Fittings & Electrics
October 14/15th.
Whilst not ideal, things have improved somewhat in the cosmetics department. I can't undo the thin body stampings, & they have become a little worse for wear during the build process. But as far as shiny-ness goes, I think we are back on track, & it's all thanks to Jack & some acid. Take that as you will.... 
Before we get to that, there's been a lot of progress in the last few days, & things are finally starting to come together.
I decided that the access holes I cut in the main deck were not adequate to easily get all of the internals in place, so I cut out the center of the deck for full access. The new main deck assembly will be retained by a bolt that is brazed to the base of the hull, & passes up through the deck, so both halves will be clamped together. There will eventually be a thin rubber/foam gasket that seals the two halves when clamped down.
At this stage, I'm mainly making all of the small bits & pieces, & the off-cut/scrap pile is ripe for the pickings;
The prop was made from one of the original access holes that I cut from the deck, & the rudders from a cut & flattened bullet shell. The rear of the shell was used to cover the hole in the center of the prop.
The prop parts were balanced in place & brazed on, followed by the rudder plates.
I moved on to the new deck plate assembly, first using the cut-out scrap from the original deck to make the main turret front. The retaining bolt for the upper & lower halves of the vessel will pass through the turret.
The periscope will double as the fastener for the deck retaining bolt. A nut was brazed to the base of another shell, to thread the periscope onto the retaining bolt, & an off-cut of copper pipe was used as the scope lens.
Behind the main turret, there is a gun-deck. Again, off-cuts were utilized to make the deck & railing assembly.
Of course, a gun deck needs a gun! The end of a shell was used as the mounting 'pivot', & the gun is comprised of two short lengths of copper pipe taken from one of the failed engines, & a coupe of brass sheet scraps.
After all of the brazing was completed, the assembly was washed in water to remove any flux, then submerged into a bath of hydrochloric acid, which removes the black deposits on the parts.
Once removed from the acid & rinsed off with water, the assembly was rubbed down with steel wool, which removes most of the pinkish oxidization.
Here's the acid wash process being used on the hull assembly. The last picture is prior to being rubbed with steel wool.
Once the hull was cleaned, I lined the seams & joins with epoxy from the inside, to ensure there are no leaks.
Next up is the light engine & optic installation.
The engine pipes have to be inserted through the cut-outs in the hull first, & the engine slid back, prior to the optics being fixed in place.
With the optics in place, I used a small piece of pine to adjust the angle of the light engine, & slid the assembly forward to adjust the focus, so as the two beams merged. The pine block & engine assembly was then epoxied in place, & the exhaust pipes sealed to the hull.
I settled on using an "ML-102" charger to house the cell, as it sits neatly between the two exhaust pipes in the hull. I opened it up, & attached some 20AWG wires to the main terminals, for power to the driver, & cut & extended the indicator LED wires.
With this, I can run a USB lead to a hidden charging port in the turret, & also extend the charging indicator LED up to the deck, where I have drilled a hole for it, in front of where the switch will go.
Jack's made a start on polishing all the bits up, so hopefully next time everything will be nice & shiny 
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21st October;
The remaining parts are pretty much done, & are in the process of being polished. Also, the electrics are all in place, aside from the Micro USB charging lead that I was hoping would have arrived by now. The USB lead will poke through the deck out of sight, between the gun turret & the main turret, where there is a small gap.
During the week, I snagged some rubberized foam off-cut from a local canvasser to make the seal for the access hole. It was glued on to the base of the deck & trimmed to size.
Today, I focused on making a display stand, where the 'boat will spend most of it's time "dry-docked". I used the last good section of the brass sheet, some copper pipe section that wasn't too mangled, & the other cut-out from the original access portal holes.
After the main bits were brazed together & cleaned up, I made a small plaque that was affixed to the base of the stand. I'll try to get a better photo of the plaque tomorrow, so you can see how bad Jack's engraving was...
Glamor-shots are not too far away, where we will finally see the 'boat fully assembled & lit-up, on the stand.
Of course, we will also find out if the vessel is "sea-worthy", when Jack attempts a full-power run, for it's self-propulsion party-trick!
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22nd October ;
The build saw it's first complete assembly today, aside from the missing micro USB cable. Here's a picture of the charger in action, & also where the micro USB connector will go, in place of the temporary full size connector. The micro connector will sit down lower, out of sight. If the new cable arrives during the week, I'll update with another picture.
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Update;
The micro USB cable arrived yesterday, so the build is now completed.
My dollar store "5 minute" epoxy that takes overnight to cure was used to secure the cable in place, hidden inside the turret. The cable is about 15cm (6") long, so it loops nicely inside the hull, plugged into the charger, & has plenty of length to remove the top section.
As a bonus, the light will still operate on lower modes without the battery inserted, when plugged into USB power. With this, the light could be left on indefinitely in a low mode, on a shelf, or display cabinet.
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Now, everything is looking shiny & ship-shape, thanks to Jack.
It wasn't without drama, though. I knew something was up, & it turns out that one of Jack's "kamerads" from back at the docks got wind of the project, & had been hounding him to partake in transporting illegal substances in the hull of the 'boat. Jack refused, but he knew it wouldn't be the last he heard about it.
Early this morning, "kamerad Johann" entered the shed whilst Jack was putting the finishing touches on the 'boat.
The following scenes are Jack's version of the event;
This obviously set things back a little, but after the "trash was emptied", we were able to test the assembled 'boat in a confined aqua-facility.
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Later in the day, we transported the 'boat to the test-tub, where Jack made some preparations, & finally it was launched.
After adjusting the center of gravity a little via some lead inside the hull, the 'boat sat at a nice level, with the lights submerged & working nicely.
If the seal & switch assy. was 100% waterproof, I would have been able to weight the 'boat so it was even more submerged, but this will have to do.
After a short warm-up period for the engine, we have some propulsion from the exhaust :D
As you can see, the boat is all nice & shiny now. I took a few snaps of the finished product prior to the water test, just in case everything went pear-shaped!
There's a bunch more photos to go through -I'll sift through them & post more up in the OP later.
Thanks for looking :)
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