My updates are like busses. You wait (maybe) for one and then two come along at once.
I have attached a demonstration video show how I have finally managed to operate 16 channels using my FrSky Taranis X9D Plus transmitter. I have added a couple of pictures showing the Tx setup and the demonstration setup. I hope it comes out ok.
Peter.😀
https://youtu.be/2uDXzbg3jvY

https://youtu.be/2uDXzbg3jvY

🔗

I have finally found time to do some modelling. I have been quite busy on models this week as I have almost finished the Police Launch, update to come soon, and now concentrating on Dusseldorf.
I cannot remember if I mentioned that I did find the time earlier to spray paint the inside of the cabin with Tamiya TS Smoke. This is an attempt to hide the incredible amount of motors wires and servos inside to achieve all of the functions. I can now confirm that I have achieved the 16 channel operation I have been seeking for a long time. I will explain in the next update which hopefully will be very soon.
Two things I have done however, is to complete the curved railing at the front of the cabin and redesigned the way in which the servo tray is held inside the cabin. The front rail I made some time ago but as the fixings all run as a radial arc and are all soldered, I was concerned about melting the plastic during soldering as they had to be done in situ. Over the past year I have been worrying about this and decided to just go for it. I assembled all of the joints and placed them onto the model. I then used crocodile clips at the front and rear to act as a heat sink. The one at the front was interfering with the joint area and would also have been soldered. This might not look too attractive with five crocodile clips permanently fixed to the railing so I ground one down to half size. The joints were made easily. What on earth was I concerned about. The last part of this job was to trim and join the side railings. I decided to solder the joiners only to the side railings so that I can remove the assembly easily should anything go wrong.
The second thing I have done is to enable the servo tray to be removed at any time. The instructions said to glue the tray in place which I did. The problem with this is that it is extremely difficult to get at the monitor fixing bolts after fixing. They can be removed, just, but with my hands, impossible to fix back on. I decided to break the tray out again and fix with nuts and bolts. I added some additional wood blocks to the frame that the tray sits on. These were first glued in place and then I added screws for good measure. I then assembled the two monitors onto the cabin roof and fitted the plate to ensure that the monitor rotational bearings were in perfect alignment. I drilled the four fixing holes at 4.1mm diameter and then added two additional holes at 4.00mm diameter to allow me to dowel it in place for accurate alignment. I added the screws and the two dowels, which are 4mm diameter brass tube. They work perfectly. Now I can remove the servo plate easily.
I am trying hard to prepare the cabin for painting before the cold weather settles in here. I have a window of about two more weeks. I used a rainy day to make all of the remaining hatch cover and door handles.
Thanks for reading this and if you are still awake, well done.
Peter.😊

Just a small update as I have very little time for modelling at the moment.
I have been thinking for some time how I can drill 10off 2mm diameter holes for the deck hose connectors and valve hand wheels and have them look uniform. The instructions show them just glues into the moulding (so I am told of course). I decided some time ago to add 2mm dowels into the back face and glue from the rear. I decided to make a small jig to help with positioning from 3mm plasticard.
I started by roughly cutting out a general shape of the bottom of the moulding. I then carefully shaped it with a file until it had a snug fit. I transferred the piece onto the other side of the cabin and it fitted there also. I then carefully worked out positions and scribed the Plasticard with the centres and drilled the ten holes. I then placed the jig into the recess and carefully transferred the holes through. I repeated this on the other side. I am pleased with the results. I think the valves, reported on an earlier post, and the hand wheels should look good.
Next, I plan to try to paint the inside face of all of the windows to give a smoked glass effect. I hope this will hide all of the mechanisms necessary for the functions.

Before I left for Hungary, I did manage to find a little time to work on Dusseldorf. I decided to take a break from railings and start on the small rowing boat.
The first thing to do was to cut and file the top edge of the forming to the correct height. This proved to be quite a task as I do not have the confidence to cut too close and end up with a lot of filing. I was very happy with the finished item. Next was to add a keel made from scrap material. Once again, I did not cut too close. I first formed the hull shape on the inside edge of the piece by careful filing. I placed the assembly to the light until I was happy with the fit and glued into place. Then, once again by filing, I profiled the bottom edge.
The next task was the oars. These were made using pre-formed plastic parts for the blades and two pieces of 2mm wood rod for the shafts. The last few millimetres were filed to half of the diameter. The blades were then glued on and the whole assembly tidied up.
The duck boards were next. I had treated all of the wood strips earlier with stain. I cut all of the necessary parts to length and carefully glued them together using a scrap piece of plastic as a template for the gap between planks. For the foot board inside of the rowing boat, additional forming was required. The files came out again. The plans were not good for scale here and I found that one fewer plank was required than that drawn.
My next session will be in Hungary. I have no idea when. (I do really as I did a little today). First time I have found time here to do anything. I ran out of time to post this before I left.

