Submarine Kit, Part-2

In this installment I work up the additional masters needed to super-detail the
Wallace 1/16 KAIRYU kit. I'll also give you a peek at how I vacuformed specialty
parts, hopefully I'll lift the veil on how that technique works for you.

As I write this I'm putting the finishing touches on all masters and will start fabrication of the rubber tools needed to mass produce the cast metal and resin parts tonight. By tomorrow evening I'll have detail parts in hand for not only mine, but a model Bob Wallace is working up -- we've both decided to have video equipped KAIRYU models of our very own. Later, if he wishes, Bob will employ these tools to 'upgrade' his kit, which, by the way, is still commercially available.

I remind the ready here that the work I've chronicled so far covers the detailed
items that I wanted in order to enhance the quality of the basic kit, to my rather
exceptional standards -- please, in no way take my work here to suggest that the
current kit is 'inadequate.' Not at all! For the money the Wallace RC KAIRYU kit is
very complete and fabricated of well cast and engineered parts. The glass work

stand out on this product as exceptional. OK, on to the last few days work:

I decided, that if this was going to be a complete upgrade kit for the KAIRYU, then it should also include a pair of stern Yokes, one for the rudders, one for the stern planes. The masters of these items started out as 'U' shaped pieces of brass rod soldered to modified wheel-collars. The stern plane yoke is the completed unit in foreground, the parts for the rudder yoke above that. This work sits atop the kit provided 1/16th scale plans -- an excellent resource and invaluable as you determine location of parts on hull.

Some masters for rubber tool making and two Renshape plugs that will be used to vacuform styrene sheet plastic to specific shapes (the well for the bridge atop the sail and the porthole cone that fits within the leading edge of the sail). Note that I've built a more accurate hatch master, sitting to the right of the original kit part. The big departure between the two is the design of the hatch counterweight springs and hinge. My hatch master also incorporates the lift-handle at the forward end of the hatch. It's my intention to make the cast resin parts of my hatch practical, that is to say, the hatch will open and close. That way I can install the upper body of the Captain who would likely con his little boat from that position. Shit! ... Now I have to sculpt a 1/16 figure. Damn. This job will never end!

You see the first attempt at a propeller master for the KAIRYU upgrade package to the left. Not happy with that I cut out new masters for the hub and dunce-cap. I already modified the blade master, made a new rubber tool and cast a set of master propellers from white metal -- an 'improved' propeller master Am I anal, or what!?

The scope head maser proper was turned on the lathe and the lens housing, a boxy looking affair, faced up on the milling machine. Damn .... I'm good!

That circular thing under the Dime is the exhaust pipe-to-hull flange plate, it has yet to receive eight hex-head bolts.

Last Report I extolled the virtues of Super Sculpy as an extruded medium for making specific rods of defined cross-section. An example of that process are these lengths of hex-sectioned cured Sculpy. I extruded the Sculpy through the special die (the disc in foreground, hand cut from thin aluminum sheet), those extrusions then cured hard in the toaster oven (I overdid it, you see that in the black 'char' that coated the extrusions -- I forgot to put a 'heat shield' over the work after I placed it on the ovens tray).

With a knife I cut the required number of hex shaped 'nuts' to approximate length, later CA'ing them to the face of the exhaust pipe hull flange, as well as to the outboard ends of the exhaust pipe holding bracket masters.

This is the status of the masters as of yesterday. I'm in the process of filling dings and making final corrections today and should start tool making this evening. I have to wrap this KAIRYU job up quick: I have turnkeys to knock out before the SubRegatta.

I was unhappy with the initial propeller master and have since produced a new, much better looking unit to replace it. Anal? ... You betch!

I made only two Sculpy intermediate masters for the three required exhaust pipe brackets and only one Sculpy intermediate master of the deck cleat, though two masters of that item are required. What to do to achieve the required number of masters? Well, first I make an intermediate tool of the masters I have, then use that to cast the required number of resin production masters needed.

Next to the intermediate tool are new propeller blade blanks freshly cast from white metal. I was disappointed with the looks and symmetry of the first propeller master, so decided to trash that and go with a different blade outline. This new propeller master has sense been completed and is much more representative of the prototype propeller than my first attempt.

