a small hole -#77 drill -  and tied a knot in it on the inside of the bracket to simulate the ball end.  The other end will have to go over a simulated thimble.

 

Okay, so far so good, knock on wood    The last one I could manage to do today was the pulley bracket that hooks to the top of the AA gun deck.  For that one I thought to put a swivel-able eye in the end where I can attach a hook into.  This may be to large of an assembly and will most likely make another one that can be pinned directly to the "steel" part of the AA gun deck per the drawing. 

 

I started with the final pulley bracket that hooks onto the dingy or whatever other light loads we may have.  It can even assist with loading the torpedoes.

 

Here are a few pics for yuns to view and critique.

 

This shows the "load"pulley bracket that'll hook to the top of the dingy loading boom.  The next pic shows the side view.

 

This is the side view of the load pulley bracket and yes, all of the brackets still need some final trimming with a small file or sandpaper on a stick.  Yep, that's blood under my nail, poked it with a brass rod trying to pick it up.  Mutter, mutter, domkop.

 

This show the next pulley bracket I have dubbed idler pulley 1.  You may be able to see the knot inside the bracket.

 

This is another view of idler pulley 1. it's 0.15 mm thick.  The bleeding in my thumb stopped and I cleaned it with some water and ordered all the germs to stay away, or else 

 

This bracket I dubbed pulley bracket 2.  The way I made that swivel-eye is to first make an eye rod from 0.5 mm brass and a small piece of 1 mm OD brass rube.  The thickness of that piece of tubing is about 0.2 mm.  I first drilled a hole through the end with a #77 drill bit, then inserted the eye rod and held it with a small wooden clothe pin.  Holding it straight up I then clamped the clothe pin in my mini vice and then soldered the tubing piece to the pin.  I lucked out that I didn't solder everything solid, it swivels !!!!         Yeah, it's getting pretty long this way and then with a hook yet. 

 

This is a close-up of all the parts.  And yes, it still needs some cleaning up with fine sandpaper and then we can prime and paint everything.

 

Cheers,

[Remcohe]

Stop Piet, you're having too much fun now

No honestly, it's looking great!
 

Remco

[mtaylor]

What Remco said Piet.   It is amazing work.

[Piet]

Hoi Remco and Mark, yupper, I'm having a ball - - - does it show ???     I also like a challenge (at times  )  and these tiny things are surely taxing my abilities.  When it comes out okay you should hear the whooping and hollering in the shipyard and give myself a high five.  

 

You think I can now graduate to miniature ships in bottles and lamps??  That project is still pending but first I have finish this sub though.

 

Thank you both for your compliments, I really appreciate it.

 

 

[ianmajor]

Piet,

 

Cracking stuff.

 

Without doubt there is no better flexible clamping device than the Mark 1 set of fingers - and yes, they do get punctured too easily.  

[Piet]

Thanks to everyone who came and visited my shipyard and your likes, much appreciated!!

 

@ Ian:  Thank you Ian for visiting.  Yes indeed, the fingers do a splendid job but, as you said, they are also closer to the tools like files and drill bits.  But so far I have been lucky with just a few minor scrapes and punctures.

 

Today I finished up on all the pulley brackets needed for both the front and aft torpedo loading gantries and the dingy loading boom.  Soooooh - - - I really needed to do something about those pesky thimbles.  I wrecked my poor brain on that for several days in how in the world I could make thimbles close enough to scale.  So, as I was mowing the front yard I thought about it and hit on a possible solution.  It was one of those "ah yes, of course with a slap to the forehead" moments 

 

After lunch I went back into the hot garage and started on the prototype for a thimble.  I took a 0.5 mm brass rod and bend it into a thimble shape as small as I could possible make it. I figured that if I sandwich it between two 0.1 mm brass shim pieces and file then to be a little larger then the bend piece rod I would have a workable thimble.

 

After about one hour I had the prototype done and found it to be quite workable.  I even wrapped a 0.021 inch rigging cord to it.  This'll need some practice or go for a smaller diameter cable.  I may have to visit a sporting goods store for fishing line as John Texnn5 suggested.

 

Now that I had the process pretty well in hand I made the second one, which turned out really good and is just slight larger then scale but once on the boat it'll not be too noticeable, I hope     This one took "only" 45 minutes.

