Blog

Shop/Refrigerator

Not much, happening this time of year. The shop doesn't have heat, so things like batteries that shouldn't be left in the cold come in the house, and the shop which seems to stay at or near 40°f/4°c, become an annex to our refrigerator. Now and then we get a warm day or three, and I open the doors because it's actually warmer outside than in, but more often than not what gets done is for other folks, and not the models. Spring is about a month off, but we'll likely get get some warmer days before that and I have been doodling some thoughts on what to address on all three models when the opportunity appears. On Constellation that's chainplates, pinrails, and getting the mizzen bracing working - a fairlead got some in it and needs to be cleared. I also want to get into some details like railings on the mast tops, and the bands that the futtocks attach to on the masts. if you don't know what that is, just wait and it'll be explained.

5 years ago by Jerry Todd

Directory

(Life Boat) Taymar

Model Slipway Taymar Lifeboat and just completed the glassfibre hull, deck and installing motors, bow thruster and rudder servo (Motor: Graupner 600 x2) (10/10). The deck was a bad fit into the hull and a battle to fix but with hour long and lots of sellotape pulling the hull against the deck I got there in the end

6 years ago by Brianaro

Blog

Mast assembly

The supplied mast is of white metal and although OK it has a number of minus points for me. 1- The mast does not lend its self to being hinged. 2- It really needs navigation light on top and the supplied casting is not suitable for this. 3- wiring needs to be hidden, not easy with the casting 4- it’s quite heavy Having said all that it’s ok if you don’t want my wish list. So on with the manufacture of a replica, I chose brass as the preferred material because it’s easy to silver and soft solder. The main legs are made from 6mm round tube, which I squeezed in my machine vice to an oval shape to look like the castings, each of the ends were then squeezed again at 90 degrees to allow then to join to the cross mid-section. I made some brass inserts for the hinged end from 2mm brass sheet, which are bent by 25 degrees to allow the hinge mechanism to sit at 90 degrees to the cabin roof, these are drilled and tapped 8BA. These pieces actually block the end of the oval tube and need to have a 2mm slot milled in them to allow the wires to exit the tube; these are soft soldered in place later. Two feet were made from two pieces of 2mm brass plate the base plate being slotted to accept the upright and finally silver soldered together. (A point here for silver soldering is to use as little solder as possible and allow it to flow with the heat around the joint this means that no filing is needed. I find it’s also good practice to quench the part when nearly cool to break the glass like residue of the flux then just steel wool is required to clean the parts). The feet upstands were then drilled 8BA clearance and the base fixing holes drilled the same size. The cross mid-section is made from 1mm brass sheet and is bent through 360 degrees whilst placing a 6mm round bar in the centre to create a hole for the top mast. A small wooden former was used as the piece was pressed together in the machine vice, this was then silver soldered to give stability and then filed to shape. This piece has to accommodate the wires passing through, so again a 2mm slot is milled from each leg location to the centre to create passage up to the top mast. The top mast is just stock tubing which then has a turned top with four 5mm holes machined at 90 degrees to accommodate the LED. This is a 5mm Flat top wide angle LED this will direct the light out of the four holes. Finally the cross piece, again stock tube with small ball finials at each end soft soldered in place and tapped 10 BA for the pulley blocks. All pieces now made, it’s time to assemble the parts using a combination of soft soldering and resin. The wire that I used was silicon sheaved, and when I soldered the legs to the mid-section and lower hinge piece I made sure there was enough wire to pull through to check if the process had damaged the wire, but it hadn’t. So having soldered the LED, the top was epoxied to the upper tube and the tube epoxied to the mid-section. Finally the mid-section was filled using Milliput but first putting some Vaseline on the wires to avoid them being stuck should I ever have to rewire the unit. Next the cross beam was added and epoxied in place. The bottom of the legs looked plain compared with the cast version so I have made some thin gauge brass covers with mock bolts as per the original. The whole assembly was cleaned up ready for a first coat of etch primer, and white primer, followed later with a final coat of appliance white

5 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

Painting over

On fibreglass you could use an etching primer which is a modified alkyd primer that produces a sound base coat on wood, steel, fiberglass, aluminum surfaces. but you should use an ordinary primer before the top coat. Halfords do a spray etch primer.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

