Part 1.

This project is already finished, the following is a discription of what was done to build and convert the kit to RC.

Because of severe time restraints at the end of 2022 and foreseeing a similar problem during 2023 and beyond, I decided to stop working on my LT100 trawler build. I thought a plastic kit might be a good idea.
I then had an add pop up from a hobby shop in Australia for this little Trawler kit that has been around for a very long time.
Long enough ago that my father had converted this kit to a working model for my brother and myself to play with when we were kids, all be it a simple electric motor battery and switch, about all you would expect in the mid 1970s, fond memory's of this came back when I saw the kit.
After a quick look on You Tube to see if anyone had put RC into this model successfully, I quickly found a couple of videos of converted models getting around on ponds.

A kit was ordered and quickly came to my house, on opening the box I found a fairly simple kit not much flash the hull halves fitted together quite well. The main complaint I had was how some of the details are quite “blobby” then considering the age of the kit this is justifiable. A quick search on Scalemates tells me that the kit was originally released in 1970 and has had multiple updates to decals and paint schemes, in it’s latest form it represents the Ross Jackal. I also found a couple of build logs on the net these helped me with looking at what might be some good things to alter.
Next I ordered some micro servos a speed controller a small amount of Photo Etch and had a look at how I might implement a conversion.

I had some 3mm thin walled Stainless Steel tube that looked like the right size for a custom made prop-shaft, so I started filing the hull halves to open up the prop-shaft area and see if I could fit the tube in. I was very careful while doing this as there was no real room for error.

Once I was satisfied with the result I started making bushes for the shaft.

While I was using the lathe I made up an aligning tool to align the shaft and motor, this simply being a good fit in both the motor and prop-shaft. I made this a little on the long side as I didn’t quite know where the motor would sit or how long the shaft would end up, easier to shorten than lengthen.

Some tube was cut, one for the shaft the other for an oiling tube.

The 2 pieces of tube were silver soldered together using my new micro torch, with LPG and oxygen.

Next job was to make a rudder post and rudder with an actuating lever, brass being used for these components.

Actuating lever and bush along with rudder to rudder post were soft soldered together.

Next thing was to add another anchor recess, modifying a plastic kit in this way is something I haven’t done before, it turned out to be a fairly simple job and quite rewarding.

Another mod was to add some more freeing ports along the bulwarks to at least get something closer to the appropriate number, with the help of a build log that explained how to do this I had a go at it and was quite happy with the result. Using a piece of Brass shaped to roughly the right shape it was heated up and pushed into the pre-marked locations to produce a freeing port.

Due to the fact that I like my models to be able to handle heavy weather without fear of sinking, I wanted to seal the deck to the hull. To do this I removed the tabs that are there to help support the deck and replaced them with a continuous ledge, with the hope this will help me make a water tight seal between the deck and hull.

Before gluing the hull halves together I masked and painted the bulwarks, I felt this would be difficult to do later. I also added the new deck supports.

Thank you for reading this post.
Please feel free to comment.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Ron,
Not much if any ballast was needed, maybe some trimming ballast was used but thats all.
This is quite a small model.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Ron,
So far I haven't fully tested the sea worthyness of this model to it's full extent however she rides up the waves quite nicly, and is affected by cross winds more than waves, so far there have not been any alarming handeling characteristics.
So far I haven't had a capsize with any of my boats, I generally try to keep any topsides weight to a minimum.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Hi Alessandro,
Thanks for you kind comments, I try to make what I do understandable.
The motor and drive will be covered in the next article.

Of corse you can ask questions, although if it is to do with battries and motor it will be covered.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 2.

A motor mount was made so the motor can be removed after the mount is attached in position.

I used MEK (methyl ethyl ketone a solvent that is easily available in Australia, used by Plumbers and Electricians as a cleaning solvent before gluing PVC fitting together)to glue the hull halves together this is water like in viscosity and will flow in via capillary attraction melting the plastic causing a weld between two close fitting pieces of Styrene, the main draw back with this stuff is it is not something you should breath in, and should only be used in a well ventilated area.
I left the assembly for a day or two to dry then added strengthening pieces along the seam.

Then a small ledge was glued in the stern to act as a rudder post support using a thick Tamiya cement.

Once all this had set I drilled a hole using the original rudder position as a guide.

The hole was a bit smaller that the rudder post. I scratched up the post with sand paper. Then wetted the post and hole with MEK waiting a short while then pushed the post into the softened Styrene to weld it into position.

The prop-shaft was glued into position using 2 part epoxy using the aligning jig to ensure everything is in line with enough height for the motor to sit comfortably.

Next up was to make a mounting for the micro servo.

Modifying the deck came next, after carefully marking I cut an opening in the same place as the deck house would sit. This opening will eventually have a coaming fitted to help keep out water that comes over the deck.

The next challenge was building a battery box that would house 6 AAA rechargeable battery’s.

I wanted this to be able to slide the battery box in and out of the newly made hole.

Parts were cut up and glued together.

A couple of standard AAA battery holders were bought with the contacts being harvested, then shoe horned into the assembly.

I made one end removable, being held in with a home made Stainless Steel clips that pivot inside brass tube, all in all this turned out to be more work than expected. In the end I was quite happy with the end result.

Thank you for reading this post.
Please feel free to comment.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Part 4.

Around this time I decided not to make the model as the Ross Jackal as supplied in the kit.
After a search of this type of trawler on the net and looking at several trawlers photos I decided on Arctic Vandal H344.

I found good photos of Arctic Vandal online and therefore changed the forecastle hand railing to suit. The rest of the railing I kept much the same as the kit parts. The only regret I have is that I didn’t workout now the aft deck was configured on the Arctic Vandal until I had finished making the railings, this means that the model doesn’t reflect the photos especially on the aft deck. Once I had finished the railings I didn’t want to start again considering how much time and effort I had put into making them, add to this that the intention was for this project to be a quick build, well quick for me anyway.

I didn’t like the kit hand railings they were a bit thick for my liking, so the next job was manufacturing new hand rails out of Stainless Steel wire.

I have never made hand railings before. I do not claim that this is the best way of making hand railings and there are probably better and easier ways of doing this job but this is what I came up with.

Using the relative kit part in this case the Forecastle. I transferred the stanchion positions using a pencil onto a piece of 3mm MDF then drilled holes in those positions.

Using the kit railings as a guide I cut .7mm Stainless Steel wire for the stanchions into the appropriate lengths, there were a lot of these to make, after cutting to length with side cutters I put them into a pin chuck and filed both ends to clean them up.

Once cut and cleaned up I pushed the stanchions into the pre drilled slightly undersized holes in the MDF template.

I then cut and shaped the .5mm railings the best I could. Being Stainless Steel there is quite a bit of spring in the material. The whole Stainless Steel idea is probably an over kill.

I used pieces of wood as spacers to get the railing height right and attempted to silver solder the railing to the stanchions with my low cost micro LPG and OXYGEN torch, this turned out to be a ridiculously long exercise.

I remembered seeing a video on resistance soldering.
Some of the benefits of Resistance Soldering are. Heat is localised. Heat is quick and on demand. The probe is used to hold the work piece before during and after the soldered joint is made effectively giving you a third hand.

I didn’t want to spend the money required to buy a resistance soldering setup as they are very expensive so I built one with help from a couple of members of the model boat group I belong to, mainly getting the variable resistor to work.
This was a game changer, the soldering went along a lot better with this new equipment. It still took quite a while to complete the job.

Once soldered the large blobs of solder were removed using a needle file.

Thank you for reading this post.
Please feel free to comment.

Cheers,
Stephen.

Here is a link to that video,