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

[mtaylor]

Piet,

 

I love it.  Small parts yet large work and they look great.   I'm not sure is the brass monster is a new beast or the beast under workbench has a varied diet. Mine like wood (all flavors), brass, steel, copper, even potato chips.

[Remcohe]

Top class metalwork Piet!

[Sjors]

You surprise me everyday Piet !

Do you give lessons  ???

I want to sign up....

 

[pete48]

Beautifuly done Piet, Nice work ( I knew it would turn out great )

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[popeye the sailor]

to think of the things I used to do........one time, I wore an apron, and clamped the end of it to the table, so it would hang and catch anything that I dropped. the sad thing was that if they flew left or right, try bending down to look for them :D needless to say......I abandoned that idea in a big hurry!

 

looks great Piet.......

 

too bad we couldn't do our work in a bubble........no matter where the part flies......it will always end up on the bottom!

[SawdustDave]

Not to mention the time spent just looking for your glasses.....sometimes finding them shoved up on your head.

Dave

[Piet]

Thanks everybody for dropping in and your comments.

 

@ Mark:  Yeah, these little parts are a challenge with the usual rejects.  Sometimes the thought crosses my mind that I'm going way overboard with too many details.  Some appear at first not even doable but when trying them - - - hmmm, it works.

Ref the brass monster, there may be brothers of him named wood, copper, cookies, steel - - -  In retrospect, loosing the part was a blessing though, the new ones are much better     

 

@ Remco:  

 

@ Sjors:  Thank you, thank, thank you.  I actually surprise myself    Hmmm, lessons?  The ratline king wants lessons?????   Can be arranged, you pay for travel costs and of course room and board at your place, then the lessons are free        Mmmmbwahahaha.

 

@ Pete:  Thank you Pete.  

 

@ Popeye:  Yep, I thought about that sheet business but rejected it.  Fortunately I don't have too many dropped and missing parts.  Thanks for your compliments my friend.

 

@ Dave:  Yeah, but the ironic part is that I wear 3X magnifiers only when working on the model.  When hunting for lost parts I take them off.  Go figure.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who visited and liked my work.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

I had a semi productive day today.  I say "semi" because I was really struggling with the parts I was making in the afternoon but I'll get to that in a minute.

 

Remember that I lost a door pivot arm yesterday?  That was actually a blessing in disguise because the new ones I made this morning came out much better, not perfect yet but better.  They still need some more dressing.  I added a rounded area around the hole for the actuator shaft.  This may or may not be necessary but I like the looks of it  I can always file them away if need be.

I'm thinking about how to connect the botton of the arm to the actuator shaft.  That's one of the reasons why I may not need it.  Still pondering on it.

 

Okay, I made two arms, two small parts of a copper tube to act as nuts and two pivot pins to make two complete assemblies to act as the door hinge pin and door actuator.  

To solder all three parts together I made a crude solder jig from a piece of pine, drilled a hole in it to receive the hinge pin and then place the arm and a piece of copper tube on the pin, acting as a nut.  Yesterday I mentioned that that little copper tube is 1 mm, well it's actually 0.5 mm.  Soldering this was a breeze. 

 

I found out that I had to add a spacer between the arm and the outside pintel bushing.  So I made two of them of about 1 mm.  This gives me a little space between the arm and the tube flange to accommodate the actuator attaching hardware, which I'm still pondering over.

 

I also drilled holes in the small copper hinge tubes on the doors so that I can eventually either solder or CA cement them to the hinge pins.

 

Okay, time for lunch and looking at my mail.  Then off back to the shipyard for the next project while I'm pondering the door actuator issue.

I thought of making the door actuator shoe bracket as shown on the original photo and the actuator cylinder.   This proved to be a real can of worms.  I went though a few bad ones till I had two brackets I was happy with.  Next came trying to solder them to the torp tubes and that's where I started to have a struggle.

 

I tinned bot the torp tube and the shoe brackets but being careful not to apply too much heat as not to desolder other parts on the torp tubes.  By that time it was 1730 hours and a little irritated and thought it was better to call it quits.  There is always another day and in my case perhaps Sunday or Monday.

