To order you - Lee Seiler, P.O. Box 26, Swisshome, OR , for more information.

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1 Report To The Cabal: Converting the Totalimmersion, 31" long NAUTILUS static resin kit into a practical r/c submarine, Well, fortune shines every now and then: I recently made a sale of a WTC-3 to a local guy -- who flies blimps for a living, can you beat that! -- he had just received a resin kit of the movie NAUTILUS that he wanted to convert from display only, to r/c. He mistakenly thought my cylinder would fit that little hull. Fortunately, he came over to the shop with the kit in tow, so I was able to look it over. It was immediately obvious that the WTC-3 would not fit, but that a variant of the WTC-2/KILO would. So we came to terms; extending the deal to the point were I would install the gear and get his little NAUTILUS operational. The kit is produced by an outfit called Totalimmersion, owned and operated by Lee Seiler. As I understand it Lee was recently employed by the Department of Naval Architecture at the University of Berkley where he worked as a technician at their model ship towing facility. Previously Lee had been involved in the motion picture effects industry where he enjoyed a professional relationship with Tom Scherman -the world renowned expert on everything there was to know about the movie NAUTILUS. Examination of Lee's NAUTILUS kit revealed a very well engineered and manufactured resin kit. Though of nearly 1/4" thick wall, the hull parts are hollow and do afford plenty of room for a 2" WTC and battery. Lee informs me that about a half dozen of his kits have already been converted to r/c submarines, so it seems I am not doing much trailblazing here, but good news to those of your thinking of getting this excellent kit and making it work in the water. To order you - Lee Seiler, P.O. Box 26, Swisshome, OR , for more information. Look familiar -- one of the most recognizable fantasy submarines ever conceived! These are the main hull parts of the kit. Cast in white polyurethane resin, the hollow hull just seems to scream out, "r/c me!". This kit is detailed right down to the chart-table at the aft end of the wheelhouse! I gotta get me one of these Lee Seiler's attention to detail extended to the packaging - I've never seen a model kit packaged with such thought and

2 care! And the contents just keep coming at you: an extensive set of instructions, a full set of plans, all clear parts needed, right down to the iris shutters for the saloon windows! This thing is a steal at $375. To r/c this model I will gimbal the propeller for pitch and yaw control. Additionally I will link the two sets of plans (mounted within the side strakes) to the pitch linkage. Lee provided my customer a custom rudder with installed bellcrank. I'll take advantage of that by linking the yaw pushrod to the gimbaled propeller and the rudder as well, in effect producing a compound rudder. So arranged, this little r/c model should be very responsive in the water. The WTC- 2/NAUTILUS I'll produce for this kit will employ a gas type ballast system. It will be a four-channel setup: rudder/propeller yaw, throttle, planes/propeller pitch, and ballast system. And I would be just plain irresponsible to not put some lights in the wheelhouse and around the saloon windows! Many bags of goodies come with this kit. You not only get all the hull fittings, but interior furnishings for the wheelhouse and saloon. An absolutely fantastic resin kit. Lee even provides you a selection of weathering agents. Man! It just does not get any better than this!