Painting over

I have used several Halfords Aerosol spray cans on boats over the recent years. In each case I have sanded the hull down to bare wood as the boats were vintage ones and did have coats of paint on them that could not be identified. Best to use thin applications of both primer then paint then build up on that after leaving 24 hours between each coat. Another good point is that Halfords also stock plastic primer in their paints range which is ideal if your boat has a polystyrene hull or you have plastic fittings. Boaty😎

5 years ago by boaty

Forum

Painting over

Halfods spray cans will work brilliantly of if you know of someone who works in a body shop get them to spray it with 2 pak paint for you Dave

5 years ago by Dave J

Forum

Shroud for Model Air Boat

Hello, CPO: I agree with Joe727. I’d use a high quality two-part 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 air boat 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 Air Boat

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 . Good luck with your projects. Cheers Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Blog

Paddle Tug Iona - the hull

So... here is a compressed build blog of my paddle tug Iona... and I'm playing catch-up as the vessel is 95% complete and has been sailed already, but there may be some interest in what I've done. Iona was scratch-built off plan and has turned out to be the cheapest build so far out of 3 I've made, mainly because I was able to source materials from the leftovers box! it's a 'mixed-media' boat 😜using traditional methods of plank on frame hull, with paddles made on my 3D printer, and other parts turned on the lathe. So starting with the hull, frames were drawn out, transferred to some scrap 9mm ply and cut out on my bandsaw, along with the keel. These were assembled on a build board with some right angle brackets / measuring tools and test fitted before being stuck in place with . This was quite difficult as the shape of the hull is critical and comes right at the start of the build. I did remake 1 frame to correct alignment. The deck stringers need to bend in 2 directions, so some steaming with a carpet steam cleaner attached to some tubes worked and the wood clamped in place to dry. Outboard sponsons (?) were fitted to make a frame for the paddle boxes to fit on. Then a large sheet of ply forms the bottom of the hull, and the only job left to complete was the (tedious) planking. This was my 1st plank on frame ship... and it took ages. I think it came out reasonably OK but I'm not a perfectionist and I know if I'd spent more time it could be better... but I didn't! Next blog will feature building the paddle boxes and superstructure.🤓

5 years ago by Harvey Kitten

Blog

Frames glued up & water test.

Just a couple more photos of the fishing boat & sealed hull with gorilla wood glue then a coat of 2 part finishing in the inside . The boat is small enough to float in the kitchen sink

5 years ago by GARTH

Forum

1950s sea commander refurb.

This old sea commander was built by my dad in the mid 50's. With the help of the wife, we have started to repair and rebuild, the wife stripped it down. Doug (RNmunich) is rebuilding my taycol supermarine ready to fit into it. So far we have relaminated some of the hull boards and cabin sides. Sealed some of the sprung joints with 2 pack . Once that's had 48 hours hardening time I will rub down and coat the hull in glass cloth and Eze-Kote. I have 1 problem, the main cabin roof is missing and I don't have any plans to remake, so if anyone can help me please let me know. Thanks for reading, watch for updates in the coming weeks. Cheers Colin.

5 years ago by Colin H

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 . I have found an eight hour to fix the stringers to the bulkheads 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 the inside of the boat before fitting the skins

5 years ago by Ianh

Response

Rubbing fenders, more & hatch coamings.

Mike. If I have to apply any filler to the hull then it's not ready for glassing, only once the surface is a perfect as I can make it would I apply the glass cloth and resin. With the sander I had to hot glue the 'captive nut' inside that locks the tilting table as it's not 'captive' by any stretch of the imagination 😲. And I also removed the angle setting marker and re-applied it after setting a true 90 degree angle as it was a couple of degrees out. So after a little 'fettling', nothing that any competent person couldn't do, it works really well and accurately 👍😁👍

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Rubbing fenders, more & hatch coamings.

