Blog

WWII Italian MAS 562

Skinned the frames added deck and splash rail also started on cabin and superstructure, added rudder and installed twin brushed Graupner 600 motors via Graupner style direct couplings. Motor mounting system through a gives extra support to motors which mount on to end of the shafts. currently adding a rudder servo mount, as rudder is a close copy of the real boat's and still functional.

6 years ago by CB90

Forum

powered winches for pusher tug.

I wanted to be able to attach a barge to the bow pusher posts of my Egrete Pusher tug. BUT did not want to simply use a couple of bits of elasticated rope, would not really look "right" or would be prone to failure. So after a bit of searching around I found a nice little geared motor set/kit In Maplins, think It was only A£9.99 or less, I know Is wasn't much. Anyway, It was possible to swap teh gears about a bit till I got the speed of the winch drum to a nice slow pace, so not to grab at the winch cables too quickly and cause problems. The motor assembly comes with Its own mounting plate, so nice and easy to mount Inside the winch house of the pusher tug, the cables ran through the actual cable pipes through the forward . All I had to do was make sure that the actual "tow posts" on the barge were bonded deep In to the hull of the barge, to take the load, especially when turning. The motor operates on 3v so I just used a maplins twin AA battery pack, and wired up a couple of micro switches on top of a normal servo. So by using one channel of the transmitter, I now had "in/out" control over the winch via one of the joysticks.

12 years ago by Gregg

Blog

The Vosper 46” RAF Crash Tender Kit By Vintage Model Works

Just a small introduction, I am a retired engineer, trained as a toolmaker and practiced this in various forms for 20 plus years before going into Lecturing in engineering for 13 years then finally working on development of NVQs and VRQs for an Engineering Awarding Body. As far as My model making experience I did a little as a youngster helping my dad to build the 36 inch Crash tender and then doing some model aircraft but that was 50 years ago. I then became hooked on building a kit car which has occupied me for many years changing things and maintaining it as a recreational vehicle. This brings me up to date and instead of restoring a classic car I decided to get back to model making and this is the start of the 46 Crash Tender. So here we go Out of the box and the contents checked off, a minor anomaly on the parts numbering but soon sorted by VMW. I have spent some time in kitting out a new work station in what used to be my office until I retired. I now have two workshops one upstairs and one in the basement. How good is that? One of the of the first things was to construct a substantial building board that would give a perfectly flat base and a grid that could ensure s are square to the keel an parallel with each other also the same aspects in the vertical axis. I lined out the base board with parallel lines spaced at 25 mm and then from the centre-line at 90 degrees I marked the positions.

6 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Elizabeth

After a long lay-off, not requested or wanted. The call of the sawdust was here again.. Looking back at the Gentlemans Cruiser, i decided to start afresh with its sister ship, Elizabeth. She is a hard chine construction so was hoping to get her to water in record time. But the gremlins set in when the hull had to be skinned.. The bottom skins did not want to play ball, or maybe it was me on a not so good day, but persevered and then planked the bottom in Obechie 6mm x 3mm, and then fitted the side skins vertical grained, and i must admit they fell on, no grunting and moaning with the hull frame in a half nelson trying to bash home a few pins, it was like hanging wallpaper.. The basic hiull is not as drawing with built up s but the keel and s are 5mm ply. Chines are 3/8" x 1/8" spruce and Obechie, obechie to the outer edges, easier to work.

6 years ago by muddy

Response

Re: WTC/Sub Driver.

Absolutely Michael 👍 Sub drivers habitually refer to their vessels as 'boats' anyway. In WW2 they were known in the USN as 'Pig Boats'! For fairly obvious reasons given the living conditions on board back then 🙈 (smell no evil!) I too look forward to further instalments, esp. re the static diving system! All will be revealed - I hope😉 Could make a great upgrade for my dynamic 🙄 diving U25. Pics show U25 internals as is now. Site mixed up the pics😠Grrrrrrrrrrrrr Pic 1 is midships servo, battery & ESC compartment, Pic 2 is stern compartment (Engine room) with a w/t with RFI filter board attached,Pic 3 is bow compartment with RX and w/t leading to servo / battery compartment. Will be intrigued to see if I can squish Martin's dive system in here! Ciao, Doug PS ALL subs can dive ................... at least once! 😮😉

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Hull progressing nicely!

