Well here we go again. My Third Engel Typhoon. I built my first one in 2002, not long after Engel brought out the original kit. I got about halfway through when other priorities brought a halt to proceeding. When I got back into building, there was a lot more information to be had online on the Typhoons and Engel had just released a new more accurate version, so I sold it and bought a new kit in 2006. A lot of modifications later, both cosmetic and structural and TK-20 Severstal had her first outing in 2007.
I believe at the time she was the most accurate functional RC model Typhoon class sub about. The now infamous YouTube video (shot by our very Subculture/Andy) brought a lot of enquiries and a lot more Engel Typhoons seemed to get built, employing some or most of the changes I made to the kit. I enjoyed conversing with all these builders and seeing better boats of this class getting built. One in particular, TK-17 by Gabriel, took the game to a whole new level. Unfortunately, 5 years on the sub is not yet completed. But this is the boat that motivated me to build another.
I have had a good few years away from model subs and it’s time to get back. The Typhoon has been my favourite sub since reading the Hunt for Red October and the class I have the most research material on. Accurate TK-17 and Tk-20 models are spoken for, so I settled on building the Project 941UM Dimitri Donskoi (nee TK-208) in her post 2002 refit guise.
I intend improve greatly on TK-20, not only in term of accuracy (though I will not be matching Gabriel’s TK-17), performance, function and presentation.
This thread is mainly to keep my motivation going over the next year or two that I expect it will take to her in the water, and to spur the next lot of Typhoon builders that come along.
12 years after my first, 8 years after my second, here we go……