You cant beat elbow grease, there aren't any shortcuts to achieving a perfect paint finish. I thought it may be useful to other builders to mention something we discussed at AP and that is the fact that it wasn't good practice to use any filler after glassing as this filling however thin or small will over time shrink at a different rate to that of the paint, making it visible as a "shrink line" albeit small. if you do find yourself in the position of requiring some minor filling you should try to use a material that is the same chemical make up as your paint eg if using cellulose then use cellulose putty for minor filling but do allow it to harden for a couple of weeks before final coat. Also the disc sander from Lidl is brilliant for the price, I did make a small modification by taking out some of the end float by fitting an additional washer/spacer

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Rubbing fenders, more & hatch coamings.

With all of the deck planking fitted I can now fix the rubbing fenders to the hull where the deck meets the hull sides. These are made from 6.5mm x 5mm obeche strip steamed and bent to shape and fixed with 30 minute , unfortunately the strips are not quite long enough to do this in one piece even with the rear rubbing fender in place at the stern so a join has to be made which I hope won’t be too conspicuous. The fender tapers in height from bow to stern and the piece that runs across the stern was made from 5mm x 5mm obeche. All the fenders were ‘pilot drilled’ for the pins that held them in place while the glue set. The complete hull was then given a further two coats of resin with a rub down between coats and a final ‘polish’ with 240 grit paper used wet. The resulting finish is perfectly smooth and ready for paint. The front and rear hatches were fitted with the coamings that will hold the hatches in place. The rotary disk sander that I bought from Lidl is certainly proving to be very useful in shaping small parts at this stage of the construction. I note that it’s back on sale now (Feb 2019) so if you have the opportunity and £30 ….go buy yourself one! The next stage will be to assemble the cabin.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Cabin detail part 6 panel light

Cabin detail part 6 panel light The panel light presented a difficult challenge in that I assume the real one has a tubular light fitting in it, difficult in 1/12 scale. However, creating the tube assembly was not difficult using some annealed 1/8” brass tube and making a bending jig, (simply a 1/8 grove milled using a ball ended slot drill into a piece of hardwood I formed the tube into the required shape. I used the back of the jig to hold the piece while I filled the tube half way through along it top inside edge @ 45 degrees this is where the LED tube will fit. The LED tube is from one of the new type LED garden light bulb that use a small solar panel to illuminate it during the during dark hours. Smashing the bulb leaves 4 filaments which can be used independently, these are very delicate and need the wires attaching very carefully finally feeding it into the brass tube and then after all this fiddling, if it still lights, it in place. The next job is to make some brackets to fix it to the instrument panel. The bracket was made from 1/8” bore tube and some 0.010” brass shim I drilled some holes in the sheet prior to cutting to size, this was done using only a 1/8” dia centre drill and then enlarged with a clock makers reamer until the tube fitted snugly through this was then soft soldered in place. The whole unit was then epoxied in place on the instrument panel. All the wiring for the panel LEDs can now be completed ready for connection to the random flashing circuit board. (this came as a kit for just £3:90) The circuit board is fastened to the panel with a sub-board made from a scrap piece of ply with PCB supporting pillars in the corners, when this is completed I will post a video of it working. The LEDs on the circuit board are only for testing and will be replaced with the panel LEDs.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Directory

(Yacht) DMI 'Pirat''

Classic modell, in the 70's sold under the name DMI pirat. a full wooden sailboat without RC controls. the keel was extended to improve stability. In the 90's the wooden strips from the hull were so dried out, that I had to fill it complete with and sprayed the uniform 'baby blue'color. After a long period in the attic , it saw daylight again and the sails needed to be replaced. Now it is a static model with sailing capacities. (7/10)

5 years ago by Smaragd

Response

Glassfibre cloth & resin

I have also coated my 46" RAF Crash Tender with fiber glass matting and used West Systems two part . i coated the entire hull in one piece apart from the transom. I left it for two days to harden off. it worked very well. I am fitting the rubbing strakes over the top of the fiberglass using modelling pins and 5 minute .

5 years ago by ChrisR

Blog

Motor, mount & prop-shaft.

