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Fire Monitors Part 2

The fire monitor columns are constructed from two lengths of brass tube with various bits added, either for appearance, or for function. The short tube is 8mm o/d and has a brass collar added. This tube will eventually be glued into a hole in the cabin roof. I had to make these tubes a little longer than shown on the plan to ensure that the rotating monitor would not foul the lifebelts on the engine room roof. The second, longer tube is 7mm o/d and forms the rotating column. It will slide into the shorter 8mm tube. It carries the water from below deck up to the monitor at the top of the tube. A brass bush is soldered into the top of the tube and the monitor body is soldered into that bush. Part way down this tube, a brass collar is soldered to act as a bearing point against the top edge of the larger tube when everything is assembled. The bottom of the 7mm rotating tube was plugged with brass and then drilled and tapped with a female M5 thread. The servo coupling is a brass boss with a disc of 0.5mm brass sheet soldered on. This was then turned to be circular before 4 brass pins were added to engage with the servo arm. The top of the boss is threaded with an M5 male thread to screw into the rotating column. A short length of 3mm copper tube is attached to the side of the boos to provide the water connection point. The centre of the M5 screw is drilled out 3mm to allow the water to pass into the rotating column. Plasticard was used to add some details to the columns and then the monitor was rigged up on a mock up of the cabin roof and connected to a servo to test out the rotation. An electronic servo pulse stretcher was built to give 180 degrees of rotation for the monitor. I would have liked a little more, but the servo doesn't seem capable of accepting more than 0.5 - 2.5mS pulse width. Finally everything was stripped down, de-greased and painted using rattle cans. First with grey and then with 'Toolbox red' as suggested by Robbob. I have just realised, while writing this that I should not have painted the lower sections of the rotating tubes as these need to slide into the shorter tubes. Ah well, it will be easy enough to scrape that bit of paint off! (I'm sorry that the photos are not ordered in the correct sequence for the description. It doesn't seem to matter how I name the photos, or upload them, they just take on a random order of their own. Anyone know a solution to this?)

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Wheelhouse

Having completed the basic hull repaint, it was time to get on to some of the more interesting details. Many of the deck fittings, ventilators, Samson post, etc were sourced from the shop on this website. These plastic fittings were primed with a grey and then top coated with Tamiya Gunmetal or Humbrol white enamel as appropriate. Being the 1/16th scale Crash Tender, I don't have the benefit of having a set of white metal fittings. I wasn't able to find many off the shelf fittings in 1/16th scale so decided to scratch build them instead. It makes the job more interesting, if a bit fiddly, ....... and very time consuming! The first task was to replace the fixed wheelhouse roof with a removeable one. This gives access to the interior of the wheelhouse for fitting lighting, new windows, and the searchlight servo. The window frames were cut from 1mm plasticard and painted silver. The mast was built from brass, including making the pulleys. A 5mm white LED is fitted to the top, with a little white painted brass cap to make it look the part. Rigging is 1.5mm elastic cord. I think this is a little thick and 1mm might look better. I still have to source the ensign to fly from the mast. There is a pulley in place ready for it. The port, starboard and wheelhouse roof navigation lights were all constructed using plasticard and fitted with 3mm LEDs. The aerial on the roof of the wheelhouse is made from brass based on the details given by Mike (mturpin013) in his blog. The boathooks were also scratchbuilt from brass. I thought they would look better than the white metal ones available on eBay. For the "shepherd's crook" hook, the brass rod was first tapered by filing and sanding before being bent to the appropriate shape. The other hook was formed by silver soldering a brass cross piece onto a tapered shaft. Both hooks were formed on the end of a long length of brass rod to make it easier to handle them. Once complete, a short section of rod behind the hook was turned down to 1mm dia to form a spigot for mounting on the poles. The poles were carved from mahogany. With all these details in place it is really beginning to look the part. Next up the rear deck.

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Chine strakes and hull painting

Following the initial trial, I fitted chine strakes. These were steamed, bent to shape and left to dry. The original hull painting (humbrol enamel) was rubbed down and the new strakes fitted with epoxy and brass pins. I hope they will hold on the old paint surface. The gunwale strakes were also replaced as these had suffered from some damage over the years. I also took the opportunity to replace the old cooling water outlet with something more to scale. Two exhaust ports were made using a couple of white metal portholes adapted with brass tubes which pass through the transom. The cooling water is fed out through both of these. I know this is not strictly accurate, as there should be a separate, smaller outlet for the engine cooling water, but I'm not looking to achieve 100% accuracy, just something that looks a lot more like scale than the original 45 year old model. I might revisit this at a later date. The hull was painted using rattle cans, first a grey , then the colours followed by the decals and finally a clear lacquer coat. The hull was left to dry for two weeks and then it was back onto the water. As this is my only boat, I'm trying to carry out the refit in a way that allows me to get onto the water as often as I can. The improvement in performance with the new chine strakes was remarkable. It now planes easily and turns quickly. With the diesel fitted it was reluctant to plane, and it could be difficult to turn which was due I think to the torque on the larger prop plus the missing strakes. What a difference hindsight (and this website!) makes. 😀 Another improvement was that the boat is now dry inside. It always used to fill the rear cockpit and the centre cabin with water but that is no longer the case. The two O-rings I added to the top and bottom of the rudder shaft may also have helped with this. Returning from this outing I was unhappy to find that the foam protectors on the boat stand had marked the lacquer finish. Despite having left it for two weeks, it was still soft enough to be marked. Not sure if you can see the damage in the photo. Another detail I will have to revisit later. I noticed that the motor was running a little warm so the opportunity was taken to replace the aluminium plate motor mount with one made from copper sheet with a copper tube silver soldered onto it. This has been plumbed into the ESC cooling water circuit and now keeps the motor reasonably cool. The deck was then masked and painted with a textured finish followed by brush applied humbrol enamel. I found a tin of grey enamel in the garage, which must date from the original build, and it was still useable!

