Adam Carlson's 1/16th Japanese Type-A r/c Submarine, Part-9

A Report to the Cabal:

Adam's week here was up seven days ago and I saw him off to the airport without incident. The time he was here flew by as he and I worked the masters of his 1/16th scale Japanese Type-A midget submarine. We got a lot accomplished and I promised him that I would complete the tools and would get onto part fabrication as time permitted. As the following shots will show, this is a big model of a little appreciated subject.

The major tasks accomplished this session was his completion of the sail master detailing, completion of the tail-cone assembly master, and my work to rough out the bow master. Things are now ready for tool making and I'll pick up on the Cabal Reports on this subject as I get enough work done here to warrant further comment.

Nearing the end of his stay, Adam temporarily put all the Type-A masters together so we can get an appreciation of how the final submarine will look like. Neat!

You know ... Adam is one sneaky SOB: He picked the same scale for his Type-A as the 1/16th scale Bob Wallace KAIRYU kit I put together; he knew that I eventually would do super-detailed models of the torpedoes these two midget submarines used and plans to later cash in on my work, taking torpedoes I produced to dress out my KAIRYU for use aboard his Type-A.

Sneaky ... very sneaky.

And it was Adam who dug out a wealth of information on the seventeen-andsomething inch diameter aerial torpedoes used by these craft.

A happy coincidence?... I Don't Think So!

His sending me that torpedo info, I am now convinced, is an element of a nefarious plot to secure for himself torpedoes for his Type-A. Sneaky!

Adam spent at least three solid days working to detail the tail-cone and sail masters. Here he's pulling back some tape used to build up the edge of a flange that projects from the base of each stabilizer. As far as detailing goes, Adam leaves very few stones unturned. He's a detail freak. And he is well disciplined and takes great pains to measure and layout things with precision. Adam's a 'measure twice, cut once' sort of guy. He caught me screwing up a few times and put a stop to it before I had to repeat a step.

Another look at the Type-A masters, put together. This is one big model submarine! Won't be any torque roll issues with this r/c model submarine! Plenty of stern plane area, but not much rudder. Wonder how this beast will turn?

The finished tail-cone master with my white metal-Renshape propeller masters installed. The stern planes and rudders are not installed here. The trailing edges of the control surfaces barely clear the leading edge of the forward propeller.

See the 'weld lines' on the hull? There's lots of neat detail on these masters you can't make out in these shots.

Claying up the tail-cone master, readying it for creation of the mother-mold, needed to contain the soft rubber inner 'glove mold' that will capture all the detail of the master.

Here Adam is placing thin plastic sheet into the clay to form a mother-mold demarcation plane.