I hate the idea of having to shape the balsa front ends. I have in the past re cut the bottom skins on 1/16th marine ply and steamed and pinned with small brass nails. But if that model is all balsa you couldn't do that but if the s are ply and chine stringers then it is possible.

5 years ago by BOATSHED

Blog

Servo Mount

Servo mount I have looked and better looked for a decent servo mount but could not find one that suited the position I wanted to put the servo, so I decide to make my own. I bought some aluminium channel, which would act as a platform and base for the standard servo. Space in terms of height is at a premium and so some material had to be removed from the keel area to make sure the servo arms did not catch on the underside floor of the rear deck. As the space tapers in height from stern>forward then the best position for the servo would be next to the forward

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Painting

I must admit that the painting process is not my favourite. it takes so long and time is always at a premium due to work commitments. I rush it a bit so that the build can continue. I fitted all of the windows into the deck structure and covered them with the low tack film. I then primed, two coats, painted, two coats followed by two coats of lacquer. I am quite pleased with the results even though it is not perfect. I decided not to fit the deck until all of the electronics, including the ESC, battery and receiver had been installed. This is because one of the big problems with this model is the lack of room to work in once the deck is in place. Another problem I encountered was the fitting of the tiller cranks onto the rudders. if the instructions are followed, it is almost impossible the adjust or remove them once the deck has been fitted. I solved the problem by reversing the cranks and bending the connecting wire to miss a support. The screws can now be reached from the deck opening. I have now completed the majority of the painting and have started to assemble the remaining parts. Currently I am doing the wiring of the lighting and making a couple of circuit boards. There are a lot of wires involved so to reduce the amount I have decided to us e a common negative. (Cannot remember what this is called right now). There are still a lot of wires and they are mostly coming out from the cabin structure. I have decided to introduce some nine pin connectors to make cabin removal a lot easier. This is quite a big job and will take a little while. I really enjoy this bit. The results add that little bit of extra satisfaction when it all works as it should.🤓 The top search light assembly came as a bit of a surprise. it is manufactured from nickel silver plate and requires soldering together. Even though I am a precision engineer, I have not soldered a box since I was at school. Once I stopped burning my fingers with the heat, I quite enjoyed the assembly even though it would have been useful to have an extra hand and took the best part of today to complete.😤 I can honestly say that I have enjoyed most of this build and even though earlier on I was thinking to avoid Aero-naut models in the future, I have changed my mind. They are very cleverly designed. I expect to complete this model some time in March. That would be the first for me to complete in recent times even though I have two others on the go and one new one in its box ready for a Summer start.😊

5 years ago by MouldBuilder

Forum

1950s sea commander refurb.

One thing I have done which takes a bit of effort is to use card to make an approximate frame/ as near as you can. Then trim and try until it fits as it should then trace onto wood of choice. Cut that out marginally oversize and sand/plane to fit and once happy glue in place. You should be able to work it out from the plans. Cut two sets and keep one for future reference.👍😤

5 years ago by onetenor

Response

Aerokits/Jotika Sea Queen

Titebond 3 is a high performance PVA. We can't get Titebond 3 here in South Africa. Gorilla/Gator glue you which is a polyurethane based glue have to Work using Rubber Gloves and have a bottle of rubbing Alcohol handy as it sticks like mad and you won't be able to get it off your hands. I still have Cascamite! Been using a Sika PVA adhesive but the bulwarks were fitted with ZAP 30 minute Epoxy. I have found an eight hour epoxy to fix the stringers to the s with with. Why is it we make short worktime adhesives is beyond me. I have always found that the quickset glues are prone to be brittle. The only one I haven't found to be brittle is ZAP. Going to epoxy the inside of the boat before fitting the skins

5 years ago by Ianh

Blog

Sports cruiser ''ALI''

Started this sports cruiser 2 days ago. Here we dont have balsa so im using whats available. I hsed ply for my keel and s. Ply doesnt work great with ca glue, but its okay. I will use pvc for the planking. I hope i will get some ideas and you will fix me whereverim wrong.

