Evolution of a U.S. Fleet Boat Conning Tower, 1:24

[Guest]

I've been a busy little beaver today; completed the door to the crew's mess, and the front panel of the FW tank.

Finished and framed the mess-room door:



A closer look at the hinge-pin detail; I put a 1/16" K&S tube into a .110 to .120" lintel and threshold, and used super-glue to adhere a full-length of tube to the edge of the door. A 1/32" rod is the "hinge-pin". Next, I sanded them down thinner. I should have trimmed the sides, too:



Here's the assembly attached, and the door open:



And, with the door closed:



I forgot to take photos of the front-side of the FW tank, so that will have to wait.

Regards, John

[Guest]

Here is the view of the Fresh Water tank, with the tin front-plating. Double-stick tape was used to adhere the panel:



I have fitted the wood-form for the mess-galley sanitary tank:



Experience with such a build, with no exact plans or directions available, inevitably reveals there's a better way to do something; if I had thought of it before, I could have framed the deck by making a rectangular frame, with the stringers at the outside, and lay "I-beams" crosswise, thus achieving a more realistic build.

Regards, John

[stona]

I've just checked back to have a look at this and boy you've made some progress. As a plastic basher it's fascinating to watch how you do this,great stuff. I've had a thoroughly enjoyable time reading through your thread and catching up!

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Galley finally gets its proper front wall:



Inside view, note the re-inforcements:



Under-deck of mess-compartment gets new framing; electrical conduit on very edge:



Here's a view from another angle:



Here is a close-in view, showing how the cross-bars are put through the outside stringers:



Here is the underside of the control-room floor, prepping for new cross bars. I will drill through the stiffener with a 5/32in aircraft bit, then cut out the top leaving a channel for the "I-beams."



I am still held up by need to get small drills for work on hatches and watertight doors, and a visit to the Pampanito to make measurements and take pictures. I expect to be able to get to SF sometime within the next month, hopefully, to visit the sub.

I'm starting a "ma deuce" co-project around the Silverfin.

regards, John

[Guest]

My recent visit to the Pampanito has paid off; I have been able to get a little work done on the crews mess. I also found I had made big dimensional errors on the water-tight doors, which will require making up proper doors and seating and cut them in.



I've put up some of the starboard-side structure and started on benches and table tops:



Bending the tiny table brackets:



I have the one top edged with the anti-slip rim, and a completed set of table-brackets.



As of today, I have got one table bracketed and installed, however I don't yet have the green paint for the table-tops.



I missed some measurements, and will need a return-trip to the Pampanito in future.

Regards, John

[Guest]

In the most recent previous post, there appears some brass and stainless tubes; here is a starboard-side view:



They are possibles for the 5-gallon stainless coffee urn, and the local water heater for the scullery sink.

Next, I have attempted my first, 1:24-scale submarine ladder, using 1/16" square brass tube for the uprights, and 1/32" rod for the rungs; very difficult for me at this size, as I don't have any illuminated magnifier for seeing where to punch drill marks,and have to work largely by feel. Hopefully, I can do better on the rest of the ladders; this class requires 7 for the central section: bridge, conning-tower, pump-room, refer, cool-room, magazine and store-room!



I added hand-rails, but they are too short, should go one more rung's worth below:



I tried a test-view of the ladder in the forward tower view-port:



I cut in the after view-port for the periscope position:



I have been working on the plating for the tower fairwater, but forgot to take it out and photograph it. I'll have to get to that later. Getting late,

Regards, John

[mossiepilot]

Coming along John.

Tony.

[geegad]

Looking good you been away for a while been looking forward to seein this one come along

[Guest]

"The plans, boss, the plans!"

I felt it was high time to put up the basic plans I have used to create the basic structure. These were produced under my Linux distribution by extracting the complete plans from the HNSA pdf files ("pdfimages filename.pdf filename.*") which gives me a bitmap file, from which I cropped and saved the desired sections (the original drawings are full-length at a scale of 1/8" to 1 foot, for a 312-foot vessel!) as jpg images, so I could download to my printer and actually print them out on letter-size plain paper, at slightly greater than twice that scale, making it possible to scale more accurately from the print.

