BRITISH K2 SUBMARINE IN 1:350 BY MICRO-MIR

[Haddock]

Another unusual sub for the small collection of WW1 subs.
17 of these were built. The idea was to have a sub that could operate with the battle fleet. This meant that speed was important. They were powered by oil fired boilers driving two Parsons geared turbines, this gave a speed of 24 knots surfaced. Submerged speed was eight knots driven by electric motors which were charged by a diesel generator. Conditions below must have been horrendous.
At 340ft long and 1980 tons surfaced, these were big ships by sub standards, submerged the displacement rose to 2566 tons.
Safe diving depth was 200 ft, far less than the overall length.
Submerging could take up to 30 mins. Boilers had to be shut down, funnels lowered and the ship sealed against the ingress of the sea and the electric motors coaxed into life.
The design wasn't considered to be a success, they became known as the "Katastrophy class".
The original design was modified by the introduction of the bulbous bow (see pics) to improve the sea-keeping qualities but this didn't make a great deal of difference.
They were crewed by 59 officers and men.
Haddock.

[MSea]

Will enjoy this one - will it be at the "Battle of May Island" 

[Haddock]

Dunno yet, at the moment it's at the battle of Brookland road.

[Haddock]

And so to the build.
                             The parts count is quite low, numbered up to 25, there is a small etched fret. As the model is water-lined, some of the parts aren't used.
                Assembly of the plastic including water-lining probably took no more than a couple of days, then the fun starts.
                First problem is that the top section of the conning tower is non existent, not included in the kit and not shown on the instructions so a scratch built one was produced out of some scrap PE 0.004" thick.
                Although it doesn't really matter, the instructions are a mirror image of the model!
          There are no railings included in the kit. Looking at lot of pictures, there definitely were railings fitted but may have been taken down at sea. The other thing is that the stanchions were a long way apart.
             By fair means and foul, I've come up with a figure of 15mm between stanchions.
       Some scratch-building will be in order, so we need a plan.
Haddock.     



     
               

[Haddock]

Looks like the plan has worked up to now.
Haddock.
There's a shot of some railings to show the distance apart of the stanchions, poor pic but best I can find.

[chriswil42]

Looking good Tony. Between you and Kevin there's going to be a whole fleet of subs.

[zak]

Looking good Tony. Between you and Kevin there's going to be a whole fleet of subs.

It could be a SUB - division of the club.

[councilman]

Never knew this Sub existed. Real interesting stuff.
Thanks Haddock.

[councilman]

Looking good Tony. Between you and Kevin there's going to be a whole fleet of subs.

It could be a SUB - division of the club.

SUB standard joke.   

[zak]

Looking good Tony. Between you and Kevin there's going to be a whole fleet of subs.

It could be a SUB - division of the club.

SUB standard joke.   

Quick change the SUBject!

[MSea]

With the amount of subs you 2 have - it will need a SUBstantial  table to hold them all

[zak]

With the amount of subs you 2 have - it will need a SUBstantial  table to hold them all
[/quote
Always excellent, never Substandard

[cph64]

SUBsequently we'll move on. I know you said it was long but it looks so long in the photos, bet it was unstable.

[Bigkev]

Hi All,
From the 'SUBS' bench, it really looks an interesting beast.
I still cannot get my head around the fact that this was in main steam powered and need to be sealed before submerging.
Those guys who designed this were either geniuses or obsessed.
Cheers,
Bigkev

[Haddock]

Hi All,
From the 'SUBS' bench, it really looks an interesting beast.
I still cannot get my head around the fact that this was in main steam powered and need to be sealed before submerging.
Those guys who designed this were either geniuses or obsessed.
Cheers,
Bigkev

They can't ever have been to sea!!