The prop-shaft, coupling and motor mount that I ordered from ModelBoatBits has arrived so it seems a good a good time to make up a supporting wedge for the mount to fix to. I do have a rigid brass motor alignment aid that I used when building the Crash Tender but do you think I can find it in the workshop?....nope! 😡 I expect it will turn up when I need it least! 🤞 Not wanting to waste time I used a length of heat shrink tubing over the motor coupling to make it as rigid as possible, a trick I had seen done elsewhere, and this enabled me to position the motor on its mount in the desired position and measure the angle that the mounting wedge needs to be made to. I used an offcut of beech that I had in the workshop which I cut to size and then shaped it on the rotary sander that I bought in Lidl, fantastic piece of kit !!. The wedge was then drilled to take the nylon motor mount and also the fixing screws that pass through the beech block, through the balsa base of the box and into the ply reinforcing plate that I put in during early construction of the hull. After cleaning up the hole through the keel the prop-shaft was keyed with some abrasive, smeared with some and then pushed through to mate with the motor coupling. I used the excess resin around the shaft inside the hull and used some packing tape to stop it running out when I inverted the hull to seal the lower end. A quick spin on the motor confirmed that the alignment was spot-on and the hull set aside while the set. The next step will be to plank the deck.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Fitting the rubbing strakes.

Before I can apply the final coats of on the hull I need to fit the two rubbing strakes. I started with the bottom rubbing strake which runs along the chine where the side skins and bottom skins meet. The strakes meet the external keel at the bow and also extend across the stern. I used a length of square section of obeche which needed a gentle curve towards the bow, rather than steam the wood I soaked it in water for a few minutes to soften it and then used a heat gun while bending the strip gently to the required curve. When the wood had cooled and dried the bend was set I did a test fit and drilled very fine holes through the strip so that the modelling pins I use to hold the piece in place would not split the wood. A 30 minute was used to fit the strakes on both sides of the hull and stern. Above this bottom strake is a second rubbing strake and this also meets the keel at the bow and runs across the stern, I used a broader and thinner obeche strip for this and it was prepared and fixed in the same way. The final pieces to fit will be the gunwales which run around the hull where the sides meet the deck but I will not fit them until I have planked the deck.

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Glassfibre cloth & resin

To those intending to glass a hull, take Robs advise I did and it works fine, it's tempting to load more resin on at the brushing in stage but DON'T

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Glassfibre cloth & resin

I used glassfibre cloth and resin successfully when building my 46” RAF Crash Tender and I chose to do the same with the Police Boat. See: https://model-boats.com/builds/view/23951 for the Crash Tender blog. The application of the cloth and resin serves to strengthen the hull enormously and produces a completely watertight hull, and after additional coats of resin are applied and sanded between coats resulting in a surface that is absolutely smooth and the perfect substrate for the subsequent paint process. With the benefit of my previous experience and greater confidence working with these materials I used a ‘fast’ hardener with the resin which gives a working time of 30 minutes and a much shorter curing time where previously I had used a 90 minute ‘slow’ hardener. The basic process is to cut the cloth roughly to shape with a good margin of overlap and then use masking tape along one edge so that after the resin has been brushed onto the hull the cloth can just be lifted over onto the resin. I then lightly brush the cloth into the resin and push the cloth into any tight angles, without any further resin on the brush, until the weave of the cloth is filled and there are no air pockets and the cloth is completely flat. At this point DO NO MORE as the resin will start to harden and any more fiddling with it will cause the cloth to lift and bubble, less is definitely more in this instance. The resin should cure completely overnight and can be trimmed with a sharp blade. I tend to cover a hull in five stages, as there are five ‘faces’ to the hull and thus it’s a five day process for me, this may be time consuming but I think the results are worth the effort. I will brush on two further coats of resin when the rubbing strakes and gunwales have been added, this will completely fill the weave of the cloth to create a nice flat surface but it’s essential to rub down each coat after curing. All the materials were bought from ‘Easy Composites’ https://www.easycomposites.co.uk

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Paint / work

Ed, yes, I plan to do a ships-ladder along with the railings. it will be my first scratch built ships-ladder. Will photo the process. Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Response

The bow blocks & outer keel

hello i'm trying to finish on my dumas CC commander and having a hard time getting a smooth surface each time try to put on a coat. it comes out wavy and not even. have tried foam and reg brushes, auto body spreader, try a foam roller, better it was even but not smooth any hints would be helpfully... samc

5 years ago by samc

Response

Paint / work

Hi Joe, Why not put stanchions on each corner. And every 1" or so. Go around to the back of the second deck. Put the Pilot House ask flush to the front! Then on the back have a ladder going. Down to the Main deck! Regards, Ed

5 years ago by figtree7nts

Blog

Paint / work

Hello, No photos today as I prime painted the superstructure and did some cleanup on the skeg with some . Starting to plan on how to build the railings around the pilot house, mocked up a quick piece tonight, but too tired to photo, will get to tomorrow. Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

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 bulkhead 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 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 resin….

