Custom Replicas 66 inch Nautilus build-RC

[SteveNeill]

This might not seem like a lot but it's a huge deal for a RC sub. You got to be able to open and close her and that stern seam needs to be clean. It took all day.

With this 66 inch monster you can't just go at it with a razor saw. I tried. Nope get out the dremel and the cut off wheel and hack through it as clean as you can.

Painters tape as a guide and I used a laser level to get the cut.

After I got the stern section removed I added a bit of finishing glaze and flat sanded it.

Next I glued the stern section to the lower hull with 30 minute epoxy.

Next more painters tape on the stern section to act as a mold release. I edged the forward section with tape to protect it from sanding and over flow.

Next mix up some finishing glaze and butter the edge and close it tight.

The end result is this. That ragged nasty cut is all smooth and tight again.

Now tomorrow I can add the prop bearing, prop shaft support and prop-prop shaft. With any luck I'll get to the rudder and elevator.

Now I know what some of you are thinking? Elevator? Dive planes on the stern? This boat didn't have those. Well she did on sides of the hull but they never were effective enough in the real world to work well.

The 31 inch I built a prop that could pitch. A real pain in the rear. Never again. But my friend Bob Martin added dive planes to his and they worked great and look the part.

More tomorrow.

Steve

 

[Firefoxm31]

cool, it will be neat to see a CR boat Take shape... maybe i should change my avatar for this lol

Will

 

[SteveNeill]

Thanks Will.

Steve

 

[GeorgeC]

The Nautilus from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is one of my favorite miniature designs.

Harper Goff(sp) got everything right with that design. It looks mid- to late-19th Century contemporary but it has the futuristic element of implied nuclear power.

(In the novel, the submarine was clearly battery-powered. Something about electrical conductance and sea salt batteries if I remember correctly.)

Disney was the one who wanted the nuclear power. Thank goodness Goff was able to convince him it had to look 19th Century and not just like another 20th Century World War II sub!

 

[Firefoxm31]

shameless plug time..... George, have you joined nautilussubmarine.com..I'm pretty sure Steve is a member

Will

 

[Cameron]

Cant wait to see this dive!!

 

[Bondo Fett]

Next more painters tape on the stern section to act as a mold release. I edged the forward section with tape to protect it from sanding and over flow.

Next mix up some finishing glaze and butter the edge and close it tight.

Ahh...buttering. Now I get it. I realized that's what we call "potting in", using putty/release to re-build a fitted shape. Thanks for another lesson, Steve. Buttering, Pointing Up, those are going in my pattern-makers vocabulary.

 

[SteveNeill]

Bondo you bet. Dive? Give me a couple of weeks. Maybe three.

Steve

 

[SteveNeill]

Today was all about the business end of the boat and getting it functional. In doing this you destroy all kinds of scale things. Thems the breaks kids. It has to happen.

Plain and simple these are movie fantasies that don't stand a chance of working in the real world as designed. The worst offender being the Seaview. Horrible running boat without all kinds of mods. But that's another story.

As I have said before the Nautilus has dive planes but they are virtually useless in the scale location. The pitching prop works but is a real pain to do. So we have dive planes in a non scale location.

Today I got the brass prop drilled and tapped for a 3/16 stainless steel prop shaft. Got it in place and turning.

Got the rudder working and the control rods hooked up.

And fabricated the dive planes that will later be painted and rivets added to match the rest of the boat. They too have the control rods hooked up and they function.

Prop threaded and on the shaft.

Prop shaft support bulkhead and bearing in place. Still needs to be clean up with the Dremel and epoxy and micro balloons added to the bulkhead join for more strength and a cleaner look.

This surprised me really. The parts didn't match up exactly and there was a large gap between the prop guard and it's mate to the side fins.

I fixed the problem with a bit of styrene.

Ugly but works like a charm. Once painted up it looks the part though.

Most of the time not unless you crawl under the boat to torture yourself this is what you'll see. Most of the ugly control rods don't show.

Tomorrow I’ll install the Water Tight Cylinder or module. This will require I fabricate bulkheads to support the cylinder and hook it’s output control rods to the control rods I made today. Hook up the electronics and see it all work.

More tomorrow.

Steve

 

[Firefoxm31]

The back of that keel should be flush to the rear of the hull, that's probably why there was a gap you had to fill, just sayin

Will

 

[Firefoxm31]

try this, then again all my ref is the "hero" only, and you are doing the Bob M. Mod, so this is all a moot point..err,,, enjoy the photo just the same

Cheers,
Will

 

[SteveNeill]

On the CR model the keels end right where you see them. If you move them flush they don't match the registration holes and theres a huge gap at the parlor windows. I'm not sure why this happened but it's in the kit. The front keels had some of the same issues.

Steve

 

[Firefoxm31]

ah bummer,
well you fixed it anyway, looking good

Will

 

[SteveNeill]

Got the water tight cylinder working today and all the electronics installed and test run.
Installed the bulkheads to mount the WTC in the hull. All hooks up completed and the entire system tested. Everything works like a clock.

