First Sub finished at last.

periscope · 01-02-2006

Have yet to do sea trials on the club pond - but that will have to be next week sometime. Here are three pictures of the finished Seawolf - I left the front planes red and painted the radar mast red so that while I'm learning to drive the sub I'll have some idea where it is. When I get the hang of it I can soon change the colour if I want to, but also for now with this being the only sub in the club it'll give the other members some idea of where it is (I hope)

Ian

ajg141 · 01-02-2006

Ian
Looks very neat and I like the colour scheme you've chosen. It should remain visible to the targets! As promised I took mine down to the pond on Sunday and tried it with the periscope disconnected and the bow planes set slightly to surface. The best way to describe the tests is 'inconclusive'. This was mainly because of an intermittent fault that had developed since its last run. On stripping it back down afterwards I found a faulty battery connection that I should really have noticed before setting off. This has now been rectified and I'll have a further go this weekend - if the pond isn't frozen over (it was -10 degrees here at 7.00am yesterday!).

Andrew

new to trains · 02-02-2006

keep us informed of trials please !

periscope · 02-02-2006

Thanks Andrew and Guy - I'll post a picture of it in the water eventually - my main problem just now is that I'm the only sub member in the club - a couple of the members just can't understand why I want a sub 'cos they say that it can't be seen under the water. They seem to have the idea that because it's a sub it will only ever be down below, strange ideas people get. If the ponds busy I'll stay on the surface so I don't get rammed accidently but once I get the hang of driving underwater I'll have the whole pond to myself no matter how busy it is. In the club house there are lots of old modelling magazines and I found one on how to make real active torpedos (Marine Modelling April 2004) so I left the magazine open on the table just to get them wondering....

---- but at the end of the day I'm sure I'll get any help I need, they're a good bunch really. When I do my trials I'm going to just get the hang of the sub on the surface then gradually increase the speed to see what the dive rate is then try to control the rate of dive (or surface) with the rear dive planes. I suppose in an emergency I could just slap the brakes on and it should surface automatically. Anyway I'll let you know how I get on.

Ian

adzam · 02-02-2006

excellent job ian !
glad you`ve got it all togethor and ready for a sail , hopefully the weather holds out for you

Adz..

periscope · 02-02-2006

Hi Chris - Must admit I'm getting a bit excited about it now - just hope it's not going to be another Titanic job....but I popped it in the test tank again today for final balancing - everything is Ok with no leaks after hour and a half in the bath. Hoping for some warmer weather though - doesn't do the old Arthritis much good when it's cold and damp..... by the way I made myself a small launch trolley mainly for getting the sub out of the water while the flooding ports are draining - it's an old suitcase wheeler (before suitcases had their own wheels) Here's a picture taken with the webcam.

Ian