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

riva

I checked, and it looks to me like they changed the design. The current oen shown is plank on frame. if you seal the inside with you can cover most of the interior to seal it up. I honestly don't think you would have a problem

5 years ago by bustedknuckles

Forum

riva

Given that the inner core of the riva is some sort of plastic (onto which the planks are laid and glued), and given that the one shown has some 15 coats of clear and varnish, it is quite well sealed. And stable in our experience. I should have mentioned that you may be carving out space for the electronics and motors as well. (I say "may" because it has been a few years, and my memory is not photographic...)

5 years ago by bustedknuckles

Blog

Moving along

Merry Christmas to All! Yesterday I made a brass strap to secure the motor, then aligned the drive shaft and stuffing tube. Tacked tube in place with a gel superglue, will be covered with later. Used a short piece of aluminum tube to help align the motor and shaft. A coupler will be placed here. Cut some plywood pieces to create keel at the shaft tube. White stuff is marine by locktite, just enough to set everything. I will then coat and finish this assembly. Finished the day's work by constructing a rudder, no photo yet. Enjoy Christmas! Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Response

Hum, Now What!

Ed, Tilt the boat up and just pour two part into this area. I always do this, first I glue tack the stuffing tube to insure alignment. Then pour in the usually along with lead bird shot or bb's for ballast. Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Blog

Rear deck continued

The rear deck has a few features that need to be done to finish the deck. 1) The hatch part needs the magnets putting in to hold it in place, which requires the deck to be milled out to accept the magnets. Having milled the recess out in both the base and the hatch in four places the magnets can be epoxied in the base. Now these have been set in place the upper magnets can be placed on top of the base magnets to get the correct orientation and glued in place, but I made sure to place some silicon baking paper between the magnets so they don’t accidently get stuck together (with ). 2) The handles and recess to lift the decks out have to be milled out. Using a 2 mm slot drill I cut a 10mm x 5mm 1.5 mm deep recess in 4 places. Each recess has two holes drilled in the corners to accept the brass handles which will be epoxied in later 3) There are two drains at the rear of the deck. These were made from a machined piece of tube, which had vee groves milled in one end to accept a 1.5 mm brass rod in each, which were then soldered in place. After some cleaning up of the excess solder the underside was filled in using resin coloured black (with Graphite) to simulate a dark hole. The ends were then machined flat, polished, and finally epoxied into the deck. 4) Finally the foam tanks need to be secured, once again using round magnets this time , they are sunk into the deck and similarly the opposing magnets are sunk into the base of each foam tank, this gives a real sturdy fastening the tanks jump into position as soon as they are placed near their position. 5) The deck has had a number of clear lacquer coats during manufacture so now for a couple of final coats.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

Pretend deck planking

The bend was done using a "jig" and two strips of a thin plywood as a protection of the planks (nor to distort them by clamps as it happened for the first time). First, I cooked them a little, of course. When dried, they kept the shape nicely. For caulking, the (or aliphatic wood glue) could be "injected" into the gaps left between the planks. I have tried all three methods (black paper, and aliphatic glue) and went for paper, at the end.

5 years ago by Zdenek

Forum

Ship rudders

Four of the five rudder post hinges made and prepared for finishing resin and rivet detail.

5 years ago by Toby

Forum

Ship rudders

Two wooden pieces, steel rod, each hinge 3mm i/d brass tube, shaped with filler and then each hinge covered and the shape made using Strips of five glass and finishing resin. File to suit. Pins for hinges clevis type 3mm.

5 years ago by Toby

Blog

coastguard

I bought the hull from a member on here i stripped the insides and redone it to take the rudder servo i then made the motor mounts from ply i used to set them in it runs nicely on the two 45mm brass props i will make the superstructure from lite ply

6 years ago by Northumbrian

Blog

The wheelhouse navigation light.

This is a small item but very visible on the wheelhouse and since the standard for this item has been set I have to follow suit. So first of all get some 3mm blue LEDs ordered and then it’s on with preparing the white metal body. I used by hand as suggested a series of drills increasing in diameter until 3.1 dia was reached but only 2/3 down the length from the front the smaller hole (1.5mm) was bored right through for the wires to exit. Arrival of the LEDs, first check the LED using my power supply, just over 3 volts seems to illuminate to the correct level. Next was to remove the shoulder on its plastic casing so the whole body does not exceed 3mm over its length and lightly abrade the outside to give a diffused light. Next cut the LED legs to 2mm from the plastic casing noting which is positive, next prepare the wires. I used Futaba servo wire cable 22awg which is very flexible and with the white signal wire stripped off leaving a red and black wire. These were tinned and cropped to 2mm and then quickly soldered to the appropriate terminal. Next check the LED still works! first hurdle over, I now needed to check the that when the LED goes into the body it doesn’t short out so checking the diameter over the widest part which is over the soldered terminals this was 0.1 below 3mm. I decided that shrink sleeve was too thick so I mixed some resin and coated all around the terminals, this proved to be satisfactory in both non-conductivity and dimensionally. Now the final test, using some aliphatic wood glue I slid the LED into the body whilst it was illuminated as it was a tight push fit, bingo it’s still lit – leave to set. I used aliphatic glue, as it would be easier to remove should I ever have to change the LED. The body still needs painting white but this will be done with all the other fittings at a later stage.

6 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

Cleaning sails, toy yachts, etc....

I did indeed use an abrasive polish on the cream paint, but as it was a very severe crack or two all along the hull, I injected resin in the crack and clamped it up as far as possible, then Milliputted in to fair it. This was between two strips of tape to prevent the spread of or Milli further than necessary. I managed to match the cream more or less and once I've put a coat of nice amber spar varnish on it'll look like the original when heeled and won't show at all when on display. Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Response

Cabin roof hatches

Hi Boatshed, I have used cascamite on some of the older boat restorations, but they are mainly for display boats, but it's rather expensive for most modelling jobs, so now tend to stick to using and the best one in my humble opinion is from the poundland shop, it dries quite quickly and crystal clear, I've even replaced port holes glazing with it. (it features Tommy Walsh on the package.) Comes in a syringe, so really easy to use. Cheers Colin.

6 years ago by Colin H

Response

Cabin roof hatches

Adhesives are a combination of for the structural joints and aliphatic for non structural joints unless the type of material is an issue eg white metal fittings adhered to wood would be and canopy glue for transparent components.

6 years ago by mturpin013

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 for this although I would like a longer working time . Bulwarks 3 and 4 with the motor base was also epoxied together. This was then located on the keey ( Dryfit along with the other bulkheads. 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

Electrical

Hi All Refer to attached for motor comparison. I don't like using Cyano so the hull be built using ZAP 30minute and a weather proof Alphylitic from Sika. I will more than likely use a polyurethane based glue for the skinning. The hole boat will be coated inside and out to add strength. By the way the resin will increase the strength by about 2.5😁😁

6 years ago by Ianh

Blog

Assemble the hull

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

6 years ago by Ianh

Response

The Building Board

Hello Ianh. Deluxe Materials supply a 60 minute , Speed 11 product code AD71. www.deluxematerials.com I’ve used it and it’s very good. Good luck with the build

6 years ago by Brianaro

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 bulkheads, 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 bulkhead. 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 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

Forum

Styrene Allergy?

Styrene fumes? You'll only get fumes if you heat it. My chum works a vac-former to make model car glazing and he thoroughly washes every sheet of PVC before forming it. Stops micro-bubbles forming. I use blue nitriles when ing. I always found latex melted on contact with most of the things I used, like enamel paint, Marineflex, etc. Nitriles stay put. Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Blog

Cabin roof hatches

Rear cabin hatches I have decided to make these two roof hatches detachable (not working) purely to ease the painting and rubbing down process. The hatches on the rear cabin are supplied in pieces to be glued together, so to make them detachable I drilled a hole through the base of each and glued an 8BA screw in place, these can then be secured after final painting to the roof. The hatch also has a dummy-hinged lid and small white metal hinges are supplied, however they do need some attention, such as drilling all the holes and trimming the edges. Here we go again, time for a jig! Repartition can be achieved with the simplest of jigs; all I used was coffee stirrers pinned to a block of wood and one as a locking device. The jig was then placed under the milling machine and the first hole centred, drilled and then the next hinge is placed in the jig and drilled and so on, move to the next hole until all holes are drilled. Before fitting the hinges there needs to be a separation line for the lid and hinge plate so a scored line about halfway through the ply. The hinges are fitted with and brass pins through all the fixing holes. Mid cabin hatch This is a single hatch, again a square of ply is supplied, but this is improved by adding sides, which can locate on runners, again the runners are not supplied. This hatch is also attached with a single screw epoxied into the top and a nut, after final painting. Forward cabin hatch Again, a single hatch and dealt with in the same way as the mid hatch.

6 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

St Canute Planking Help?

I agree with Doug. But the ez and glass cloth s necessary for strength. I have made the top cowling of my Darby stepped hydro of balsa to save top ham,per, but despite coats of sanding sealer the knocks keep coming and spoiling the surface, so you will need the /glass combo to get a good finish. And, of course St. Canute is a steel plated ship anyway, so you need a good hard surface to get a decant paint finish that won't show every tap and knock. Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Directory

(Other) Avanti

ARTR fast electric by Thunder Tiger. Deep vee powered by Ripper Brushless outrunner. Will reach 30mph+ when flat out. I replaced the radio that came with the boat with stick operated Futaba T2HR as I preferred "stick" to wheel for sailing fast boats. initial problem was slight leak where stern tube passes through the transom but soon fixed it with . Electrics are in a box at the stern which is appears to be water resistant. Though not for a raw beginner, it is great for a second boat especially if someone is hoping to move on to a 6S . if not , it makes a good all rounder and is ideal for club fast electric racing and it performs well when doing tight turns. Boaty (Motor: OBL29/19-15M) (ESC: BLC-40M) (9/10)

6 years ago by boaty

Forum

Exciters/transducers

Im not on here that much, so a little late picking this up. Are you talking about TT25 transducers like the ones Mrrcsound sell/ I suppose they all work the same, I've used these a lot, in planes mostly, and experimented with boats, so can offer some hands on advice. Firstly, you don't cut any holes to let sound out, as this isn't how they work. its all about the vibrations. The centre ring is epoxied (that's the best way, they have to be permanent, but with some teasing they can be removed it required, rather than cyno) to the surface, which obviously needs to be flat. The thinner the material, the more sound, but its marginal, as the thinner you go, the less bass, or deeper tones. With planes, the best material by far is the epo foam, so when mounting into a ply or balsa plane they work best going to foam, then the ply, and the same will apply for a boat. 2-3mm is generally the optimum thickness. Remember, the area is going to vibrate, so use an area that can do this, the sides of a hull are ideal. The back of the transducers get hot, so don't cover the back, the heat has to dissipate and once secure, make sure the unit can move in and out, its easy to drip glue in the wrong place and the whole thing gets stuck, it wont vibrate now, so won't do the job. Also, its worth ing the transducer to 2mm foam, epo that the ready to fly planes works best, its close density, the stuff that packs white goods is poor as its a more open density and falls apart. Once you have this, you can move it around by just holding it against the hull to see where the best sound is. All this is relevant to the Mrrcsound transducers, I use a number of his sound units, so cant really comment on what you are using as I cant find that info on this thread (did a man read!) Here are a couple of my models to give you an idea👍 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXFvrkDl7ow&t=207s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OITvPabFHY&t=165s so these are all Mrrcsound units, and both have two tt25 transducers either side ogf the hull and fuselage. With the Mrrcsound systems, you can use two tt25, if you want an additional two, then an aux amp is required hope that helps! Paul

6 years ago by pmdevlin