Place

Darlington and District

Various racing events occur after lunch on Wednesday these include -: Semi scale fast electrics, 1m class yachts, Electric Airboats and footy class yachts.

8 years ago by leovilla

Forum

Is westbournemodel@ co serious?

I am asking everyone on the air if westbourne are taking joke of me: I ordered and payed 4 people graupner marine crew fot my tugboat, they confirmed receiving bill and soon they should send to me (more than three months ago) many mails witout ONE answer! I am astonished!

8 years ago by saintsalvio

Forum

soldering

Ok, needs some advise. I've purchased cooper tubing (1/8 sq & rnd, 1/16 rnd for building my shrouds. I've also purchased a digit solder iron so that I can get accurate heat ranges. I've searched for "how to solder" on the subject, but have only found plumbing references. Would prefer to not use propane! Joints are expected to be contact joints, not one piece inside another. Would appreciate some feed back, wanting to get started, but not to waste material learning!😉

5 years ago by retirement-hobby

Response

s

So far so good!👍😉 Ya see, it ain't so hard after all 😉 Hard part is jigging all the parts together so they can't move. Or stopping the last joint melting apart when you make the next.😡 To solve that I use crock clips as heat shunts between the last and the next joint. Keep it up r-h, Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

s

my very first soldering project! This is the start of a shroud.

5 years ago by retirement-hobby

Blog

Cooling the motor – update.

I’m grateful to mturpin013 for commenting that he considered using the propeller adaptor supplied with the Turnigy motor as it prompted me to retrieve mine from the box and adapt it to secure the fan on the end of the motor. I cut off the threaded shaft from the prop adaptor and the end was ground flat and then I placed it on the end of the motor stub and used a scriber through the bolt holes to mark the positions on the flange of the fan. The fan was then removed and the holes drilled through and opened up to 3mm and then it was a simple matter to put the fan back on the motor and attach the new piece to the motor using the three 2.5mm cap head screws which are supplied with the prop adaptor. I think this is a far better ‘engineering’ solution to securing the fan to the rotor than a spot of CA. Because the addition of the fan was so straightforward and effective I have decided to implement it on the model anyway so I cut an opening through the end panel of the motor cover and put some stainless steel mesh over that to finish it. The motor is now connected to the ESC and I have done some tests with the motor running and I’m delighted to report that there’s a very healthy airflow through the motor cover 😁👍. It turns out that my modification is not unique at all and credit is due to reilly4 who did something similar to the twin motors on one of his boats long before I came up with the idea. He posted a ‘photo of his boat when replying to mturpin013 on the subject of servo mounts. Take a look at the motors in his picture!

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Basic hull construction completed

very nice bit of shaping on the balsa there and filling. I purchased a Perkasa MTB hull off of a boot fair and that part they have done is awful. I have got to sort that out. As far as the motor size goes, I put a 10 cc Irvine engine in a model boat that should only have had a 7.5cc in it. it went like stink. But even then it would all depend on how you use your throttle control. I would myself still go larger than instructions say but that's because I'm a speed freak. Flat out on the straight and test to the extreme on turn's. Turned a couple upside down as well and still was able to carry on running once recovered. I always take a telescopic fishing rod with me with a weight and floating line for recovery.

5 years ago by BOATSHED

Forum

What size brushless motor?

I'm building a new Fairey Hunstman 31 from a kit bought through SLEC. It has provision for a single prop shaft and I've bought a 2 bladed plastic x-shape prop, 25mm based on a recommendation from SLEC. What is the best/most efficient/most powerful brushless electric motor/ battery combination I can fit? I'm a novice at this and my previous boat kit had all parts supplied. Thank you in anticipation....👍

5 years ago by StuartE

Response

First problem.......

Hello Stuart, all part of the challenge I’m afraid, but rewarding once you have used your skills and cracked it. I’ve yet to build a model of anything, especially with wood, where everything is cut to fit, ( I’m not sure if that is really possiible) Fairey Huntsman is a lovely craft to build and plenty of references if needed to the detail of the real boat from http://www.faireyownersclub.co.uk/ Good luck, don’t give up, enjoy the challendge

5 years ago by Brianaro

Media

Fairmount Alpine

Hello ! Som more Pictures of my Fairmount Alpine , A little bit forward on the deck propshaft and rudder is mounted the towing winch is mounted and working more pictures is comming // Have a nice weekend all boat builders 👍

5 years ago by jugge

Blog

The motor cover.