 

Tomorrow is out because I have to get my second BCGI treatment and that'll throw me for a loop.  I have some correspondence to do anyway so I can stay close to the "tinkeltarium."    

 

Here are few pics of the torpedo tube door hinge / pivot arm project.

 

This shows how I cut the 0.5 mm pieces from the 1.5 mm copper tube.  Just eyeball how much you need or measure, set your razor blade on it and start rolling while holding downward pressure on the razor blade.  The 0.6 mm brass rod keeps the small part from flying off.

 

This shows the remade pivot arm with the 0.5 mm copper tube and the 0.6 mm brass rod for the hinge pin.  

 

This is my crude solder jig for the hinge pin and actuator arm assemble.  I drilled a 0.6 mm hole in the wood to a depth shy of the length of the pin so I could put the arm and the piece of tubing on it and solder it.

 

This shows the pivot arm / door hinge assembly all soldered up.

 

Here I am holding the completed assembly.

 

This shows both pivot arm assemblies installed on the launcher.  It'll most likely needs some adjusting on the spacers because I don't want them to stick out too far.

 

I have annotated the manufacturer's drawing to show what I'm working on and struggling with.  It's that actuator shoe bracket that's my nemesis.  But so help me it will not get the best of me and it will be soldered to the torp tubes.

 

Cheers, 

[Remcohe]

You make it look like easy peasy Piet. Looking at the picture of the real thing I see you can still make a kazillion parts if you feel like it

 

Remco

[amateur]

Yes Remco,

 

We know you would go for six-sided bolts on the flanges

It looks to me as the difficulty of this scale: what details do you incorporate and wich not:

even the smaller details seem to be (or actually are) feasible, but were does to much detail destroy the overall effect.....

 

So far: can't have enough of the detail

 

Jan

[Piet]

Thanks Remco and Jan for looking in and your comments!

 

@ Remco:  Easy ?????  Do you know how much I struggle here, fabricating a few of the gezillion parts ????  Kidding      I guess it's all a matter of perspective, and seriously easy it aint but doable.  Experience with working metals may be helpful too.

Yep, I have been studying that photograph and it sends shudders up my spine of fear - - - how much of it should I attempt to make or better yet, how many can I make ????  I may have to leave some off and let our imagination fill in the rest   

 

@ Jan:  Six sided bolts?  Oh boy, now that you mentioned six sided I forgot to file the door lever nuts six sided    But - fortunately the door hinge pins are not cemented to the doors yet.  

Yes, indeed, how much can be done and in scale to make it worth the extra effort.  There comes a time when it can look overdone and crowded.  Once the launcher is pinned inside the boat no one can see the details on top and between the tubes, only when it's removed, which can be done, I have made provisions for that.

 

You and Remco are challenging me and my abilities with the few tools I have at my disposal.  But - - - I have never shied away from a doable challenge.  Thanks guys for your comments, it's really appreciated!!!

 

And also my thanks to all who visited and clicked the like button, I appreciate your appreciation !!

 

Cheers, 

[Littlebob]

I think your work is great, and your attention to detail is amazing. Ah 6 sided bolts at that scale, lol, but if you really want to add them plastruct makes hex rod in many small sizes, good luck.

[Piet]

This morning I had to go to the Urology Center for my second BCG treatment after got home I felt great and like doing some more work on the torpedo launcher.  Remember that yesterday I had trouble soldering the door actuator slide shoe bracket to the tubes?  No matter how I tried it just wouldn't stick.  so I gave up and went inside to drown my frustration in a glass of red wine, which is, btw, good against cancer.

 

So, I wanted to give it another shot.  Thinking on it last night I figured I was holding these small gizmos all wrong so I tried another way and lo and behold I could now place these little buggers quine nicely on the tubes.

The small Proxxon vice acted as a heat sink on one end and I clipped a small steel office clamp to the front.  Fired up the soldering iron that I cranked up to 440 degrees F.  Well. I lucked out again and one by one I soldered them to the tubes without a hitch.  Done in one hour, including cleaning off some extra solder on the tubes.

