110' WWI Sub chaser.

[785boats]

I usually scratch build most of my scale boats, but I enjoyed building the Dauntless kit so much, that I bought the Dumas 110' Sub Chaser kit.
The idea was to build it after I finished the American Enterprise kit that I'm half way through.

But I couldn't help myself & started it ahead of time, a couple of months ago.
It's nearing completion, so I thought I'd post a few pics in a sort of retrospective build thread. I should have started it earlier, I know.

So here's the kit.

http://www.dumasproducts.com/product_info.php?cPath=136_49&products_id=1066

It's a very bare & basic kit compared to what the real boats had packed onto the decks. So I'm adding more detail with photos taken from the internet & this fantastic site linked below.
There are some brilliant photos of the real boats "Close Aboard" & of other peoples models too.

https://www.subchaser.org/home


Where to start.

Well, the kit comes with a great set of instructions & assembly diagrams & a full size top & side drawing & a full size keel drawing.
Step 1 is to assemble the two halves of each former, & then assemble the keel.

Next draw some lines on the building board & assemble the formers onto the keel.
A small dab of CA glue holds the formers to the board. The tabs are cut away later.
Then the wood strips are added at the deck line.

A little sanding to fair the timber to the formers & then the planking was added.
A bit of tapering, & beveling is required to fit some of the planks.
Also a bit of splicing of the planks, because the basswood planks provided are not quite long enough to reach from stem to stern.

Joining the formers together.
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Laying the keel.
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Assembling the frames & keel on the building board.
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Planking underway.
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Notice the spliced planks. They were really only an inch or so short but I staggered the joints for structural integrity so they weren't all in the same line.
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[785boats]

Then it was on to the deck.
The kit comes with 1/4" basswood planks. But at the 1:35 scale that this kit is, they are much too wide when compared to photos of the original boats. So I split them in half, down to 1/8" wide. Still a tad wide I think, but much more realistic.
The king plank down the center remained 1/4" wide though, as per the original boats.
I laid a couple of margin planks along the outside edge of the deck & then laid all the planks parallel to the king plank, as per the original boats.

Before the finished deck was glued onto the hull, I added the rudder post tube, the stuffing tube, the servo mounts & servo, and the motor mounts.

Then the hull was sanded & filled & sanded again.

The bulwarks & rub rails were added & construction of the cabin & bridge was started.

King plank & margin planks added to the deck.
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Planking all finished & sanded.
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Rudder tube, servo stuffing tube, & the motor mounts added before the deck is glued on.
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Deck attached. Bulwarks & rub rails added. Superstructure under construction.
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Front view of the bulwarks & deck in place, with the hull & filler all sanded to shape.
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[785boats]

Next I tackled the handrails.
Full size drawings are supplied, & the brass rod is simply taped to the drawings & all soldered together.

Brass rod taped to the drawings and soldered together.
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Railings removed from the plans & bent into the appropriate shapes.
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Then it was time to start on the fiddly bits. I decided to paint them as I made them & store them in a box.

Here's the cabin & wheelhouse finished & painted, along with various hatches, air vents, the 3" Pool gun, & the winch.
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Next I tackled the main mast, jack stay & davits etc.
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Then it was the Y gun depth charge launcher which was supplied with the kit. I added extra depth charges & the depth charge rack for the rear of the boat, which I glued to the rudder hatch.
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[785boats]

Made the stanchions from tubing & wire eyelets as per the drawings. drilled them into a scrap piece of ply for painting.
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Here's a few more bits added to the pile of items, including stanchions, equipment lockers, 44 gallon fuel drums, searchlight, weather break, & navigation light frames.
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[Fluid]

I?m certain it will be gorgeous!

[fweasel]

Another great build started. I just don't have the patience for a project like that, but it sure fun to watch the progress.

[785boats]

Thanks guys.
I just love WWI & pre WWI navy boats. It's the history that is learned during the research for the builds that I really like. The wide wide world of web is an amazing thing.

Here's a few more pics to catch up to her current status.

The hull was painted a couple of weeks ago.
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The original boats had 3 motors & drives. I bought 3 little 385 size motors to install, but when they arrived it all became too hard to fit them & the drive shafts into the narrow hull. So I ended up just fitting a single 540 motor as per the plans.

The 540 motor from an old battery drill fitted.

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The commencement of fitting the deck gear.

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Talking about patience. At the moment I'm making a dozen or so tiny little wooden chocks to tie the spare depth charges down to on the deck.
A bit tedious. But fun.

Here's an old movie involving the sub chasers, made in 1939. Thunder Afloat.
Entertaining, with some great images of life on these boats.

Some real action of firing the Y gun depth charge launchers starting at around 1:24

https://archive.org/details/thunderafloat1939

[785boats]

Sorry for not posting lately, but night shift really knocks me around.