I want to keep the motor cover as compact and in proportion as much as possible so I drew up a design to visualise it and get some practical working dimensions, it also needs to enclose the prop shaft and coupling, and the MT60 connection for the motor so there will not be very much free air space inside. Because of this the motor cover will need some ventilation as the brushless outrunner motor can’t be water cooled and I don’t want to fit a fan, so the side panels of the box will need some gauze covered slots so that any heat generated can escape, assisted (perhaps) by the rotation of the motors outer ‘rotor’ creating some air movement. I don’t intend to run this boat very fast so I’m hoping that the motor will not get too hot anyway🤞. I transferred the dimensions of the side panels from my drawings to some 1.5mm obeche panels and cut the side pieces to size and cut out the ventilation slots, some framing pieces and cross braces were fitted internally and the whole assembly glued and clamped together. Additional framing was added to support the part that covers the shaft and coupling and obeche panels applied to these. Some finishing details were applied around the base and the top to improve the appearance. The internal framing will later incorporate some small cylindrical neodymium magnets that will hold the motor enclosure down on the deck, I’ll fit these later when the deck floor has been fitted. The mesh is some of the stainless steel mesh that I had used in the water pickup tube on my RAF Crash Rescue Tender hoses, and this was cut to size and epoxied in place. The completed enclosure was finished with the same Teak stain as the rest of the boat. Next up will be an enclosure at the rear to conceal the control electronics.

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

Receiver aerial

You're talking about using one of these? https://www.rcworld.co.uk/acatalog/2-4Ghz-400mm-Extended-Aerial-Pair-P_RA2_4G_400.html or on ebay... https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/Futaba-2-4ghz-400mm-Extended-RX-Aerial/1504309322 So long as these are the advised spec by the manufacturer, why worry about the impedance? You might be interested in this discussion I had a little while ago on the Single Channel site about replacing 2.4Ghz aerials - points Martin made include: "......I tested all my detachable 2.4 GHz antennas and found quite a wide range of frequencies they were best tuned for, ranging from about 2.1 to 2.6 GHz - but they all work fine and have pretty good SWRs at the 2.45 GHz point. What was more interesting was testing various antennae that I've received for various pieces of kit over the years that run at 433 MHz, 5.8 GHz and the GPS frequencies of 1.2 and 1.6 GHz. Many of these are just 2.4 GHz antennas - I even have one that is labelled 433 MHz, but is really a 2.4 GHz and quite useless at 433 MHz!......." ".....It is important to realize that all the coax cables we use (all relatively light and thin) are all quite lossy at 2.4 GHz, so you shouldn't make the non-transmitting (intact cable) part any longer than it needs to be. if you have a foot or two of coax feeding the active part of the antenna (the modified bit at the end) then you can easily lose half of the available signal....." http://mode-zero.uk/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=389 I would also add that polarisation may become important when you have an aerial close to a horizontal reflective plane like a lake. I suspect that you might get a lot of the signal coming at you horizontally polarised, which a vertically mounted aerial won't like. For video output from a boat I've been using the circular polarised aerials that the drone operators use in an attempt to maintain signal at distance - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-4GHz-Circular-Polarized-clover-leaf-Antenna-set-with-short-connector-RP-SMA/253889968333?hash=item3b1d0578cd:g:YkEAAOSw5LZcZF3Y:rk:3:pf:0

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Forum

Shroud for Model

Copper will solder well (though it will take some heat!). But unless you use a very light and flimsy gauge it will be very heavy. Brass will solder well - don't know the size of prop you want - may be a bit expensive. You can bend thin sheet round a former to make any diameter shroud. Aluminium tube should do, if you can get an off-cut the size you want. Don't play around with aluminium soldering, which is a specialist job - but small pop rivets will work perfectly... We don't know the size you are interested in, so it's hard to advise on materials. But if your boats are static models, card or thin plastic sheet will be fine. A slice from a plastic squash bottle may fit the bill?

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Forum

Shroud for Model

I' m new here and hope to link up with other model builders. I only build static models, and have or are in the progress of building different types of boats. Cabin Crusers, Ski boats, s, House Boat. I have about 10 models in various stages of building and repair. This being an introduction and an inquiry. Does anyone build s? I have a shroud question. I used super glue on my early builds and they havent with stood the test if time. Looking for feedback

5 years ago by retirement-hobby

Forum

Shroud for Model

Thanks for the comments, Ive used the glues, they work, but dont afford much movement. Soldering is my attempt, materials seem to be aluminium, copper or brass tubes.

