X craft plans/drawings

HarpoMarx wrote:Thanks to both of you; the website has some great RC Subs! Yes, that is precisely the kit I'm building and enhancing. Their propeller is the saddest excuse I've ever seen and the kit is full of discrepancies, but it scales out nicely. Thanks for the advice!

It appears Eduard agrees with you...

https://www.eduard.com/store/ships-and-submarines/hms-x-craft-submarine-1-35.html?cur=2

they have replacement propeller blades as part of their PE upgrade

Yes, I have that PE and I won't be using their blades, as they are also incorrect. The tip of each blade tapers more .. on the whole, they resemble a barracuda tooth, though not as pointed. I ordered a George Sitek 25mm RH screw with a custom hub and I will apply my own pattern to grind and reprofile each blade to get them correct. Then I will sand each blade to nearly a knife edge. I then spin the screw slowly in a drill press and scribe the divide line between the screw and the hub into the brass. Finally, I blacken the screw with gun blue to keep the edges crisp, touching up any areas that don't blacken with paint. I've never seen a submarine with a shiny brass prop ... nor a navy ship either.

If a ship has a newly-ground propeller, there is invariably a series of swirl patterns on the blades where the sand crab took a big handheld rotary brush to them. That is simulated with a thin mechanical pencil eraser chucked in a dremel and applied to the blade in rows ... works pretty well and looks authentic, but I still prefer the darkened screw.

I turned my own brass attack scope to a thinness of a needle. I read somewhere that the scope aperture was the width of a man's thumb ... must be fantastic optics to be able to do that.

I've cut out all the flood ports and now I have to continue the curvature of the pressure hull inward for a small distance to make it look real. I use J B Weld putty for that and a small spatula tool and lots of micro filing. Very tedious work.

Anyway, I'll post some photos as it starts getting into shape. Thanks for all the responses, folks. 73

Hi Richard. I realize this an old post, but if you still have them, could you Please e-mail me the X-craft plans and drawings? My e-mail is shawnc5555@hotmail.com .


Thanks
Shawn

Shawn,
Richard is not part of this forum and I inherited his posts. I will see if I have anything to help you or purhaps someone. Else might step up and help with plans.
I will drop you an email if I do have something.

Peace,
Tom

Hi Shawn,

A couple of sources of X craft plans,  I know of:

John Lambert did do a plan. (Probably only available second hand now.)

X51 Class Midget Submarines
Model Boat Plan: MAR2096

I am in the process of reviewing a great new book on British Subs, which has many plans, many by John Lambert.

"British Submarines in Two World Wars" by Norman Friedman published by Seaforth Publishing.

This thread gives more info:

https://www.theassociationofmodelsubmariners.com/t1669-john-lambert-plans


I am still reading it - (fantastically detailed) but peeking ahead to Page 332  are good plans for X5 to X10 from the National Maritime museum. (Quite big 300 x 250mm spread over 4 pages.)

David

** Later edit, May 2020. I have just received a copy of "Midget Submarines of the Second World War" by Paul Kemp. 1999. The hardback has a rather nice loose drawing in an envelope on the back page. I have no idea how accurate it is.