I've managed to do a lot of the fiddly bits, so she's nearly ready for sea trials. But because of the virus issue, we are not allowed out for recreational purposes.
But that's nothing compared to what hundreds of thousands of people have to endure.

So here are the chocks for the depth charges mentioned in the previous post.

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In this photo...
The life preservers were made from 10mm washers with some strips of masking tape and thread added.
The Lewis guns & ammo cases were resin 1/35 scale kits. Assembled & painted.
The double hand pump was made from bits of tube & wood.
The Carley float was made from a bit of a coaxial antennae lead & some thin strips of wood. Still need to add some ropes around it yet.
I also added some strips of masking tape around the mast to represent the steel straps, and added the foot pegs.

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So here's a couple of shots with everything in its rightful place. Including the handrails & the rigging and aerials.

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[785boats]

I thought I might add some close ups showing some of the extra bits & pieces that aren't included in the kit. And there's still more to add on yet.

Let's start at the stern.
There's the depth charge rack & extra depth charges.
The two covers over the steering cables on the deck either side of the tiller hatch.
You can just make out the two Samson posts behind the rear handrail stanchion & the flagstaff.
Two life preservers tied to the handrails.
The Carley float at the front of the cabin.
Extra depth charges for the Y gun tied down to the deck.

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A couple of Samson posts either side of the hatch.
The double hand pump.
Canvas cover for the Wherry (cut from an old khaki coloured shirt).
The 8 sand buckets (without sand as yet) and the crate that they sit in. The buckets were in the same kit as the 50 gallon fuel drums.
Equipment lockers either side of the Wherry made from thin birch strips.

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Here we can see the Lewis machine guns mounted on a 1/8" dowel post. A couple of ammo boxes on the deck in front of them.
The signal flag lockers mounted behind the guns. Again made from thin birch strips ( left over deck planking).
Canvas weather shields on the railings cut from the same cloth as the cover on the Wherry.
A couple more life preservers.
50 gallon fuel drums. These & the sand buckets are from a 1/35 scale Tamiya kit.

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Another view of the fuel drums.
The antennae tube & the guard. The guard was cut from a piece of fly screen & bent to shape. A couple of ammo lockers either side of the Pool gun
The search light up on top of the fly bridge.

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The only extra bit here is the chain guides on the deck. And another view of the ammo lockers.
But you can also see the aerial attachment to the top of the jack staff via a pulley, and the handrail installation.
Unfortunately those anchors supplied with the kit are totally the wrong type for this boat. I will change them when I find some of the right type & scale.

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[785boats]

Just some more pics from different angles.

This one shows a bit more of the rigging and the aerial connections.

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How the seagulls see it.

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A better view of the rear Samson posts & the Carley float.
I still need to carve the oars for that yet too.

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As I said, there's still plenty more that can be added yet. A 1/35 scale WWI navy crew is on the list.
If anyone can help with that, I will be most appreciative.

Cheers.

[fweasel]

I love all of the aerial rigging. Gives the model a lot of height.

[785boats]

Thanks. Yes it does give it some dimension.
Have a guess how frustrating it was to rig this boat with my pudgy sausage fingers.:laugh::doh::olleyes::laugh::angry::smile:

[Jesse J]

amazing work Paul!
as i was cruising through your pics, and appreciating all the bits and bobs.. I was wondering how top heavy this might be?
got ballast?

ready for test run video..

[785boats]

Hi there Jesse.
Thanks for the compliment.
A good point you raise.
Pat Trittle, over on R/C groups, is an amazing scale modeler
In his build thread, he raised the waterline boot topping a bit, to allow the boat to settle in the water a bit more than the plans showed, with some extra ballast.
I followed his lead.
I have some strips of adhesive wheel balance weights that I will use to ballast it to the waterline. I was going to do that at the lake.
But it looks like I will fill the bath tub & do it here at home, as we are not allowed out for recreational purposes at the moment because of the virus.

You've got to admire the sailors on these little boats, heading out into the seas of the North Atlantic.

The bulwarks underwater

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A heavy swell.

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Diving like a submarine.

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But they had fun too.

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[Doug Smock]

Very nice as usual Paul! :thumbup1:

[785boats]

Thanks for that Doug.
I try my best.:smile:

[785boats]

Some of the restrictions have been lifted in our area, so we were allowed to travel up to 50k for picnics & outings while still maintaining social distancing protocols.

So it was off to our local pond to test out this boat.
The initial float test was perfectly on the waterline complete with a 6000mah 2s lipo in under the forward deck. A complete fluke.
But that was without the superstructure installed.

When the superstructure was added, the boat would not stay upright.

So Jesse, your fears were well founded.

So lead wheel weights were added along the keel inside the hull.
That solved the problem, although it was still a little rocky from side to side.

I added 3 1/2" lead sinkers on the keel in the middle of the boat.
The boot topping line is now just under the water, but she is much more stable.