5 years ago by retirement-hobby

Forum

Shroud for Model

Hello, CPO: I agree with Joe727. I’d use a high quality two-part epoxy for sure & maybe some sort of small fasteners, too, if there’s room for them. When I was about eight years old my father had a real named “Banshee”. She was painted bright red & was an absolute blast to ride in, although I remember being more than slightly terrified on a few occasions. Dad modified her four-cylinder airplane engine to the point that she’d easily get close to 60 knots. Dad only opened her up that much in summer in late afternoon or early evening when there wasn’t much wind. Believe me, calm air or not, at 55 to 60 knots when the boat virtually goes airborne it’s white-knuckle terrifying, especially when sitting in a “bar stool” high above the water!

5 years ago by PittsfieldPete

Forum

Shroud for Model

Good Morning Chief Petty Officer. Glad to hear of some enquiry about s. I built a few of these in the mid to late 1960s and they were great fun. I powered them with engines like the Cox Babe Bee up to a Frog 150R diesel. All were free running of course and it was either a keep fit excercise to try and catch them before they hit the bank across the lake or in most cases there was always a good person ready to perform the "save".. Due to political correctness and the environment. the I.C powered versions are consigned to history . Them days we didnt have shrouds over the airscrews. Best method of securing a shroud is to use ZAP Z-Poxy Resin. it is durable, water resistant and can be bought from good model shops and is a two pack. One bottle contains the resin and the other the hardner. its a 50/50 mix and you can purchase a range of them with various setting times. 😎Boaty

5 years ago by boaty

Forum

Shroud for Model

Hello, Airboats are not something I have real experience with, but your one comment got my attention: SuperGlue, or CA, an abbreviation, as it is commonly referred to. It does not withstand constant exposure to water. it is not waterproof. Now there is likely to be a storm of comments against this, but this is based upon experience over 20 years. CA is great and I do use it for some applications on my boats. However if it's below the waterline make certain to adequately sealed or properly painted over it. This is a good rule for most glues that sit below the water, with the exception of truely waterproof glues like epoxy. Good luck with your projects. Cheers Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Forum

New to Forum

Hello fellow model boaters. I'm new here so forgive my posting mistakes. Just wanted to introduce myself, I've been building model boats (static) for about 5 years. I mostly build my concept of a boat, however I have built from some plans. I build small models, 10" is my biggest and most are under that. I also have a fascination with s and have built several. Does anyone deal with soldering metal components, having a problem with material. Usually I draw what I want to build, make templates, transfer to balsa, and build. Are any of the clubs focused on non RC models? Looking to learn and share!👍

5 years ago by retirement-hobby

Media

s

These are under repair. They were built a couple of years ago, but didnt survive some moves. Combination of hull repairs, rebuilding of shrouds, etc. Ongoing projects.

5 years ago by retirement-hobby

Forum

Precedent Fairey Huntsman

I have for sale an unfinished Fairey Huntsman 31, I started it approx 9 months ago as a project with my grandson but his attention has now turned to model railways, subsequently I have now lost interest in completing and sailing it, the boat is approx 90% complete and comes with new RC equipment battery motor etc, I am looking for £250 just to recoup the costs and to put to his new model railway. I live inStoke-on-Trent if anybody would like to have a look,

5 years ago by bthart

Forum

1950s sea commander refurb.

".....Thanks for all your comments and input. What i really need now is a copy of the templates sheet so that i can cut some new parts to replace some of the missing ones ....." There was never a 'templates sheet', of course. There were just the original kit parts. This is a fundamental problem with trying to 'save' old model boat plans. The aircraft plans usually have all parts described precisely. Many - possibly most - boat kits are essentially sets of parts with assembly instructions. So, if you need to reproduce an old kit, you need to include part templates as well. Which means a lot of work for someone. Not only do you have to obtain an example of the original kit, measure it up and draw it using a CAD package, but you also have to allow for the fact that wood changes, and that die-cut parts may be cut badly, and so what you have measured may need correcting - sometimes quite extensively. Here's a classic example - the old Yeoman MINX, with templates drawn up...

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Forum

AIR FOR STEAM

Hello All Thinking out loud when I research steam engines it seams after they are built or after repair they are tested on an air compressor is it possible to set up a model RC boat to run a steam engine with air if so would it be by compressor or a compressed air bottle . If by compressor is there a small enough unit to go into a boat and be battery operated any ideas . Rick

5 years ago by Newby7

Forum

Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build

Sakibian, My friend Graham built his E-boat with a fibreglass hull but scratch-built everything else. He does magnificent detail work. For you to build this hull you first need to get the plans to the scale you want to build. 1/24 is good for these models. The cross sections are essential. You need to determine how many bulkhead frames you will require. You won't require as many as shown on their plan and photos - maybe less than half - as many as will enable you to support the stringers to give you a shape of the hull on to which you can fix the planking or skin. The frames you choose need to be at or very close to cross sections, so you can use them to mark and cut your frames. I use 5mm plywood. There is a photo of my Fairmile D frame earlier in this series of posts. One of my earliest posts on this website was a Youtube video with the E-boat and my Fairmile D in action with sound effects.