 

Then I made a second one and that one came out slightly smaller yet, so I know that I can make them close to scale.  The problem comes in with the center hole for the attaching pin.  This is the limiting factor in size and I must be satisfied with it.

 

Okay, here are a few pics showing me efforts with the thimbles.

 

This shows the parts for the thimble.  A smal pice of 0.5 mm brass rod bend into a thimble shape and a piece of tinned 0.1 mm brass shim.  I put them on my ruler to show the size.

 

This shows the second step in the process.  I first soldered the rod part to the tinned brass shim, then shaped that to a little larger then the rod piece.  Next I drilled the hole in the center of the bend rod for the attaching pin.  The next step is shaping the brass shim to slightly larger then the rod and removing some of the excess solder.  Then I soldered the second piece of brass shim to the rod piece and final shaping the whole assembly. There is really no way to hold that in a pair of pliers so I first cut away most of the excess with a pair of scissors and then filing.  Yes, my poor left index finger took the brunt again with the file    I now reverse drilled the hole in the second shim piece and started to dress everything with a fine file.

 

This shows the completed prototype and as mentioned above, the seizing of the cable needs work.  I'll have to make a jig to hold this thing so the cable doesn't come off and unravel on me.  

 

This is a face side of the first production thimble, 

 

and this is the side view of the first production thimble.   

 

Cheers,

[mtaylor]

Piet,

 

You and Mr. Mott are the masters of brasswork.  Incredible work.

[BANYAN]

Nice work Piet; now while your at it and have a nice work flow going - I'll have a dozen

 

cheers

 

Pat

[Jim Lad]

Just catching up, Piet.  Beautifully done, mate!

 

Johnb

[Twister]

Still in awe!

 

Out of interest, how strong are these minature creations - are they just for 'show' or would they stand up to use? (All be it very lightly loaded?)

 

Regards,

 

Row

[popeye the sailor]

awesome work Piet.......that pulley assembly is gonna look great!  

[Piet]

Thank you all for visiting and your kind remarks - - - and all the likes, much appreciated!!!!

 

@ Mark:  Thank you for that great compliment    It's been a challenge but very enjoyable and rewarding.

 

@ Pat:  Thank you too for your kind words.  Actually I did set up an assembly line for the rest of the thimbles.  I had to make 8 of these buggers with four of them narrow at the large end.  Hmmm, a dozen eh?  That's a tall order my friend, when do you need them - yesterday? - - - sorry, too late     

 

@ John:  Nice to see you again and thanks for your compliment.

 

@ Row:  Thank you as well my friend.  No, these parts are not for show but they actually work.  They are sturdy enough to handle quite a (scale) load, and then some.  The torpedoes and the mines will be made from wood, thus they don't weigh much and are perhaps even too light to make the "cables" taught enough to haul them up without jumping out of the pulley sheaf groove.

 

@ Popeye:  Thank you my friend, and yes, I can't wait to start making the pulley sheaves so I can actually assemble everything and doing a test run.

 

Well, today I completed all eight thimbles needed for the front and back.  I also managed to complete the aft gantry.  All parts are now ready for primer and paint.  I may take a run to the local sporting goods store and see what kind of line I purchase that'll look like steel wire rope in my scale.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

I thought to spend some time today doing some less tedious work and do some prep work for the antennas.  Well, like all plans of mice and men this turned out to be even more tedious then the thimbles.  I had to put two stand-offs on top of the forward gantry for the antenna support cables.  I made these from small pieces of 1 mm brass tubing with a 1.2 mm long piece of 1 mm tubing on top, to cap it off so that I can run a brass support cable through them.

 

First I took a length of 0.2 brass wire and stretched it to stiffen it by clamping one end in my bench vise and clamping the other end in a pair of vicegrips, then slowly pulled.  

 

Okay, that was easy.  Next I cut 18 pieces of 1 mm brass tubing of 1 mm in length to simulate the cable tensioners.  The actual antenna wire will be laced to this cable.  Antenna wire by itself is not strong enough in that length without it being supported.  These tensioners are a spring loaded device allowing the cable to contract and expand with temperature changes.  I put them in a pill box for safe keeping.

