The Fifteenth Annual SubRegatta at Carmel, Indiana, Part-2

A Report to the Cabal:

Might as well talk up the various r/c submarine models I took with us this year to the SubRegatta.

In this installment I'll show off the 1/12th model of the Civil War submarine, ALLIGATOR.

Though built as a practical r/c model submarine, this miniature today has been reduced in status to a simply static display. Shortly after using it for filming back in 04 I gutted out the internal mechanisms with the intent of making a more efficient deploy/ retract mechanism to better operate the two floats used to hover this unique war-craft at specific depths ... I still have not gotten around to that yet.

I continue to display the model at conventions and seminars, using it to illustrate that the Union not only built and operated a submarine during the American Civi War (its achievement overshadowed in history by the exploits of the Confederate HUNLEY), but also built a unique craft that featured such innovative things as a practical method of maneuvering a submarine in depth and locking a Diver in and out of the craft while submerged.

The ALLIGATOR's depth and angle keeping abilities were observed and validated as we operated this model before the cameras during filming of the Discovery Science Channels production of, 'Hunt for the USS ALLIGATOR' at the big indoor Maneuvering basin and outdoor shock basin, both located within the big David Taylor model ship tow tank facility at Carterock Maryland.

Back in the eighties and Nineties Ellie and I did a significant amount of TV and motion picture effects miniature work. In these days of CGI, there has been an almost complete cessation of that part of our business. However, the ALLIGATOR job was our most recent work of that kind. Seems there's still a place for models in TV and movies. Ellie and I hope so.

OK, a little 1/12 ALLIGATOR effects miniature history:

At the outdoor explosive shock test basin at Carterock in about twenty-five feet of water. The Cinematographer-Diver's set up the model for a pass. Note the two deployed buoys over the deck of the ALLIGATOR miniature -- these adjustable buoyant devices worked to raise the vessels metacentric height. This in turn increased the boats static stability righting force about the pitch axis, to a magnitude large enough to overcome destabilizing forces created as the vehicle moved through the water. It must be assumed that this manpowered craft never exceeded a speed great enough to overcome the stabilizing forces.

At the time of this photo Kevin Rimrodt, myself, and the rest of the production crew are stationed on a long finger-pier over the activity seen here.

No significant r/c problems were encountered above twenty-five feet in the basin. What range limits I observed were attributed to the massive amounts of reinforcing iron rods imbedded in the concrete basin: this place, after all, was designed for shock-testing of model hulls! We had real-time voice communications with the Diver's, a big aid as we coordinated model to camera moves.

The large 'balls' of reinforced concrete on the bottom are there to dissipate explosion shock-waves; waves that would otherwise reverberate powerfully against the bottom and sides of the heavily built cement basin.

Two days of shooting at the David Taylor facility: one day outdoors at the facilities explosives basin, and one day, here, at the big MASK (Maneuvering and Sea

Keeping) tank, filming under controlled lighting. Tim Smalley and I sat up shop in the big work-bay adjacent the tank. Tim had built a larger scale model of the predecessor to the ALLIGATOR, something the production team came to know as the, 'ALLIGATOR, Jr.' On day two of the shoot we took both miniatures out to a local canal and assisted in shots that represented these craft maneuvering on the surface.

Here I'm briefing the cinematographer-Diver's and Director-Producer on the capabilities and limitation of the miniature ALLIGATOR. You can see here that the three access hatches on the port side of the model (the non-filming side) have been opened to permit access to the internals as I readied it for the days shoot.

In the big MASK tank. Two of our Cinematographer-Diver's in the water waiting for me to launch the ALLIGATOR miniature. Off in the catwalks, that stand around and well over the pool, was Kevin Rimrodt, my business buddy. He called out depths off the bottom as I drove the ALLIGATOR filming miniature along as directed from the Director-Producer, David Clark. I worked from a little punt driven around by one of the David Taylor staff. Most of the time I was directly over the miniature so could not accurately make out depth off the bottom -- that was Kevin's job.

The model, though never operated before the day of shooting, performed without a hitch! Talk about a tight coupling of luck and skill!

On the surface the miniature turned well. Once submerged, and the two 'buoyancy cylinders' deployed, the model was found to be very stable in pitch. Immediately we determined that this arrangement would indeed render a submerged, traveling, vessel with the amount of static stability needed to eliminate the need of horizontal stabilizers or horizontal control surfaces to control the submarines pitch angle while in motion. This observation was not only news to me, but to the attending David Taylor hydrodynamicists in attendance the day of the shoot. In an instant my colleagues and I added to mans understanding of what had been achieved, but temporarily lost, to The Record.

Here's the ALLIGATOR display at this years SubRegatta. Note that the model is presented 'at anchor' with a deployed Diver walking the bottom. Exactly the same technique used today on the new SEAL dry-sub, a state-of-the-art insurgent craft designed with the same mission in mind as that of the ALLIGATOR built so long ago. What was old is new again!

If you're on the lookout for a DVD of the Discovery Science Channels production of the episode that featured the story of the ALLIGATOR, go to: http://shopping. discovery.com/product-59519.html

An interesting aside to my normal vehicle model building was the need to provide the display with a 1/12th scale Diver figure, needed to demonstrate the vehicles ability to lock a man in and out of the submarine while submerged. It was intended that the diver plant explosive charges on river obstructions and enemy war-craft.

Though we uncovered no hard information on the type of diver dress employed for the ALLIGATOR operations I made the educated guess that they used a derivative of the Miller-Dunn hat in use at the time. The classic Siebe full body Diver's dry-dress was, in my opinion, too cumbersome to be used in the tight confines of this ALLIGATOR submarine, therefore the reason I depicted the 'lightweight' dress seen here.

I sculpted a 1/12 boilerplate master of a figure from Super Sculpy, baked the work hard, then finished that master off with fillers and primer. I then used it to make an RTV two-piece rubber tool. From that tool I cast the required number of figures from Alumilite casting resin.

The production historian and technical consultant, Jim Christly (no stranger to Subcommittee members), used one of these figures to build a practical 'rowing station' diorama. That item used in the production to illustrate the workings of the initial propulsor type employed by the ALLIGATOR submarine: articulated rowing paddles, of all things!

I used the upper body of a figure casting to represent the CO of the craft, within the dome shaped conning station/access hatch. A little in-joke: I made the figure to look like President Lincoln -- who, it is reported, actually saw trials of the ALLIGATOR while maneuvering in the waters of Philadelphia, where the submarine was built.

I took one of the castings, busted it at the joints and positioned it to look like a Diver walking awkwardly on the bottom. I 'dressed' him with thin layers of Milliput and other epoxy paste mediums. Once they cured hard I painted his clothing to look like contemporary woolen heavy pants and shirt.

On the lathe I turned brass pieces and attached them to a rolled piece of brass sheet to form the Miller-Dunn style diving helmet. A piece of string married with thread to a length of electrical wire represented the umbilical air-supply hose and strength member that connected the Diver to the submarine.

Thirteen years as a Navy 'hard-hat' Diver served me well during this phase of the ALLIGATOR project. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

The 1/12th scale ALLIGATOR Diver ready for paint.

I first coated the figure with West System epoxy to smooth things down a bit. When that cured hard I buffed it with some steel wool to give the substrate some tooth to better grab the paint and then went at it with water soluble acrylics.

The figures clothing creases and folds were over-accentuated with washes and pens to catch the uncritical eye of the video camera. This is not how you paint a figure for an IPMS type contest!