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    Blog
    Power switch location / mount
    Continue to mockup exterior a bit, still just rough paint, needs work prior to final colors and finish. Shown in the photos are a Switch Holder made by Dubro, a hobby parts maker in the US. This holder uses a slide switch and allows for through the hull mounting. I use this because I want my switch to be activated without having to remove a hatch. Since my large hatch limited where I could fit the switch, I ended up having to mount it on the bow, not the most desirable position due to
    bow wave
    s. So I built up a mounting from a plastic pipe fitting, a grommet and a screw cap, tried to make it look nautical. This will raise the top of the rod hole high to further weather proof it. See picture with rod only, I replaced the Dubro rod with a longer one that I made from steel rod I had, threaded it and it works. Will trim the length and attach a finger bulb on top. LAST PHOTO -- EVER FEEL LIKE SOMEONES WATCHING YOU. Cheers, Joe
    5 years ago by Joe727
    Blog
    she sails!
    I was hoping to get the Wavney on the water yesterday, but the weather gods put paid to that! Anyway, today was the day, so after adding almost 2kg of lead ballast fore and aft to get her on the waterline, it was off to Needham Lakes near Stowmarket, Suffolk. The initial sailing report is that she looks fantastic on the water despite it being a little choppy in the wind. The motors, ESC's performed perfectly, steering needs no adjusting and and at full tilt looked scale with a really nice
    bow wave
    . After 20 minutes of sailing which only dropped the 3S lipo down my 30%, all was well apart from a tiny little bit of water ingress at the back near the rudders. I can only put this down to water ingress from high speed passes as the
    bow wave
    created a little puddle of water on the rear deck. I know the hull is watertight as she was sat in the hot tub for an hour this morning and was as dry as bone following that. Will have to look at sealing the removable rear cabin as I think thats where the water got in?
    6 years ago by Skydive130
    Response
    Mk2 RTTL 2771
    Lucky bu**er, nearest I got was catching the wash from the
    bow wave
    while fishing, Easter 1969. Great model in correct colour scheme. I've gone green with envy. Keep on sailing, cheers Colin.
    6 years ago by Colin H
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Hi Floating Voter, I do so agree that I should be flying, not ploughing. in fact, she does plane quite well, but she is 'dirty' at very high speeds.I am concerned that sooner or later, I will have electrical problems, despite trying to be careful not to overuse the throttle. She is fitted with 2 x JP EnErG brushless 600 O/R 1550 (C35 141), driving 38mm scale-type brass three bladers, contra-rotating. The pack is a 7.4 v, 30C lipo.
    6 years ago by wunwinglo
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Guys, my MTB has a tendency to get a little flooded by her
    bow wave
    when under way at high speeds. She has a scale spray suppression rail at the bow which is notched like the full-size. I do not want to mount anything TOO gross but do any of you have some practical suggestions to make to alieviate this problem?
    6 years ago by wunwinglo
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    That is quite a good idea, right out of left field. Thanks, I will look into it.
    6 years ago by wunwinglo
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    i know that it is out of period but a front hydrofoil would lift the bow at speed.
    6 years ago by Bryan-the-pirate
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Aren't you supposed to be riding over that
    bow wave
    not wallowing in it? if you have Lipo batteries you probably have brushless motors (kV? how many cells?) - try a smaller prop - much smaller - let the motors run free and show what they are capable of.
    6 years ago by FloatingVoter
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    She's already low, so I am loathed to try this. and no this is not wunwinglo from large scale planes. I do small scale planes!
    6 years ago by wunwinglo
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Hi WWL, Hmmm! Can you perhaps squash in some bigger / heavier batts to lever the bow up?
    6 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Is this the wunwinglo from Large Scale Planes? If so, welcome to the other side. Martin
    6 years ago by Westquay
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Hi Doug, They are Lipo's, small and in the stern already!
    6 years ago by wunwinglo
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Hi "He who needs more lift under wunwing"😁 What batteries are you using? And where are they mounted? Cheers, Doug 😎
    6 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Hi Canabus, I cannot really do this as she is slightly heavy. I was aware of this when I restored her last year and was careful to keep it light and aft. She is lighter than she was.
