1/96 Soryu class diesel electric submarine
Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2016 12:38 pm
As with many of my models I picked this up off eBay as a bit of an impulse buy. Most of my submarines are pushing 2meters and I fancied something a little more portable but still in a standard scale (in this case 1:96). Engel do a type 212 which is a similar boat with an X tail and is highly portable, sadly the price tag is large, £700 plus.
This model comes from rcsubworkshop who make both the hull and WTC. It features and X tail and brushless motor. The dive system uses a bladder and rolling pump, it's a little slow but very simple and reliable.
Here's what I'm aiming for:
The WTC had some issue when I bought it, neither esc worked properly, the ballast tank liner was too large and the WTC leaked.
It's not pretty but I sealed the offending openings with epoxy
A smaller 320ml ballast bag was sourced and installed
Space is limited but everything was installed
A 2.5mah 2s lipo has been used to save safe whilst maintaining power output.
Next up was sorting out the drive train, as supplied a small brass bush is use to support one end of the drive shaft however the fit isn't great and the drive shaft isn't properly supported. So using some brass tube I had knocking about I made a propshaft tube. Getting the alignment right was a pig and required sanding down the WTC supports as to get as straighter alignment as possible to keep resistance down.
Next up was the details, the model comes with a sheet of photo etch but in typical Chinese fashion no instructions! Luckily Donald from rcsubworkshop was able to supply many pictures showing the placement of most of it. The previous owner had put a load of large holes where the photo etch was supposed to go, so this had to be filled with car body filler. The conning tower planes needed a fair bit of reshaping to get them to fit properly
Next up was initial ballasting, she needed a fair bit of lead to get her to sit near scale waterline. It does take about two minutes to get her down to scope depth but this allows a more realistic waterline.
This model comes from rcsubworkshop who make both the hull and WTC. It features and X tail and brushless motor. The dive system uses a bladder and rolling pump, it's a little slow but very simple and reliable.
Here's what I'm aiming for:
The WTC had some issue when I bought it, neither esc worked properly, the ballast tank liner was too large and the WTC leaked.
It's not pretty but I sealed the offending openings with epoxy
A smaller 320ml ballast bag was sourced and installed
Space is limited but everything was installed
A 2.5mah 2s lipo has been used to save safe whilst maintaining power output.
Next up was sorting out the drive train, as supplied a small brass bush is use to support one end of the drive shaft however the fit isn't great and the drive shaft isn't properly supported. So using some brass tube I had knocking about I made a propshaft tube. Getting the alignment right was a pig and required sanding down the WTC supports as to get as straighter alignment as possible to keep resistance down.
Next up was the details, the model comes with a sheet of photo etch but in typical Chinese fashion no instructions! Luckily Donald from rcsubworkshop was able to supply many pictures showing the placement of most of it. The previous owner had put a load of large holes where the photo etch was supposed to go, so this had to be filled with car body filler. The conning tower planes needed a fair bit of reshaping to get them to fit properly
Next up was initial ballasting, she needed a fair bit of lead to get her to sit near scale waterline. It does take about two minutes to get her down to scope depth but this allows a more realistic waterline.