3 I'll make a correction here. In the previous piece I miss-stated the SUB-DRIVER diameter as 2" In fact the SUB- DRIVER's, used aboard the 1/144 KILO and this NAUTILUS projects, are of 2.5" diameter. I spent yesterday working to develop the propeller shaft gimbal, which will be mounted in the extreme aft end of the hull. This will permit deflection of the propeller shaft about the pitch and yaw axis. It's my intent to achieve control of the submarines through thrust vectoring -- as the planes on this design are not at all practical units in the 'real world.' Additionally, reports of the poor rudder performance from other modeler's who operate this type fictional craft persuaded me to employ not only the rudder, but the propeller, to effect the yaw forces needed to achieve reasonable turning rates. Examination of the tight confines, where the gimbal would go, forced a discussion to employ a simple ball-in-socket type unit: I would turn a brass ball, its center bored hole to friction fit an Oilite bearing, that bearing with a bore diameter of 1/8" to pass the short propeller shaft. The propeller shaft would terminate at the after end of the ball at the propeller hub. At the forward end of the propeller shaft would be fit a Dumas type universal coupler, that coupler making up the an intermediate drive shaft, that makes up to the motor of the SUB-DRIVER. The means of displacing the propeller shaft will likely be two teeter-totter arms, operated by the 'stern plane' and 'rudder' servos. The teeter-totter arms will push against an Oilite bearing around the shaft, mounted between the gimbal ball and Dumas coupler. Today's work will revolve around manufacture and setup of the two teeter-totter arms and creation of a NAUTILUS propeller -- an interesting, 'Tomahawk' bladed affair. The SUB-DRIVER-2.5/NAUTILUS is the designation I've assigned for this specialized cylinder. The cylinder features an aft mounted, coup shaped, 'motor bulkhead' which houses the servos, motor, push rod and watertight seals, external battery connection lugs, and receiver antenna. At the forward face of the motor bulkhead --and extending into the after portion of the clear Lexan cylinder -- are mounted the receiver, APC, and fail-safe. The internal 'ballast bulkhead' mounts the gas type ballast system actuation servo and watertight seal between the servo push rod and wet space forward of the bulkhead. The portion of clear Lexan tube between the ballast bulkhead and forward bulkhead comprises the ballast tank. I've test fitted a 1500Ah gel-cell battery that will operate 'in the wet.' This is a free-flooding, or 'wet' type r/c submarine. Only those spaces within the motor bulkhead and cylinder will be dry. The gimbal is a simple ball-and-socket type. No room for concentric rings and perpendicular axis pins here! The interior of the resin hull halves, in this area, were ground down to a nominal wall thickness of 1/16" to make room for the ball and its tight fitting socket (not yet formed in this shot). a 1/8" bore Oilite bearing has been press-fit into a hole that was bored into the brass ball -that drilling done on the lathe before the machine brass rod was machined to a ball. I've already fit an 1/8" stainless shaft into the forward end of the ball as I went about the task of using the ball to give form to the Milliput socket elements of the gimbal.

4 After I greased the ball element with silicon mold-release, I mixed up a small quantity of Milliput two-part epoxy filler and pressed amounts of this slow curing material into the stern sections of the upper and lower NAUTILUS hulls. I then pressed the ball unit half way in half of Milliput, giving form to the socket element of the ball-in-socket gimbal that will later permit three-axis motion of the propeller. And here we have the two Milliput sockets. When these harden I will cup-out the forward portions of the Milliput to prevent interference with the propeller shaft as it is swung up and down and left and right, or any combination thereof. Two plastic SUB-DRIVER foundations will attach permanently to the bottom of the lower hull. Hooks atop the foundations will permit me to attach the SUB-DRIVER in place. Registration between SUB-DRIVER and hull will be insured through use of a registration pin that projects from the forward foundation into a hole in the bottom of the ballast tank section of the SUB-DRIVER's cylinder.

