1/96 SEAWOLF Turnkey Build, Part-4

A Report to the Cabal:

Yesterday I completed the weathering and before going to bed sealed the upper
hull, sail, masts, and upper rudder with a final clear-coat. This morning everything
was found hard and ready to assemble. This installment will take us through the
reassembly of appendages that had been removed to facilitate painting and
weathering.

Keep in mind that while in primer gray this model had been outfitted with the
WTC, trimmed in the pool, and operated at Lake Trashmore to verify everything
was in working order; the model was complete in all respects, with the exception
of the paint job. So, reassembly after painting, weathering and clear-coat did not
present any problems -- everything had been worked out before hand.

Following the above methodology -- getting the not yet painted boat operational
and tested, before investing the time and effort on the finish -- will save you from
damaging the finish as an untested boat is kicked around and put through the
wringer as changes and adjustments are made. Bottom line: Get the boat
operational before the paint! Works for me.

Unlike the linseed oil-paints, the water soluble acrylics cannot be easily blended into one another to make smooth color graduations. Also, it is tough to control the amount of paint applied through 'dry-brushing' if you use acrylics. However, this quick dry paint is useful for creating sharply colored patches that you don't want to be scrubbed into to adjacent colors -- which is oil-paints virtue and liability. The only use I had for the acrylics on this job was the initial sharp white streaking atop the upper rudder representing bird-shit and some very small rust patches around selected sail access hand-holes. When used in combination with oils, the acrylic always goes down first and is given time to dry out before the oil-paint is applied over or near it.

Before I work a new model with weathering agents I first get the cobwebs out of my hands by practicing a bit on items I have not yet brought to the primer gray stage -- we see here in background a 1/96 SKIPJACK and 1/96 DANIEL WEBSTER sail. I give such test articles a shot of the very dark gray and then play around with the weathering mediums and technique that will later be applied to the model at hand, in this case the 1/96 SEAWOLF sail and upper rudder.

To the extreme left are some post-it-notes. I use these as hard-edge masks --useful when representing panel lines with acrylic and oil paints. These disposable, low tack, self-adhesive little chunks of paper are very useful during the weathering phase of any project -- they also serve as auxiliary paint palettes and blotters used to wipe excess medium from the brushes.

The weathered SEAWOLF sail just prior to the clear-coat. You learn that a clear-coat tends to attenuate the contrast of the weathering applied, so you adjust by overdoing the weathering, knowing that the clear-coat will tone things down to a 'believable' level later. How much is too much? That's where the builder's experience comes it -- not the sort of thing I can describe to you in words. Practice, practice ... practice!

Note that I'm using a post-it-note self-adhesive piece of paper not only as a streaking mask, but also as a blotter to remove excess oil-paint from the brush before scrubbing in some off-black paint on the model to represent water run-off streaking. Weathering embraces the understanding of gravity and how it would make a slurry or liquid flow from point A to point B. Study of reference photos of actual prototypes is vital, and you must always be mindful of the scale of the work -- do those scuff marks on the deck denote the strides and foot size of 1/96 scale little sailor's? Did all that bird-poop running down the sides of the sail, did it come from the bowels of a 1/96 sized seabirds? You succeed or fail through your attention (or lack of it) to such details.

The assembled drive-train of the SEAWOLF model. Unlike Matt Thor - who provided the model with the drive-train installed - I prefer to provide only a very short propeller/rotor shaft, terminating it in a Dumas universal coupler, just aft of the stern plane and rudder yokes. However, as you can see, Matt favors extending the propeller/rotor shaft some distance into the hull, terminating it at an Oilite transverse-thrust bearing. Matt's method keeps things simple and roomy near the yokes, but does present a bit more difficulty as you install/remove/adjust elements of the stern plane and rudder linkages - the need to work around the ever present rotor shaft. I like to present the thrust loads (ahead/astern) to the bearings in the tail-con. Matt imparts those loads to a dedicated transverse bulkhead situated well forward of the stern area. Sauce for the Goose.

The drive-train of the 1/96 SEAWOLF. The fit of the after duct-stator unit is tight and no adhesive or mechanical securing is required. The rotor has a transverse 440 taped hole in its hub that takes a set-screw that engages a flat machined onto the extreme after end of the rotor shaft. At the forward end of the rotor shaft are two flats, one for the 3/16" wheel-collar (that transmits the ahead thrust load to the structure) set-screw, the other flat, at the extreme forward end of the shaft, accepts a Dumas universal coupler (that transmits the astern loads to the structure) set-screw. The Dumas dog-bone makes up between the WTC motor output shaft and the drive-train. The transverse-thrust Oilite bearing, set within the GRP transverse bulkhead, is where the propulsor thrust loads are transmitted to the structure.

