HMS Trenchant in 1/96

Mankster · 06-06-2006

Hi guys, here are the first pics of my 1/96 scale HMS Trenchant in the now familiar disruptive colour scheme of the late 90’s. http://www.btinternet.com/~warship/Feature/cam.htm
At around 35” she is smaller than the 1/64? Sheerline Trafalgar but is handier in smaller ponds. This is a SWM kit, like Andrews Kilo, and has the same dive system.

I had to use a bit of foam in the bow as the water tight container which provides buoyancy does not run the full length of the sub.

I stuck down lead sheet with silicon adhesive in small bits to balance it. I can easily peel off/ reposition small pieces depending on water temperature and salinity. I have balanced it with a slight lean to starboard at rest on the surface, to counter some of the torque roll when under way.

As the front dive planes are not operable, I opted to build her with them in the retracted position for better underwater handleing.

She’s trimmed so that she just sinks with a fully flooded tank and a full load of airbrush propellant. Empty of propellant, with the tank still flooded, the top of the sail is level with the water. I only need to blow half a tank of ballast to get it to the water line (the remainder is for reserve buoyancy in an emergency), set this way I can get nearly 20 surface/ dives out of a tank. I’ve fitted a Subtech pitch controller a small Simprop lost signal failsafe. ESC is a Msonik and the battery is a 7.2v 3600mAH stick pack. I am getting a liitle interferance when the motor is operated which I need to sort out.

Mankster · 06-06-2006

Using the exponential on my computer radio and the ballast control on a ratchet, I can do some nice slow dives by filling the ballast tank at steady but slow rate.. She’s only bath tested so far, but is going to get her first run in a couple of weeks, and I’ll post some pics of her in action then.

Here the link to the video of the bath test http://media.putfile.com/HMS-Trenchant-Bath-Test sorry its not dial-up friendly, takes a few minutes to load on broadband.

adzam · 06-06-2006

she`s looking good bud,
whats the overall size of the hull?
it`s handy being able to ballast in teh bath .

Mankster · 06-06-2006

Hi Adz, she's 35" LOA and 4 1/8" beam. Nice size and light enough to comfortably carry in a holdall.

**Bunkerbarge** · 08-06-2006

Superb control, that will look amazing on the pond doing a nice slow controlled dive.

I do like these new camoflage ideas as well. The old matt black hull was not particularly interesting from a modellers point of view.

ajg141 · 08-06-2006

Brilliant performance Ramesh and a great looking sub. You seem to have got the ballasting far better balanced than me! Looks like some more adjustments in my case - but it's almost there. I'm currently incapacitated but will resume work on it shortly with a bit of luck.

Andrew

Mankster · 08-06-2006

Thanks guys, I post some pics of Trenchant and the other subs that turn up in the pictures section in a couple of weeks. Hope it wasn't anything serious Andrew.