Modeling during COVID

[chuck]

Updates. Type 21 U Boat has two parts to finish it off. They won't be missed but I feel I should add them. Technically there is a third piece but it's impossible to place in the completed model and really can't be seen (it's above the cut away line and would be near the ceiling of the boat). It got knocked off when installing the interior. In this model you build the entire interior of the sub and install it in the one half of the hull and then glue the other half in place. The Polaris subs I build when I was much younger you built up each compartment and installed it into the hull half as you went along.





In the background can of the closed image of the type 21 you can see the near complete B-58 in 1/144 scale. I had to suspend work on this to build up the 1/72 scale version to figure out how to install the landing gear on the smaller model.



I found this kit partially assembled (OK right and left fuselage halves glued together with cockpits installed). Since I was having good luck with the metalizer I decided to try and finish it up as well. I'm waiting for the clear top coat to dry/set to mask off some areas for different "colors" of metal. The smaller (1/144) has the official metalizer sealer which is on five plus days of hardening. MicroScale Gloss is what I used on the larger model and it set up in about 1 1/2 days. The engine nacelles (not shown) are done and the ailerons on the main model are done up in a darker shade.

I had some "scrap lumber" from building a utility shelf under the drafting table to store photo's/image conversion equipment. I used it to make up some tool storage/carrying jigs.



I've also been collecting jam and "olive" jars to hold other tools. This allows me quick access while keeping stuff reasonably organized. The saw and chisel holders are pretty much what they are. The paint and square box can be loaded with whatever I need/want for a particular session. The center of the square box holds the "Same Stuff" styrene welder and the corner is set up for the big bottle of Solvaset or any other "big bottle" or alternate glue. I haven't spilled yet using this set up.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Nice tool storage ideas - lot of razor saws!

[chuck]

Some are duplicates but not as many as it looks. Different TPI, different blade depth, and some are back cut.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Some are duplicates but not as many as it looks. Different TPI, different depth, and some are back cut.

I only have 2 on my bench,

But I do have 15-20 hemostats, 7-8 pin vises, and lots of tweezers of all sorts - this stuff I keep racked up in old centrifuge tube buckets and heating blocks.......and then there's 7 scalpels off to the one side.

[chuck]

Tools are like old friends. Hard to part with.

While you certainly can get buy with a X-Acto #11 and a blister pack of emory boards and a couple of sheets of sandpaper having the right tool can make all the difference. I resisted getting a caliper for a long time and finally got one about two years ago. I kick myself every time I pick it up because it is such a useful tool and it wasn't even that expensive! Doah!!!!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I resisted getting a caliper for a long time and.........

Use mine all the time if only to check which number drill I need to use.

[healey36]

Nice model of a Type-21 U-boat. I have a 1/700-scale by one of the Japanese manufacturers, still in the box here somewhere.

The Type-21 was pretty revolutionary, as it was designed primarily for submerged operation with little time on the surface. You look at that thing and then look at Nautilus built more than a decade later, the similarities are striking. Thank goodness the war ended before Doenitz managed to get more than a handful of the type into service.

I have only two razor saws. I could stand a few others.

[Neil]

Thanks for sharing Chuck. I'm not a craftsman by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy seeing what craftsmen are doing and how they do it.

[chuck]

Type 21 was revolutionary but the US Gato class boats used a similar drive train. They were electric drive as well with four diesel engines designed to run generators to run the electric drive and/or to charge the batteries. They didn't make use of the snorkel device till after the war and they only used a single electric motor for each shaft. This severely limited their operating speeds as the Type 21 had a pair of low speed drive for slow "silent" operations and a second pair of dedicated motors for higher speed operations. Main difference was in the class of steel used to make the hull. German boat could dive to ~800' while the original Gato's were stuck at 300' (later Balao's were a little better with dive range extended to ~400'-500').

Biggest issue Doenitz had was the decision to make the boats in modular form with slave labor. When they went to assemble the "modules" they had serious issues with fit. Some of this was sabotage but a lot was just ineptitude. This was high tech manufacturing and the margins for error were extremely small. The real death blow to the type 21 was when the trained officers/crews died when a Russian sub torpedoed their transport "Wilhelm Gustioff" as they were trying to escape the Russian army advancing on their bases in the Baltic. The Type 21 was sufficiently different that the crews and officers needed special training in boat operations and tactics. These also were extremely short ranged, about 1/2 the range of the type IX's. With the loss of the French ports on the Atlantic the Type XX1's had to travel the long route up the Baltic/North Sea to even get to the Atlantic.

[healey36]

I think the Type-21 had a pretty substantial operating range, some 11000 nautical miles (a Gato-class was 10-11000 miles). The Type-23 had a very short operating range, less than 3000 nautical miles.

[chuck]

Surfaced at 10 knots, yes. Submerged (which is what she was supposed to do) more like 340 miles at 5 knots.

It was a pretty small boat. These are shots of a WW2 Gato class boat and a Sea Wolf (post Los Angeles Class, pre-Virginia class boats) nuclear sub.





You can easily fit either ww2 boat inside the Seawolf. There were plans for an extended type 21 with twelve torpedo tubes and extended range BUT they weren't even able to field the XXI's that were built in any effective way (fortunately).

One big difference between the Nautilus and the Type XX1 and practically every submarine build since her was the use of steam turbines and reduction gears for primary drive purposes. They had significant electric power generation mainly to run everything else on the ship but they still relied on direct drive turbines for propulsion. There is some irony in that the noisiest thing on most subs is now the reactor itself. You would think it would be one of the quietest parts. The pumps used to circulate the coolant make the most amount of noise.