Here is the main Elevation View of the Sargo Class, SS-190, the Spearfish,, originally launched 29 Oct 1938, commissioned 19 July, 1939. Note that the drawings show the state of the boat following wartime refit, but I am building in the early-war, pre-refit style, with the split-level periscopes and covered bridge. Information to back-track comes from The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy : A Design and Construction History by John D. Alden, Commander, U.S. Navy (Retired), Naval Institute Press, copyright 1979, second printing 1985, ISBN 0-87021-187-0.



Next, the upper-deck plan-view:



And, last but not least, below-decks:



These are not build drawings, of course, and one sheet is missing from this set. Visits to actual fleet boats, searching all available photos, history of these specific boats, all contribute toward trying to create internal details. There were only six actual Sargo class boats (the Squalus was one of these), and three each were built by Electric Boat and Portsmouth (the American Naval Yard).

Hope you like it,

Regards, John

[Guest]

"The Horror, The Horror ..." - Heart of Darkness

Dimensional and dyslexic disaster strikes again! I looked closely at the plans, and at the model, and at the plans, and at the model ... I have the front of the galley 1/8" (half a foot) too far to port, and worse, the starboard side section that I just built is 5/16" (7-1/2") too far to starboard hno:

This explains why the coffee counter seemed too shallow for a 5-gal maker! This would also play nasty with the scullery sink. Having visited the PAMPANITO and seeing what a proper counter and shelving combo looks like, I need to tear the old shelves out of the galley too, and rebuild that detail realistically!

I hope I can extend the partitions, I'm out of large pieces of basswood; good thing I used Crafters Pick "super glue," a flexible adhesive that sticks lots of stuff, as I can usually separate simple joins with a razor blade. Even so, it's another PITA!

Cheers, John

[Guest]

Eve of Destruction ...

I went back to the plans, and carefully measured and marked the dimensions, from 0/0, and added in the scaled dimensions that the model should follow. Found a lot of cumulative errors; the big troublemaker is the door between the control-room and mess; that's where the 1/8" / 5/16" errors come from. Other items need correction, and the front of the galley needs to move forward to where it belongs, as the above errors took away half the counter space to the outboard of the galley ranges.

I've torn down some of the areas that need to be rebuilt, but I'm having a problem with buckling down to the real problem, removing and re-building the door. Not an easy job, but if I don't do it, I cannot recover the lost counter space, which is critical in the cramped confines of a sub.



I'll have to sleep on the door problem!

Regards, John

[Guest]

Successful Sub Ladder!

Here is the old ("drunken") ladder, next to the new ("sober") ladder :^)



In the center is the secret; a drill-guide-jig made up from square and round tubing. There are round tubes down to a 1/16" opening for drilling into a 1/8" square or round piece; a 1/16" removable tube forms the 1/32" guide for drilling the pin holes in the ladder uprights. A removable adapter for 1/16" square or round stock is inserted, and has the index.

A piece of straight-pin is used as an index-stop in a hole one rung position away from the drill guide; after drilling the first hole, the upright is moved until the pin can enter the hole, and the next and successive holes drilled accordingly.

I used CA to attach 1/32" rod in the holes, then threaded the square 1/16" rungs over the rod and secured with CA; the rods were then cut off leaving a stub to fit into the other upright after placing all the rungs. The other side is patiently fitted over the stubs, and only the end-rungs on this side are locked down with CA.

Regards, John

[Guest]

Some small progress over the last few months. I got galley access to the Pampanito, so I got some measurements, and got a small start by making the chinaware rack, and a general illumination super-bright white LED, with a yellow LED for the rear galley lamp.



Here's another view, un-mounted and with both inside (ivory) and outside (gray) painted (the gray shows a bit washed out in the photo)



The main rack is bent from one piece of .005 brass shim stock, with the center shelf glued in with CA. The vertical center is made from a piece of 1/16" square tube. The plate cabinet on the left is of 1/16" basswood. I hope to make some chinaware of Fimo; it will need to be glued in place.

Did a little testing for preliminary position for the number 2 periscope motor and conning tower lighting.



Some experiments with LED's for the lighting system:



That's all for now ...

Regards, John

[Guest]

It's good to see that this project is still progressing, I was worried that you might have given up on it.

Keep at it, this is a really interesting subject and you are making a very thorough job of it.

[Guest]

I've been laid low by flu-like symptoms for the past 5 week-ends, and have suffered though bouts of exhaustion from the sleep sweats over time. I get a bit of work done on the projects whenever I'm fit enough. General health is improving, so I hope to get more movement on all the projects in the coming weeks (if all goes well!).

Thanks, John