With the final clear-coat on, but not yet ready for handling I thought it a good idea to array the control surfaces with their associated linkages so you can get a clear picture of how things work. The most complicated of form and function are the four elements that make up the stern planes. On the real SEAWOLF boats the outboard planes work with the inboard set (though the amount of deflection between the two sets varies with speed and other conditions) -- that's how I have all planes arranged at the stern: the outboard surfaces and inboard surfaces are all ganged together to a common pushrod. It's a point of interest that on the real boats the outboard planes can also be worked differentially to effect rolling forces -- a feature I did not emulate on this model. I guess sail foil roll is still an issue with the SEAWOLF design.

The after set of stern planes are connected through a traditional 'yoke,' a 'U' shaped interconnecting device that joins the operating shaft of each control surface, making them work as one. A bell-crank, an element of the yoke casting, extends from one end of the yoke to which is attached a brass pushrod. Each of the outboard planes has a dedicated bell-crank. Three push rods are involved: one to the inboard planes yoke bell-crank, and one each for the two outboard plane bell-cranks. Note that the three pushrods are all secured together with a big wheel-color. A brass rod soldered to the wheel collar extends forward, terminating in a 'pushrod adjuster,' who's forward end has attached to it a ball that fits the cup attached to the WTC stern plane pushrod. the ball-and-cup quick-connect make for a fast and tight attachment point between hull and WTC linkage elements.

Another look at the stern planes and linkage. Note how simple the rudder yoke

and pushrod is in comparison! The yokes and bell-cranks are cast white metal --items I designed and now produce as parts of the fittings package that accompany each SEAWOLF kit. The 1/96 SEAWOLF kit is available from Atomic Subs/Four Winds Kit Shop - see the banner advertising plug atop this sites main page for more information. The cast metal linkage elements are provided with taped holes and set-screws installed.

Years ago, when Matt Thor and I were trying to get the prototype SEAWOLF model to work at a SubRegatta, we tried simply gluing the outboard planes to the tips of the inboard planes. Just did not work! As we found, there simply is no substitute for scalelike features -- ganging the inboard and outboard stern planes together, much as is done on the real boats, was the way to go.

This rather confusing shot is of the stern plane yoke and other linkage elements installed within the stern of the SEAWOLF. You can clearly make out the set screws projecting at the forward ends of the yoke and bell-cranks. Tightening down on the set-screws made fast the stern plane operating shafts to their respective yoke or bell-cranks. Here you get an appreciation why the inboard planes yoke is 'U' shaped: to clear the centrally running rotor shaft.

The stern planes are operated autonomously from the APC-4 angle keeper directly -- no r/c channel assigned there to permit operator intervention. Depth control, therefore, fell to the bow planes. Here you see those planes attached to their operating shaft and pushrod.

Though these planes on the real thing were retractable, Matt and I represented them on this model fixed in the 'deployed' position. The non-rotating inboard fairing of each plane was glued to the hull. A cast bell-crank screws tight to the planes operating shaft, a pushrod terminates aft in a 'pusher-plate' that engages the WTC pushrod.

Spring-loading the bow plane pushrod keeps its pusher-plat up tight against the WTC pushrod -- this mechanism permits me to simply attach the upper hull to the lower without need of making up any fasteners between WTC (in the lower hull) and bow plane linkage (in the upper hull). I blame Skip Asay for this method of interconnecting two elements of a common linkage without need of fasteners. Pretty slick!

The installed bow planes within the upper hull half. Note that the pushrod runs through a simple styrene plastic bearing. Off this bearing is attached a rubber-band, not installed here for clarity, that makes up to the bell-crank -- this tension pushes the bow plane pushrod aft, tight against the WTC bow plane pushrod. When making up the two hull halves, one hand holds the bow planes at 'hard dive' till the two halves are tightly joined, then the bow plane is released to let its pusher-plate make contact (through rubber-band compression) with the WTC pushrod.

A tease: the completed 1/96 Thor/Atomic Subs SEAWOLF. First nice day I get here and the model goes back into the lake for a verification/change of trim. Then it'll be boxed up and sent off to our long suffering customer.