Revell 1:72 VIIC u-boat

Hi to everyone hope you’re all keeping well

sorry for such a long gap between posts things seem to overtake like my 9 year old son breaking his arm clean in half and now has metal plates and screws fitted 1 month before a family holiday to Florida and now loving rc cars after a model show we went to.
I have now figured out a way of fitting the removable deck I have made it in 3 parts the front part is stuck to the hull with the middle part with a tongue that’s glued to the middle deck that slips under the front.


(here is the front mounting block for main deck)



(one of the mounting blocks to hold the middle part of the deck)

I have also made the rear deck removable as well so I can get to the linkages to the rudder and hydroplanes this can be left in place when moving the WTC this is all held with 5 small screws which holds the removable side in as well.


(you can see at the stern the mounting block and on the right side of picture two screw holes this is were the middle and rear deck meet)

Also I have made a strengthening piece under the main part of the deck from a piece of Perspex’s to stop the deck bending and all in all it fits very well.


(strengthening piece under the main part of the deck)


(all fitted together)

That’s all for now I have now got to find the camera as the sub has its base colours now painted
Take care geof

Welcome back, Geoff,

Sorry to hear of your son's troubles, I bet that hurt for a while.

Nice to see you cracking on with the U boat, she's coming along nicely now, looking forward to seeing pictures of the paint job!

Rich

Thanks Richard glad to see you building again

you could say it hurt him poor lad the silly thing is he broke both arms at the same time last summer holiday falling of a climbing frame on the isle of wight quit interesting seeing him running about with 2 plaster casts on.

i will take some pictures over the weekend

take care geof

Hi to you all
As promised here are some pictures of the base coat that I air brushed during the summer (only the second time using an air brush) and this is now up to date
and now hoping to try some weathering over the next week or so then get 2 bellows fit props re route the aerial then ballast it and see what happens ha ha




as you can see the join on the side of the ballast tank that can be removed is quit tidy pleased with it







take care geof

Now that really looks good, Geoff...my congratulations on a super build. Have a word with David Merriman about weathering, the guy is an absolute master of it.


Richard

Looks REALY REALY GREAT.

MARIUS

Thanks for the kind comments i must get it finished just in time for frezzing cold water

all the best geof

Hi to everyone

Sorry for no updates its been a right bad year breaking my left leg in 6 places then having a titanium rod fitted inside my shin bone then stuck on crutches for 5 months but never mind all good fun so I have been sorting out the sub before they do another op on my leg at Christmas.
the wtc is now finished and finally got wet in the kitchen sink with NO LEAKS not a drop well pleased.

One question I do have will i have to secure the end caps of the WTC to stop them coming of due to the pressure build up with the heat of the motors.

So now I have got to do a little painting and fitting out then ballasting in the bath I am hoping to do sea trials in a weeks time If the devil dose not listen in
I will keep you posted

is any body having trouble uploading images I cant seem to up load them keep getting (this page can't be displayed)

All the best geof

I think I have sorted the photo problems I use flickr so lets see what happens

all the best geof

Welcome back Geof!

Your sub is looking good.

If it is only heating that is going to pressurise the tube then you are probably going to be OK as it is. (It is hard to judge the fit of O rings from a photo!)

If you are worried then some insulating tape will hold the ends on.

Good that you sorted out the photo problems. Did you give up on direct uploads - it can be fiddly - Nigel has promised to rewrite the instructions so any pointers would be useful?

David

Hi David
I did not think about taping the end caps on never mind i’ll remember next time.
over the weekend i made some brackets that just slot in to the sub to hold the end caps on i would hate to have her sinking over such a silly thing.
I gave up posting photos the old way so i then opened up a flickr account easy to do and uploaded my pictures there opened the picture then copied and pasted the URL into the insert a image tab took a couple of goes to work out what i was doing i’m not that cleaver at those sort of things
Its looking good for maiden voyage to the bottom of the lake this weekend weather permitting and the wife does not find me something else to do plus i will have to bribe my son with a burger king to take some video ha ha
I will take some photos and post them as soon as i can of the finished article and finishing touches and hope to ballast her Thursday fingers crossed.

Take care geof

Good luck with the maiden voyage.
Don't bend your Bow with the champagne Bottle!

John

Really smart looking sub! May I ask, what colors did you use on the sub?

Well john it could be a good challenge to find a champagne bottle at 1/72 scale but i have a idea
Salmon the colours i used where the ones on the revell instruction the u-boat is based on U-552 early version but im no scale man if it looks good from 200 feet thats fine by me.
The main colours are from the Revell range of paints.