5 years ago by reilly4

Forum

Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build

Hi Sakibian, The PT boat site now sells stuff too, but was originally a site where the author John Drain described how he was building his PT boat and then the E-boat. There are good plans and examples of how he has constructed these boats. My Fairmile D was made from plywood frames, pine stringers, planked and skinned with balsa and then fibreglassed. it was a very interesting and difficult shape, but very satisfying once completed. it sails beautifully in the most difficult conditions. I have also included a few more pics of my friend's E-boat with the newer camouflage for further inspiration.

5 years ago by reilly4

Response

Holy SMOKE !! Video, Tin Can Madness

BTW: I grew up with valves (or bottles as we Brits also call 'em) as well. I still have a box of several vintage 'bottles' in the cellar, many of them new still in the original boxes. if you ever run out of triodes, pentodes or tetrodes give me a buzz! Think I still have some pristine EL80s - collectors items these days - lots of Oomph 😁 My next non-model boat electronic project is a pair of digital clocks in 'Art Deco' cases, using bottle decade counters. The forerunners of the fluorescent tubes and then the LED clocks, but much more fun😉. About forty years ago I spent a year or so servicing and calibrating the radiation monitors around UK nuke power plants using these decade counters. One cosmic radiation click = one jump in the base counter and so on. Never ever saw anything above the basic cosmic radiation background count which is always there. A remnant of the 'Big Bang'. 😲 Funny where an interest in electronics and radio can getcha 😁 Look forward to your chimney experiment report👍 My destroyer has two funnels but I found that the little railway smokers were not man enough to feed two funnels via a branched tube. But two working in parallel off the one RC channel did the trick. Regarding the chimney effect; Works well at rest or at low speeds, but I also found that instead of a fan some traditional air vent scoops mounted forward of the smoker augmented the effect well at higher speeds. And my long thin destroyer with 2 x 540s on 12V made a lot of 'speed boats' look silly 😁 Have fun, ciao, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Motor, mount & prop-shaft.

That's a really good question that I really can't answer right now as I've yet to run the boat !. The motor enclosure does have quite large ventilation panels on either side which are covered in a mesh and I'm hoping that the motor will be able to 'breathe' as a result. The brushless in my Fire Boat doesn't even get warm after a long hard run and that's enclosed in the hull but has admittedly got a lot more free air around it in the motor compartment. This is not a racing boat remember, so I'll not be using the motor to it's full ability, scale speed is all I really want and expect. I'll report back when it's had some sea trials 😁 Robbob.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Build

The heating elements in the hairdryer had two different wire gauges as elements. I removed the lighter gauge thinking they would probably draw less current. I am attempting to use 6 volts as that is what my boat is. 1. First Photo: Took a length of element and stretched it out as shown, started with a longer piece about 8". if you are at 12v probably longer. Use some alligator clip jumpers and attached to one end, ran it to negative terminal of my 6v SLA. Took another jumper and attached to a point on the wire, say about 7". JUST TOUCH the other end to the battery positive to see if it glowed, it did not. So just moved about 3/8" at a time till it glowed - See Photo. CAUTION, make certain you have a nonflammable surface to work on, I used a tile scrap. IT GETS HOT FAST AND WILL BURN, DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW. That's why I just touch the terminal till it glows then stop, let it cool for a while. 2. Cut element to length, than take your 16 gauge wire and the crimp tube shown in earlier post. insert both into the tube and crimp it. I used a side cutter and carefully just squeezed enough. Make sure that the element will not pull out. Do the other end. Because I am using only 6 volts, I had flattened out the wire to give me more wraps on the wick. See photo and note. 3. in the lid of the box, I located the fan at one end, the exhaust stack at the other. Drilled a hole matching the fan opening and secured with two screws, drill small pilot holes so as not to crack the plastic. Drill hole to match brass tube OD, tube is about 1" long or so. Super glued brass tube in place. Excuse the sloppy copper sheet work on the inside of the lid, it was an experiment at the time. I added this a a bit of a heat sheild as the wick and element would sit below this. 4. Next photos show the interior of the box, not the best photos of the process as this was already built.... The mint tin set inside the plastic box was an idea to do two things; first isolate the heating element from the plastic,and two, provide a smaller vessel for the fluid. You may want to just use a metal container instead of the plastic box, again I was just using what I had on hand. The wick is laying in the tin with the element propped up at on end to keep it out of the fluid. Photo shown does not show much fluid in place. This needs some work, but worked for this test. Experiment, just be sure that the lower portion of the wick is in the fluid and the element wire wrap is above the fluid level. For the test, I used some mineral oil and a bit of glycerin, smoked very well. it's late so I will run it and photograph tomorrow. Cheers, Joe (Excuse the Imperial rather than metric)

5 years ago by Joe727

Blog

Slow going ...

