Model Boat Mayhem

The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Submarines => Topic started by: red181 on February 09, 2013, 09:11:43 pm

Title: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 09, 2013, 09:11:43 pm: Sorry in advance!! :embarrassed:

I have been putting off for ages this question, but need help please. I know nothing about subs, absolutely nothing!

I have a Jaws boat, Orca, and you know whats coming......................................................

I have dabbled witn various ways or towing a shark, weighted so it falls when the boat stops, and with planes made from rc helicopter blades so it raises when the boat moves, but the untimate will be a fully rc shark, well mini sub with a shark covering. A few months ago someone posted a rc "fin" that was real good, I tried to ask the builder to commission build one for me, but didnt get anywhere. I have bought a number of "toy" subs to convert, they are useless, so if anybody in the sub world has something they could help me with, a link to fleabay, a friend etc who will make something, or plans etc that I can do, at a modest budget, I dont want this to turn into an expensive project as its just for fun, please let me know. I would really like to get this project completed as the boat is real nice, with sound unit, smoke unit, and has been built to a very realistic finish, so the shark would be the icing on the cake.

Your help appreciated!
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: U-33 on February 09, 2013, 09:27:59 pm: I have a part built 'shark fin', all it is is a MMB Sub Sonic with a slot cut in the upper deck and a large styrene fin glued in the slot.

If you're interested, I'll take some photos tomorrow for you...I also have a second hand MMB Sonic hull/deck which you could have, it needs a respray though as it's bright metallic red! You'd need to make a watertight cylinder for it, I also have plans and photos of that, it's dead easy to build.

Let me know if you're interested..

Rich
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: U-33 on February 09, 2013, 09:29:14 pm: Meant to add, it's about 24" long.
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: U-33 on February 09, 2013, 09:31:58 pm: Just had a quick look...I have plenty of fittings for it, dive planes, rudders, loads of bits.

Rich
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: phil b on February 09, 2013, 09:34:22 pm: can we see your ORCA with deatails of the plan?
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: essex2visuvesi on February 09, 2013, 09:49:40 pm: how about Norber Bruggens mini sub
http://www.modelluboot.de/KITS/Kugelfisch_Ordner/Kugelfisch.html

just the right size
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 10, 2013, 09:08:13 am: Hi Rich.

PM sent so I dont bore other mayhemers, it sound very interesting, but I have a load of questions!
thanks
Paul
That link looks nice, but it looks too expensive,

pics of Orca attached, for those with a keen eye, its not the exact correct hull, but close enough, I recued it from a sale some time ago, and spent ages getting it as accurate as possible. Im not a fan of figures on model boats, but this boat was really in need of some, they took ages to craft from star wars figures. It has a bespoke sound unit which Alan Bond made for me, which has a sd card containing tracks from the film, dialogue, music, etc, I can call up which track I want using a spare tx joystick channel, a smoke unit.and is all "lit up" with amixture of led and standard bulbs. I was a big fan of the film, and spent an age watching it over and over to get all the small detail, such as the broken front window etc, we now need the star of the film, "Bruce" as he was nicknamed by the cast :embarrassed:
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: essex2visuvesi on February 10, 2013, 09:23:02 am: That boat is a credit to you sir!
All you need now is James Dreyfuss in the shark cage
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 10, 2013, 09:32:41 am: as you know I dont really do boats like this, scale plodders! but this is great fun, being brought up on 70's films, Jaws was a biggie! Who could not like Quint!

we just need the star of the show, Bruce, as he was known by the cast!!
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: essex2visuvesi on February 10, 2013, 09:37:34 am: Quote from: red181 on February 10, 2013, 09:32:41 am
as you know I dont really do boats like this, scale plodders! but this is great fun, being brought up on 70's films, Jaws was a biggie! Who could not like Quint!

we just need the star of the show, Bruce, as he was known by the cast!!

Judging by your other builds I'm betting here is actually some insane brushless motor and huge lipo pack hidden in there just waiting for you to push the throttle full forwards lol :D
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 10, 2013, 02:33:53 pm: ha ha made me laugh! :}

2 x 5000 mah lipos so 14.something volts, only because its what I use on everything else, and a boring brushed motor unfortunately!, but its a nice one :D
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: grendel on February 11, 2013, 11:48:16 am: is one of these big enough? http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://lookslikegooddesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/shark_front.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lookslikegooddesign.com/tea-infuser-pablo-matteoda/&h=500&w=600&sz=46&tbnid=QtFpdys4NA41kM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=108&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsharky%2Btea%2Binfuser%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=sharky+tea+infuser&usg=__3P4RQfIC5iCwdXcFsD-ebwHVd_o=&docid=5MYEaX4Uq2k00M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zdgYUeuDPKeW0QXrlYDICQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEAQ9QEwAQ&dur=564
Grendel
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: U-33 on February 11, 2013, 12:14:23 pm: No sign of a pm, Paul?

Rich
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: ardarossan on February 11, 2013, 05:00:24 pm: Quote from: essex2visuvesi on February 10, 2013, 09:23:02 am
That boat is a credit to you sir!
All you need now is James Dreyfuss in the shark cage

A tense moment from the classic movie 'Jaws'. Quint and Brody look on as Hooper (Played by James Dreyfuss) gets a horrid little rope-burn, chips the nail on his pinky, and thinks he'd prefer a smaller boat...

(http://s20.postimage.org/yzuqparkd/Shaw_Scheider_James_Dreyfuss.png)
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 11, 2013, 10:07:42 pm: Hio Rich, it has left my put box yestersday, but there has been some mail problems, so I will send again, thanks for the prompt!

not sure who James Dreyfuss is :} , I remember Richard though! typo me thinks :-X
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: U-33 on February 13, 2013, 11:08:31 am: Check your message box, Paul.