 

Now it was time to rush inside and drain my bladder from the BCG crap the nurse pumped into me, bless her little heart       

 

Now all yuns are wondering how it came out, I bet    Okay, I took a few ics but will only show one though, don't want to spoil all y'all   

 

Here it is, I figure y'all can see the brackets and compare it with the original photograph.  You can also see a few of the worst rejects.  This makes me a happy camper 

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

Hey Robert, thanks for dropping in and your compliments and suggestion.  Yes, that subject was brought up some time ago, about the small bolts and nuts.  I did visit several websites that sell small hardware but couldn't find the sizes I needed.  At a scale of 1:50 one would think there shouldn't be a problem but when we are talking about hex heads of 0.2 or 0.3 mm then it becomes difficult.  The shanks of the bolts are like a human hair, as a figure of speech.

Besides, I am determined to make everything myself as much as my tooling and ability allows.  I'm retired and nowhere else to go but have fun to tackle a challenge.

 

I can also buy preprinted cotton flags in my size but this too is something I'll make myself.  Not only for the challenge but the Dutch flag and Navy Ensign are very special to me.  My own hands have to make them, not someone in China or Mexico.  No offence to anyone here. 

This model is special to me, I hope you understand why I am so dead set on making everything myself.

 

Please come and visit again the challenges seem to escalate   

 

Cheers,

 

 

[dgbot]

How could I have missed this log all this time. Fantastic work.

David B

[pete48]

Hi Piet, I only wish that I could do metal work like that , just Beautiful work , Nice and clean .

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Piet]

Thanks to the many who came to visit and your appreciation of my work by clicking the like button.

 

Hell David B, welcome to my shipyard and thanks for your compliment.  Oh, I understand in missing builds, there are so many fantastic build on this forum that we can spend hours and days just reading and learning.  I am happy you found my build and hope you'll be a frequent guest.

 

Hi Pete, thanks for the compliment, appreciate it very much.  Doing metal work????  Hmmm, reminds me of the story about a lady who asked Zubin Mehta how her daughter could come to play at Carnegy Hall.  Zuba responded with, Practice madam, practice    I guess that after having worked with metals for over 60 years and studied metallurgy, eventually one can luck out sometimes    

 

Cheers,  

[pete48]

Hi Piet, it's a little more than luck , you have some serious skills my friend

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Piet]

Thank you Pete, you are most kind.  But when I look at your magnificent Cub boats I can say the same to you my friend.  Your love and knowledge for these boats shine in them.

 

Cheers,

[Piet]

First of all I like to thank everyone for visiting and enjoying the build of my father's beloved boat by clicking the like button.  Hope to see all y'all again soon.

 

Today started out with doing some fish pond maintenance.  Had to remove two pots with my leopard calla lilies to let the corms dry out a bit.  Then mowed the front yard.  I also mixed two cups of humming bird nectar for the pair of ruby throated hummers that come and visit our backyard.  It's just a joy to see these tiny birds feed.  We have a few nice flowering bushes they seem to like but not enough flowers to satisfy them.  

 

Okay, enough about our varied wildlife in the backyard and on with the O19.

 

I managed to spend a few hours I the shipyard this afternoon and started fabricating the torpedo door actuators.  Each one consists of three parts, at least that's what I'm doing.  There's more to it then that.  I have to close off each end but make a small hole in the front end for the actuator rod.  Hmmm, another can of worms  

 

Obviously the first thing we need to do is studying the parts by looking at the drawing while holding the launcher next to it.  I have done this now for the last few days to create a good mental image of how I am going to make this assembly.

So, today was the day to make a start of it.  I first made a sketch on some card stock of how I saw it in my mind and where the cylinder brackets have to have a flange where it'll be soldered to the round torpedo tube and at what angle.  I used a small piece of the same size of tube to check the form and fit.

 

After I had what I thought should work I cut it out and with a pair of tweezers held to to the launcher tube.  In this case I saw that I needed to change the flange of the flange a little more to fit better to the round torpedo tube.  

 

Next I transferred this shape to a small piece of 0.1 mm shim stock to cut the prototype out for a fit.  It's a lot easier to cut thin shim stock then the 0.3 mm I'll eventually use.  A little shaping and filing then I bend the flange and held it up to the tube for a fit.  Hmmm, not too bad but it still needed a little more angel at the flange to meet the curve of the tube better.  

