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HMAS/m AE2, Scratchbuild


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And then alas and alack dear readers......as if by magic....this wonderful thread descends into mayhem and madness , proving once again .......that even though many modellers may appear 'normal' ....some...... clearly...... are not !!

 

:lalala:

 

But 

 

Please do keep up the good work chaps !

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Courageous said:

Where has that 'Bandsaw' gone with his AE2, not still partying with his power tools...anybody would think it's Christmas!

No not partying - not any more anyway. As Hendie will attest, I am known for sometimes disappearing for a bit - it’s part of my ‘mystique’.

 

Don’t worry, AE2 will resurface soon enough.

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Problems with Flickr?

 

Hello,

 

ttps://www.flickr.com/photos/149459589@N03/27329112699/in/dateposted-public

 

 

Am back on deck now and am eager to update this thread but have just hit a snag with posting pictures from 'Flickr.com'

 

Am trying to attach some photos from Flickr into this thread and can copy the URL as shown below...

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/149459589@N03/27329112699/in/dateposted-public/

 

But I just keep getting this error message... 'The link could not be embedded because an error occurred on www.flickr.com.'

 

Any ideas on what's wrong - I'm not doing anything different to usual. I won't be posting much until I work out how to fix this so any ideas are welcome.

 

Steve

 

 

 

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Have just looked around Britmodeller for similar postings concerning Flickr and can confirm there are several. it Looks like this problem is afflicting all Flickr users across the board. The mods are aware of the issue.

At least it hasn’t blown away all past photo links like photobucket did.

Hopefully this is just a glitch with Flickr and not an intentional, permanent change.

In the meantime, are there any other photo hosting sites anyone can recommend?

 

 

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I must admit to always finding Flickr difficult to get a direct link to a jpg file.  I started using Imgur which doesn’t exactly seem designed for the purpose, but hosts the pics and lets you view them in a browser as a jpg.  You can then copy the link into the insert media section.  It’s far from straight forward though but it has worked so far.

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Back at it...

 

Whew - got there... Finally able to post photos again.  Thanks very much to @AndyRM101 for his help sorting out the recent Flickr irregularity, if any of you are experiencing issues with flickr at the moment I would suggest  you have a look at this topic on the support pages of britmodeller "First experiment at posting a pic!" it goes through the issues with Flickr at the moment and Andy's advice worked very well for me.

 

 

 

OK - things got a bit shabby there for a while on this thread and now it's time to get things back in order.

 

@JohnW  You should be ashamed of yourself asking...

 

'Was there alcohol and loose women involved?'

 

Well - Does the sun rise in the East man?!?!

 

Anyway - lets see if we can get some actual modelling stuff into this thread. I'm going to make this text brief as I have been sitting here for a long time working out the Flickr stuff and just want to Press on...

 

As mentioned earlier the conning tower is a bit more of an involved structure than I first thought.

 

For one thing, the top 3 quarters of its leading edge is more sharply streamlined than the base - leaving a distinct step about 1 scale meter above the base of the conning tower's front.

To model this I have cut a slot with this very fine fret saw. I bought this tool on a whim last year and finding it very useful indeed.

24271846267_98789cc0d9_b.jpg

 

In addition there is this slot / intake thing on the leading edge - again I've used that Fret saw to make it.

24271848067_48911e9cb8_b.jpg

 

Now I use my paper template to work out which bits of the leading edge will be sharpened.

25265068238_f573a5e14a_b.jpg

 

And use the bench sander to grind away the surplus wood.

24271859557_9dfbf366b2_b.jpg

 

Clean up with a file and sandpaper...

24271862767_f04654267e_b.jpg

 

Mark up and drill out some steps / footholds near the trailing edge.

25265066658_d0d9e71573_b.jpg

 

Cut out a thin bit of ply for the decking on the top of the tower and gouge out some scalloping where some of the outlets and vents and 'what-have-you' holes will need to go.

25265079668_c018f2680d_b.jpg

 

And this is where we are now...

25265080698_a7186e9bc5_b.jpg

 

Ahhhh.... I'm off to bed. 

 

Good night.

 

Steve

 

 

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In the mood...

 

Last weekend I opened the local newspaper and immediately found this article.

38447947754_49bc96210f_b.jpg

The 'gist' of the story is that the Australian defence minister has agreed that the Australian Ministry of Defence (here known appallingly as just ''Defence''  for some God-unknown reason) will match, dollar-for-dollar, $500,000 of privately-raised funds for the purposes of searching for the wreck of AE1.

 

AE1 was AE2's sister submarine and was lost, with all hands, very early in WW1 somewhere near East New Britain, which is a province of Papua New Guinea.   The exact circumstances of her destruction and her final resting place remain unknown, however the loss is believed to be due to an accident and not the result of enemy action.  This was the greatest loss of life suffered by the RAN during WW1. It would seem fitting and proper that the remains of the vessel be found and properly commemorated.  Naturally I wish the expedition every success. :yes:

 

This story has got me in the mood to press on with this modelling project.

 

I recently had the good fortune to stumble across a few sheets of this stuff  'Tamiya PLA Paper' at a bargin price. I'd seen it once before but it was very expensive - not so this time! I grabbed the package to see what it was like.  I think that 'PLA paper' is short for 'plastic paper' and that's a very apt description.

38447956334_15be0082ea_b.jpg

I am impressed with this stuff - it has all of the best properties of paper; extremely thin and flexible - while retaining all of the best properties of plastic; tear resistant, sand-able and able to be glued with plastic kitset cement. It's ideal and now that I have tried it I would be happy to pay full-price next time.

