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HMAS/m AE2, Scratchbuild


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3 hours ago, Rob 1 said:

This level of scratch-building is not an area I've really strayed into before so am watching with interest.

Indeed Rob,

Scratchbuilding at this level of ‘rough-as-guts’  and ‘make it up as you go along’ is a rarity! 😀 

Have good poke around this maritime site and you will find several examples of people who actually know what they are doing! 👍

Anyway,I hope you enjoy the ride! 

Steve

 

 

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Wow! 

 

Thank you so much for posting that David. I had no idea that this memorial existed and I really appreciate you taking the time to post the photo.

 

There’s been some real surprises along the way in this thread, all of them good. 

 

I appreciate everyone’s input and encouragement.

 

Thanks again,

Steve

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On 21/05/2017 at 20:20, Bandsaw Steve said:

I am hoping to have physical construction under-way this week and am aiming to have it finished by the end of 2017

Well - there's a quote from the first entry on this thread... That didn't happen did it!  :ignore:

 

Going Grey

 

With the basic shape of the conning tower and the hull now under control it seemed to me that it was time to start spraying some primer.  On the Mig-15 I basically completed all of the surface detailing before spraying any primer but this time I'm going to use a coarser spray-on filler-primer, so have chosen to spray before adding fine details.  Once the fine details are on I will revert to my usual 'Mr Hobby' or 'Tamiya' final prime.

 

But before we can spray anyithing, first we need to plug some holes to mask off the interior. In this case I'm using some old synthetic upholstery foam to plug the gaps.

IMG_4127

 

As you can see, this is good stuff. It's easy to place and easy to remove and fills the gaps very effectively.

IMG_4129

 

And here is the filler-primer that I'm going to give a run. it's another car finishing product. I've never used it on a model before but I've tested it on some scraps of wood and am confident it will be fine.  I note that lots of people on this site use Halfords filler-primer, so I'm confident that I'm not going completely off the tracks by using this stuff.

IMG_4132

 

And here's the big moment when the first grey primer goes on.

IMG_4133

 

Ta - Dah!!!!

  

As it happens this primer is almost exactly the shade that I intend to finish this submarine in - so this is a very encouraging view. It's essentially a preview of what the finished model should look like.

IMG_8895

 

As you can see, I forgot to prime the 'bridge' or the 'conning tower deck' or whatever it's called.

IMG_8897

 

After all that excitement comes a more sedate stage.  Inspecting the model for imperfections...

IMG_4149

 

Smearing more Vallejo filler all over them...

IMG_4150

 

and sanding - sanding - sanding... progressing from coarser to finer grades of abrasives.

IMG_4152

 

Eventually I ended up using very fine micro-mesh pads, leaving something like this - A submarine in 50 shades of grey! :ner: Oh-errr!  All ready to repeat the entire prime, inspect, fill sequence all over again.

IMG_4153

 

The only difference this time is that I remembered to spray this bit.

IMG_4157

 

And once that second sequence was complete, I launched into a third  'prime, inspect, fill, sand sequence... It's fun this hobby isn't it.  :think:

 

Anyway - this is where I'm up to now...could be worse.

IMG_4161

 

And since I reckon she's now looking more 'submariney' than ever - here's a second photo of her.

IMG_4166

 

So - that's where I got to 'by the end of 2017'.  Failed to reach my own schedule - but I'm not too worried.  At least the thing is recognisable for what it is supposed to be and above all 2017 will always be remembered as the year that AE1 was found!  So a good outcome I reckon.

 

Have a great 2018 everyone! :party:

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

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Well done Steve!   You've made some decent progress and got a fine looking scratch-build there.   Looking forward to seeing her detailed now.

 

All the best in the New Year 

 

Frank

 

 

 

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An exhausting effort

 

Here's where I left our project at the end of 2017.  I'm fairly pleased with her at the moment, the basic shape is there but make no mistake, there's still have a long way to go. For one thing, there's basically no detail on her yet.  So let's add some.. 

IMG_4166

 

These submarines were diesel-electric units.  At the time diesels were relatively new. Several earlier classes of R.N. submarine had been equipped with petrol engines, which were way more dangerous because petrol is much more flammable than diesel and gives off greater volumes of much more noxious fumes.