5 years ago by Sakibian

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 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

Blog

The bow blocks & outer keel

The bow of the boat has a compound curve and to create the shape a single block of hard balsa is supplied in the kit, although in my pre-production prototype this had to be formed by laminating some pieces of thick balsa together to the required size. Rather than laminating up a single block separately I did the laminating and glueing in situ on the hull to ensure a solid tight block, and after the glue had cured I set about shaping it. Initially I used a razor saw to roughly remove the surplus at the sides and bottom and then began the process of shaping it to the final form. My sanding plate proved invaluable for the final stages of making the block flush with the hull sides. The underside of the blocks were very carefully shaped with a combination of the sanding plate and abrasive paper around a series large round formers. I was careful not to just use abrasive paper over fingers as this can create grooves and unevenness in the soft balsa. I had already created a concave shape in the former F1 and with the ply bottom skins in place it was relatively easy to extend the contour into the bow blocks being very careful to ensure symmetry on both sides. A line was drawn on the blocks that extended the curve of the hull strakes to define the shape. I also used the outer keel as a template throughout the shaping process to make sure that I was not removing too much material. it would be very easy to remove too much material so it pays to do this slowly and carefully, checking all the time for symmetry. Finally when I was happy with the shape I formed a slight flat on the blocks for the outer keel to sit on, using a back light helped greatly with this, and the whole hull was given a light sanding with a detail sander. The prototype kit was supplied with keel components made from thick balsa which would easily be damaged in use so I recreated this in thick ply laminations to the required thickness and shaped it so that it was completely flat and square on the inner edges and with a curved profile on its outer edges. The keel was checked for fit on the hull throughout so that only a minimum amount of filler would be required to blend it to the hull. It was fixed in place with epoxy adhesive and firmly pinned until it fully set and very little filler used to finish it. The kit, which is available now from VMW, includes a single piece bow block and ply keel parts as standard, which makes construction much quicker and easier. I’m glad that bit is over and I’m very pleased with the result. Next stage will be glass fibre cloth and epoxy resin….

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Plumbing the water-cooling for the ESC

The HobbyKing ESC I’m using has the facility for water cooling and as it will be in an enclosed location without any free ventilation it seems sensible to utilise this feature. To keep the water circuit as short as possible I will put the pickup just behind the propeller and the exhaust on the stern but as the boat has a just in front of the stern skin I need to make an access hole through it to allow me to secure the nut on the stern skin. I made a hole through the large enough to get a socket on the nut and reinforced the hole with a ply plate, similarly I reinforced the inside of the stern skin where the outlet passes through it. When I was happy that the arrangement worked and I could attach the hoses and securing clips easily I glued and pinned the stern skin to the hull. The water pickup is a standard one that is readily available but it’s supplied with overly large and ugly fixing nuts, the inside one is of no consequence but I thought that the outer one needed smartening up so I put it on a threaded rod and locked it in place with another nut and put that into the chuck of a drill and used a file to re-shape the nut to a pleasing taper….who needs a lathe......😜 I had to reduce the height of the inner keel former as the pickup tube is not long enough to get a good fixing with the internal nut, as the inner keel is balsa I fitted a ply reinforcing plate to spread the load. The last ‘photo shows the location of the ESC, main battery fuse and receiver. The hoses will be secured to the ESC with spring clips throughout. I found that the silicone tube I use tends to kink rather easily if the radius of a bend is too small and I found it necessary to form a tight spring coil around the piece that loops the water back through the ESC to prevent this happening.

5 years ago by robbob

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 do not publish plans of the Aerokits boats on my website, because they are still under copyright and being sold commercially, so I wonder if these plans are being sold legally under license or not? The fact that the s are badly drawn suggests the latter.... Providing a complete refund minimises the risk of you leaving bad feedback - which is the only thing these sellers are scared of.