 

I have also got myself a paper slicing trimmer thingamajig as shown below.  It's pretty good - but I'm not raving about this as I think it's possibly a bit big for this kind of work. I'm finding the accurate setting of each cut a bit harder than I had hoped.

38447949554_8a0b1cea47_b.jpg

 

Anyway, it works OK with a bit of patience it produces nice square and even cuts.

38447951224_3d37417961_b.jpg

 

And so I started the process of skinning the conning tower. The plastic-to-wood contact is made with cyanoacrylate glue.

38447953184_7932a32a67_b.jpg

 

Here is where I'm up to...

Note that I've had to fashion a sort of 'vent' - 'outlet' - 'thingamee' on each side of the tower - that's what the scallops were cut out for earlier.  They are both a bit crude - but they are done now, and at one point I wasn't going to put them on at all. So anything's a win really.

38447954624_221bc07bd1_b.jpg

 

There's still quite a bit more work to go on this tower but it is moving forward. I hope to stay in the mood a bit longer as I currently feel I'm getting somewhere with this project. I hope our friends out there searching for AE1 are feeling the same way. :yes:

 

Very best regards and Merry Christmas to you all.

 

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

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Steve, fantastic work! Your hard work has managed to get me interested in a subject I had a vague knowledge of, but little interest in!

 

Side note: Australia is a bit odd as it has a Minister for Defence, but no Ministry of Defence....it’s the Department of Defence (DoD, not MoD). Tends to confuse both the UK and the US, I’ve found!

 

Once again, fantastic work - no doubt everyone will continue to enjoy your updates. 

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I drop in here every now and then to see the updates, and problems being resolved,

reading this thread I found out that the green guy in the wheelchair at Telford was Martian Hale, had to jump out of his way once for fear of being wheelchair fodder

heard his better half on the Sunday saying how hard it was to scrub all that off on the Saturday night

 

anyway now this is getting down to the serious side of it all, will be checking in much more often

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Am very pleased to be able to pass on the news that AE1 has been found!

The Announcement was made by the RAN earlier today and photographs have been released.

I currently don’t have capacity to post links to the news articles but can assure you that a brief Google search for AE1 news will yield all of the details.

My warmest congratulations to the search team!😀👍😀👍😀

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To those 35 men, lost, but never forgotten. Now found and always to be remembered. A salute to their bravery, courage and the sacrifice of everything they had to give. :poppy:

 

To all the teams over the years, thank you for never giving up the search.

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Good news on the AE.1 discovery & hopefully closure for relatives. I've been following your build from the sidelines Steve, there are enough barmy as bat poop types crowding the front row without me pushing in, (You know who you are. :D ) I recall reading the story of Nasmith & the E.11 ( a later version of the AE.2 if I've got it right, & thrilled to that, so its neat to see the vessels  fleshed out.

Steve.

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Pressing On...

 

Remember - this is what I have to build now, or at least a fair representation of it.  The last construction post got me some of the way and now I'm going to try to go a bit further.

27030064089_058660ff18_b.jpg

The prominent, horizontal intake slot on the leading edge of the conning tower appears to have some sort of splitter plate in it. That would make sense because it looks to me like any water that went in that intake came out the two outlets , one on either side of the tower,  half way along the tower's flank. 

 

In the photo below, the splitter plate has been added using the thin high-quality plastic that New Zealand butter gets packaged in these days.  Just another reason to buy from the finest dairy producing nation in the world!

38362071685_d176b40c1e_b.jpg

 

Here some skinning is being completed using more Tamiya PLA paper. In the period photo above, the slightest suggestion of individual steel sheets can be made out on the conning tower - so skinning this structure in this fashion can make for a pretty accurate representation.

38362073295_d37e128e15_b.jpg

 

As with the Mig 15 project I find Vallejo plastic putty exceptionally good for this smaller-scale filling.  I would not be without this stuff.

38362081515_004dc786a8_b.jpg

 

It's soft, spreads easily, dries quickly and sands beautifully - the filler that is, not the butter...

38530628564_9c07bfc07d_b.jpg

 

I also need to detail the bridge deck. some of the detail on the drawing below is actually associated with the vertical view of the periscopes rather than the deck itself - but the hatch is (obviously enough) on the deck and is a critically important detail.

25371852648_2fffbd983c_b.jpg

 

Here is a set of hole punches that I bought last year. The cutting tools in this are designed to cut perfect disks of plastic rather than to punch perfect holes in plastic - yes there is a difference between the two operations. It’s like butter and margarine - some people think they are interchangeable, but they aren’t! 🙁

38530636244_aaeb2d2cf2_b.jpg

 

Just tap the relevant sized die-cutter with a small hammer and a perfect little circular disc drops out the bottom.

24376576247_731cf7c53d_b.jpg

 

 Which makes building this really easy...

38530637304_992fdc0745_b.jpg
And makes for a good start on detailing the deck.
 

24375965477_0a44119874_b.jpg

 

Well, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow.  Don't forget to use plenty of New Zealand butter in your Christmas cooking - there's nothing better you know. :pie:

 

Not sure whether I'll get another post in before Christmas - if not, then it's best wishes to you all for a really good festive season and a happy new year.  :santa:

 

Bandsaw Steve

 

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Hi Longshanks,

 

I was  considering modelling the hatch open. 

 

When Captain Stoker scuttled the boat he intentionally left the main hatch slightly ajar and it remains so to this day. Apparently a moray eel uses the hatch as a home these days. The open hatch has proven important to the modern research teams as it has been the opening through which small cameras have successfully entered the wreck.

 

I decided to model it closed for simplicity’s sake and because it’s much stronger closed.

 

When I started this project one or two nutters / psychopaths that I know suggested making this a cut-away with a full interior. Feel free to guess what my response was. 🤔

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