    6 years ago by wunwinglo
    Forum
    bow wave
    suppression
    Hi wunwinglo Try moving weight in the boat to the stern to let the bow come up at high speed. Canabus
    6 years ago by canabus
    Forum
    Bismarck paint scheme (for Rookysailor ;-)
    Hi Peter, have found some more pics that indicate a simple black and white camo pattern applied March 1941, including some rare colour photos😊 Pics 1 & 2; painting at Kiel. Pic 3; canal near Kiel March 1941, Pic 4; Oslo 1941 before heading into the Atlantic and Denmark Straight, Pic 5; down at the bow after hits from Prince of Wales, Pic 6; as built Summer 1940 before commissioning. Pic 7; alleged paint scheme for Unternehmen Rheinübung, May 1941. Stripes are gone but false
    bow wave
    and stern are still there. Can't find official archive corroboration of this so like I said 'You pays yer money and yer takes ya choice'. Think I'll do mine this way and leave the stripes on as in the photo near Oslo. Happy painting, cheers Doug 😎
    6 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    Bismarck paint scheme (for Rookysailor ;-)
    Fantastic photo's Doug, never seen these before. The one without the camo but with the bow & stern waves is an option in the trumpeter paint options, which I like best. Very quiet show at Heywood but got a decaperm 6v for Β£10 and a Marcle card model of Tirpitz @ 1/200 for ....Β£10, a bargain.πŸ‘ many thanks, Peter
    6 years ago by Rookysailor
    Response
    The Vosper 46” RAF Crash Tender Kit By Vintage Model Works
    Dear Modellers and builders of the Vintage Model Works kit series. You will find my earlier pictures and various writings on the original earlier postings by me in OZ of my still some 30/plus years Crash Boat in which I wore out several I/C motors and my girl still runs in Salt Water at the local LAKE ILLAWARRA in New South Wales and you are somewhat fortunate with ready made fittings. I did not ever know of the "page" ( wish I had a copy ) on your wall of the rear well of fire hose details and fittings , wow what a bonus, as a colonial had several years till Peter Dimberline and I had contact and he helped me to authenticate my vessel. The ESSENTIAL secret of the Crash Boat is the spray rails. So many look toy in the videos and TOOOOOOO fast . The spray rails are doubled at width protruding from the hull and lesser at the point of "rise of the wood " towards the upper bow point. The depth is not too critical at a bit of about an eighth of an inch thickness or a bit thinner for the whole length as you do not want to see a "thick log ", rather again it is the width rather than depth. I know I have written on this before on this webb site in the past. The turns thus on the go become when starting on and STAY more on the go are more flatter rather like a full sized hull which has a planing/ flatter hull turn to the flatness of the water than a typical poorly behaving model boat hull which invariably heels TOOOO much and somewhat digging in , (in turns). The HARD CHINE hull design was meant to not only rise to a comfortable plane attitude but ALSO to turn without that annoying behaviour of "digging in" when it should still perform and exhibit that hard chine design attitude when in a turn . "Digging in" equals water resistance AGAINST the hull and loss of performance and loss of plane attitude and against wave resistance when the hull designers team is trying to maintain hard chine performance in the forward turning direction. I harp on this point that this hull design is one to respect . The older I get the more I expect of all my model machines that I am lucky to see on computers, as we certainly have more need to respect the masters, the likes of Peter Du Cane and T E Lawrence and Hubert Scott Payne of Vospers and Thornycroft and The British Power Boat Company and ELCO and Higgins, all of whom I have researched so much over my life and I have been to the memorial of Lawrence in the desert in Wadi Rum. I try to do it right. Regards to all builders Lyle. My mates and I have to run in 2 to 3 inch chop at times, such is the Lake Channel ! My wife has reminded me that some of my fleet do seem to have BLACK hulls and I only would build one model boat, when I bought the Aerobats Crash Boat home, the pictures are of some of my scratch built fleet.