 

Anyhow - I digress.  The point is, if you have two dirty great 800hp diesel engines hidden away in the hull you will also need at least two dirty great exhaust pipes.  On AE2 the exhaust pipes sat near the rear of the vessel in the location indicated by the tip of the pen.

IMG_4178

As I was struggling to work out how to fabricate these I paid a visit to the local Salvation Army shop and asked the nice young lady behind the counter if they had any 1/100 scale exhaust pipes for an E-class submarine...

She said that since the discovery of AE1 a few weeks ago all of their E-class submarine memorabilia had been flying off the shelves, but as she had been following my build on Britmodeller she had put some exhaust pipes off to one side for me and disguised them as metal knitting needles so that the ravening hordes would not get them first! How thoughtful!

 

So, for $2.50 I had all of the exhaust pipes I would ever need.  Look, she had even made sure that they were the right diameter!

IMG_4182

 

As they had been disguised as knitting needles I had to bend them back into their correct exhaust-pipe shape.  Nothing to it really - just stick 'em in a vice, bend them...

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and check that the amount of bend has been judged correctly. Here it's looking pretty good.

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Now I had to drill the housings for the pipes.  I think I should have done this much earlier, before the hull was all stuck together in fact, but never mind.  Here the first pilot hole is going in.

IMG_4191

 

And here is a similar view after the full size hole has been successfully drilled. After drilling the hole I carelessly swept the drill press off to one side in a 'Phew I've done it' kind of way and in doing so left the enormous scratch running down the side of the pressure hull that you can see. Drats! More filling and sanding! :think:

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Now I can check that the exhausts fit - which they do.

IMG_4193

 

Cut the bits to the right length...

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Clean up the end of the cut with the bench sander (the metal is quite soft so I think it's OK to use a wood tool for this purpose).

IMG_4207

 

And now we have some exhaust pipes - and a large blob of filler in great need of sanding. 

IMG_4212

 

The exhaust pipes have not been glued down yet so they might disappear into storage for the next few posts - but don't worry they'll be back.

 

And that's that for this post.  Hope you enjoyed it.

 

Steve

 

 

 

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To see this scratch build warms me heart, brilliant work, I can see you have the same sort of "fun" I have on occasion :smile:

 

Keep up the brilliant work, I'm looking forward to the finished Oz sub B)B)

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1 hour ago, hendie said:

does that lassie work part time in several shops ? or is this several different lassies?

You don't want to go getting a name for yourself you know.

 

 

I’m not sure l understanding your meaning Hendie - different shops means different shop assistants (of course!).

 

The last one I spoke to was interesting though... She had saved up a heap of scale bits and pieces from Pullman coaches and Wessex helicopters. Apparently she’s obsessed with them. She mentioned to me that she was single and was planning on taking a holiday to the USA soon...

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23 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

After drilling the hole I carelessly swept the drill press off to one side in a 'Phew I've done it' kind of way and in doing so left the enormous scratch running down the side of the pressure hull that you can see. Drats! More filling and sanding! :think:

That would've made me cry but you're a true modeller and you'll sort that! As for your exhausts, I hope you're going to drill the bores out...:whistle:

 

Stuart

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3 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Yes - that’s the plan! Drill ‘em out! We’ll see what happens in reality though. 

 

Truth be told, I’m thinking of buying a small lathe! 😀👍 

Now be careful with that drill of yours, don't want more 'accidents'. You could've used small tubing and a pipe bender.:wink:

And as for a lathe, quite surprised that you don't have one already...you have most of the other heavy weaponry!

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Barside,

 

That would work  but then I wouldn’t get to buy a lathe.

 

Courageous,

 

You might be surprised that I don’t own a lathe but you will be even more surprised when I tell you that as far as I recall I have never used a lathe in my life! So if I buy one it should make for entertaining viewing - at least in  a ‘Hunger Games’ blood and severed fingers flying everywhere kind of way.🤕

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Yeah, the metal’s fairly soft - they’re just knitting needles. I’m going to have a crack at drilling them out but do not know how successful I will be.

As for bending tube... it’s a bit of a mystery to me. I don’t know how to prevent it crimping or collapsing on the bend. If anyone knows I’m all ears.

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you can also try filling the tubes with fine sand prior to bending to prevent kinking

 

have a quick google at Dubro tubing benders. They seem to get decent reviews and the design is rather simple. However it looks like they only do two diameters but with a man of your skills, I think you could knock up a very similar tool in short order

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