 

I drilled two 1 mm holes in the top bar of the gantry right above the upright posts and soldered the 5 mm long pieces of 1 mm tubes into them.  Great so far.  Now came the task in soldering the 1.2 mm pieces on top of these.  First I filed a grove onto them lengthwise and tinned them, then took these small pieces between tweezers and held them on top and placed the soldering iron on top to let them solder together.  After a few tries with cranking the temp up they finally held and I could clean the excess of with a fine file.

 

Next i had to make a diagonal brace to help support the gantry vertical post on the boom side.  This diagonal I made from 1 mm brass tubing.  I drilled a 1 mm diagonal hole ⅔ up the gantry post and soldered a pre-measured piece of the 1 mm tubing into it and bend the bottom end to fit into a 1 mm hole in the deck.  

 

I cannot yet cement the forward gentry into the deck because i still need to make the boom swivel attach bracket with the pulley bracket and fasten to their support shoe.  This and the ratcheting "come-along" has also to be made yet for the forward gantry.  

 

All the pulley sheaves can be made later and installed so that I can clean, prime and paint both gantries as soon as all the parts and pieces are made, hopefully in the next few days.  Tomorrow is spend with doctor visits, so not much time for boat building.  Nothing serious with these visits   

 

I only took one picture of the forward gantry to show the results of todays work or at least part of the work I did.  No sense in showing all the minute pieces of tubing for the tensioners and the antenna support cable.  That'll come when the antennas go up, pretty much at the final end of the build otherwise they'll just be in the way.

 

This then is the forward gantry with the two antenna support cable attachment posts.  As you can see the tops are the 1.2 mm pieces of 1 mm brass tubing.  I'll thread the support cable through them with the simulated tensioners in front and to the aft end of them.  They will consist of three of the small pieces of tubing for each.  A dab of solder or 5 minute epoxy will secure them in place.  The aft end of the support cable is fastened to the antenna bridge over the cockpit also with the tensioners.  The actual antenna wire will be laced to this support cable and then led down to the radio room via a pipe on the starboard side of the cockpit.

I also still need to make the DF antenna, that'll be fastened to the forward end of the cockpit shroud.  Hmmm, so much to do yet.

 

Cheers,

[ianmajor]

Piet,

 

Very nice work and it continues to be a fascinating read. Following all your detail I feel as though I could almost find my way around a real submarine.

[Piet]

Hello Ian, good to see you back in my shipyard, it's always a pleasure to see friends pop in. 

Thank you for your compliments and I'm glad you enjoy my explanations of the how and why's.  Yes, the more I get involved with this build I also begin to understand my father's boat better.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hello everyone and thank all yuns who visited and left a like, much appreciated !!!

 

Today I tried to finish both gantries.  In reviewing the photos in my archive I discovered that I put the diagonal braces on the wrong post      Soooooh - - - I desoldered them, filled the holes with solder and filed them smooth.  Then I proceeded to drill the diagonal holes in the thinner / opposite posts and soldered the braces in and smoothed the solder out with small files.  After they are painted nobody will ever know   

 

I had to make another set of the boom / pulley swivels and the ratcheting "come-along" for the aft side too.  That ratcheting device gave me more of a problem then the first one.  I screwed up one but the second try worked out okay.  More metal scrap 

I also made the boom stowing brackets that'll be cemented to the deck.  Another tedious part but they look rather nice.  Sorry no pictures yet, forgot 

 

Well, that's about it for all the parts and pieces for the torpedo loading gantries and the dingy loading boom.  Oh yeah, I started to to make the two tackle handwheels for the dingy boom tackles.  These will just be dummies (like me) and cemented to the aft side of the con.  Then that aft end of the con can be painted black.

 

So, we are now ready for the pulleys, that'll be a fun project.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

My thanks to all who came to visit and liked my posts.

 

Today was another doctor visit day and with doctor "Bendover" the proctologist.  I'm kidding of course, his name is not Bendover but Ritter.  We had good news and just keep on trucking   

 

This afternoon I made the dingy tackle handwheels that'll be cemented to the port aft side of the conning tower where the engine exhaust pipe comes up for snorkeling.  I have a photo of the location but the exposure is such that the black painted handwheels do not show.  But I do have a copy of a drawing so yuns get the idea where they are located on the boat.