The light Grey is (Grey matt number 57 )

The Dark Grey is (Dust Grey Matt Number 77 )

The Green colour on the deck is (Granite Grey Matt Number 69)

im of to the drinks cupboard to see what i can find

Many thanks geof

Well all has gone well in the end got all the lose ends done yes except the Anchor.
I popped it in the bath she sank like a stone then rolled over on its side looked like it had been hit by a depth charge.
After 3 hours of not knowing what I was doing I got it sorted had to put a lot of foam just under the deck and a little lead in the keel so now the deck sits with about 4- 5mm  above the water and is nice and stable.
I may put some extra lead in if it needs it







above picture shows the collets on the rudder and hydroplane push rods I have set up the rudder and hydroplanes surfaces to centre then pushed the collet up to the joiner then tightened it this then will set up the surfaces in the same place every time I take the WTC out.

also you can see a small brass tube this fixes across the back of the WTC to stop the end caps coming of due to pressure building up inside



above picture shows the small brass tube slotted across the back of the WTC



Here above you can see the front of the WTC and front hydroplane joiner and just below the sub you can see a half circle his is made of plastic heated up by a heat gun and bent round a can this then slots between the WTC and bulk head again to stop the end cap coming of only takes a second to remove.



above you can see the front WTC fixing in place

here are a few picture that I have taken









John I had a good look for a bottle of champagne but no luck but I did find a small bottle of jack daniels ha ha



well fingers crossed for Saturday

all the best geof

Hi everyone I took the u-boat to stoke park in Guildford Surrey the boating lake is perfect for submarines its about 3 to 4 feet deep and clear seeing the bottom no problems.
The weather was not kind at all half way there is started to rain but stopped for 5 mins when I got there so of we went.
She has more than enough power and dived easily but had problems with the stern running to high when diving this I found out to be the pitch controller from microgyros when I set it up on the bench before sailing all work as it should after sailing i found the servo was not In the centre of travel as it should be so I had a lot of down angle which was causing my problem.
When I got home I pushed the button on the pitch controller and put it back onto low sensitivity and all seems well only time will tell.
And the second problem was I got a large leaf wrapped around the prop which jammed the prop and spun of one of the push on gears on the motor I have put a new one on just hope it’s not something that going to keep happening.
I’m very happy and she looks great need a little more trimming and the way we go.
Here are some pics and I will post a video as well thanks to my son whose 10 getting soaked never mind he got a burger king and a golf club for his efforts
Many thanks for all the help you have given me over this project.
Take care geof

Nice looking sub. It looks like it belongs in the water!
I think I am confused on the leveler being made less sensitive. Doesn't less sensitive mean slower response time? On a small boat wouldn't that mean it would get porpoising more?

LOVE the depth charge patterns on the second photo...

thanks for the kind words I'm very pleased with here.

Salmon the pitch controller has 3 settings from high to low after thinking what you said it made sence to up the sensitivity this I have now done to the middle setting but I could increase it up one more if I have to.

as promised a video taken by my young lad

all the best geof

She goes really well, Geof!  A nice turning circle too on what looks like a smallish pond.

I wouldn't worry too much about the leveller for the first few runs anyway. (They come into their own when you want to cruise around at periscope depth for a longer period.) I wonder if the "stern high" on diving could be air getting trapped under the casing?  Check on the free flooding holes at the stern and make them as big as you can. (Surface tension stops small holes working well.) As  always its a trade-off between looking scale and working well!

Many thanks for taking and sharing the photos of a nice model in poor weather. (I guess that the driest thing at the end of the day was the inside of the WTC!)

David

thanks for the advice david i will get on to that and make the flood holes bigger.
As you say the driest thing was inside the WTC we were soaked ha ha
the pond is quite big we were between the bank and a island were there was no leaves to foul up the props

thanks again and i will do another video when the weather is kinder

all the best geof

just a quick update i went for a second trip with the U-BOAT the rear dive planes worked fine but the gearbox let me down again.
So i have been looking for some brass gears the same size easyer said than done but i have found some attached to some motors so just got to remove the gears and sweat them onto my motors and prop shafts
hopefully 3rd time lucky

well its gone sub mad round my house just finishing my fun sub and hoping to pick up a robbe seawolf with servos new mtronic esc motor and main drive battery that i won on ebay for £63.00.
that wont stay standard for long i have a pump just got to get a ballast bag happy days

all the best geof

I can see that the submarine bug is catching!

(A fellow sufferer.)

David

great build got a lot of ideas from this to build into mine

steve

Wonderful build, Geof.

She looks great.

I hope that mine will turn out to be as nice as yours

Sam