I have finally found some time to get on with some modelling. My house is now in turmoil whilst we pack everything getting ready for the big move to Hungary.
My main task ahead is to prepare the cabin for painting.
This can only be carried out successfully, in my mind anyway, if all of the holes needed to fit all of the additional parts, especially the railings, have been drilled.
The centre monitor grating has tabs all around to hold the semi-circular rail posts. These posts then continue and are drilled through the cabin roof.
To do this, I fitted the grating in place and aligned it as accurately as I could. I then used my milling machine and carefully drilled all of the holes right through. This worked very well.
To make these curved rails, I bent the 1.5mm brass rod around a 65mm diameter spray can.
The result was almost spot on for the 125mm diameter required. I then straightened the ends in line with the plan.
The post tubes were cut to around 65mm and the burrs cleaned away.
The posts and railings were then fitted together and fixed with 1mm split pins with the legs of the pins going inside of the tubes. I then set the post height with two blocks of wood at the correct height.
I then place crocodile clips onto the tubes to act as heat sinks whilst I soldered all of the joints.
I have used a very similar process to produce all of the other cabin railings. The rear monitor has a small railing which is also curved. I made this in a similar way using the plan as a guide for the positions of the bends.
This did cause a little problem though. How to drill the post positions accurately in the cabin roof.
I decided to trace around the shape of this bent railing and then place it accurately on the roof. I marked the post positions onto the paper and transferred these marks onto the roof and drilled. They worked out quite well.
I marked out all of the remaining fixing holes from the plan using the height gauge I made for the Gato build and drilled these also. I use the clips as heat sinks on all of the joints so as not to melt the plastic around the posts. I have some joints to solder which are only 5mm from the hole in the cabin. I will have to come up with a plan B for these, my next job.

I have made a start on painting the small items prior to fitting. I have decided, as usual, to use some of my own colour ideas. I find the Dusseldorf too `red` so I have changed a few things. I have used mainly Tamiya TS spray paints on top of Tamiya fine primer. The results are pleasing. For the silver I used a left over Humbrol spray can. The result is very disappointing as you can see in the photographs. I will leave them as they are as they are such small parts and I am sure will not be seen in the middle of the Danube.
Whilst preparing the fire hose connectors for painting, of which there are twelve, I thought that they looked bland without any detail. I decided to use a new design idea from the Vospers design department to improve their appearance. I turned up some small brass inserts to go into the centre hole and then inserted some old pin inserts into the centre to give some interest. This centre pin will also be used to position and fix them in place. They do not look too bad but the horrible paint finish does spoil them a little. I might be forced to revisit them before final fitting.

As one of our fellow members was experiencing a little difficulty in sorting out the electrical connections for the multiple channels required to run the Dusseldorf, I thought it was time that I should make a start myself. Usually I will wire everything up and fit the RC connections at the end. This is a model with an extreme quantity of functioning gadgets so I decided that I should make a start.
I was always going to use my Taranis X9D Plus transmitter but was not sure whether to use two X8R receivers or one receiver and the s-bus connection. I purchased all of the gear for both methods as I knew that I would use the spare parts on a later project.
Last evening, and after reading the other members difficulties with decoders, I decided to go the s-bus route. I wired up the decoders to a channel changer and found it to be relatively easy to use. I have two four channel s-bus decoders which will be wired together with a `Y` cable which in turn is plugged into the receiver s-bus port. The two decoders will be channels nine to twelve and thirteen to sixteen. Channels one to eight will be via the X8R.
My next challenge is to figure out how to assign all of the switches and devices to the correct channels and more importantly, how to do it. The instructions supplied with the Taranis are next to useless. Fortunately, the Taranis has enough switches etc to cover for all sixteen channels, if you use the trainer switch.

