Merriman's Submarine Modelling Masterclass

I thought the Nautilus control hook-ups looked complicated but the Seaview ones are a doozy, triple rudders and internal planes? Yikes.
 
Squez me while I mop the puke off my keyboard... Bastard!
The SeaQuest ?! ( i try to keep my stomach content inside me)
it's most boring craft design ever made.
You don't know were is front and end of it is...
...and Casting that form is a pain in the rectum.
 
Another Barbel-class?
No, Scott. Not this time. A 1/48 ALBACORE. I was sent this very nice resin printed master. My job is to produce a glove-mother mold and produce GRP parts. The sail and tail-cone will be hollow cast resin. The control surfaces will be solid cast resin, and the propellers cast from white-metal. The lead-man on this project, Howard, had the actual boat 3D surveyed, that's how accurate this master is. Crazy! Work won't start till after the Cabin Fever event, this January.
 
No, Scott. Not this time. A 1/48 ALBACORE. I was sent this very nice resin printed master. My job is to produce a glove-mother mold and produce GRP parts. The sail and tail-cone will be hollow cast resin. The control surfaces will be solid cast resin, and the propellers cast from white-metal. The lead-man on this project, Howard, had the actual boat 3D surveyed, that's how accurate this master is. Crazy! Work won't start till after the Cabin Fever event, this January.
How are you gonna build this one? X planes and counter-rotating props?
 
How are you gonna build this one? X planes and counter-rotating props?
The job is just to produce tooling and one test-shot (prototype kit) for the customer. But I've been given permission to make a number of copies for myself and partners-in-crime. I'll assemble mine as the phase-4 configuration; pretty much in the same fashion as this 1/96 ALBACLORE (the gray one) I put together a number of years ago. And a 1/60th one way back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.

ALBACORE: Not my first rodeo.





















































View: https://youtu.be/4NIRblzfz_8


View: https://youtu.be/m8OvXPhdifo
 
Gotta admit, the "X-planes and counter-props" setup is my favorite look for a sub before propulsors.
Oars, paddle-wheels, bottom-poles, screws, pump-jets, shark-fins, sails, oscillating hydrofoils, caterpillar drives... they're all 'propulsors'.
 
I mean the pumpjet "lampshade" on the aft end of 774s, 21s, and the British boats.
Most players are going to PJ's. Problem with them is their increased size (the duct) pushes the center of pressure so far aft of the c.g. that the boat is hard to maneuver in yaw; the boat, like a badminton cock, is overly dynamically stable.
 
I'd forgotten how weird Albacore was. 6 blade and 8 blade screws, instead of some prime number like 5 and 7. (Or 7 and 11)

Though I heard that 671 Narwhal also had an 8 blade screw.
 
I'm blown away by the rudder on the sail. Did that work very well?
Yes it did. The dorsal 'rudder' on this 1/60th ALBACORE was practical, and as you can see there is very little heeling in tight u/w turns. Also a great 'break' and was part of the 'emergency stern plane jam recovery protocol' on the real boat.

View: https://youtu.be/TSr41K5Uaj4
 
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Can't wait to see your fancy version of the Disney Nautilus, with Captain Nemo and some crew in the pilothouse and maybe an open view into the study windows.
 
Can't wait to see your fancy version of the Disney Nautilus, with Captain Nemo and some crew in the pilothouse and maybe an open view into the study windows.
Naw. Sorry. I've done enough of these things. Got a bucket-list to attend to. Guy you should follow is Bob Martin, over at Nautilusdrydocks.com He's done all that, and more.
 

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