Glenn Cauley's build of U-505 (Turm IV refit)

[dbauer]

  Hi Glenn!
All going ok? I haven't seen anything new on your U-505 site.   Just checking if all is going well.
Regards,
Dan

[GlennCauley]

Hi Dan,

All is good!   
I haven't worked on U505 for a short time, as other things have taken priority.

[dbauer]

  Hi Glenn!
That is ok! Just wanted to know if all is well. We all need a break once in awhile.  I have been following your thread of U-505. I have just cut out the Bulkhead forms and am starting to put them  together. So far so good.
Regards,
Dan

[42rocker]

Glenn
First THANKS for all of the sharing of your work that you have done, I think, LOL. It's cost me a lot of money! I have followed your website and several others and have been buying and setting parts aside for several years and I'm thinking that it's time to start building a few sub's. I received the U-505 kit on Monday, 03/31/14. Going to start a help request thread this week so I can collect a few more details about what I'm planning.
Thanks again for sharing your work with us. Here and on your websites. You do a great job of both modeling and sharing, THANKS Again. Looking forward to seeing more of your great work.

Later Tim

[GlennCauley]

Always glad when people appreciate the stuff we post... and glad that other people post so that *I* can follow, too!   LOL

[GlennCauley]

I plan to start up on my U-505 again soon, with a goal in mind of our CapCon 2015 convention.   I have been reading in awe at the builds of others, and my wee lil mind has been making mental notes about things I want to do with my build.  (bwaa haa haaaaaa)

One of the things that I always wanted to improve upon are the rigging turnbuckles.  The turnbuckles that I created for U-625 and U-673 were a 'quick & dirty' solution that did the job, but I was never really happy with them.  I used solid .030"sq strip styrene, and added some thin wire hooks.  Real turnbuckles have hollow frames, and you can see the threads of the end hooks where they go inside the turnbuckle open cavity.

I will attempting to make more realistic turnbuckles using a sandwich of thin strip styrene as shown in the attached drawing.   I will make one of each 0.020x0.030 and 0.030"sq to see which looks better.

[Capt Kremin]

Hi Glenn,


Saw these turnbuckles at SMW last year, didn't take any measurements as I didn't have my type IX then. They looked very good, not sure if I am going this year, will know at the end of next week. Also I have found soon more on Loyalhanna Dockyard website and these on the RB Productions website, nothing to with the metal barrel manufacturers


Regards
Jon

[GlennCauley]

I am considering making a 1-piece item to replace the Balcongerät that I need to remove for my build.  The new piece would fill the big hole, and would have curved hull plating, and a keel.

I am wondering if I were to make this, would anyone be interested in a cast piece?      I don't know how many people would be wanting this, as the Balcongerät was in the later versions of the boat.

[GlennCauley]

I kept to my word, and am creating the piece to replace the Balcongerat on the forward edge of the bottom keel.   During the timeframe I am building U-505 for, it did not yet have the Balcongerat.

I used sheet styrene for the "fill in" piece to cover the hole in the hull, and curved it to match the hull curvature.
Small pieces of square strip styrene are used to create "shelves" to hold up the forward end of the piece, so it is level with the outer hull.

For the replacement keel end, I used four (4) pieces of Evergreen #258 rectangular tube, 2 high/2 wide.  This turns out to be the perfect size to match the keel on the hull !
The shape of the piece is complex as you can see by the other end of the keel.

After cutting the keel end piece and roughly shaping it, I filled it with putty and set it aside to dry well.   Then I will begin the sculpting it into the proper shape; I may have to end up using epoxy putty... we will see.

[GlennCauley]

Attempt #2 at the keel leading edge.   

Attempt #1 turned into a soft, gooey mess due to using a large amount of Tamiya Putty as filler.  BAD idea!   The large amount of solvent-based putty will never harden, and the solvent attacked the plastic.   Attempt #2 uses Milliput silver-grey epoxy putty as a filler... it turned out much nicer!

[GlennCauley]

Question:

On the model, is the main deck supposed to be flush with the top edges of the hull, or do the hull sides stick up a bit above the deck?   If the latter, by how much?
Reason:  I am calculating the support beams I need for my brass deck.


Answered:
Forward treaded bow section:  deck slightly below the hull sides... very minor (but noticable) 0.008" lip
Forward part of main deck - up to raised sides:  deck slightly below the hull sides... very minor 0.008" lip
Main deck - raised hull edges:  at some point the hull sides are raised in a noticeable 'step' where there are torpedo-rolling ridges on the deck; this results in a substantial lip

[Capt Kremin]

Hi Glenn et al,


I thought I'd add this diagram just to make it easier to to understand where the rails run, there are also adapter rails stored that can direct the torpedo trolley to the forward and aft torpedo loading hatches, if you look at the original Revell deck you can see the inner rails.
The rails were also used by the hoist used to lift the torpedo storage tubes to enable the removal of the torpedoes.


Regards
Jon

[GlennCauley]

Hi Glenn et al, I thought I'd add this diagram just to make it easier to to understand where the rails run, there are also adapter rails stored that can direct the torpedo trolley to the forward and aft torpedo loading hatches, if you look at the original Revell deck you can see the inner rails. The rails were also used by the hoist used to lift the torpedo storage tubes to enable the removal of the torpedoes. Regards,
Jon

Ooooohhh... thank you !!!   

[GlennCauley]

I made some good progress on the boat this weekend... and updated my *BUILD SITE* with pictures.

Pressure hull:

• Found a great way to pre-curve the thin styrene "skin"
• Completed all the pressure hull sections
• Cut down the hull bulkheads to match the top of the pressure hull sections

Hull detail (port hull):

• Cut out all flooding holes (except main flooding channel)
• Added thin PE flood hole templates from Eduard #53108 set
• Cut out diesel exhaust port
• Prepping hull for PE details; drilling/cutting various vents, etc.

[GlennCauley]

I did a trial fit of one of the lower flood "chambers" (for lack of a better word).
(Please tell me if you know what this is called.)

I followed the building method from someone on Modelwarships... cutting out the hole and then lining the inside edges with thin strip styrene.  Then I glue the vent plate to this thin styrene "shelf."   The results are pretty good so far!    Time consuming, but ultimately it will look cleaner, I think.