 

I now transferred this shape to a small piece of 0.3 mm brass sheet and cut it out with  a pair of rather large sheet metal sheers.  Yeah, don't laugh but it's actually rather comical using such large tools on a piece that's smaller then your fingernail.  But hey, it works for me.  I bend the flange to it by holding it in my specially ground duckbill pliers and with a small hammer tapped the flange over.  The width of these flanges are about 2 mm.   I finished the bracket with a tiny rotary file in my Proxxon motor tool and small hand files.  Then made the hole for the copper tube that'll act as the actuator cylinder.  

Checking it against the tube it seemed doable.

 

I now had to make three more with two of them with the flanges bend in the opposite direction.  I want these flanges to be on the outside for ease of soldering.

 

I only completed two brackets for one side but started with the next two when it was time to quit.  Eyes were getting tired and I needed to do some correspondence.

 

The reason I am going into a little more detail is so that anyone who is a little afraid making small metal parts is to show that it's really no magic but just careful eye / hand coordination and shaping the part as your mind sees it.  As you can see I don't have fancy miniature tools but only what I have from my days as an aircraft fixer.

So give it a try, all you can do is waste some brass stock and time.  It's a fun challenge.

 

Okay, I made a few pics of what I have done this afternoon, doesn't seem like much but it all takes time, including the sketching and head scratching,

 

This picture shows te steps involved.  The first one on the left is the sketch.  #2 is the rough cutout in card stock with the flange bend up on the left bottom.  Not quite happy but remembered where to make adjustments.  #3  Transferred to 0.1 mm shim stock and fashioned it to what I felt should fit.  Drilled the hole by starting with a 0.2 mm drill bit and then successively larger drill bits.  Not quite happy with the angle of the flange but remembered where to make the adjustment and transferred to to - - #4 a small piece of 0.3 mm brass stock.  Now I couldn't use my sewing sheers but my large straight cut sheet metal sheers to just cut the major pieces away.  The rest I did with a small diamond rotary file in the Proxxon tool and finished with small files.  Next I drilled the hole for the copper tube using the same method as described for the thin part.  This should fit okay.  # 5 is the aft bracket in this assembly/.  The copper tube above the two brackets will function as the actuator cylinder.  You can compare this with the photo on a previous post.  I'll have to remove a little more metal from the brackets, they appear still a little too large. 

 

This shows the parts loosely assembled.  I'll have to solder the brackets first to the torpedo tubes and then the copper tube last.  It'll take a little more heat to solder the brackets to the launcher tubes then is required for that small copper tube, otherwise I may have a real problem on my hands.    

 

Cheers.

 

 

[SawdustDave]

Getting a little nervous here.

Just thinking, once you complete this deadly killing boat, and decide to take her out on patrol, all of us poor slobs are completely vulnerable with no defense systems on our ships.

Do you realize the cost of fitting my little fleet with sonar and depth charges?

Will inform the Admiral her taxes are going to have to be drastically increased to cover the expense. She may rebel....all your fault Piet.

Dave

[pete48]

Hi Piet,  We have a Humming bird feeder on our back deck ( that's where I do all my sanding ) They are amazing to watch, and the sound they make while flying is incredible.  Thank you for taking the time for this tutorial. I have learned alot from this posting

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Piet]

Hey Dave, with 20 mines on board I can block all yun's harbors and start shelling with my deck gun 

That way I'll miss the danger of your sonar equipped hulks and have free range to do some serious privateering - - bwaha ha ha ha  laughs he with glee, wringing his hands in anticipation of plenty of booty.

 

Hi Pete, yes, indeed they are awesome creatures.  Early in the morning after breakfast I sit with a cup of java in the backyard and not too far from the flowers and feeder.  The other day one of them flew very close past my head and even felt the displayed air as he or she went by with a buzzzzz zound.  I was thrilled.

And thank you for your comment.  I just like to see people taking a stab at it and not shi away from doing metal work.  