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Blog

Internal wiring & bottom skins

Because I am keen to conceal as much of the wiring as possible I have decided to place the battery at the bow and the operational equipment at the stern, the engine on the original boat was central and covered with a soundproof box and this is convenient as the motor can be positioned and concealed in the same way. This means that some of the wires will have to run the full length of the boat and the easiest way to conceal them is to run them beneath the ‘box’ around which the hull is formed, and this needs to be done before the bottom skins are fitted. Holes were bored through the formers under the port side of the hull and battery cables were run to the stern where the ESC will be and three motor wires from the ESC run to the centre, emerging near the motor position. For good measure I put in a servo cable and a separate draw wire just in case I needed to put more cabling in for any additional features, perhaps working navigation lights? Satisfied that I had all the cabling in place I was able to fit the bottom skins starting with the starboard side first. Before doing so I put a very slight 'hollow' in former F1 which should help blend the shape of the the hull where the ply skins meet the balsa blocks that will to be carved and shaped to form the bow. This can be seen in the last picture. The process of forming and fixing the skins is the same as for the side skins but in addition to the pins holding the skins in place I used some brown polythene ‘packing tape’ to pull the skins tightly against the formers and strakes. The packing tape has a very high tensile strength and is ideal for this, and of course cheap and easy to remove. Once the aliphatic glue had set thoroughly overnight I removed the excess from the skins with a small block plane and finished them with my sanding plate. Before I fit the skin at the stern I will have to arrange the water cooling for the ESC, with the pickup just behind the prop and the outlet on the stern. I’ll cover that aspect in the next update.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Fitting the side skins.

The side skins are made from 1.5mm ply and require a slight curve towards the bow and I found that this is best achieved by gently warming with a heat gun, which seems to relax the glue between the laminations, so that when bent to a gentle curve and allowed to cool will set the shape very easily. The skins are supplied are slightly oversize and when the skins have been bent they can be roughly clamped to the hull and then marked for trimming, also while the skin is clamped in place the positions of the formers can be marked on the skin. Back on the bench the skins were trimmed with a craft knife (with a fresh blade) and then drilled with a 1mm bit to allow pinning through into the formers and strakes. Aliphatic glue was applied to the hull formers and strakes and the skin positioned so that the drilled holes were in correct alignment with the formers and then clamped and pinned in place. Because the skin was pre-formed to the hull shape the clamps and pins are not under much tension and the hull was set aside while the glue set. When the port skin had fully set overnight, the pins and clamps were removed and the skin was finished with a plane to remove the excess down to the strakes and the F1 former at the bow and the sanding ‘plate’ used to finish it all off. Where the side skins meet at the prow there needs to be a wide flat area for the external keel to butt to and so the trimming and sanding there will be done at a later stage before the bow blocks are fitted and carved. The process was repeated for the starboard side skin and while the glue was setting I gave some thought to a means of concealing some of the wiring that needs to run the length of the hull 🤔.

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Stern & keel formers

I have found as you have that gluing your abrasive paper to a wooden block is far better than wrapping and making sure all the s and other skin supports are at the correct angle can make a real difference to the line of the hull, only noticeable when looking down the length of the hull when painted and that's too late to change things. I also make a number of different shaped sanding blocks/sticks down to using the coffee sticks with abrasives stuck to then for getting into difficult areas.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Stern & keel formers

