Subject: Re: Kraken, first submission, hope I haven't screwed it up too badly.
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "DANIEL SWIERSZ" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2011 15:25:11 -0700

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: DANIEL SWIERSZ 
  To: [email-masked] ; [email-masked] 
  Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 8:28 AM
  Subject: Kraken, first submission, hope I haven't screwed it up too badly.

  Gallery Article Template

  1/48th Kraken

  Dan Swiersz
  --------------------

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  Some text about your model goes here.  This would possibly include text about any resin or photo etched items used to create your kit, aftermarket decals used, paints used, things you liked or disliked about the kit.  Things used to weather your model.  You can also include history about the full sized plane if you want.

  Kraken

  In the late 1940’s the US Navy was looking to design and procure ships and aircraft able to deliver nuclear weapons into the heart of the Soviet Union. The starting point was a flush deck carrier, (the USS United States) that could operate the largest aircraft in naval aviation history. Although a monumental undertaking, the ship itself was within the reach of current shipbuilders. The aircraft needed to strike the heart of Russia… were a different matter.

  In order to achieve operational requirements manufacturers had to think “out of the box”. The state of the art in the late 40’s did not include fuel efficient engines, in-flight refueling or advanced electronics. These aircraft were going to be huge, complicated and wildly unconventional. The aircraft that I am building was actually 2 aircraft in one. The lower 4 engine component was designed to fly to its target while carrying the escape vehicle and its crew on its back.  Upon reaching its target the 2 aircraft would separate. The lower portion continued to the target while the single engine “escape” vehicle returned the crew to the ship where it landed like any other carrier aircraft.

  One of these designs caught my eye. It was Convair design 1186-C as depicted on the cover of Jared Zichecks book “ The Incredible Attack Aircraft Of The USS United States  1948-1949”. Its unconventional design, smooth lines and deadly look said “Build Me”.  Although this design was never “named” I call it the “Kraken”.

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  Construction

  The materials I choose to use were PVC irrigation pipe, sheet plastic and metal, and a wooden dowel. These were all purchased from the local home improvement store.  The irrigation pipe was 1”, ¾”  (for the fuselage)and ½”( for the engine pods). The sheet plastic was in the form of “For Sale” signs and the sheet metal was 8” X 12” roof flashing. The wooden dowel was 15/16” in diameter. 

  All measurements came from the 3 view drawings in Jareds book enlarged to 1/48th scale. This was done at the local copy center. The book drawings were enlarged 902%. This produced a fuselage length of 25.95”. All construction used this enlarged plan for component dimensions and alignment.

  The main fuselage is composed of a 1” PVC core. Into this a piece of ¾” PVC was glued and into this the wooden dowel was epoxied to form the nose of the aircraft. The aft end of the fuselage was also formed in the same manner. When the glue had dried both ends of the fuselage were carved by hand and then power sanded to get the final shape.  Body putty was used to blend everything together. 

  Using my “For Sale” sign the wing shape was transferred to the plastic and 3 blanks were cut out and glued together with tube glue. When dry the airfoil shape was formed with the help of a belt sander. The wings were constructed longer than needed to accommodate the attachment of the engine pods. The fuselage was then marked and cut to accept the wing. 3 small bolts were used to secure the wing to the fuselage. The fuselage cutout was then filled with extra pipe. 

  Now that the wings were on it is important to get all other sub-assemblies lined up correctly, so I continued construction with the fuselage/wing assembly sitting on a home-made alignment jig. The Vee tail measurements were transferred to sheet metal and cut out with tin snips. The metal was bent to allow for a tab to fit into the fuselage and the 2 halves were epoxied together. A slot was cut into the aft fuselage and the tail assembly was epoxied into place. Alignment is critical at this stage. Once this was dry sheet plastic was glued onto the inside of each tail to provide material to shape to an airfoil cross-section.

  The engine pods were constructed from ½” PVC, but this was too small in diameter so I beefed them up with some plastic tubing I found in my garage. Don’t know what they came from but they were just what I needed to give the pods their needed bulk.   Putty was used to blend everything together. The aft end was sanded down to capture the shape of the engine exhaust. The front of the pod was opened up with a Dremel tool to accept the intake shock cone. The shock cone was made from parts from my scrap box, specifically an old exhaust nozzle with the nose of missile protruding. The shock cone was set aside to be installed latter. Pods were installed onto the wing. The extra wing length was slid into slots cut into the pods and epoxied together. Alignment is critical at this point, and I used blocks of wood to get each side right. 