I made three major goof's on the first propeller master: The hub diameter was too big; the blade outline was to wide of cord at the root; and the three blades were slightly askew in sweep, not the exact one-hundred-and-twenty degree separation they should have been. The new propeller master corrects all these shortcomings and looks, at any angle I hold it, like the prototype. Hey, you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it over, and over again!

I elected to vacuform the well in the top of the sail that represents the cavity in which the single access hatch sits. Here, Rose uses an extraction bolt to get a purchase just before she yanks the plug out from a freshly pulled plastic part. Note the wooden frame used to hold the plastic sheet as it is heated and subjected to a vacuum as the plastic is pulled by air-pressure to conform to the exact shape of the plug under it. The gray box behind the Propane bottle is a vacuum source (centrifugal pump) used to pull the heated plastic over the plug.

That box was once a Barber's hair-clipper accessory that I found in a Dumpster across from where my ship was died up. Dumpster diving is an honored and oft practiced activity by sailor's of slightly above intelligence levels.

I also vacuformed the porthole cone piece. Both this and the bridge well were formed from sixty-thousands inch polystyrene plastic sheet. I've also vacuformed using acrylic, ABS, PVC, butyrate, acetate, and other stuff I can't even pronounce. Each type plastic used in this application must exhibits the characteristic of being a 'thermoforming' plastic. That is to say, a plastic that becomes soft and mailable when heated, can be formed mechanically in that state, and will retain the forms shape once it is brought back to room temperature.

The ring around the formed area of the sheet is used just as the hot plastic is slammed down on the face of the vacuforming machines plenum, that ring acts to seal the sheet so the highest differential pressure possible can be presented to the inner and outer faces of the plastic. The greater the area and applied differential pressure, the greater the force that pushes the hot plastic onto the plug that imparts the desired shape.

Knowing what technique to employ for a specific chore, and knowing how to perform that task with the minimum of fuse, with fidelity, and minimum of lost time -- that's the stuff of real Model Builder's.

The vacuformed pieces needed to create the bridge well and porthole cone. I always make a few extra items when I vacuform, that's why the two cones. Note that I've plotted out in pen the outline of the sail bridge well atop the sail. I ground out this area with a Dremel carbide cutoff wheel and dressed the opening with files and sanding sticks till the vacuformed well piece fit snugly.

When vacuforming the heat source can be anything: heat gun, oven, open flame, portable cooking element ... it's simply a matter of preference and availability.

The vacuformed porthole cone was prepared for installation into the sail by first drilling out the seven drain holes in its bottom -- these would have been difficult to do accurately if I had waited to drill them out after the cone had been installed. Note that I have already ground open the hole in the leading edge of the sail to receive the porthole cone. You see the vacuforming plug with its still attached removal bolt, on the right.

The bridge well has been glued within the top of the sail, but I have not yet ground down the excess plastic that projects over the sail. Before the glue went down to secure the well I first dropped in the hatch master to insure that the well was inset the correct depth within the sail.

Measure twice ... cut once!

No attempt was made to trim the flange off the forward face of the port hole cone until after it was glued within the sail -- leaving it on helped to stiffen the rather flimsy, thin gauge vacuformed part. Only after it was CA'ed within he leading edge cutout of the sail was the flange ground away with a Dremel tool equipped with a sanding drum. Same was done with the bridge well piece, it was glued in place and only then the excess projecting plastic was ground down to the sails surface.

The adhesive was applied on the inside of the sail to bond these two items in place. Baking soda was sprinkled onto the surface of the CA. The baking soda building up a massive structural fillet and also chemically reacts with the CA to cure it instantly.

Not offered with the kit, but sold separately, is a 'photo packet' of a prototype of the KAIRYU on exhibit at the submarine base, New London (since moved to the museum, just outside the main gate). This is a 'must have' for you detail nuts like me. You see some of the photos in that packet on the table next to the sail piece I'm working (beautiful glass work, by the way). These documents were invaluable as I worked up the hatch, the porthole cone, and the 101 other details I wished to capture on my model of this big, 1/16 scale Japanese suicide submarine.