5 Recently Bob Martin presented photos of a like designed 31" Nautilus kit produced by Scott Brodeen, a kit that Bob built up into a fantastic looking static display piece, complete with salon interior and practical iris window closures. You have to see this to believe it! go to- I was amazed to note that there seemed to be more than a chance similarity between the kit I'm working, produced by Lee Seiler, and the static display kit finished recently by Bob - that kit produced by Scott Brodeen. I'm not clear what the relationship, if any, is between Mr. Seiler and Mr. Brodeen. Anyway... After examining Bob's work, I've decided to retain the break between upper and lower halves of the hull as provided with the kit. In both type kits (are they the same kit?) The upper hull possesses the two big horizontal strakes, which act to all but obliterate the seam between the two hull halves when joined together. Simplicity itself. And keeping the split as provided permits complete access to the interior when the upper hull is pulled away from the lower hull --you can see this as I perform the internal work needed to turn this static display kit into a practical, fully capable r/c submarine. This is the work on the resin 31" long NAUTILUS model as of last evening. Work accomplished since the last Report included the installation of two SUB-DRIVER saddles (foundations), drilling of a SUB-DRIVER alignment indexing hole through the ballast tank, creation and test fitting of the propeller shaft pitch teeter-totter, and tightening of the tolerance between gimbal ball and socket halves. I've also decided to leave the model hull halve separation flanges as they are on the kit: the model split along a horizontal plane along the mean centerline. What made up my mind on that was seeing how Bob Martin made use of the same hull split system used on the Scott Brodeen NAUTILUS kit; how it was possible to incorporate the big Saloon windows --this split even accommodated the salon windows and lamps without presenting any obvious separation lines. The two SUB-DRIVER foundations were plotted out on a single thick piece of RenShape 40 Pattern Makers polyurethane foam, then cut out on the bandsaw. Before gluing the foundations into the hull with epoxy (mixed with cotton waste to make a no-run thick paste). The interior of the hull, where the foundations would attach, was roughed up with #38

6 sandpaper to knock off any mold release remaining from manufacture and to give tooth to help insure a good mechanical bond between the RenShape 40 and resin hull. Atop each foundation I inserted a 1/16" brass wire that was bent to a hook, used to secure the rubber bands that hold the SUB-DRIVER in place. If you look carefully through the Lexan you can see the 1/16" brass indexing pin, set within the bottom center of the forward foundation. That pin holds the SUB-DRIVER from either rolling or moving longitudinally within the hull. Here I've installed the pitch teeter-totter, the device that translates servo axial push rod motion to propeller shaft pitch angle changes. The center of rotation of the shaft is, at the center of the gimbal ball. The transverse brass pin running across the hull (teeter-totter fulcrum point) is temporary, it will be replaced by a non-obstructing clevis as I finalize the installation. My initial study sketch of the teeter-totter device is the post-it-note at the right (a doodle performed as I had some coffee at the local IHOP at 3am one recent sleepless night). Last evening, as I rethought the construction of the device, I sketched another version, to the left: A simple brass sheet and wire assembly that soldered together quickly and worked

7 the moment I fit it into the model. Isometric sketching like this as well as orthographic plan creation and reading is a vital skill set for Model Builder, being our predominate means of modeling a concept before committing to creation of the 3D item itself; such sketching permits refinement of design and catching function shortcomings and interference with adjacent device. Most of a models device creation and installation chores are done in the mind, then checked by sketch renderings on paper, then finally, the item made, installed, and checked for correct operation. Another look at the pitch teeter-totter device. The 'U' shaped wire does not directly engage the propeller shaft. Instead, it applies force to an Oilite bearing surrounding the propeller shaft, reducing interference friction between teeter-totter and the spinning shaft. This teeter-totter, oriented as it is, cases the propeller shaft to rotate about the pitch axis and thus will control the bubble of the boat; the means by which the boat is controlled in depth. An identical teeter-totter unit, oriented ninety-degrees from the unit seen here, will position the propeller shaft about the yaw axis to turn the boat. The same push rod that works the yaw axis of the propeller shaft will connect to a bell-crank on the single rudder, this to enhance the turning rate of the model submarine.