After building the mine laying rails I then purchased scale German mines , only to find out that they are 4mm wider than the rails on the boat, ...what to do , cut the mines (8) down and rework the base and wheels to fit the boats rails or move the rails wider ..... moving the rails ... slow going , found that the motors I have are more aircraft/drone use per the esc, , no reverse .... Hobbyking does have esc that will work , still need a couple of servos and a radio , just not sure if a 6 Chanel land/ boat radio or get a large channel stick radio would be better ... as always $$$$ is an issue . Work on the messy table as I fit cut and replace fittings and supports ... Smooth sailing to all... Bill G

5 years ago by BW3

Response

Fitting the rubbing strakes.

Nice one 'Cyril' 👍 Used much the same technique for the spray rail repairs and replacements on my PTB 109 restoration. Works a treat don' it. Pics show the before an' after. Following the build with great interest, as I also did the Fire Boat Rob. Great stuff. Keep it up. Cheers Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Model Boat Show.

Ellesmere Port Model Boat Club are having a Model Boat Show on the 18th. and 19th. May 2019 at Hooton Park Trust, an old RAF airfield adjacent to the Vauxhall factory in Ellesmere Port. There will be Traders, Model Boat Clubs and RC truckers there. Opening times are 10 am to 4 pm on the Saturday and 10 am to 3pm on the Sunday. There is a pool for sailing. We have a Facebook page with photos.👍

5 years ago by epmbcmember

Forum

Rx-tx confusion

Lordgord, I understand the confusion as there is almost too much infor nation on the web, much of it is mis-leading. I have been using this technology for 12 years now and have owned and used at least 8 Spektrum receivers. Here's my take: 1. You need a DSM2 or DSMX Transmitter, that simple. 2. My first photo shows a Spektrum AR7000 RX in my tugboat. it's a nice RX, IS 7 channel with an addition satellite received. it's overkill for a boat that just needs a couple of channels and doesn't fall to earth in a failure. Originally purchased for an RC Airplane, it's pricey at $90 to $100 USD. OUCH. 3. Ti try the less expensive RX's available no, first I tried OrangeRX and bought 3, none of which ever worked, a problem with China's lack of quality control. 4. Recently p, I needed two more RXs for boat builds and read that LemonRX was doing pretty good. Last two photos are of the Lemon, model LM0034. They work great and bind very easy, best of all they are $16 USD ! www.lemon-rx.com 5. One caveat with the lemon, they come just as shown in photo....no documentation. You need to look up on the internet which port is which and how to bind. Took me about 10 minute, bu is something to consider if this is your first hookup. Knowing which set of prongs go to what channel is critical. Personally, in the future, I am going to buy more Lemons... Hope this helps, Ask any question that you may have, we are all hear to help each other. Cheers, Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Forum