  The dorsal intake, fuselage engine pod and exhaust were next. This started with a wood block being epoxied to the fuselage. This would provide strength and rigidity to the engine pod, and attachment points for the other components.  Small plastic strips were glued into slots that I cut into the fuselage and the sides of  the intake ramps were glued on.  The center splitter plate was also cut out and installed into its precut slot in the fuselage at this time. 

  Large plastic pre-cut sheets were attached to the wooden block using small wood screws and epoxy. The “Buck Rogers” exhausts were formed using ½” PVC pipe held in place with sheet plastic cut to the correct outline. To this form Bondo was applied, in multiple layers, to form the complex shape. This complex component took hours to get right but upon completion brought the whole model together. 

  At this point I engraved panel lines on the completed fuselage using simple straightedges, split pipes, and an engraving tool. 

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  You can add the final 1/3 of your text here.

  Escape Vehicle

  When I first began the project I looked at the drawings of the escape vehicle and said “cool, it looks like an X-3 Stiletto” and began searching for one. Only after it arrived and I started to prepare to build it did I realize the escape vehicle is not an X-3. Not even close! The X-3 is a single seat, twin engine aircraft. The escape vehicle is a two seat airplane with one engine. In fact the only part from the X-3 that I actually used was the wing, and I had to shorten that as well.

  So back to the 3 view plans. I transferred the side view dimensions to sheet plastic and cut it out. This would serve as the keel of the plane. I had no cross-section drawings to work with so I had to improvise. The basic cross-sectional shape is egg-shaped so I cut out several egg-shaped formers and glued them to the keel. I glued in a short tube to serve as an exhaust nozzle and added the wings to the keel.  Then the fun started. Using Bondo as my main ingredient I began to shape the fuselage. Layers were applied, allowed to harden, sanded profusely and dimensions checked with a contour guide. Initially I glued the X-3 tail onto the keel but it didn’t look right and I ended up scratch building this area as well. During this Bondo party I had to allow room for 2 cockpits. Raiding my spares box I inserted to A-4 cockpits w/pilots into the fuselage. Using a “lathe and plaster” technique I closed in each cockpit and blended  them into the body. The “lathe” was strip plastic and the “plaster” was Bondo.  The rear cockpit had fairly straight forward side facing windows. An oversized piece of clear plastic was built into the fuselage wall, faired in with bondo, sanded and polished. The pilots cockpit was a different story. I tried several different methods trying to produce a clear canopy without good results. I finally wrapped clear styrene over a ¾” pipe and dunked it in boiling water. The curved sections were cut to shape and glued in place. The spine was 3 layers of sheet plastic laminated together. The horizontal stabilizer was cut from sheet plastic, sanded to shape and inserted into a slot in the tail. The jet intakes were made from fuel tank halves from the spares box. A coat of white primer showed a few flaws and these were puttied and sanded out. 

  Finishing

  Naval aircraft from this period were typically painted Dark Sea Blue but I wanted something a little more striking. The blue and white paint scheme used on Regulus II missiles was exactly what I had in mind. Gloss white undersides and control surfaces with Dark blue topsides. Both aircraft were given a flat white primer coat followed by Model Master Gloss white from a spray can. This was then left to harden for 1 week. In fact I placed the models in the sun for a day to speed up the process. Mistake! The sun heated up the metal in the twin tails and caused the lower fuselage to crack, Bummer!  After a quick repair using super glue and putty everything was fine. 

  I was looking for a deep shiny finish so I used  progressively finer sanding pads (with lots of water) on the gloss white surfaces. I started with 400 grit and ended with 6000. Once satisfied I masked off the white and repeated the process with the Dark Sea Blue.  The leading edges of all flying surfaces and the engine exhaust areas were masked off and sprayed Model Master Aluminum Plate and when dry polished with a soft cloth. In order to protect the finish I applied Nu-Finish car polish to both models and buffed them to a high shine. 

  Decals were scavenged from my scrap decal box. Several markings had to be custom made. For example the 2 color NAVY markings were standard decals with the letters cut out with a sharp knife. They were then sprayed white and blue. When dry they were applied as normal decals. The ZZ tail codes were produced the same way. A second application of the car polish sealed the decals followed by a final buff. The intake shock cones were glued into place and the 2 aircraft were epoxied together. A wooden base was made and 2 cradles were shaped to hold the completed aircraft.

  All in all a very rewarding experience. Total construction time was about 100 hours spread out over 18 months. It looks great in my display case, and I’m pretty sure I have the only one on the block. 

  Dan Swiersz

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  Just delete any of the boxes below you don't need.....it's not important to include them.....they are there to give you an idea of the finished article.  It is best to limit your article to no more than 60 or so photos, so the finished webpage won't take too long to open.

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  Photos and text © by Dan Swiersz