Rich
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 13, 2013, 10:32:40 pm: Hi Rich,

I just sent yesterday's pm again, something seems to be going wrong with messages sorry! :-))
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 26, 2013, 11:46:35 am: well we nearly got there! unfortunately u33 (Rich) tried his very best to help, but its gone wrong, the sub he had to sell is not salvageable, so if anybody has anything that I can convert with a fairly modest budget to a shark, please let me know! :-))
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: hollowhornbear on February 26, 2013, 07:04:19 pm: Couple of questions for you.
What's your budget?
How big do you want it?
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: Getemuphigh on February 26, 2013, 07:14:20 pm: Hi, PM sent.
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: hollowhornbear on February 26, 2013, 07:34:47 pm: No PM, please post answers here.
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on February 28, 2013, 10:36:09 pm: Quote
Couple of questions for you.
What's your budget?
How big do you want it?

we nearly had an mmb subsonic, which all up ready to go would have cost approx £60, it needed some work, but bear in mind it does not need to be pretty, just functional.

I have some bits and bobs already. As its a just for fun project I dont want to spend too much, £60 was ok. I spoke to Mark at MMB today to see if he had any p/x etc,(he suggested I will need 3 channel) but has nothing at this time. I think 2 foot long subsonic was a bit big, but its only just the fin thats important I suppose. The boat is about 3 1/2 foot long, to give an idea of scale, I didnt realise that rc submarine technology is quite expensive, the MMB Subsonic appears to be good value, but with everything else required it will probably owe me over £150 which is too much, hence on the scrounge for 2nd hand, damaged, forgotton projects etc :-) I would consider a commission build iof anybody has somethimng that can be converted
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: hollowhornbear on March 06, 2013, 03:02:24 pm: That's a big ask, £60 just not going to do it. WTC alone would cost more. I suggest the towed shark is the best and cheapest way forward.
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: salmon on March 06, 2013, 05:30:37 pm: A towed shark might be the way to go, your towing cable could be wires that go to servos embedded into your shark?
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: unbuiltnautilus on March 06, 2013, 05:57:02 pm: Clever, a four core cable could operate two servos in the model, with your power carried by the Orca. Build it round a small cheap fizzy drink bottle ( more likely two, cut in half and taped back together ) with fins as needed. All you would need to work on is watertight glands through an unfriendly material....and making it look more like a Great White than a Cola bottle of course :-)
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: Subculture on March 07, 2013, 10:55:31 am: A four wire cable would be rather chunky and difficult to hide, unless you use litz wire, which would probably be rather fragile unless strain relieved in some way.

Perhaps the simplest method would be to forget the electronics altogether, and use simple mechanical dynamic diving in conjunction with a tether.

Make a shark out of something buoyant like polystyrene foam or even balsa wood coated in resin, but construct the pectoral fins from something that can be bent like aluminium sheet. Bend them with a down angle, and ballast the shark down to a fairly low waterline with lead shot/sheet. When towed from behind the boat, the shark should dive, going deeper with increasing speed. The length of tether can control the maximum depth. The correct angle for the pectorals would need some experimentation via empirical tests. When the boat stops the shark should gradually rise to the surface, assuming the positive buoyancy isn't too great- else it'll pop to the surface like a cork.
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: eddiesolo on March 07, 2013, 05:14:47 pm: Could something like this do as the body: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25cms-soft-touch-PLASTIC-WHALE-SHARK-seaside-life-sea-ocean-NEW-/130851980203?pt=UK_Toys_Creative_Educational_RL&hash=item1e7762c3ab (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/25cms-soft-touch-PLASTIC-WHALE-SHARK-seaside-life-sea-ocean-NEW-/130851980203?pt=UK_Toys_Creative_Educational_RL&hash=item1e7762c3ab)
I know it is a whale shark, but size wise with a bit of fettling, also as it is soft you could split it and then do a dynamic dive model without electronics...just an idea.
Found this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bullyland-Great-White-Shark-1-30-Scale-Model-16-CM-Brand-New-/370657688400?pt=UK_Collectables_AnimalCollectables_SM&hash=item564ceb7b50 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bullyland-Great-White-Shark-1-30-Scale-Model-16-CM-Brand-New-/370657688400?pt=UK_Collectables_AnimalCollectables_SM&hash=item564ceb7b50)
Si:)
Title: Re: I need a mini sub and know nothing about subs!!
Post by: red181 on March 07, 2013, 09:06:12 pm: thanks for suggestions, I suppose the budget is unreasonable, I didnt realise how expensive sub kit is, the best alternative is an mmb subsonic at £90 plus running gear, hence thinking a faulty, or batterred second hand unit should come in for less.

With regard to towing, I have tried this several times, I have one of those rc sharks tesco and others where selling some time ago. I towed using an old coathanger, so when the boat stopped, the shark didnt keep headbutting the boat, and string fouling the prop. The wire was fitted under the hull, so not really visible, and pivoted, allowing the shark to raise and fall. The pectorals where flybar paddles from an rc helicopter, and could be angled to achieve raising when the boat moved, and sinking when stopped, I used a long bolt to act as a keel to keep the shark upright, it always wants to roll, but even though it worked, to a point, it made the model a bit of a toy in a way, so I still fancy an rc version. pictures was an early version with clear leaxn to act as a plane to create diving, unsuccessfully! :}

Some time ago, there was a post with a "fin" sailing, it was really good, it was an upturned yatch hull, but I have no idea if it was capable of diving, I doubt it, so still thinking about this project, keep the ideas coming, the wires are a neat idea, but I suppose they would float, and there is the risk of fouling, the towed shark I had kept dragging all the 'rubbish' around in the local lakes!