Various small pieces, S8 & S9, are added to former F7 that create the curvature of the stern which in turn support the outer skin, in addition there are some pieces that are fixed either side of the keel as laminations to add strength and to support the bottom skins where they meet the keel. The prop shaft has yet to be delivered so I used a length of 8mm plastic rod temporarily in its place so that I could fit the keel laminations K5 around the shaft. I chose to fit additional pieces on either side of the keel between the formers to support the bottom skins and some extra pieces of balsa were fitted at the stern to support the outer skin, and in a similar fashion some extra pieces fitted either side of the keel formers at the prow. Once all these pieces were firmly set they need to sanded to the profile of the hull, and this is best done with abrasive paper around a sanding block. I made a sanding ‘plate’ from some 6mm MDF with a sheet of 120 grit aluminium oxide abrasive paper glued to it to form a perfectly flat sanding surface and this was used to chamfer and flatten the , keel and chine formers so that the outer skins would lay as flat as possible across them. I also fitted some pieces of ply under the centre section of the box around the keel to reinforce the area under where the motor mount will be as I don’t think the balsa base of the ‘box’ will take screws firmly. The next step will be to fit the side skins and then the hull will really take shape.

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

Scratch built yacht.

I am thinking of building a new sailing yacht from plans which I have yet to acquire. I have 8 A4 pages of drawings of a Goth-USOM from Frank Russell 2014, not sure where I got them from and if they are worthy of the time and effort. The size is about right at 1000mm length and about 1500mm deck to masthead. I have had dealings with Nylet in the past and am sure they would be helpful for rigging, sails etc. I plan to plank build the hull onto wooden s. Although I have built several model boat hulls using this method before I wonder if I could enlist some help or recommendations from any other members of this group ie choice of plans, how to do it books. Many thanks Chris G

5 years ago by ChrisG

Blog

Upper & Lower Chines

The next stage is to assemble and fit the upper and lower chines to the formers. Each chine is made from three parts that are step jointed together, the instructions recommend using the plan to ensure correct alignment with a protective transparent paper between, however the cutting accuracy of the parts is such that having checked the alignment over the plan I was confident that assembling and glueing them together on the cutting mat would be OK. The upper chines were assembled first and when set were glued and pinned to the tops of the formers with the fronts butting against the K1 keel former at the prow. The lower chines were assembled in the same fashion and when dry are glued and set into the slots in the formers. Finally the stern former F7 is added and the whole assembly set aside to dry. The hull is quickly taking shape now and even at this stage is very rigid and yet remarkably light.

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Assembling the keel & adding formers.

Now Plank on frame really sets my imagination going, I have to say that i am a builder rather than a sailor and get immense pleasure from problem solving and just creating structures. I will be looking for a suitable subject after the Crash Tender which at the moment is taking some time with fiddly bits that don't seem to advance the the overall vision of the project so apologies for the lack of "blog" Any suggestions?

5 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Assembling the keel & adding formers.

Hi Mike. The majority of Phil Smith's Veron designs were around this principle, just as the Aerokits/KeilKraft designs were based on the 'egg crate' method. Both methods are very successful and popular over the years as many modellers will attest, and the hull can be completed really quite quickly. 'Plank on frame' is probably as common if not more and a great deal more time consuming but far better able to reproduce complex hull shapes. Never tried the latter..perhaps one day.

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Assembling the keel & adding formers.

Looking good although I had not seen the method of building round a box before, it takes some time before the shape of the craft can be seen.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Assembling the keel & adding formers.

Coming along nicely Robbob. As the saying goes "Don't talk to me about balsa bow blocks" 😆 And yes, you don't have to do those yet lol. I may just follow you with one of these to run alongside my original Veron one from 1966/7. Hope they have them for sale soon . Best wishes, Dave W 😊

5 years ago by rolfman2000

Blog

Assembling the keel & adding formers.

With the box assembled and the glue fully cured the next stage is to glue the inner keel parts together and fix it to the underside of the box. The keel consists of four pieces that need to be jointed whilst on a flat surface, the instructions suggest that the parts are best assembled whilst laid over the plan with a transparent protective sheet between to ensure accurate alignment. A gap is left in the keel for the prop shaft and this gap is laminated over by some additional keel pieces on either side. I chose to deviate from the instructions here and fit these pieces after the prop shaft was in place to ensure a snug fit, I have it on order from Model Boat Bits along with the prop and rudder. The assembled keel is glued in place along the centre line of the inverted box and when dry the formers can be added. The positions of all the formers are clearly marked on the box and the underside formers are added first followed by the side formers and lastly the bow formers, and the assembly set aside to dry. I’d almost forgotten how easy it is to work with balsa, it takes glue and pins readily and assembling this model is a joy, however, shaping the solid balsa bow blocks to the correct profiles will be an interesting challenge. But I don’t need to do that for a while yet.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Constructing 'The Box'