I could run this in the pool tomorrow if I wanted to but now that the hard part is done, and the boat if fully operational, here comes the next, hard part.

Getting all those PE parts installed and all the details from windows to the wheel house. And the lighting system which comes from my friend Randy at Voodoo effects. But this is the real model building part now that the engineering is done. I’ll post a video soon of the planes and motor-pump working.

Fun, fun, installing the servos, and receiver.

The aft compartment. Geared motor, ESC, RX, servos. And the APC-automatic pitch controller.

Bottom of the aft section showing the motor speed control(ESC).

Forward section. Pump, pump electronics and sensors that detect water in the ballast section.

Forward section under side. All the electronics that control the pump.

Ballast section and baffles. Water is pumped in and out of this compartment.

The bulkheads that support the WTC and lock it in place.

WTC installed.

Forward.

Aft.

More tomorrow.

Steve

 

[GeorgeC]

shameless plug time..... George, have you joined nautilussubmarine.com..I'm pretty sure Steve is a member

Will

I'm not really a model builder, Will.

I just don't have the patience for it!

Space is also an issue with me and I don't have the money to buy nice equipment to mold, let alone cut, consistent parts.

I kind of get a vicarious thrill watching replicas and models get built up here so I'm good for the peanut gallery! I try to keep my comments and not bug the builders... I'm definitely not a wise-ass to go crazy over every little detail. There are things that just never showed up on-screen so I really don't care if the shape of a 1/350 or 1/1000 scale expansion joint or weld seam is wrong. The overall final product and the "feel" of the design is more important to me.

I'm better with smaller, less time-consuming projects like modifying arcade sticks aka fight sticks for videogames.... yes, I like fighting games like the Capcom Street Fighter series and own several old consoles just because of out-of-print games or ports that are superior to what's available in the new software market. I got into that the past two years because it was fun and pretty easy. Learned how to use some things like soldering irons half-well, too. That just wasn't taught outside of the technical school in the small town I grew up in.

If I can manage my time better, I'd like to learn Blender so I can model virtually. It's freeware, it's supported, I've seen fantastic films made with it, and while it has a wonky interface there are people who use it for their living/career. Something's going right right with it! Freeware does not always mean bad software. I've used a lot of free applications for video editing and compression that have worked well for me... I find the really bad programs are usually in the $15-$50 and are done by amateurs for the most part. Haven't had much success with those.

LightWave is at the limit of what I'd be willing to spend on pro software. The problem with anything on the market that costs less than LightWave is reliability. Cheaper programs generally don't run well and crash a lot. Support for them can be a joke, too. I had Animation Master on my last computer... Cheap program but plagued by horrible bugs in the Mac version... You could do nice things with it IF you could get it work on your machine! Any OS upgrades on your PC or Mac, and AM becomes a useless waste of hard drive space..

I've had a couple of ideas about models I'd like to tackle but 3D programs are some of the hardest to learn for computers. Other programs like Photoshop are intuitive but I have yet to come across a 3D program that has an intuitive interface. You really have to use the instruction manuals or get a good "How To" book like the 'For Dummies' to get a handle on these things... unless you can afford the tuition to a college program that teaches you these things. In that case, you're better off spending $40-$50 on a book instead of $600+ for a course.

 

[crackerjazz]

What an awesome scale RC, Steve! I get a kick out of just looking at all those internals. Looks like something right out of Back To The Future.

 

[SteveNeill]

Thanks Crackerjazz.

Steve

 

[Firefoxm31]

Um ,
George, not sure what you're going about with that above post, but I was just mentioning a site that might interest you, since you mentioned you like the Nautilus. The site has some amazing information for fans of the film as well as like minded individuals admiring the Nautilus in some manner..

Cheers,
Will

 

[SteveNeill]

Yesterday I finished up the method for opening and closing the hull to access the WTC and battery. Simple. A flange at the stern and in the front I filled up the upper hull bow with epoxy. Put some wax paper in the lower bow and closed it up until the epoxy hardened.

I added a former to the lower bow that extends to the upper. Drilled a hole through it and into the epoxy. I fitted the ram with a brass tube of the same diameter to fit the hole. All you do to open and close is remove the ram. I didn't get pictures of this but I will. It's the end of the day for me.

Today I started in on adding the hull parts. The wheel house is still removable at this point. There's a lot of parts still to go inside it and the floor and PE stuff-lights. But I wanted to get the hull all sorted out and even primer on it tomorrow. Wheel house will be last.

More tomorrow and here are some pretty pictures. She's a beaut!

Steve

She's a big girl. I just got to have myself one of these!

PE parts fit like gloves. Just excellent.

 

[terryhimself]

Holy Crap Steve! In the background of one of your pictures I see someone holding a Man from U.N.C.L.E. P38 carbine. What is the story on that. I have been interested in the since the show was originally on. I have several pistols set up but, never wanted the hassle of the carbine with the Feds.