Smoke generator

Have just made a prototype of a fan forced smoker which seems to be working well (despite breaking the heater coil by moving it while hot, - had it apart, broke wire, screw and washer repair, not quite as hot) I bought a couple of Heng Long smokers (for R/C tanks or cars) to play with, for $10 NZ each(or 5.3 Euros to you Northerners give or take a yen) from Bangood and just bought another from Ebay. There seem to be 2 different models, as one has a long coil with a lamp wick draped over it, which is sitting in the oil reservoir, the other has a small coil inside a piece of heat resistant woven tubing (as you might find insulating toaster/heater wiring etc) which acts as a wick and that also sits in cotton wool in the reservoir, (this seems to be the better of the two) Tip - don't fill the tank right up, only enough to soak the cotton, element should be just out of the oil. The wick loads the element. The better model seems to have a black top to the tank (also maybe either brown or black tank) and the other has a brown top and dirty brown tank. As with most of this stuff you won't know till you get it what it's going to be. What I did was remove the tank and cut off the pump tube just in front of the screw lugs (see black line in photo) then fitted the tank, and a 40x40x10 5v ESC fan (voltage controlled by a UBEC set to 5v on the jumpers) into a plastic electronics utility box from Jaycar (our local electronics and hobby store). I made up a double JST lead for the 2s 1800Mah Lipo and fired it up (using baby oil). it's pretty much silent and smokes well once it gets warmed up, ( starts smoking in about 5 seconds) You could control it (on/off volume) by either a remote on/off switch or perhaps a small cheap 10A brushed ESC. I would leave the fan running and control the element to avoid burning the element. The original pump tank inlet hole seems ok as is (approx 1.5mm) but you could enlarge it very slightly to get a better flow if you could find a better oil. At the electronics store they have proper smoke machine oil for $20 NZ per litre so I may have a look at that. The reason I went for the fan idea was that I found in std pump form, if I immersed a tube from the tank in water, it sucked water back into the tank. I was hoping it would pump smoke out of my HSL exhausts at water level alongside the cooling water but it would need a very light non return valve to do this. The fan seems to pump the smoke through 2mm ID silicone tube ok, so tubing of similar ID to the OD of the tank outlets should work well. These pumps in original form work pretty well for the price, and are cheap enough to keep a few for spare elements, the only thing is they are a bit noisy but in an 'engine sounding' way, (might add to the effect on a tug or work-boat though) What you have left after this mod is a very handy little geared motor with an eccentric output wheel which could be used for winches, radar and whirly bits of any description (see pic of motor leftover and original) To avoid burnout, these should be run on no more than a 2s (around 7.5v-(suggest 8v max with fan running) The other tank is going to work a lot better than this one but I'm not making a tug, just want a bit of exhaust smoke on start-up etc to go with the 2 sound units. Very cheap to make (around $25 NZ with pump, box, fan and UBEC all through Ebay, Aliexpress and Bangood (and local electronics store) if you wanted to run an ESC to control the smoke and you have no channels left to control it proportionally, you can always try using a second receiver bound to your TX, (if your TX will allow it,) power it and a brushed ESC (wired to the element) as normal and use the throttle channel to plug in your smoke control. This should work if you want more smoke as you accelerate or if you are using only 1 stick on a 2 stick TX you could use your 'elevator' stick pushed up (or a toggle switch if available) to start/stop the smoke (through the brushed ESC setup) . This setup weighs 100g (10g more than std) The quest for lots of smoke continues Will try to upload vid later and update progress.

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Directory

(Working Vessel) Debbie 1

This Billings model was probably one of the first R/C models I ever built the speed control is a Traxxas XL-1 2 Channel am Airtronics transmitter . I took it down to a pond at Confederation Park to test it with my girl friend turned it on but the rudder was hard over & I didn't see that the boat started going in a nice circle until it screwed itself under .I jumped in and there was only 3 feet of water & 4 feet of mud . My girlfriend ,now my wife thought I was crazy but after 42 years she still thinks I'm crazy . (ESC: Traxxass XL-1) (5/10)

5 years ago by GARTH

Forum

HMS Campbeltown 1941, 1/96 scale

Thankyou Nerys for your very kind words 😊👍 'One does what one can!' 😉 HMS Manxman is one of my favourite ships and the subject of my next major project. I have the 1/96 scale Deans marine kit. Her history has always fascinated me. Built my first 1/600 Airfix model of her many many moons ago! Should you happen to have any photos of her in the Medway I would be most grateful if you could post them or mail them to me👍 Re 'the wealth of information'; comes from having spent over thirty years working in naval communication systems for navies and shipyards around the world. Many of the projects were refits of ships which were built towards the end of WW2. Such as the ex RN Colossus class carrier I worked on in Rio de Janeiro. Ex Vengeance then NAeL Minas Gerais. Pics show her as built as Vengeance and as rebuilt / reconfigured as Minas Gerais as I knew her in the nineties. Through that work I developed a knack for research; if I didn't know something about a ship or a COMMS process that a customer wanted I damn soon found out. Was essential to stay ahead of the competition 😉 It also gave me an undying interest and insatiable curiosity about the history of the ships and the men who sailed and fought in them. My first working model was a scratch build of the H class destroyer HMS Hotspur which I built at 1/72 from measurements taken from a 1/600 Airfix kit, when I was 15! 52 years ago now 🤔 See penultimate pic, shows her alongside my 1/72 Type IIA U-Boat. A contemporary of Hotspur, both commissioned in 1936. Last pics are of her maiden voyage in Radnor Park Folkestone in 1966. Sorry, only had a Brownie 127 camera back then 😁 Her history, from Narvik to Dominican Republic was also very chequered and eventful. Like Manxman, despite being severely damaged several times she survived until the early seventies. Apart from the Manxman kit I have recently found a 1/350 kit of the Colossus class carriers. So I promptly bought two of 'em. One I will build as the original HMS Vengeance, the other I will try to reconfigure as NAeL Minas Gerais with an angled flight deck etc. Wish me luck 😉 Good luck with all your projects Nerys and All the very best for 2019. Cheers, Doug 😎 BTW; footnote to SS Peking; German TV recently showed the old Miss Marple film 'Murder Ahoy' in which the Peking was used for the external scenes as the Training Ship Battledore. An amazing coincidence, following so soon after your enquiry!

