Adventure Force 100-Dart Refill - Works with All Adventure Force Blasters and most Standard NERF Elite Blastershttps://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/3220b51f-16f0-46db-b94b-0cb05d546351.ff808f9da7d2214d5cb320a14e7dd809.jpeg
Or similar
Kid-zilla approves, Dave!
Update:
Busy weeks for all hands, but desultory “riveting” continued. No pictures this time! He says he will try to finish the “rivets” this week.
Have a great week!
Eric
Update:
Kid-zilla applied the last of the rivets today. Here is the last one going in place followed by a picture of a happy naval architect.
Kid-zilla said the texture and shape evoked both Admiral Yi Sun-shin’s “turtle ships” and turtles in general, so this boat is now PCU (pre-commissioned unit) Turtle. This, of course, earned him an unasked for lecture on the original Turtle, which rebels employed against the Royal Navy early in the War of Independence.
Back to the project! Kid-zilla He offered the following shots to document the scope of his work:
He did let me know that the hot glue was not a perfect adhesive for this project and noted that he sometimes had to glue on the rivets twice.
Next, I will help him cut and mount the shaft column, prop, and control planes. This is really the only phase where I fear I may have to approve all proposals to ensure feasibility and durability. Once that is done (which will not be this weekend), we will give the whole thing a coat of grey primer. He is leaning towards a dark blue for the final coat, and he has discussed some exterior detail parts. I suspect the latter will become more fixed - and more numerous - as the boat goes from construction to fitting out!
With the boat’s size and shape now more readily apparent, he has started to mentally draft the shape of the train car(s) that will carry it, and he discussed plans for a cradle and tie-downs. I’ll see if I can get him to commit some of those ideas to paper.
Thanks for following along and for encouraging him to keep at it!
On Behalf of Kid-zilla,
Eric
P.S. I did put a rocket kit on his shelf and told him he cannot start until this project is finished! That has been a nice source of external motivation!
2 Likes
Great job Kid-zilla. And KZS Turtle seems like it is a fitting name 
It looks fantastic but he should not blame the hot glue gun and just lay off the Corona before applying the rivets! However the Corona lid does make an “Excellent” hatch!
Thats awesome. Hats off to kid zilla. Not sure how I feel about such a young guy developing a beer habit but hey we all have to start some time.
But that would make for an interesting MIK item to build from.
What impressed me in all reality was that he was simply walking along, spotted the bottle caps, and saw the application. Scrounging in the best sense of the Mik!
1 Like
Construction talent has already passed me up, and in a few years he will be banned from the MIK challenge for winning 5 years in a row ! Way to go KZ
2 Likes
Thats a true scratch builder. When you start seeing the entire world and asking how I can use it on a model
1 Like
I think of all the kids he may the first to make a solo attempt at the Mik!
2 Likes
I would love to see any one of your kids join in. But kid zilla at least at this point seems bit by the bug.
Eric, I thought of you and your fam when I saw this, so I have to post.
1 Like
@Cliff_Jennings , I will have to show this to Kid-zilla tomorrow!
@Devon_Sinsley , yeah, I miss the controlled chaos of group builds. O.D. prefers music (organ, piano, and trombone); Y.D. is a crafter (the current bug is crocheting); and O.S. seems to have a thing for planes and rocket. At least they are doing something that involves hands and creativity. I’ll take that as a parenting “win.” Kid-zilla is on the cusp. This project, I think, may send him over the edge towards lifetime modeler if not a lifetime model railroader if I let him take lead (and maybe send him to @Rooster for the next 6-week AMTRAK Summer Intensive!). To that end, here he is earlier this week crafting “shaft alley” from a bit of broom handle:
We plan to affix it to the after end of the pressure hull, probably with E6000 and metal tape, paint it, and affix the prop and planes to it. We settled on how to attack the planes. I will buy a bit of brass rod and cut two pieces. We’ll drill two holes offset by 90 degrees into “shaft alley.” Then we will cut planes from brass sheet, insert the rods into the pre-drilled holes, and solder the planes to the rods.
We have another busy weekend, but hopefully we can at least get that far!
Eric
4 Likes
Update:
In addition to our little house, Kid-zilla and I made another push on the submarine project. First, I drilled some holes in “shaft alley” to accommodate the axels for the planes.
Kid-zilla, meanwhile, scratched cut lines in a piece of brass I bought for a since-forgotten project…
… and I cut four equal(ish) lengths to serve as the vertical and horizontal planes. I am not sure what I did wrong, but soldering the planes to the brass rod axels was terribly tough. I tried to “tin” the surfaces. Nope. I tried to flux the bejabbers out of the surfaces and solder. Nope. Then I tried masses of solder until successful. Yes(ish).
Kid-zilla had far greater success removing excess glue strands and giving the boat, and later shaft alley and planes, a coat of gray primer.
!
His edits to the last photo are a sign he is happy with progress! Eventually, the upper vertical plane and upper third of the hull will also get a nice coat of dark navy blue.
I am about to enter an overtime rich environment, so this is where it stands for now. I am not sure how I am going to mount shaft alley to the stainless steel fencing bell guard that serves as the outer hull. I was wondering if I could tap a hole then use something like these doo-dads to hold shaft alley tightly in place.
I appreciate your thoughts on that as we plug away at this project.
Update:
I tasked Kid-zilla to start pencil-whipping together plans for the disconnects while I was tied up at work. This required a bit of nudging. In the end, he thought a simple heavyweight flatcar might suffice:
His grandparents got him a pair of LGB “LEGO” cars. With some more nudging, I got him to build a mockup to see if his plan would work. He found that, yes, you could balance a submarine on a flat car.
He started pushing it around the tracks and pointed out greenery that would have to go then got stymied a bit as it entered the tunnel.
After removing some LEGO blocks, it was good to go until it got stuck in the exit. He removed the car, fiddled with the LEGO blocks, but found it just wouldn’t fit.
We got out the trucks to study the issue, and it looks like a flat car with a low center might be in our future.
I forget who, but someone did something like that in a recent MIK challenge. I bought some commercially available wood to make this easier (my other scraps will go back in the appopriate “gemuckabucket”), and the going-in plan is to make a cradle for the sub that extends forward and aft if it. These areas will be decked. An L-shaped doo-dad will go up from the end of each platform. I pin will drip through one end, through the deck we’ll build over each truck, through the bolster, and into the truck, where we’ll make it fast. Kid-zilla is more worried about chains and tie-downs.
This project got a bunch more complicated!
Updates as progress merits.
Eric
2 Likes
No real need to deck where the sub will sit. Just span from the side with a cradle of sorts to sit the sub in. Which will save on the height issue. Just deck the ends where you may want to add bits of gear .
Will do! Thanks, Dave!
BTW it was our captain of the MIK, Mr Taylor that made that huge Schnabel like car