Phil Smith, the original designer of the Thames River Police Launch, based the construction on a rigid box structure around which formers are fixed to give the hull it’s shape, a design feature of many of the Veron kits. In the Vintage Model Works kit all the components of this box are laser cut and require no additional trimming before assembly, I have used Titebond 2 aliphatic glue throughout the construction as it bonds wood very firmly and dries quickly too. I started by joining the edges of the two sheets of balsa that form the base of the box, these were held firmly together with some scrap wood and weighted down on the cutting mat and left to dry. Meanwhile the box sides were similarly glued together taking care that the two pieces that form each box side are in perfect alignment using the laser etched vertical lines that mark the former positions, these were also wedged together and weighted while the glue set. Once the bottom and sides are dry the ends can be added to complete the box construction, a try-square was used to check the box for accuracy and everything was held together with some ‘push pins’ while the glue set. As this box forms the foundation of the hull it’s essential that there’s no twist or anything out of square. This was all done in one evening, clearly the assembly of this kit could be completed quite rapidly if you really wanted too!

5 years ago by robbob

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 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

Blog

Assembly

Hi All Would suggest you dry assemble with the cabin sides as my forward was out by 2 Degrees. When I cut the pieces out I used a new Dremel Moto Saw as my old srollsaw from Dremel was condemned due to inavailability of blades. Like I say not enough clamps Have ordered the decking from Jotika this is extra and allows you to plank the deck and cockpit more realistically.

6 years ago by Ianh

Blog

Aerokits/Jotika Sea Queen

I made this from a 54" long piece of Melamine shelving. shallow cut a centre ine down the middle 1/16" wide. The board was then marked into 2" squares using a laundry marker. The design concept was from a fuselage jig I had made by SLEC. The holes required for the brackets are M5 with captive ( T nuts) underneath pulled up into the bottom of the board. The red tape down the centre is masking tape ( the high quality stuff) this was to stop the boat glueing itself to the board. As the the keel has a skeg we needed to raise the keel to ensure parallelism I used an Enginerers Marking out block and two doorstops on this.The angles can slide and you then clamp the Bulwarks on I used thirty minute epoxy for this although I would like a longer working time epoxy. Bulwarks 3 and 4 with the motor base was also epoxied together. This was then located on the keey ( Dryfit along with the other s. A word of advice here use the cabin sides to ensure alignment. Check with a rule and squares before gluing anything.

6 years ago by Ianh

Blog

Assemble the hull

The Bulwarks were out in place on the jig and glued with ZAP 30 minute epoxy. I used the cabin sides to align the s. By the way Clamps you will need a lot of these

6 years ago by Ianh

Blog

Must get the skins on before I pull all of my hair out!!

This build is proving to be much more difficult than I had expected. 😤 I think I started this project thinking that all of the parts were ready to fit and glue. As I went on, it became clear that this is not the case. Due to this, and as detailed in the earlier post, I have had to break down the glue joints of the hull frame, and reposition after deepening some of the assembly slots. I have re-assembled the s, stringers etc. and then started to fit the side skins. This has proven to be the most difficult task so far. You need six arms. After several failures, removal of all of the fixing tape and then starting again, they finally started to look reasonable. I watched a time lapse video on you tube and he seems to do it fairly easily. Oh well. 🤔 Now that I was happy with the fit of the sides, it was time to start on the bottom skins. I started by trying to form chamfers along the keel centre joints so that they look reasonable. Then I once again applied tape to hold them in position whilst glueing with my other three hands, I wish. This only took two attempts. I must be getting better. I still have most of my hair also. Next, I tried to mount the motors onto the angled . The front location was very loose so I made a couple of thin silver steel rings to improve the fit. They work very well. 😊 Next job was to fit and align the prop shafts. I decided to make these solid joints and avoid the use of universal joints. The first motor went straight on with perfect shaft alignment. The second was not so good. After two hours of fiddling with a packer, I finally achieved perfect alignment. Next job was to give good joint strength and make the hull water tight. Rightly or wrongly I use a lot of glue to give that perfect seal. I used epoxy for all of the skin inner joints and Stabilit for the outer seams and joints. I used the Stabilit around the shafts as well which looks a little messy at the moment, but I will tidy all of this up next. I will paint the inner Stabilit with white paint to hide a little. This weekend I will do a water test to ensure it is water tight.😱 I think after that I will fit all of the electrics, servo and speed controller. Then I will spray the hull and the main deck prior to fixing together. I would be interested to know what others think about when to paint, before or after assembly, especialy regarding the hull. Enough for now.🤐 I will try to speed up the build a bit now as I am expecting the new 46" Crash Tender to arrive soon. Wood!!! Love it.😊