I feel the 30mm 3 blade prop can be reduced to a 26mm prop as it only takes about 1/4 throttle to run her at full scale speed.

I had 4 sessions of between 1/2-3/4 hour each on one 2s pack, & it still had 64% left in it.
Of course, that was with general maneuvering, slow speed & medium speed running, docking etc, with a few high speed runs thrown in too.

Bear in mind that the calculations showed, it only needs 11watts of power to reach the dynamic scale speed of 18 knots that the original boat was capable of doing.

Here's a few pics of her at the pond.

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[fweasel]

Good to see it on the water and I'm happy you were able to solve the balance issue so quickly.

[785boats]

Thanks.
Yes, it was an easy task to add the weight.
It was good to get out and about for a day.

[hazegry]

Thanks.
Yes, it was an easy task to add the weight.
It was good to get out and about for a day.

I might have missed it but what speed controller are you running I have just finished my hull, I need to wrap this one up so I can run it this year.

[785boats]

I might have missed it but what speed controller are you running I have just finished my hull, I need to wrap this one up so I can run it this year.

You didn't miss it mate. It seems I never mentioned it when I finally put it all together.
It was bought from Himodel many years ago. A dual motor output rock crawler ESC. It has amazingly smooth low speed control. As in, you can count the revs.
I don't know the brand or the amperage. And I can't find any on the web any more. Sorry. But any 20A ESC will be more than enough.

Here's a couple of pics if you or anyone else can recognise it. A good view of some of the lead ballast too.

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It would be good to see a few pics of your boat too.

Cheers.
Paul.

[Jesse J]

Looks stunning out on the water. I had a thought.. what about a removable sailboat keel with weights? I suspect she leans outward on a turn? Nobody would know and I wouldn’t tell if you did this crazy idea.

As for esc, there is at least one dual motor, waterproof crawler option out there. Try hobbywing or turnigy. I just set my dad up with one And two 55t crawler motors, and he is super happy with it.

[785boats]

Thanks Jesse.
I managed to have another few runs with it yesterday, & the internal weights seem to work pretty well.
So, although I've seen it done, an external weighted keel won't be needed.

I also reduced the prop from the 30mm to a 26mm prop & that eliminated the torque roll at full speed.
Top speed at full throttle is now less, of course, but still slightly above what I would consider a scale 18 knots. The top speed of the original boat.
So it all balances out very nicely.
I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a fellow club mate to take a video of it. Next time for sure. But a club mate posted these photos on our clubs' facebook site though.

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I found the ESC. AliExpress still sell them. But man, are they expensive now. Only cost 20 odd bucks a few years ago. I only used it because it was in the spares box.
It's actually rated to 75A.
I've started building a big cabin cruiser with twin 775 brushed motors in it, so I will use it in that & just get a cheap 20A ESC for this boat.

Here's a link with the specs.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32484596411.html

EDIT.
Went to a different club this morning & one of the guys was kind enough to take a video of her.
The noisy coupler sounds louder than it really is. I'll replace it with a quiet one though.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvdAKLcOpBU

Cheers.
Paul.

[Jesse J]

Beautiful!! Nice job getting video. Now... the perpetual onlooker requests.. rougher water, slo mo and a pesky sub to go get...
She rides real nice!

[785boats]

Thanks Jesse.
That type of video would be great. I will get some footage in rougher water one day.
We do have guys that run submarines in our club. But they are all big. The scale would look weird.
We'll see what we can do when things get back into full swing after more of the virus restrictions are lifted.
At the moment we are only allowed 10 people at a gathering here, but in a couple of weeks they are talking about changing it to 20 people. So a few more members should start turning up at the club.

[JestDanny]

Congratulations, winner photo contest RCG. fantastic model :beerchug:

[785boats]

Thanks Danny.
It was quite a shock, as there were plenty of other photos that I considered to be better.

[785boats]

I travelled down to our Logan City model boat club last weekend & one of the guys that posts photos on our facebook site each week caught this boat heeling over beautifully in a turn, in a bit of mild weather.
such a nice photo that I had to share it.

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Here's a link to the facebook page if you want to see some of the other models in action too. It's a great club to be part of.

https://www.facebook.com/Logan-City-Marine-Modellers-565337920302615/?ref=page_internal

[sciesielka]

Beautiful model! Looks incredible sitting still and even better running!
I haven't spent enough time in the scale models portion of the forums, but
I should.
Seeing your models has inspired me to keep working on my PT boats. I got them running again in 2019 but still need to fix them up. They're both 30+ years old.
Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing your incredible modeling skills with all of us!

[785boats]

Thanks for the compliment mate.
But yes for sure finish refurbishing your PT boats.
Start a thread in this section so we can all enjoy your hard work.
I love watching people re-work old boats.