 

Cheers to all,

[pete48]

Hi Piet, I do the same thing in the morning . the way they maneuver is incredible and to come to a complete stop mid air is remarkable , I could go on about them , I will stop here

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[Piet]

My wife Gwen saw me the other day with those big sheet metal sheers snipping away at those poor little parts and just shaking her head.  Then yesterday evening she offered to take a few pics of me doing that to show all y'all that I was not kidding using those big sheers on these little parts.  So this morning she snapped a few and I like to post them for you all. 

 

Today I continued with making a few more brackets and then attempting to solder them to the tubes.  I again tinned the flanges and the spots on the tubes where the brackets are to be.  I had to do it this way because I am only one guy and with only two hands.  

 

I placed a very small vice-grip plier in the already soldered parts on the launcher tubes as a heat sink because the forward bracket is close to shoe bracket.  Holding the actuator bracket in my left hand with a small needle-nose plier I eye-balled the location and positioned the bracket to the tube and applied heat.  I had to reposition the bracket several times before I was satisfied.

Then I had to do the same thing with the aft bracket.  That one too took several tries before it lined up horizontally even with the forward one.  Cleaned up the solder around the brackets and then inserted the 1.6 mm copper tube into the holes and soldered them secure.

 

I repeated the same procedure on the other side with the same shenanigans with having to reposition the brackets several times before they too lined up with each other and the one previously soldered on.

 

Well, so far so good.  Now I'm still thinking how to make the connection between the actuator and door handles.  This has to be an articulated connection because the handle describes an arc.  The photo shows it clearly but translating that to my model is a whole other thing.  

Oh, the difficulties we create for ourselves trying to make things work at this scale - - - - - -

 

Okay, here are a few pics.

 

This shows my large sheet metal sheers in action.  I normally hold the piece between my fingers but they obscured the piece of metal for the picture so I held in a pair of duckbill pliers.  It works really great, even snipping inside the curve.

 

Here I am using my Poxxon hand tool with a tapered rotary file, works great but have to take the file away often to let the metal cool so as not to burn my fingers 

 

This shows my method of bending that 1 mm flange to the bracket.  You can see the business end of my little hammer. 

 

This shows the launcher with the door actuator cylinder assemblies soldered to the launcher tubes.  

 

Another view.

 

Cheers,

[popeye the sailor]

looking great Piet.......very nice work!

[Ian B]

I know it has to be done but it is a shame to paint them as people loose the idea of how much work has gone into creating this one element of the sub...

[pete48]

Hi Piet, tell Gwen thanks for taking the pic's. I am learning alot from your build and the tutorials , I can see where I had made mistakes , and why I am having a hard time with Metal work, you make it look easy .  The details on the Torpedo launcher look  Amazing . Beautiful work

 

Best Regards,

Pete

[dgbot]

That is why I try to chemically blacken the part or if not an air brush.

David B

[Piet]

Thanks Popeye for your encouragement, always a pleasure hearing from you.

 

Hello Ian B, well - - yes but in this case it and everything else on the model must be painted.  I am replicating my father's boat as she appeared in 1939 when my father sailed on her to the Dutch colonies, and after, till the end of 1940.  The boat was made from steel and thus had to have a protective coating of paint on everything and lots of grease.

Actually the paint will enhance the looks of all the parts and make it more visible.  Just wait and see 

 

Good evening Pete, yes, I told her you like the pics and she grinned.  Glad you enjoyed them and me trying to explain how I do things.  I encourage everyone not to shi away from doing metal work, if you can build models from card or styrene then you can use metal as well.  It's just a harder material to work with and instead of glue we use solder.

Thank you for the compliments, always appreciated.

 

Hi David B, yep, blackening does make metal parts really look great, but as I mentioned to Ian it would be totally out of place on this model except for the pulleys.  Airbrushing certainly works great on small models and parts.  On this model I used high quality RustOleum rattle cans because of the size.  If I had used the airbrush I'd have to refill the cup a gezillian times.   I still have two high volume professional DeVilbis spray guns that can use 17 CFM of air and a small professional  airbrush.  Still left over from my aircraft repair business in New Jersey.  Only the airbrush still sees some activity.

 

Cheers,