8 The last couple of months I have been working on converting this hollow cast resin static display Disney NAUTILUS into a practical r/c submarine. Yesterday the client came around to pick it up, take it home and detail and paint the thing. Later he'll bring it back for a final trim after I install a different battery. Propulsion and control power currently comes from a standard AA NiCad battery pack designed for receiver, servo service only. Even with this rather anemic power supply, I got ten-minute run times in the pool. Not bad. The trimming in the kiddi-pool went quickly and I went through three battery packs playing with the submarine. I had a blast with it. Even Ellie got in some stick time with the model. The tilting propeller provided very responsive pitch and yaw control. Speed, all things considered, was pretty fair. The ballast system, a restriction valve installed in the blow line, delivered a metered squirt of gas with each command of the stick; I had enough fine control of the ballast system as to permit me to actually hover the model. Believe it or not, this little Disney Nautilus -- as configured now, with the yawing propeller coupled to the swinging rudder -- can describe a submerged circle within the confines of the ten-foot diameter kiddi-pool. Not bad, not bad at all. My involvement with this kits structure is minimal -- it's the client who will do the detail and painting work on this little resin kit of the Disney NAUTILUS. My area of responsibility, recently discharged, was to work up a WTC, outfit it to get it operational (ballast, pitch, yaw, and throttle control), install the WTC into the hull, to work up a mechanism to angle the propeller in pitch and yaw, to link the rudder to the propeller yaw linkage, and to trim the model with fixed weight and foam to make it stable on the surface and submerged. Other than the need to make a glove-fit for the propeller ball bearing, install two WTC saddles, and to get the two hull halves to fit tightly together, the only other structural thing I did to the resin kit was to open up the square holed flooddrain ports in the bottom of the hull. No vent holes needed atop the hull as the two open hatch points permitted quick bubble escape from within the floodable hull. As it turned out the grill work represented in the center of each flood-drain hole was very thin and easily busted out with Moto-Tool and files.

9 The completed mechanisms needed to get this static model kit working as a realistic, practical, and easy to maintain r/c submarine. This model features NO active control surfaces other than the rudder. All pitch control is effected through the tilting propeller, yaw control through the tilting propeller and the coupled scale rudder. All the linkage seen at the stern is dedicated to the job of translating the axial moving servo pushrods to the required propeller shaft angular displacement -- up and down for pitch control, left and right for yaw control. A component of the propeller yaw linkage is a translation arm that drives the single rudder. A bit of experiment determined the best ratios of coupling between yaw motion of the propeller and rudder. Note the big hunk of lead bolted into the forward lower portion of the hull The upper hull has a huge piece of foam attached within it, over the weight -- the net change in the models total buoyancy is near zero, but the amounts and position of the two ballast elements produce a rather tall metacentric height; hence making the boat very stable in roll and pitch. Always endeavor to make your boat as statically stable as possible -- the maximum amount of fixed lead weight low, and countering buoyant foam high. We see the after face of the WTC's motor bulkhead. Near the top, left and right are the two servo pushrods projecting through 1/16" watertight seals. Dead center on the bulkhead is the foundation and 1/8" seal for the direct-drive propeller drive shaft (which connects to the propeller intermediate shaft through a flexible piece of plastic tube). Center to the right is the equalization valve (modified tire-valve) The Yellow antenna wire originates from a lug dead center, bottom. The linkages attach to the WTC pushrods through modified wheel-collars. The WTC motor output shaft makes up to the intermediate drive shaft with a length of tube (forming a poor-mans universal joint) -- all this makes WTC installation and removal from the hull a twenty-second operation. Other than the two rubber bands that secure the WTC onto the hull saddles, there are no other mechanical interfaces between WTC and hull.

10 Here you can also see the pushrod that connects the rudder to the yaw linkage within the hull. Neat prop, huh? Made that sucker in about two hours! Fabrication of the propeller began by turning the hub on the lathe. Fortunately for me I have a rather massive collection of source material on the Disney NAUTILUS. I used the detail drawings the effects miniatures propeller to guide me as I made the little wheel for this tiny r/c model. Since I was using a little Graupner 380 sized electric motor, direct drive, it was important to minimize the loading this propeller would present -- I endeavored to make the pitch of the blades very fine: The motor would be permitted to spin relatively fast, yet not be loaded to the point where it would overheat. A neat thing about this submarines stern design is that there is enough clearance fore and aft of the propeller disc to permit me to tilt the scale propeller a full five-degrees left-right, and up-down. Neat! Thank you, Mr. Goff. How did you know? Close-up of the milling machine cutter (a Dremel cutoff wheel) near the hub, which is mounted in the chuck of the rotary table. The only operation required once everything had been setup was to move the X-slide in a measured amount to make the cut, back out, then rotate the table seventy-two degrees, and repeat those steps till I had five perfectly symmetrical slits cut into the hub, ready to receive the brass sheet propeller blades.

