Russian Typhoon Submarine

Part 1b - Manufacturing the Missile Tube Hatches (continued)

With the hatches shaped, it´s now time to manufacture the hinge mechanisms. I decided to do it a little differently from the door atop the sail. Here, you can see that I´ve used a piece of 5/32" brass tubing and glued it to the underside of the hatches. The tubing will house a piece of 1/8" brass rod.
	After installing the 1/8" brass rod, I cut four (4) pieces of 5/32" brass tubing approximately 2" long. These were slipped over the brass rods on either side of both hatches. The four (4) pieces of neoprene hose seen in the pic serve as shock absorbers and attachment points to the upper hull. These were glued directly to the hull and will easily be removed in the future if the need arises.
Currently, plans are to have the missiles open the hatches when launched. If this fails, I´ll design an opening/closing mechanism! The small piece of Celtec material you see in this pic was glued to the underside of the top hull between the missile hatch openings. It prohibits the hatches from falling into the hull.
	When the hatches are closed, they protrude just above the hull. This extra material will be removed with a sander prior to priming/painting! But, for now, the hatches work great ... fit great ... and do not bind at all. The hinge mechanism is very smooth ... but periodic oiling of the brass rod will probably be necessary.
After launching the missiles, the hatches will probably stay open unless I design some sort of mechanism to close them. Or, better yet, I could build a little, radio-controlled, Russian dude to pull them down! Just kidding!
	I sanded the extra material from the hatches and also the missile nose cones before painting. Here, you can see the flat black upper hull and also the primer colored missiles in their launching tubes. The inside of the hatches still need some detail painting as do the missiles themselves.
With the active missile tube hatches closed, you can just barely see which ones will be active. The other eighteen (18) hatches are simply scribed. They will not open. Next Step - Part 2 - Manufacturing the Missile Tubes

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