    6 years ago by Lyle
    Forum
    Motor problem
    Scout13 I only have one battery connected at a time, with two batteries in situ I can use the other one when the first one is flagging,to give a longer running time, I could put them in Parallel but prefer to know I have a charged battery to use with an approx running time before it fails altogether. I have made a cover over the shaft coupling to prevent any cables coming into contact with it should they move, there is plenty of air space around this cover as well but the photo does not show it.Dave M the pond is weed free and the prop is the recommended one in the plans for the boat, as far as I am aware it is no larger dia. than the motor, but I will check that.As far as the weights I had to put lead in the front and mid section to get the boat down into the water as it was sitting on the hull and was not stable, I had some lead in the back as well as I used a spirit level when I was sorting it out in the bath, however when I first tried it in the pond the back end was too low in the water when it was going, so I took the heavier weight from the section just rear of the motor compartment and swapped it for the lighter weight just forward of the motor compartment, although this was better when tried again the stern was too low when it was moving so I removed the weights from the stern and as far as I could see it was just right, stationary the boat looked levelish but when moving on full throttle, the bow came up and had a nice
    bow wave
    with the stern down below the water level but with a (for want of the technical term) a hollow wave, when on a slower throttle it was fine and sailed nicely at all speed levels. What worries me is that the motor shown fitted in the boat was supposed to be the better motor than the photo of the one outside of the boat, would this benefit from a water cooled motor as to be honest I would not want to alter the top speed of the boat as it is just about right . just to let you all know I have a background knowledge of electrics so do know the difference between parallel and series voltages😊
    6 years ago by RichardSReade
    Forum
    ESC POWER
    Hi Doug my Olympic and Bills Titanic have three ESCs. The centre motor enables warp speed and produces a correct
    bow wave
    albeit at a very unscale speed. On such large models it helps to turn in a reasonable radius. My HMS Grenville also has two escs to help with manouvers. Then again I used to fly planes so still enjoy using all four sticks on my tx. Dave
    7 years ago by Dave M
    Forum
    Proboat Volere
    I have proboat volere. It performs pretty well but, it makes a big
    bow wave
    and really doesn't get up and plane like I think it should. Has anyone performed any modifications? Bringing the voltage up by one cell o 9.6volts helps a little as does adding a little weight to the stern. Speed control is huge, and I know, can easily be replaced by a tiny mtroniks unit. Any other experience or ideas out there? 😁😁😁😁😜😜😜
    7 years ago by Commodore-H
    Forum
    Futaba antenna
    Hi Hugh, strip both ends. Twist the wires around each other and solder. Cover the joint with heat shrink sleeving. I cut the antenna of all my receiver and fit a small 2mm plug and socket so I can take the RX out without destroying half the ship. This was essential with my U Boat as the antenna is led out of the pressure hull through a waterproofed (epoxy sealed) hole in the bow. Topside the remaining wire was fitted with another plug an socket, so I could remove the whole sea-deck for servicing, and stretched over the conning tower and down to the after deck just like the real ones. Plus or minus a cm or so won't make much difference. Wavelength at 27MHz is about 11 metres and at 40MHz about 7.5m. So our antennas are working at about 1/16th of the wavelength. This is normally compensated (a bit!) inside the RX with a coil which increases the effective length that the RX input sees. My first boss always told me "RF is a black art!" πŸ˜‰ Maybe if you try to beat the physics, but it took me around the world! Cheers Doug 😎
    7 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    Proboat Volere
    Thanks guys for your thoughts. I looked at the YouTube video and yes, that is the way I think it should run, with the bow lifted out of the water instead of plowing like a tugboat! I looked at other videos and yep, there's the giant
    bow wave
    again. So I am wondering now if the one in the video is version 2. It's still too cold where I live, Pennsylvania, USA to run any boats. I do have a new prop on hand so I can try that first when the weather cooperates. Looking at the Proboat website, I saw two interesting new models. One is a PBR,(was showcased in film Apocalypse Now) that's not released yet. it is powered by twin water-jets. That is one that has been on my build list for a while. So now maybe I will just buy it. The website says it has operating lights and provision to make the forward turret rotate. Sounds good to me. The second is a race boat also powered by a water-jet. I am primarily a scale boat builder but I always wanted to give water-jet propulsion a try. Cheers
    7 years ago by Commodore-H
    Response
    Toby Tug (previously a Seaport Workboat)
    Hi there, yes I replaced the motor with a 345 ekectronize but it was too powerful for the boat (too big a
    bow wave
    !) and gave too much interference on the speaker with the engine sounds, so I reverted to the original setup. it pulled the tanker (and stricken tug!) ok..
