Rubber

Commercially, we use a company called Belpar Rubber in Lyon Way, St Albans, they keep a lot of stuff on the shelf.

Peter

Used these in the past.

Hills Rubber Co Ltd Tel: 0118 958 0535 Fax: 0118 950 3083

85 Bedford Road , READING, Berks, RG1 7EZ

Lionel

Michael,

Forgive me but why does a submarine require caterpillar tracks - an amphibious submarine?

Mark

Mark,

You are brave; I didn't dare ask!

Come on Michael - tell us all. :)

Mike

lol

Yes you got it right. It will (should) be amphibious however at the moment as i'm only 14 i'm findng thast getting my parents to part with the money is harder than actually building it. But eventually it will have GRP hull, BB deck gun, r/c torpedo, compressed air missiles and two piston ballast tanks as well as working sounds and lights.

Michael

It is a scale model of an Irish submarine, of course ;-)

Regards, Tony

Talking of stereotypes, here's a Finnish joke I heard recently: Q. How do you sink a Russian submarine? A. Knock on the hatch.

Cliff Coggin Kent UK

..... and a fire-arms licence?

That's terrible you should be ashamed

or proud

Nope and to my knowledge i dont need one

Why is it irish?

Cos its got screen doors!

Tony,

The lads fourteen - they don't do Irish jokes. They start doing "blonde" jokes at about 12 though...

Given todays report that the ROI has been ranked No.1 place to live out of

100 countries with the UK at 29, and they have a booming economy, I think the joke is rather on us Englishmen?

Regards

Steve

Michael,

You are doing fine. Take no notice of us sill old men. It is an admirable project, and probably in advance of what a great many folk would undertake. I hope the family come across with a substantial Christmas box to enable progress.

Out of shear curiosity - do you get any encouragement from your school. Is there perhaps a model club or similar? Do you belong, maybe to an outside model club?

Keep the group up to date with your progress.

Mike

could you use timing belts turned inside out to give you grip....

If it wasn't for my school i wouldn't be able to do this. They have a huge technology dept. with lathes, milling machines, bandsaws etc. and a load of materials. At the moment I'm going there everyday.

They do have a Radio Control Club however it is mainly for cars, and only runs and when i had my r/c boat i did belong to an external club. The only problem is that there arn't many, if any r/c clubs for subs in the uk and dealers for parts are even rarer. This is mainly why I've decided to scratch build it.

At the moment I've started on the GRP hull and ballast tanks however the speed at the moment isn't really worth telling anyone about, but when i do pick up speed i'll let you know and try, TRY, to post pictures (depending if i can persuade my brother to lend me his digital camera)

Michael

When you're not building the sub, have a read of "October Sky" also titled "The Rocket Boys", by Homer Hickam, sounds like it might be something down your street.

Good Luck

Steve

In message , Himszy writes

There are model submariners in the UK and at least one active club/group. There are always seems to be a small but very good specialist display at the Donnington show and the London show (the one that that was at Wembley but this year will be at Alexandra Palace). Also, and very important from your point of view, there always seems to be at least one knowledgeable person on the stand. The dates are 21st,

22nd & 23rd January 2005.

I suggest that you try your best to get to 'Alley Pally' in January and preferably take brother's camera along too.

Michael,

Thanks for the response. Glad that progress is in hand.

Mike