After having poor results the first time in the hot tub I had some doubts the Nautilus could be neutral bouncy trimmed. The hulls for this model were really meant for a static display model. They are heavy 1630 resin hulls.

I was able to get a nice trim and get it back to the surface but if I ever lost power with this ballast system I wouldn’t be able to return to the surface. This could cause the loss of the sub if not visible in murky waters. To avoid this possible outcome we trim the boats neutral so that just a tiny bit of the tower (or wheel house in this case) will stick up out of the water when the sub is brought to rest. It will always float slowly back to the surface and the slightest amount of forward motion allows the operator to dive and level under water.

Once on the surface you pump air into the ballast tank and the sub rises to its natural water line height.

I took it back to the studio yesterday and slowly but surely found every nook and cranny I could to place more ballast foam. When I got it home I placed it back in the hot tub and viola! With the tank full she sits high out of the water like the boat in the movie. Fill the tank and she sits with the wheelhouse frog eyes just showing.

Can’t wait to at long last run this boat at Yorba State Park lake in September.

Seaview is next as I get it working again today.

Tinkering and tying up loose ends

I have a lot of loose ends around the shop. Two are new submarines I built a while ago but never had  the time to tweak and go over them. I’ve spent the last couple of days making sure their systems are working well and most importantly, I have no leaks.

The Nautilus has never even got wet or has it been balanced. Yesterday I did that. Got the lights working, modified the pitching prop shaft. Tested. Tested again and got everything running smoothly.

The worst problem is using old FM radio. Since 2.4 doesn’t work under water we have no choice but to use frequency modulation. Whenever I ran the motor the entire system would glitch. It took 2 hours to isolate the cause. It was hair pulling out time but I found that the two cables coming from the servos nearest the motor and it’s capacitors were too close. Just that little bit of field coming from the two servo leads combined with the noise from the motor was too much for the old receiver. So I stretched them back away from the motor and it all stopped. The glitching was gone. Moral to the story? Never give up!
Then I brought the sub home and put it in the hot tub to ballast the boat. That took some doing too but I did it.Now the Nautilus is ready to run!

I also did a bunch more work on the dirt track. I love this little track, what a childhood joy!
So much more to do. Finish the Saturn 1B. Finish Laser Blast. Build a new Estes rocket(have had for a while design by Harry G. Stein). Test the formula one cars and get racing again. Oh and finish the dirt car. It needs an interior, driver and other small bits!

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You know I do. I really do. With the news a constant bombardment of negative and gloom and doom I hope you find this place an escape from it. Because as an old friend of mine once said, “there’s nothing wrong with escape. It’s moving forward”. And that friend was Timothy Leary.

Our kitchen is being remodeled and this has caused quite a disruption in our daily routine. We cook food in the backyard with a Coloman stove, wash dishes in a tub and so on. The bright side to all this is we get a new kitchen and for that this is all worth it. The old one was getting pretty bad.

Scott Sheldon a friend is doing the work and he got wind of my interests through the weekly newsletter. He brought this box with him yesterday he said was old train stuff he’s had he’s been meaning to get rid of. He said it was really old and probably did work and that I could throw it away if I wanted too.

When I got home I went through the box to find some old Lionel track switchers and other bits. Then I found the mystery boxes inside the box and opened them up. I was blown away because the engine I once had in the 50’s as a child was there. It was the exact same one down to it’s number. 2065 made in 1954.

Today I’m taking it to work where I have some Lionel track and find out if she still runs. but from what I can tell it will or can be fixed to do so. This train is huge and most weight 10 pounds or more. All made of thick metal. thank you so much Scott for making a dream come true!

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 I also started on another car. This one is a Offenhauser Sprint car from the late 50’s.  The frame and motor are from the 60’s and the body is a more recent vacuum form body I got from Ebay. I was lucky it fit what I believe to be an old Eldon frame.

I have much detailing to do still to it but I got pretty far in a couple of hours and it runs great! I ran it around the oval track and took a video I’ll post later.

I hope you enjoyed the happy news. Go out and make some of your own by creating joy and a better reality for yourself.  

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I have just been working on personal projects although I will be getting back to Laser Blast next week because today I go into town in LA for a visit to Burmans INC. I’ll be picking up Silicon to mold the Laser Blast figure, resin to cast figures, rockets and parts for masks. Also some rubber to pour masks.

But much of this week I have spent working on the UFO model, getting the submarine ready for a sub run, and working on my oval dirt track for slot cars.

The track is coming along well and still needs a back drop with a grand stand, lights, a pit crew in the pits and other decorations. But the basic track is down, leveled, painted and landscaped with guardrails, railroad dirt, grass and scrubs. got to have scrubs!

I’m also building a new midget racer on an old Eldon frame and motor from the 60’s which is fitting being that the actual track used is a 55 year old Revell track. More on that later and pictures.

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I have always loved auto racing, sports cars and Formula 1 in particular. I used to race sports cars when I was a kid. Everything from TR-3 to Lotus. My very favorite is the Lotus.

I have been enjoying Virtual Reality racing for a while now but since I got the newer headsets(HP Reverb. thanks Tracy!) with high resolution it has evolved to a pretty exciting level. Coupled that with force feedback steering wheel, shifter and pedals and it gets very realistic.

Recently I got this new Sim and it’s pretty amazing. I recorded while I was doing my first race. I did OK  but I didn’t know the track well enough or the car.

But I had a great time. This weekend I’ll be in a race with real people in multiplayer. This sim even has 60’s Formula One and the Lotus 49!

Enjoy this short video. It was my first time shooting and driving this track.

A good mix for the day. I’m Getting ready for a Sub run in September. This will be the first one I will attend since Covid, the very real non-fake pandemic started. I only have 3 working subs these days as I sold off many of the big subs and even some of the small ones awhile back. After selling them I used the money to buy and build that big RC J Class sailing boat which I get a great deal more use out of.

I got this smaller Type 7 U-boat and a smaller Disney Nautilus I could handle better. Both those boats were huge and they were getting difficult to manage.

This type 7 U-boat from WW2 has always been a favorite and this model is just the right size and very scale to the actual boat. I placed the cylinder inside the hull yesterday and hooked it all up. She’s ready to dive in Sept. BTW I still have my Seaview! Never will I part with that one.

I also started the flying saucer area 51 Bob Lazar sport model yesterday and got it in primer and started the silver paint.

And a little more work on the oval dirt track. A slow process but a fun one.

Friday we go to town to Burmans to pick up silicone to mold the Laser Blast figure and the new rocket. We also ran out of resin to cast parts of rockets and resin cast figures, teeth and more for our orders.

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