From: DMeriman@aol.com

Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 12:24 AM

To: undisclosed-recipients:

Subject: R/C'ing the Trumpeter 1/144 SEAWOLF (SSN 21) Submarine, Part-10

Attachments: DSCN0154.JPG; DSCN0164.JPG; DSCN0157.JPG; DSCN0161.JPG; DSCN0171.JPG

R/C'ing the Trumpeter 1/144 SEAWOLF (SSN 21) Submarine, Part-10

A report to the Cabal:

Just got a big Purchase Order from Caswell Inc. for the little SubDriver's I've designed for the Trumpeter SEAWOLF and Kilo. That put me to work over the weekend getting parts cast up for assembly of these units this week. Sunday night found me trying to get ahead with some pre-assembly chores on the motor bulkheads as well. It was a productive weekend!

Mike Caswell has put together a rather attractive (from a money point of view) packaging of the SEAWOLF kit, my SubDriver, and the r/c system and other devices needed to make the SEAWOLF operational. Check the deals out at, http://caswellplating.com/models/sub-drivers.html

My good fortune here also presents a good opportunity to take you into the slaughter-house and show you how I make my brand of sausage; a peek behind the curtain to see D&E WTC production methods being applied.

(I've got a 1/96 ALFA kit coming out in a few months and it occurs to me that with little modification -- enlargement of the ballast tank and upgrade to a 400 size motor -- a variant of this SubDriver will make a good match to that little underwater rocket. Stay tuned).

Though I already have three sets of tools from which to cast WTC-2.5 parts (that can be configured to build a SubDriver for either the 1/144 Trumpeter SEAWOLF or KILO) I found that there were additional components needed and I needed to modify some of the existing masters in order to produce more refined parts, to speed production, and improve the products. Here you see new masters being worked out for tool forming. Around those are the old reworked masters ready to make new 'improved' tools.

To the right is an old-style SEAWOLF SubDriver -- though the untrained eye would have trouble telling the difference between it and the 'improved' WTC.

This weekends work. A bunch of cast resin pieces. Most of them relate to this weeks SEAWOLF SubDriver work, but a few items are associated with the upgrade I've done to the GATO fittings kit (stern planes and retract mechanism linkage components). You're looking at about four gallons of hardened resin here, boys and girls!

Masters mounted on their respective mold boards, ready for rubber.

All day Saturday was spent reworking 2.5" cylinder masters and making new tools off those.

By Sunday afternoon I had completed all casting chores. Here you see the tools neatly put into their respective containers, ready for future use.

Here I'm showing you how the powerful little direct-drive Graupner 280 motor is mounted in the motor bulkhead. An 1/8" stainless steel adapter shaft is fitted to the motor. This shaft runs through an oilite steady bearing and cup-type water tight seal. Note the lugs around the bulkhead. These are for hook-up to an external battery (not recommended for the SEAWOLF SubDriver) and to interconnect between the receiver and external antenna. Also mounted to the face of the motor bulkhead is an 'equalization' valve.

The four 1/16" water tight seals at the perimeter of the bulkhead pass the rudder, stern planes, bow planes, and on/off

pushrods.

In the wee hours mounting 1/16" seal bodies to motor bulkheads. Grunt work.

After attaching a drive shaft extension to a motor shaft I then check it for true rotation with a dial-indicator, bend to correct for off-center as required, and then fit the motor into a bulkhead and make up the watertight seal to the shaft extension.

I designed the motor bulkheads you see here for use on either the SEAWOLF or KILO type SubDriver system. Note that the after end of the unit is removable and makes up to the cup shaped portion with an O-ring. This makes motor and water tight seal access an easy matter, as well as giving you complete access to the external battery and antenna lugs.

Each SEAWOLF SubDriver comes with four installed servos complete with pushrods and water tight seals. There's even a pushrod that connects to the installed Mtronicss ESC power switch inside!

These SubDriver's come with installed servos, ESC, and all internal linkages made up, tested, and ready for use.

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