    8 years ago by EricMB
    Media
    Gry Maritha
    This boat looks the biz when its going full tilt , The
    bow wave
    looks awesome !!! Twin motors independently controlled ,turning circles pretty good for her size . Saying that , I do need to transport her by a sack cart ....lol
    9 years ago by topperles
    Response
    PERKASA
    Beautiful boat, realistic
    bow wave
    , great detail
    9 years ago by Captkiddo
    Forum
    RAF Crash Tender Motor size
    Guesstimate on speed faster than I can run . The 10 sub C's weigh about 20 ozs my lipos only 12ozs hence 8ozs difference , my batteries are in the front compartment where the tank was originally. not much weight with the motors and speed controller midships , and nothing heavy at the rear , without the ballast it would have made a good submarine on full power as the
    bow wave
    flooded the model . tried 20 ozs in the rear and it planed better but sat too low without power . A couple of the local boat club were at the lagoon when I got there and they had a go after I put the 4 off 1/2" drives plug sockets I found in the cars toolbox in the back , Since then I have been given a divers belt weight and 1/2 of that weighs the same as the sockets I had used . next stage is to secure it in the rear in a purpose made housing . might try 2x 2s 1800 lipos next time just to see how the boat performs with the extra GO!.. 😈
    10 years ago by twinkle
    Blog
    Victory Industries Vosper Fire Boat RC conversion part 7
    The maiden voyage. Well, mixed fortunes. The Cunning Plan Mk1c - steering system, small fire boats for the use of worked a treat πŸ‘ Unfortunately the overall weight proved more of a problem than I expected. There was power a plenty and she went like the clappers but getting there was a bit nerve wracking. The angle of the props forced the bow down and I had to be careful until the hull generated enough lift to get the bow up and a give nice
    bow wave
    . Not planing like her larger sisters but she did look something like the picture on the box. You can see the problem in the water shot, the green stuff on the foredeck is some pond weed we're plagued with at the moment. (Photos 10 and 10A) The battery position is tricky as this will be single heaviest part of the kit. As you see in Photo 9 I tried Velcro-ing it to the roof of the aft cabin but this put the CoG of the boat too far back and left the transom gunwale just above the water meaning that the well deck would fill with the slightest wave or when reversing. The maiden trip was with a 'hump' 6v pack just ahead of the motors but this meant that although the boat was level the bows were a bit too low. The current set-up is 4 AA batteries, 2 either side of the motors and 2 in the roof as before. it looks OK in the bath........ I hope this will inspire some of you to take the plunge. I'm no engineer and have completed this with a standard household drill, a Dremel type drill for cutting the cockpit hole and the usual small pliers, wire cutters, small files and tweezers any modeller will have to hand and a small desk mounted vice. The only slightly specialist tools were a pack of fine drill bits and a couple of pin drills obtained on Ebay. A small pillar drill would have made drilling the rudder shafts a lot easier but I passed the initiative test (and only broke one drill bit). I only have a very basic understanding of electricity and have only just figured out soldering. This isn't intended to be a definitive solution and if you can see alternatives to the above, especially the power plant let us know. Using lighter motors will help and using just one will too, but driving contra-rotating props from one motor is beyond me - at the moment. Oh, and I really wouldn't advise taking the whole deck off. You'll never get it back on properly unless you're very good or very lucky. I am contemplating rebuilding the test boat but with a completely new deck structure probably made of balsa wood to save weight - and because I bought a load cheap a while ago...........
    10 years ago by smiggy
    Forum
    Victory Industries Vosper RAF Firefloats
    Well, mixed fortunes. The Cunning Plan Mk1c - steering system, small fire boats for the use of worked a treat πŸ‘ Unfortunately the overall weight proved more of a problem than I expected. There was power a plenty and she went like the clappers but getting there was a bit nerve wracking. The angle of the props forced the bow down and I had to be careful until the hull generated enough lift to get the bow up and a give nice
    bow wave
    . You can see the problem in the water shot, the green stuff on the foredeck is some pond weed we're plagued with at the moment. I'll be hunting for smaller, lighter 6v motors and battery holders so that I can use AA's and distribute the weight better. Then I'll go public with a solution I'm reasonably happy with, given my limited experience and kit available.
    10 years ago by smiggy
    Blog
    AmalfI - Mantua static wooden kit conversion
    Trials at home (easily done since the model Is so small) confirmed the freeboard, balance (virtually no additional ballast required) and also an Indication of her speed - Initially from one end of the bath the other! AmalfI has proved to be quit stable In light and even fresh winds and the
    bow wave
    s of larger models. With the ability to remove the netting I'm quite happy to sail her In fresh even moderately gusty winds and she takes In virtually no water. Using a 12' (3.5m) home 'swimming' pool she sails well and I use home made buoys to provide a steering course - at this size It's practical and fun If you can't get to the local pond/lake. So - I'm happy with the conversion and given the reasonable price of the kit and the use of mainly spare parts/scrap In her conversion a successful project.