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

internet sales

Hi All, Although i come from an aircraft background i am also into boating. I used to have a total of five model shops within a half hour drive to source my parts, before emigrating i had 1 who was mainly into cars so i had to go online. Now in Portugal I have no shops within 4 hours so have to rely on internet purchases.

5 years ago by Wingcoax

Forum

Brushless motor(s)

Charlie, Good question. I have a number of brushless motors and esc' from my model airplane days..... I model slow boats like tugs and just assumed that they would be too fast for these boats, but I don't know if this is true or not.... Maybe someone out there knows? Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Forum

Sea Queen Frames

Well I sent him an ebay msg expressing how displeased I was with the quality of his High Standard drawings and he said send them back for a full refund , so thats fair enough I suppose. its just a shame that a lot more people will also fall for the same thing . I did ask him if Stevie Wonder had drawn them He did try the trick of saying it says printed to a high standard but I pointed out it said Hand Drawn & printed ( to a high standard ). I did suggest he changed his listing to say hand drawn to the best of my ability which is pretty poor but printed to a high standard. it also says on the listing just transfer the drawings to the wood and cut them out. Well considering the frames are not mirror images side to side thats going to make a very twisted boat

5 years ago by donrecardo

Forum

Modern electrics

Hi all, Not been araound for awhile as I have been playing with aircraft as well, I have however found time to scratch build a Fairy Huntsman which I now want to upgrade to modern electrics, a brushless motor and esc etc, should I avoid lipo's due to the heat issues or can I use them ok. The hull is 42 inches long any suggestions on motor size would be appreciated, also esc size, the boat seems a bi on the heavy side. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

5 years ago by deltaman

Forum

Help! identifying a small ferry

Well have done some research and discovered this a representation of Mv Fairmile but without any of the forward superstructure forward of the aft passenger cabin. The livery seems to be inspired from the local life boat. So rather nice boat I will restore and use but no pattern to follow.

5 years ago by Bryan-the-pirate

Forum

My other hobby

Hello Hellmut, I can only imagine the thrill of flying a plane! in my business career I travelled many many times by air and every single take-off and landing was something to look forward to. These days I'm happy enough building modelboats, a somewhat sedate but satisfying hobby :) BR, Remko

5 years ago by P-741

Forum

My other hobby

Good to see other PPLs and former PPLs on the Model Boats website. I took mine at Liverpool Airport known now as JLA (John Lennon Airport) in June 1984 and completed it in January 85. Trained with Liverpool Flying School aka Keenair in Cherokee 140s and a PA 38 Tomahawk. Later I moved into Air Nova which was also a Liverpool club and the actor Lewis Collins was also a member of that Club. At the time I was a member of Merseyside IVC (Inter Varsity Club) thus had plenty of passengers. One of them was Victoria Field, my former psychology lecturer who later became famous as a psychologist and writer. Eventually Air Nova moved to Hawarden Airport near Chester but the Club folded shortly after. I then joined the in house Club based at the field and I ceased flying in November 2016. Best flights were going over Snowdon VFR and down the Dee Valley. I also flew over Colwyn Bay to have a look at the boating lake though I haven't sailed there. I also saw the lakes at Llandudno West Shore and LLanfairfechan. The latter I am considering for sailing my fast electrics. Downside to PPL flying was the crosswind component of the aircraft being 17 knots , At Hawarden there is only one runway the 04/22 and Liverpool the 09/27. I did have to cancel many times due to this. Thankfully sailing model boats is much more enjoyable as we don't have that many snags to deal with and if the motor stops we don't have to do an emergency landing.😎😁😁 Boaty