 

It was a little tricky soldering 0.1 mm  brass wire to the 0.8 mm brass rod that I made into a ring of 5.5 mm OD.  But with enough small heat sinks it worked okay.

 

I also sprayed primer on the gantries and some of the attaching hardware.  The rest of the hardware like the pulley brackets and so will wait till tomorrow after I mow the lawn.

 

Well, that's it for now, pics below.

 

This photo was taken at the commissioning of the O19 where I was present at the ripe old age of 4.  You can't see the handwheels because they blend in with the black paint but they are located under the light fixture cutout.  The drawing below will show it better.

 

This drawing shows clearly where these handwheels are located and you can even see how the cables run.

 

This show how I secured the 0.1 mm brass wire to the 0.8 mm brass ring.  This steel office clamp also served as a heat-sink.  To solder the cross spoke I used a second clamp, it was kinda getting crowded and had to crank the heat up on the soldering iron.  

 

This shows the completed handwheels.  Don't forget that this is extreme magnification and shows all the little scratches and solder I was not able to clean away.

 

This shows the torpedo loading boom secured to it's securing fixture that'll be cemented to the deck.  It's now also painted as we speak. 

 

This is an extreme close-up of the boom secured to the deck fixture.

 

Cheers,

[mtaylor]

NIce work, Piet.  Very nice... I don't see those imperfections as I see a masterpiece in progress.

[popeye the sailor]

more and more.........the added detail is very nice......   she's looking great!

[Piet]

Thanks to everyone who visited and left a like, much appreciated and humbling.

 

Hello Mark and thank you for your kind words.  Yes, there are imperfections but most will be covered up with paint    Please don't make be blush, but - - - 

 

Hi Popeye, thank you too for your kind words and then to think that originally I didn't have all this in mind and thought to build the model at a scale of 1:100.   But as we progress I'm getting rather attached to her. I just hope that my father would have liked it as well, even with some of the imperfections.

 

Here's to you pappa   cheers,

[Piet]

Let's see, what did we do today - - - oh yeah, I mowed both the front and back lawns in the morning.  The weather was nice, not too warm and not too cold, a nice 80 F.

 

Well, I thought it was time to cement the dingy tackle handwheels to the aft lower con.  But first I had to mask that part to make it ready for the flat black paint.  So I put the handwheels on the deck next to the con for safe keeping and started to mask with Testors masking tape.  

 

Now it came time to cement these little buggers to the con - - - but - - - where are they ????  They were no longer on the deck where i put them.  My guess is that in doing the masking I inadvertently nocked them off the deck.  I looked on the build dock, nothing.  Then on hands and knees on the floor, still nothing.  Then - - - about a few feet away and behind from where I worked I found one   Okay, now at least I didn't have to make two again.  But I didn't give up and expanded my search area and - - - found number two, this time about 6 feet away near where my VOC ship build dock is.  Pffffhhh - - - and that's not the Dutch pfffff but a sigh of relief.

 

Okay, I mixed up some 1 minute epoxy cement and cemented these escapees to the con.  And while I had some mixed epoxy cement I also cemented the front and rear gantry boom securing fixtures to the deck.

 

In the meantime the handwheels were secure enough that I wanted to give that area one coat of flat black paint before going off to lunch.

 

After lunch I put a second coat of paint on and removed the masking tape.  It came out pretty good but may need some more flat black, will see tomorrow.  

 

I also managed to drill a few holes through the deck for the boom tackle cables to go through so I can demonstrate the operation of loading torpedoes or whatever.  

 

I also primed the rest of the tackle hardware and made a few more pulley pins.

 

Here is a picture of the handwheels on the painted con, at least we can see them here

 

The reason for the black paint is that that area gets rather hot when running "trimmed."  i.e. when snorkeling.  That thick pipe is the shroud with the thinner pipe in it you see sticking up is the engine exhaust.  The actual exhaust pipe is here shown stowed but can be moved out for demonstration purposes.  The outside of the crew hatch, shown here in the closed position, is also painted black but that'll come tomorrow, maybe.

 

Now I also have to find a light fixture to stick in the gap you see. 

 

Cheers,