11 The key to getting things right on a soldered-blade-to-hub type propeller is to achieve the correct spacing, angle, depth, and uniformity of cut to each slit that will accept the root of a brass sheet blade. The principle tools in achieving this is a tilt table, a rotary table, and a milling machine. The cutter used here was a thin blade carbide cutoff wheel, a Moto-Tool accessory. This was a chance to teach Rose some basic shop practices as well as a practical application of mathematics: I informed here that a common measurement of the parts of a circle is a division of the circle into degrees, each 1/360 of the whole. Telling her that I needed to cut out five equally spaced slots around a circle. With only a little coaxing, she figured out that if we divided 360 by five, then we would have to rotate the table 72 degrees to get the five evenly space slots cut into the propeller hub. Know that she rotated the chuck the appropriate amount after I milled in each slot. The rotary table has a degree scale on the rotating head and an indexing mark on the bed. Not bad for a eight-year-old little girl. With bandsaw and some hand tools I had the required number of brass sheet blades ready for soldering in no time. At this point I've bored an 1/8" propeller shaft hole in the hub and have mounted it on this simple blade assembly jig. Note that there is a sandpaper backed marking stencil, from which I scratched an outline into a length of brass sheet.

12 Rose test fitting one of the brass sheet blades into one of the five slots cut into the side of the turned brass hub. All I needed to do now was to come up with some kind of holding Normally I make a more-involved-than-necessary blade holding fixture when doing this sort of work. But... it was two in the morning, I was tired, pissed off, and wanted something to hold those blades level while I applied solder. And, I wanted it NOW! Such is the stuff of inspiration. Uncured PVC is Sculpy! this clay like material does not get soft and fail with heat. Not at all It hardens! So, I used Super Sculpy to position the blades around the turned hub. Perfect! Slightly charred, but none the worse for wear, the Super Sculpy 'holding jig' after soldering had been completed. Sometimes stupid simple is the way to go. Initially I tack soldered each blade to the hub with a big soldering iron, not yet a complete wetting between blade and

13 hub, but enough adhesion provided to let me check symmetry between the blades. Tack soldering permitted me the option of breaking, with ease, an offending blade and to reposition it and tack again. Once happy with the rake and spacing between blades I applied more acid flux, then blasted the work with a mini-torch -- this permitted the solder to flow completely between blades and hub grooves, completely wetting all surfaces with solder, assuring a very tight adhesive bond between all parts that make up this five-bladed propeller. Little fillets of solder also formed at the gaps between blades and hub, obviating the need for any fillers later. All this propeller will need is a good cleaning in lacquer thinner to knock off the flux, and an acid dip to pickle, rinsing, drying, then primer. Ellie got us one of those ten-foot diameter kiddy pools... allegedly for our grandkid, Rose. Actually, it's my test tank. Here Rose takes a few moments from doing laps to help me trim out this little NAUTILUS model. It's my practice to determine the amount and location of buoyant foam needed by first rubber banding hunks of the stuff to the outside of the model, moving the foam blocks around and changing the amount till the model (with a flooded ballast tank) assumes proper submerged trim: boat resting on an even keep with just an inch or less of submarine structure sticking in the air. Rose holding up the model, ready to hand it off to me so I could take it back into the shop where I would transfer the foam to the inside of the model, completing the final trimming chore. Note that at this point the only fasteners used to hold the four major structure (lower hull, upper hull, superstructure, and wheelhouse) together. The client will come up with a more elegant solution, I'm sure. Now, with everything working, the customer took charge of the TI NAUTILUS model so it can be detailed, painted and weathered. After that he will give it back to me for final trimming and installation of a larger capacity lead-acid battery to replace the little battery currently being used.