5 years ago by boaty

Blog

Proboat Sonicwake

Three weeks ago I got a Proboat Sonicwake deep V fast electric. This appears to be a replacement for their previous model Vorocity. Very interesting self righting method with a water tank on the port side, slots in the deck and a large exit point at the stern. Idea is that if it capsizes, water will enter through the slots and as it draws the boat under, the air trapped in the hull will self right it. If the boat is stationary in the water, it will list to port due to water entering through the stern outlet and when power is applied it will empty out. Bit scary to watch at first as I thought the boat was on its way to Davy Jones. I use waterproof marine clear tape to seal around the hatch ever time I use it. The quality of the hull raises a few concerns. This relates to its ABS construction as the vast majority of similar boats at that price are made of fibreglass which is much more rigid and would be more suitable for the high speeds. Makers claim it does 50 MPH plus on 6S lipos. The electrics however are excellent with the exception of the external quality of the Horizon Hobby STX2 TX which looks a bit "toyish". For myself, this is not relevant as I replace all my wheel TXs with the "stick type" and I found that the Futaba T2HR fulfils all requirements and worked well when I sailed the boat. I have not yet changed the stock prop for an Octura one, the latter works great on my Blackjack 29 with a noticeable increase in performance. The motor is a Dynamite Marine W.C brushless 1900 KV with a 120 amp W.C ESC . 😁😋 Boaty.

6 years ago by boaty

Directory

(Other) A577

This model belongs to a friend of mine who had this in his attic where it got damaged and its condition deteriorated, he asked me if I would refurbish it. This is a static model and I have submitted this to help to show the variety of craft that the RAF Marine Branch operated in the 68 years of its existence. The Armoured Target Boat was the brainchild of the Air Ministry's "I've had a good idea" Department. The requirement was for a target boat that could be bombed from the air with practice bombs. The 40ft Armoured Target Boats were developed from the slightly smaller 37.5ft ATBs which had been designed by Scott-Paine and others at British Power Boat in 1932. A couple of years later, in 1934, whilst bringing the first of the 64ft HSLs into service, it was realised by the Air Ministry that the condition of the aircraft had been advancing and that it was necessary to provide additional protection to improve the first type of Armoured Target Boats (the 37.5ft type). T.E. Shaw suggested to Scott-Paine that he should increase the length of the 37.5ft type to 40ft and fit twin rudders. in addition the Air Ministry prepared a new armour plating arrangement which gave separate protection for the crew and engines and coxswain. There was a further alteration to the forward bulkhead which resulted in it being changed to vertical instead of raked fore and aft to overcome the new conditions for bombing. A long series of trials were carried out with the ballast with the 40ft type launch and eventually it was approved. The 40ft thus became the standard type Armoured Target Boat (ATB). The first batch of 15 craft of the 40ft type were ordered in 1935 with further batches being ordered in 1936, 1937 and 1938. A further addition was the introduction of a 3rd engine, this helped to maintain a good speed on the ranges, and helped to counterbalance the the boat as it had been found that in a tight turn the 37.5ft ATB had a tendency to roll over. (5/10)

6 years ago by colindavies

Response

Looking good, but shouldn't there be a safety mesh between crew and prop. Good thing he's got short hair. Joking aside, it's good to see different forms of waterborne transport. Cheers Colin.

6 years ago by Colin H

Response

Thanks am going to make another one which will incorporate a pusher prop . At least that’s my winter project when all my fleet have been dry docked etc, did one last night ( 42 inch pilot boat ) a V.T. Nelson. Only another 14 to go.

6 years ago by Purser1944

Response

Looks like fun 👍 Hope the pilot doesn't lean back too far 😲 Re steering: maybe the prop is too far from the rudder? Try turning the motor round and reversing it perhaps. Ducting between prop and rudder might also help. Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Media

Scratch built, made up as I went along started off with single prop but much better wth 3 bladed, size is 24 x about 10. Model driver is KEN. And has been decapatated once and rebuilt using another head. Speed is good but steering not brilliant on one rudder.

6 years ago by Purser1944

Media

Veron Tarpon

Well I had one of these back in the early 1970,s been looking for years for another one must of been a rare boat. So I was surprised when this turned up on eBay last week. So I had to buy it, the seller did not mention that the engine a Merco 35 was locked solid and all the head bolts were missing and the whole inside of the boat was soaked in sticky castor oil exhaust residue, but this is how I like them loft fresh and not messed with. I don’t think it’s hardly been used, I managed to get the engine apart after heating it up with a blow lamp looks like it’s hardly been run but the liner got a fair bit of rust on it so not sure I can use it. The only thing to remove the sticky castor oil was 25% nitro fuel, the one I bought in the 70,s cost me £27 this wreck I bought in 2018 £70 but I will enjoy restoring it, this is the boat as how I got it and now with the engine out that was another nightmare 😁

6 years ago by Biscuit

Forum

INTERNATIONAL MODEL BOAT SHOW

I'm going on Friday, as I'm not too good with crowds in my wheelchair. I'm meeting up with a few lifeboat enthusiasts at 12 midday at the cafe, if anyone is interested. You never know, might meet some off here. Best wishes, Dave W 😊

6 years ago by rolfman2000