Time passes really quickly lately for me. I am sure that those locked inside cannot say the same thing. I have, however, been suffering from a serious lack of motivation similar to that of Martin. I try to fight it but just sitting on my backside seems to win too often.
I have decided to try to break away from this and get on. I have been doing a little modelling and this is the progress, or lack of, over the past four months.
I have been concentrating on the cabin and making up all of the fittings. The radar is made up of several flat discs glued together and then formed using files and sand paper. I then had to drill several holes through the cabin roof, two of which had to be 12mm diameter. This would rip the thin plastic to pieces so a plan was required. I decided to buy a tapered hand reamer, tapered from 6mm to 16mm. I drilled the holes as large as I dare, about 8mm, and then slowly opened them up to 11.5mm. Then I found that once again I was suffering for not having read through the instructions beforehand. As the plastic is so thin walled and the parts attaching through the holes were so large, I should have glued some supporting wood to the inside roof of the cabin and drilled the holes through these also. I quickly made some support blocks from 12mm ply and struggled for ages to glue them to the ceiling above the servo plate already fitted earlier. I MUST learn to read the instructions first.
I then decided to glue the foredeck down which meant I had to fit the angled brass anchor guide tubes. I thought this would be difficult, as I had already painted the deck, and it was. I now know why the painting is done after assembly. I have always feared the masking. Well I did damage the paint during the filing of the ends of the tubes to match the deck and the hull. I accepted the fact that a full repaint was required and also decided to change the colour below the waterline to black. The masking is shown in the pictures but I found the Tamiya masking tape invaluable. I followed the contours of the deck to gunwale using 5mm wide tape which you can follow the curves with relatively easily. Once that line was done I increased the tape to 12mm wide and carried on with this until a good footing for cellotape was achieved. I then stuck down a covering of A4 paper cut to shape to cover the rest. This was not as bad as I thought it would be so I have learned a valuable lesson. Assemble the main parts and then paint, very much in line with all of the modelers who have been doing it for years.
I plan to improve my state of mind now and get on. I will concentrate on finishing the cabin so that I can finally paint it. I want to finish the main build by Christmas. No hope really!!
Peter.

Managed a little work over the past few weeks in between improving my workshop and the Gato Submarine. I started to assemble the tow hook which has an automatic release. The instructions show a wire spring which has to be made from a small steel rod supplied. I bent it to shape and fitted it, after adjusting the hooks to make room for it, and gave it a test. I would have needed a hydraulic cylinder to get this arrangement to function. There is no way a servo could have moved it. I decided to modify the system.
Firstly, I epoxy glued the parts I had adjusted to get the spring wire in place and filed and drilled them back to as they were. I then drilled a 2.7mm diameter hole to accept a 2.2mm diameter by 0.31mm wire diameter spring by 15mm long. See photo. The bar down which you have to drill is only 3mm wide so care is required. Care is also required regarding the depth of this hole so that the spring does not rest against the central brass column which the tow hook swivels around. I have now dropped the spring in place and reassembled the unit. This is a much better solution. It now works very well and does not take too much force to activate.
Next job is to shape and fit the anchor guides. Another job I have not been looking forward to. I can then fix down the fore deck and complete the painting of the hull.😊
Peter.

Work has taken priority over the past several weeks but I have managed to get some work done on the project from time to time. My focus has been on the special functions.
First, I completed the front monitor by adding the servo unit and the drive mechanisms. The instructions do have most of the information but due to there being so many parts and these being referred to only by their part number, I found it best to separate all of the required parts and dry assemble before committing to glue. All went well and I connected the servos to see how it functioned. There was a little slippage of the but generally went well. To reduce the slippage. The drive cord is tensioned by a spring connection. After putting more pre-tension on this spring, the slippage was eliminated.
The dual monitors were next on the list but I decided on a change. Bring on the crane.
I separated all of the parts and built the crane as a test. All seemed good so I disassembled and painted, my own colour choices I might add. Then I assembled the running gear frame and dry fitted the two motors for testing. I noticed that one of the motors was taller than the plan and would need to go right through the base plate and be seen from the top going through the deck. I decided top do my first basic scratch build. Not to the standard of many on this site, but little acorns and all that. I decided to invent a crane inspection hatch. I made it from scrap pieces of ABS. (No yoghurt pots to hand). I then wired the motors and added suppressors to each. The whole unit was now built and connected up to the TX. It works very well. A little juddery on rotation but I will look at that later. An elastic band doubled up provides the drive so I think it might be slipping slightly on the pulleys.
I have now started to assemble the double monitor unit. I have assembled the servo plate and installed it. I have fitted the lower running bearings and completed a test assembly, with the gratings, onto the cabin roof. Looks good so I will try to complete this for the next update.
One piece of advice for all those making this model. You will come to a point on the monitors that you will have to solder a tiny tube inside a larger diameter tube. This small tube takes the thread that will operate the raising and lowering of the monitors. Check multiple times before you glue these into the monitor heads as the instructions and plans do not agree. Watch which side the servo arm is fixed and work out these tube positions before gluing to the monitors.