Virginia class is slightly narrower than the Sea Wolf but approximately the same length. The Ohio class FBMS are actually significantly fatter AND about half again as long. At 1/144 scale an Ohio boat would be 3.9' long.

BTW, the Sea Wolf is pretty much complete while the Gato still needs her sail and deck guns installed.

[healey36]

Surfaced at 10 knots, yes. Submerged (which is what she was supposed to do) more like 340 miles at 5 knots.

I think this refers to her range while running exclusively on batteries, but is not indicative of the 21's operating range. A recharge of her batteries required 3-5 hours on the surface, a bit longer using her "schnorchel" while submerged. The Type-21 was intended as a "long range attack submarine", evidenced by U-2511, one of the first two Type-21 in service, which, on April 30, 1945, was sent on a mission to the Caribbean (from the sub base at Bergen, Norway). She was detected by an anti-submarine patrol shortly after setting off, submerged and easily outran the surface ships. A few days later, the war ended and she began her return to Norway (well short of reaching the Caribbean).

Like so many of the late-war German weapons, the Type-21 was technologically advanced in design, but crippled by numerous technical and strategic problems in construction and deployment. There's a lot of mythology wrapped up in German weaponry of the era, something that seems to only get worse as time goes on.

[chuck]

Like so many of the late-war German weapons, the Type-21 was technologically advanced in design, but crippled by numerous technical and strategic problems in construction and deployment. There's a lot of mythology wrapped up in German weaponry of the era, something that seems to only get worse as time goes on.

Yes. Many of her technical achievements had serious flaws as a weapon system. Even the snorkel was of dubious value as the sea state had to be rather calm to be effective and even then, the wake from the device was easily spotted from the air. The hydraulic controls were located outside of the pressure hull which made the boat seriously vulnerable to attack. The poor construction techniques meant the boats were prone to operational issues/failures. The first boat was launched in the spring of 1944. Only four had achieved operational status and only two went out on patrol before the war ended. I think something like 100 were actually "assembled".

Hitler originally told the industrialists that would be needed to make his weapons that the war wouldn't even start until 1945! It was assumed that this would allow the industrial base sufficient time to build itself up to make the necessary weapons. Early success on the ground lead to a sense of false security that Germany would be able to keep up with necessary supply of weapons/equipment. The first signs of issues with this "theory" was the abandonment of the Battle of Britain followed closely on the disastrous opening of the eastern front. They had seriously underestimated the US/Russian industrial base and the actual technologies the US has access to and was able to bring to bear.

[chuck]

Haven’t updated this topic because most of the work is of the lather, rinse, repeat method. You may see some of the kits in progress or near completion in the background of the following photos.

Atlantis acquired a bunch of older kit molds from Aurora/Revell/Monogram/Lindberg. The heritage is somewhat convoluted and not really that important. The kit I am currently working on is an old tool (~1961-1962) Aurora box scale 727-100. It is about 18” long and has a wing span of about 16”. This is nothing like a state of the art modern kit but it can build up to a nice model. The landing gear is pretty much joke (no wheel wells, gear just stuck to bottom of fuselage). I am building it “in-flight” but the re-pop lacks the stand so I will be making my own out of wood and clear acrylic. I decided to try using a rare earth magnet that I pulled from a hard drive that required physical destruction to ensure “complete erase” of any data stored on it.

I did not build many of these style kits as a kid. They were not that interesting and surprisingly difficult to do properly. Large swaths of gloss white and bare metal. These are hard to hide issues with fit and finish. I have been watching Mike Machat’s YouTube channel “Celebrating Aviation” (great channel) and I got the bug to build a couple of these. Since I found a good metalizer that won’t poison me or accidentally blow up the house I ordered the 727 from a LHS.



The piece of steel is 1/2 of a Stanley mending bar that I carefully tacked in place with crazy glue and then build up a containment box out of styrene to keep it in place. I also cut strips of thin styrene to make alignment guides for the fuselage halves.



The kit does have pins and holes BUT they really only work well on the top. There were some mold sinks where the alignment pins are located that required some putty. The bottom half of the fuselage was different story.




The shape is much more convoluted than the top. The strip material made it easier to glue together but the shape was seriously off at the seam. I had to do a lot of filing and then a lot of filling with putty to get this to an acceptable level.




This is a shot of a test of the magnet. Model is completely inverted and it isn’t going anywhere.



Next step will be to prime everything with a semi-gloss black as the metalizer looks better on that type of base coat. The wings and the “T” stabilizer were glued and sanded and test fitted as were the engine pods. I will probably do most of the painting on the sub assemblies and then glue the finished parts together. Test fits will ensure that there won’t be any surprises or need for further shimming/puttying.

Still fiddling around with the stand. The magnet will allow me to swap in/out the other airliner kits I have, a 737 and a Connie. The Connie has decent landing gear so I may put the gear on it.

Assuming this goes well I may start looking for a 707. Mach 2 released a 1/72 DC-8. I found a review. They are still making some of the worst injection molded kits! Every part is beautifully done and none of them fit together! If you want a 1/72 DC-8 you can suck it up (~$90) and put yourself through a lot of pain modifying the parts to make the model. I still haven’t completed the 1/72 scale Mach2 RB-57F that I bought 25 years ago.

BTW, I found a use for some of the cardboard boxes from Amazon et al. They can be cut down to make dandy holders/cradles/jigs for models.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Thanks for the update!

Somebody else here is building models!!