6 years ago by MouldBuilder

Response

welding

I really like your approach to the assembly using a jig to ensure squareness and consistency with the s. its looking good keep it up

6 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

Gelyce class ''Islay''

Hi, many years ago I was approached by the man who ran the Chateau Margot delicious wine factory to make a model of Water Pipit, one of the smaller Gelyce class yacht tenders built by Camper and Nicholson. They di some at 50 foot and a few at 38 foot. Currently out there and nicely restored is Islay, which I think may be Water Pipet in a later itteration, since it was once restored and subsequently neglected by Ugo Baravalle, at the time Italy's 5th richest man and a gent who actually offered to show me round his vast collection on Elba very graciously. I never heard from the wine mazn again and so couldn't tap him for a deposit to finance the trip to Italy. Project cancelled, Baravalle apologised to, life went on. Now, I find I would rather like to do the model for myself, with all the lovely golden interior work. To do this, the construction would have to be more like the original steamed timbers and double diagonal planking, rather than my usual 3mm ply s. So, my question is...has anyone ever built a hull in this way, as a shell, more than a glorified Aerokits/Veron kit? I haven't, so I'm looking for any hints, tricks, warnings you may have. Here's the boat. You can see the appeal. Cheers, Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Forum

S.H.Grainger Formula Powerboat

If the hull is in decent shape structurally i cant see any problem if you get the balance right it should go well. if you are concerned beef up the mounts or put a in it or both. Mine now runs on brushless and moves along quite well. I`m sure Jerome Grainger put a Merco or Webra 61 in his Cigarette in the 70`s. I`ve run my Surfury on an Irvine 40 and was pleased with performance and handling, that now runs on a brushless and its quicker. Pics are of Surfury with Irvine 61 which was a bit heavy and my version of the Black Tornado

6 years ago by vortex

Forum

s

The first pic that Green has posted, does show a 'Schottel' drive unit at the left of the plan, no wonder he is confused.

6 years ago by Kipper

Forum

s

I have hopefully posted photos of stern/bow shape of s + side view of the hull. there are 20 frames in the hull. how can I install x2 graupner schottel [2335] at the bow. I will have to leave out the keel under hull. thankyou Green. the plans are 1/50th scale.

6 years ago by green72west

Forum

Bending thin plywood

Slightly more comfortable - The bending is done simply by soaking in hot water for 10 - 15 mins and then forming around a suitable paint tin/circular object and left a couple of days to dry. The skins must be absolutely dry before fitting as further drying out when glued to the s will twist the whole hull.

6 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

s

The plan at the top of the thread shows a specific Water Tractor tug plan specifically designed for the VS drives, including the large straight keel at the stern. I suggest Green72West should either use VS drives or use another type of hull for Schottel drives.