    11 years ago by CapnJim
    Response
    restored Sea Commander on speed 600
    Hi I use a single 8cell Nimh pack, and cut a hole in the main vertical bulkhead (the one at the back of the main roof below the windscreen) so my batterry pack sits under open deck area floor - midships my sea Commander is fairly light at 4 3/4 lbs without battery. the battery adds another 1 lb bringing the total to 5 1/2lb. it balances (fore-aft) at the back of the aft main cabin window. waterline... I just guessed what "looks right" and its 70mm from the top of the deck at the bow and 60mm from the top of the deck on the side flank of the hull at the stern. do make sure you fit the spray rails along the chine of the hull and keep them sharp! they do a tremendous amount of work lifting the hull and clearing the
    bow wave
    , and will greatly Improve the boats performance hope this helps David
    12 years ago by dbninja
    Response
    fire boat
    I had a 12 v 12 amp battery and a 800 motor on a 35 cm prop did have a good
    bow wave
    could not see the sence of going flat out for 30 mins did not go for speed just indurance thanks gordon
    12 years ago by gordon
    Response
    Seaplane Tender
    Nice job, looks spot on in the water. Nice
    bow wave
    and wash.-it's hard to get a realistic water movement off a model but yours is looking good.
    12 years ago by OLDHSLS
    Forum
    range safety launch
    hI there every one, I have just completed a 23" model range safety launch, fitted with speed 400 motor and 35 three blade prop. power from two packs of 4 x 1.5 aa cells giving 6volts. on test run all looks good apart from the fact Its not getting up on the plane, then put In 7.2 power pack which made the boat bow heavy but lot more speed, big
    bow wave
    but no lift,(too heavy fwd) not a lot of room to move 7.2 aft. any suggestions on power package to get up on the plane. Chiffs
    13 years ago by chiffs
    Forum
    Need Advice On Robbe Dusseldorf Fireboat
    I would NOT recommend your suggestion, as this boat is quite fast in the water and does produce a broad
    bow wave
    , which can and will swamp the deck, possibly leading to ingress of water in to the hull if not 110% watertight. I would follow instructions to bond down the main deck area fully, as you will still have access to all you need to. if you simply use silicone sealant to bond the forward fire monitor base plate down, then its easily lifted back up for repair later [if ever needed. DONT attach any electronice to the lower battery board, keep everything "raised" as a precaution to water ingress. I found that using a 12v 10 [or 12] amp/hr battery gives ample running time, plus plenty of power for all the accessories. mine has radar, lights, emergency lights, sound, horn, working monitors, no probs. If you want to check my refurb out, check the boat build blogs, mines in here! best of luck, but if you need any more hinst or assistance, get back to me. gregg.
    14 years ago by Gregg
    Media
    Dusseldorf Fireboat at speed !
    Photo's taken on sunday [6/4/10] weather was quite windy so water a bit choppy, but fireboat coped very well as you can see from the superb
    bow wave
    it creates! the twin prop and 4 rudder arrangement makes it a very maneouverable boat, even at high speed it handles all tight turns with ease and dont swamp the stern deck either!
    14 years ago by Gregg
    Response
    34'' Crash Tender rebuild by DB
    Looks really good and. sits better in water than mine. I think mine is still too bow heavy as I have a much bigger
    bow wave
    which is probably slowing it down. I am going to rebuild the stern well with steps etc and would be interested in a more detailed picture of yours to see how you did change from original Aerokit arrangement. If you would like them I could give you the monitors I originally made for mine you can see pictures in my saga on fireboat c of g. I am at present in USA on family visit b
    14 years ago by nasraf
    Forum
    fireboat cof g
    I have at last finished making various fittings including the cantilever monitors, which turned out to be more difficult than the pram handle version. I have obtained a victory industry fire boat and this has cantilever monitors so I scaled mind off these, I think they are a bit out of scale and the nozzle part is shorter than the actual units. I ended up fitting the Lipo battery at the rear of the boat in the rear compartment and the boat goes quite well now with a nice big
    bow wave
    . I do not think that it will run for a long period but I find that 10 minutes is long enough to amuse me. The c of g has now moved back a bit to 40 cm from top of stern and mass is approx 3.75 Kg. I was not able to find any ready made front small vents so I made a couple out of aluminium rod but I am not sure they are correct size. The next part of the project is to remake the rear well with steps and hoses etc.
    14 years ago by nasraf
    Blog
    July 9th
    Well the planking finally arrived about a couple of weeks ago but I have been away on vacation. The planking 8mm x 1mm Lime wood has been glued down with some slow CA. Some of the thin tapered outer edge strips have shown a tendency to flake / splinter under sanding. To protect this I am in the process of adding a rub rail to the top edge of the deck. I have seen pictures of another FPB where the
    bow wave
    was rising pretty high up the side skins. if this is the case with mine, hopefully the rub rail will also act as a bit of a spray rail. Two dummy engine exhausts have been added to the transom.
    16 years ago by Robert


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