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

The Anchor

There’s no anchor supplied in the Vintage Model Works metal fittings kit and I thought it would be good to include one as an additional deck feature, again following the NMM model that I’m using as a reference. First I made the chain hawse pipe from some styrene tube by heating and bending it in a former and then selecting a small part of it that has the correct degree of bend. This was then fixed to a circular plasticard flange and the base drilled to take a small brass shackle pin that the chain will fix to. A 2mm brass nut secures this pin to the hawse pipe. A couple of brushed coats of gunmetal grey finishes the piece. The deck was drilled to take the shackle pin and this piece is screwed into the deck without any need for glue. The anchor is a Hall type anchor from Cornwall Model Boats and this needed a bit of fettling with files to improve the finish, it was then sprayed with grey and a couple of coats of satin lacquer. I drilled a 1mm hole through the bottom of the anchor for a retaining pin. The chain, also from CMB, if fixed to the shackle pin in the hawse pipe with a slightly larger link made from some brass wire. I made a retaining piece for the anchor to sit in that incorporates the anchors retaining pin, this is made from some scraps of obeche strip superglued together but I had to file a recess into it so that the anchor would sit correctly. This was finished with some antique pine stain and a lacquer finish and fixed down to the deck with a couple of 1mm threaded brass rivets and a dab of superglue for good measure. Another brass wire link connects the chain to the anchor and the short length on chain will be tacked down to the deck with a spot or two of glue. In retrospect the anchor and chain look very slightly too small in scale, the dimensions on the CMB site are a little misleading ☹️, but overall the piece looks quite good on the deck 😀

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Radio Aerial

Another cabin roof fitting is the radio aerial, this also needs to be detachable for transport and storage. For the base I cut and formed a disc from some brass bar and ‘turned’ it to the desired size and profile in my makeshift 'lathe' (a Black & Decker horizontal drill stand) and then the centre hole was enlarged to take a 4mm brass tube which was silver soldered into the base. The piece was then cleaned up with some abrasive paper and wire wool. A short piece of 3mm brass rod was then threaded and soft soldered into the bottom of the base to form the fixing stud. For the aerial rod I used a short piece of 3mm tube and some 2mm brass rod, the tube fits inside the base tube and the rod in the centre, and this was soft soldered together into the base. Finally a piece of 3mm tube was soldered to the end of the rod and turned to shape it into a ball. The rod was also given a slight taper with files and abrasives. The whole piece was sprayed with grey and when dry the base was brush painted with some black acrylic and finally some clear satin lacquer finishes off the part. 😀 The aerial fixes to the roof through a white plasticard base with a 3mm wing nut.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Searchlight & Horns

When I built my RAF Crash Rescue Tender my brother made a searchlight base for me on his lathe from a drawing I supplied and at the time I asked for an additional one in case I made a hash of it. Fortunately I didn’t need it at the time and still had the spare one in my bits box and so it made sense to use this for the searchlight on the Thames Police Boat. The new base was made in much the same way as the previous one, the detail is in my Crash Tender blog: https://model-boats.com/blogs/23951 The white metal casting of the searchlight body is very well made and only requires a little fettling to remove casting lines and as this searchlight will not be a working one I used the prototype lens from my previous searchlight build to fit into base. A short plastic rod was push fitted into the lens base with a disc of silver foil at the lens end to enhance the reflection in the optical path. This piece acts as a support for the lens instead of the LED unit and is glued into the body which I had previously painted black internally. A perspex disc was made to cover the front of the lens, and a ‘tri-form’ front piece was made from some 22mm copper pipe and some brass wire which was soft soldered together. Before the front was glued in place all the parts were sprayed with a grey and a couple of coats of satin lacquer. The finished assembly is fixed to the roof with a 3mm threaded stud and a wing nut to make removal easy with a circular plasticard base between the two. The twin horns are from RB Model in Poland and they just needed to be sprayed with and lacquer before fixing to the roof. The boat is now looking more like the real thing, just a little more detailing to add including the life ring, roof aerial, flagstaff and a few more deck fittings. 😊

5 years ago by robbob