6 years ago by reilly4

Forum

s

Hi Gerd, it's not my plan! The plan is from 'green72west' who started this thread and seems to be confusing Schottel and Voith-Schneider. Either that or he wants to use two Z-Drives instead of the Voith drives. His intention is not clear. Either way he doesn't need to cut chunks out of the keel, that's nuts😲 Cheers, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

s

Hi Doug Your plan show a Voith-Schneider-Propeller

6 years ago by Dampfgerd

Forum

s

Hi Haig, seems to be a common mistake to get Schottel Drives (Z-Drives) and Voith - Schneider confused with one another! First two pics show a twin Voith propeller on a tug hull (as on the plan above) and the operating principle. 3rd pic is cross section of the Z-Drive as produced by the Schottel company. it is a 360° rotating 'pod'. Newer versions have electric motors built into the pod and don't need the mechanical Z transmission from inside the hull. With such pods under bow and stern even bow and stern side thrusters are redundant 😊 4th pic is the Graupner version, Mk II. https://www.graupner.com/Schottel-Drive-II-new-version-/2335/ Cheers, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

s

Why do you need Schottel drives? The Voith Schneider drives in that configuration can move the boat in any direction? Schottel drives will require fairly big penetrations through the hull, and apart from the installation complications, should (in my opinion) be unnecessary. This is a link to a fairly comprehensive brochure with photos of the real thing that will help in understanding the concept etc. http://www.gemimanevrasi.com/Tug_Boat_Technology/Voith%20Water%20Tractor.pdf

6 years ago by reilly4

Forum

s

Bauer- Voith-Schneider-Propeller https://www.bauer-modelle.com/Voith-Schneider-Propeller-VSP-65BM-mit-Brushlessmotor

6 years ago by Dampfgerd

Response

Pilot Boat

Hi Mike. The s are all slotted as is the keel. The front of the keel is also located in a slot in the base board and so therefore all of the s are automatically held square in both directions. it has been glued and on a trial run, the skins fit well. I have been as careful as possible. The manufacturer has thought about assembly. The jig is not card. it is a strong sheet of 3mm Depron. if you see the picture above, you can see the slots for the s and the centre front slot for the keel. it does seem to keep everything in place very well.😊 I am going to try to fit the skins tomorrow. I wll report back if I don`t do myself an injury trying.🤓

6 years ago by MouldBuilder

Response

Pilot Boat

Is there anything that holds the s at 90 degrees to the base? I assume you fastened this base card template flat to a wooden building board otherwise there is a danger that the s could be out of true hence my comment - s at 90 degrees. its also important that it stays in the jig while the skins are applied. is the structure already glued? as my comments may be too late

6 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Pilot Boat

Here's a picture of the building board I am using on on a small cabin cruiser, I hope this explains the principle. The excess lugs on each are cut off after skinning.

6 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Pilot Boat

looking at the s I would suggest that the structure is meant to be built upside down on a building board. Each should be fastened to a piece of 12mm sq timber then fasten to the base board at the appropriate spacing keeping them upright and square, then the keel can be glued in place followed by the chines keeping all the structure square and true. Just a thought. Ill post a picture of a similar vessel I am building at present in this way, but will be tomorrow.

6 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

tugboat keel

Frames! Or s when they are solid across the hull Mr Green.😉 Cheers, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Bit of a problem.............

Hi again Neville, Onetenor just posted this response to your 'Bit of a problem' but on the wrong thread😲 "Re the leaking boat problem. I would cut away the section between the stem and first /frame. Replace with new wood.Then pour the resin into that space. No need for cocktail shaking ( unless you like watching wife ) just keep turning so the resin/varnish runs around all the seam/joints in that section until it sets.👍" OK, would fix the leak; if it is in that section and if it's done right. BUT: it would leave a kink in the hull lines cos the wood would no longer have the natural bend between the bullheads. The inserted piece would be flatter. You can see this effect clearly on the port side of my PTB hull in the pic. At the top in the pic. You can 'see the join' quite clearly When I'd cleaned the old paint off I found that there was a separate piece from stem to the second . Repairs to the chine line made that look a bit smoother but nothing I could do about the rest without re-skinning the whole side😡 which I didn't fancy. I'll try to disguise it a little with the pacific camouflage paint 😉 Cheers, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich