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RoMarin/Krick Dusseldorf Fire Boat.

I have been looking forward to starting this build for some time. It looks like this will be an interesting model to build but mainly I look forward to setting up the 16 channels required to give full function to all of the special features. The Dusseldorf is one of three identical boats built for use in the Ruhr area of Germany. The boats are equipped for disaster situations, (they must have known I was going to build it)😀. They can be used for ship fires, oil leaks or as a port facility at risk of explosion. The fire s, radar, boat crane, lighting and anchor winch will all be working if I can sort out the controls. The fire s are of particular interest because if I get things right, they will swivel, lift and lower and shoot water. We will see. As stated in the instructions, I read most of them to see how things looked. I got bored at page six so forgot that bit. The next stage was to check the contents against the bill of materials. There must be 1000 pieces. I checked the large pieces and gave the rest a miss also. Not a good start I hear you cry. You will get used to it. I proceeded to remove the stand parts and lightly sanded off the connection remains. I assembled it using super glue but I will strengthen the inner corners with Epoxy later. I stuck some draft excluder tape to all of the edges which contact the hull for safety. Next stage was to trim off the excess material at deck level of the Hull. With 1.5mm thick ABS this is quite a job especially considering that the boat measures around 2.8 Metres all around. I used a Stanley knife to remove the bulk of the material followed by different sized files to trim to size. This process takes a lot of care so that not too much material is removed. The hull has a rather crude sort of line to work to but I think I will put more reliance on my eye and a two foot steel rule. I still have a little filing of the edges to do before I will be completely happy as this edge will be visible on the completed model. According to the instructions my next stage is to fit the rudders, motors and prop shafts. A job for next week.

5 years ago by MouldBuilder

Response

Re: Fitting out.

A nice looking boat, I notice you have your fire piped through a pump which gets its supply from a pick up behind the prop. Is water forced through the pump and finally to the when the pump isn't powered up? Something you may only notice when the boats moving and not always obvious.

4 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

Arduino Transmitter link up

Example pulseIn() code to read RC RX pin (tested-working) /* This is example code for an RC switch */ unsigned long ch1; /* run setup code once*/ void setup() { pinMode(4, INPUT); // Set our input pins as such pinMode(3, OUTPUT); Serial.begin(115200); } /* loop code*/ void loop() { ch1 = pulseIn(4, HIGH, 22500); // Read the pulse width of the channel - timeout after X milliseconds if no change to pin if (ch1 > 0) { if (ch1 > 1700) { //assigned to a 2 position switch digitalWrite (3, HIGH); // turn on if (ch1 < 1300) { digitalWrite (3, LOW); // turn off } } Serial.println(ch1); // print value read to serial } } Note: Pin 13 on many Arduino boards is connected to the onboard LED - This is great as a fast way to test code. Be aware that as the Arduino boots it normally flashes the led on pin 13 - so if you connect your switch circuit to pin 13 it will also switch on/off on board startup

4 years ago by G6SWJ

Response

Re: Water system for fire s and ECS

Hi Michael et al, This website is strange sometimes. Despite following your blog Michael I didn’t get notifications for any of these recent pump posts so I missed them. Found them by chance today. As you may have seen in my latest blog post, I’ve used the black screen wash pump, on a 3S LiPo and it gives acceptable results. I think the pipework, especially through the body of the s, produces quite a resistance to the water flow. Bear in mind that my s are 1/16th scale so the passageway bores are that much smaller. Graham93

4 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: Water system for fire s and ECS

These 12v pumps are pretty good Graham, just tried my one (ex cooling pump from the ST) and it will squirt water 3ft plus from a 3mm pipe. Quite cheap on Ali Express so 1 per would be all you need (or 1 for 2 with say 2mm pipe. Feeds in and out need to be 3mm+ to reduce friction. I ran it on a 3s to try it with a 5mm inlet pipe. If you run it at 12v and you reduce the outlet to 2mm you will probably double the distance. If you decide to try one of these, make sure it is this model with the ribbed front plate shown, as they have a higher output than some others (1.5-2L/min. Found these work quite well as air pumps also, just a bit noisier (some advertise them as air pumps and others as water pumps- same thing. JB

4 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: Water system for fire s and ECS

Michael, Nice to see a clear set up on the bench. Must make it much easier to work on than it will be once it is in the boat. I have also found that getting the s to work adequately is not as simple as I first thought. I’m still trying to find a solution. At present the flow from my s is quite underwhelming 😔. Have you found that the black pump in the bottom centre of your photo gives a good flow? I have just acquired the same model, but it has been too cold to go down to the workshop/shed to try it out. Graham93

4 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Water system for fire s and ECS

I have laid out all the various components on a building board, not necessarily in the correct orientation/position. The only thing I do know is that water needs to come out of the 4 pipes pointing into the tin. I have a caravan pump serving as a water scoop (to simulate the water pickup as the boat moves forward) any water going through the system into the tin is piped back into the container under the bench where the pump is. First thoughts are similar to others in that when the fire s are operated the water is drawn back through the exhaust pipes and sucks air. To try and solve this I have put some small solenoid valves in the circuit. But first test show that they restrict the flow too much so a larger valve? Or I think the easiest solution would be to put another entry opening in the hull somewhere near the pump just below the water line on the side mid-ship so the pump can be connected directly and be primed when the boat is at a standstill (anybody see problems with this?) I think the only issue I can see is that when the boats in motion it may force water through the pump – then the result – drip, drip. I think a properly designed inlet, that when in motion the tendency is to draw the air out of the system and not force water in until the boat is at a standstill when the water should just flow in. I have designed another outlet (not shown) for the exit of the cooling water and hopefully the smoke which has the water coming out of the centre 6mm pipe and the smoke exits through the surrounding space between the 6mm pipe and the 8mm surrounding hole. (Ignore the black pump, top right, it was a first attempt at a water supply, it’s a car washer pump, but not powerful enough)

4 years ago by mturpin013

Forum

LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

Ken, No, an air pump should give you a steady flow of smoke. Something like the one in the link would work. I used one I salvaged from a blood pressure . The pulsing smoke I have on my exhaust smoker is produced by a bit of electronics switching the air pump on and off. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Forum

LATEST SMOKER, E-CIG ELEMENT

Re: Please be so kind as to post details of your material suppliers, including appropriate URLs. And here is the DC-DC converter I have used to drop the LiPo 2S voltage down to 3v for the coil. The only other items are an air pump which I salvaged from a defunct blood pressure and the control electronics which I scratch built. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Fire s final fitting

Having trialled the various options for rotating the s I have decided to use the gears option. I am going to mount the servo in the roof. The cabin roofs have bridge pieces which are just about correct to mount some aluminium bars on which will carry the servo I have reinforced the inside of the roof where the base of the s fit as the roof is only made from 1/32” ply, I use an aluminium disc - 25mm dia x 1mm thick . The bases are fastened using three 8BA csk screws and nuts. (I must say at this point that people may wonder why I use BA nuts, bolts and screws and not metric, it’s because I have a good range of all BA taps and dies) The aluminium bars are slotted to take the servo and allow for adjustment and again fastened using 8BA hex hd screws and the bars are attached to the roof again using 8BA screws and into the wood! (I have successfully used machine threads into wood of all sizes, this requires the wood area to be treated, I use a RONSEAL product that is for treating rotten wood, it’s a very viscous liquid and soaks into the wood and after an hour or so it goes rock hard the tapped holes can then be clean up with a tap) I can adjust the fit of the gears to give a nice smooth rotation; all that needs to be done now is to design the water system.

5 years ago by mturpin013

Response

Re: Exhaust Smoker

Hi JB, I've tried a couple of air pumps and prefer the one salvaged from the blood pressure as it is a diaphragm pump which seems to give it more grunt, despite running on a lower voltage. It is also smaller than the other one I tried so it was easier to fit under the footwell floor. Your original posts got me thinking about how to solve the challenge of making something that gives a realistic effect. I love a challenge like that 😀. Now you have suggested it needs sound to go with it. Just when I thought we were nearly there 🙄. Something else to think about... Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: Piscataqua river gundalow

Hi, putty that I use is probably some synthetics, destined for synthetic colors, no linseed putty. I tried to spray the hull for another grinding, and I got quite angry. It was supposed to be reddish brown (RAL 3002), but there was some raspberry color in the spray.The original color should be "Indian Red", but I didn't find anything like that in RAL. I tried to compare the color of the hull "Piscataqua" on the net with the RAL sampler on the net. (due to similar color distortion on the ). I got RAL 3002.(see sample)..you can compare .. Then I saw another sampler - probably it should be RAL 3009 (3011).. Tom

5 years ago by tomarack

Blog

Exhaust Smoker

Following several weeks experimenting, and lots of discussion with jbkiwi, the exhaust smoker is now installed in the Crash Tender. The heart of the device is an e-cig tank and coil. This was adapted with an acrylic end piece to allow connection of power and air. The 2ml capacity of the e-cig is a bit limiting so an expansion tank made from acrylic tube was added to give a fluid capacity of around 10ml. The smoker fluid is 75% vegetable glycerine. The coil in the e-cig is designed to work from a single cell LiPo battery. A power converter drops the voltage from the boat's 2S battery down to 3.5V with a claimed efficiency of 98%. This voltage is adjustable which allows control of the amount of smoke produced. Forced air is provided by a small diaphragm pump salvaged from a defunct blood pressure . This pushes air through the e-cig. The resulting smoke is fed into the cooling water line between the ESC and the exhaust ports. As the smoker is most effective simulating the engine 'ticking over' a water pump is used to create some water flow when the main propulsion motor isn't running. This adds more realism to the effect. An electronic controller based on PIC microchips connects to the throttle channel and pulses the air pump at a rate determined by the throttle setting. It also runs the water pump at a slow speed, and controls the power to the smoke generator coil. If the throttle is held at maximum for a couple of seconds, the smoker pumps and coil are switched off to save on battery consumption. With the throttle at idle, a quick blip forward on the throttle will start the smoker again. Power consumption is around 0.7A on a 2S LiPo. The two pumps are mounted below the footwell floor and the smoke generator is fixed to the bulkhead at the rear of the engine room. My thanks go to jbkiwi for his encouragement and suggestions during the development of this feature. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: Fire s Part 4

Hi JB, Re: How about using something like these remote switches which I use on my HSL and ST to turn pumps and lights etc on/off. Yes, that would work but I should have explained the issue clearer. With the pump plumbed on the feed from the pickup as you suggested, the pump will need to run both when the s are in use and for cooling the motor/ESC. With they way I have it plumbed currently, the pump doesn’t need to run to cool the motor/ESC. If I do find I need to change it round, I’ll probably put a remote switch together to connect to the throttle channel and the solenoid (fire ) channel. The switch could then turn the pump on when needed for either function. Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: Fire s Part 4

JB, Yes, I could change the plumbing round as you suggest. The downside is the pump would have to run continuously. The present arrangement only needs the pump running when the s are in use. However, when it comes to smoking exhaust, maybe I’ll need it plumbed that way Doug, The solenoid valves were sourced from a box in my workshop, which is now empty, so there is no point providing a weblink to that 🤣. However as the box is empty, I did order two more earlier today from eBay for smoker experiments. These are identical to the ones I used for the s and look very similar to the ones JB has found. They are rated 12v but seem to work quite happily on a 2S LiPo. Draw less current that way which will help with battery duration. Whilst it works well in practice, I’m not too happy with the dual solenoid solution from a current draw point of view. One solenoid is always activated, so there is a constant current drain. The servo driven cam solution would have had minimal current drain, shame it didn’t work 🤔 Graham93

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Fire s Part 4

The boat has a water cooled ESC and engine mount. These are fed from a scoop behind the prop. The water circulates through the ESC and engine mount and then out through the exhaust ports on the transom. The first attempt at plumbing in the s was to simply tap into this cooling circuit, add a filter and pump and feed the pumped water to the s. This didn't work too well. With the pump running the s worked well, but water was sucked backwards out of the cooling circuit, drawing air in through the exhaust ports until the pump was sucking on air and the s stopped working. I had sort of expected this might occur so I had a non return valve available ready to fit in circuit just before the exhaust ports to prevent this reverse flow. I had hoped I would not need to fit it as I am concerned that the extra flow resistance it will cause will reduce the effectiveness of the cooling circuit. The second, unexpected problem with this simple approach was that, with the pump off, there was enough water pressure in the cooling circuit that the s continued to dribble water onto the cabin roof from where it drained into the hull. Adding the non return valve in the cooling circuit would only serve to make this problem worse owing to the increased pressure in the circuit. The last thing I want is for the boat to slowly fill with water, drenching all the electrics and gradually sinking so this dribble needs to be stopped. After some thought, I decided that a diverter valve could be the solution. This would route the water either to the pump and s, or to the cooling circuit. I reasoned that I would not want the s working while the drive motor was running at high speed and so can afford to switch off the cooling circuit while the s are operating. I had an interesting few hours making a servo driven cam mechanism which at one end of it's travel would squash the silicone tube to the cooling circuit while allowing flow to the pump and s. At the other end it would cut off the water to the pump, and enable the cooling circuit. The servo would be driven by the same channel as the RCswitch that turns the pump on/off. Great idea, but it didn't work 🤔 The servo doesn't have enough power to turn the cam and squash the tubes and simply stalls. I need to try thinner tubes, or a more powerful servo, or something? Any helpful suggestions welcome... Throughout the summer I have tried to keep the boat sailable for the local club sessions on a Wednesday afternoon. Not wanting to have to keep it in dry dock for an extended period while solving this issue I tried a different approach. I had available two solenoid valves so these were pressed into service as shown in the sketch. An RCswitch was constructed so that, with the pump on, valve A is closed and valve B is open. This routes the water flow to the pump and s. With the pump off, valve A is open and valve B is closed, routing the water to the cooling circuit. This works! In the video (my first ever on YouTube) you can see how water flows from the exhaust ports when the s are off. I don't have a test tank at home so water is fed into the water scoop connection using a small aquarium pump. Now I just need jbkiwi to solve the smoker challenge so that I can add some smoke 😁

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Fire s Part 1

The white metal items supplied are OK but really don‘t lend themselves to being working items. Graham93 has already completed a version which looks just like the drawing and photos available, and are the best I’ve seen. The bar has been set so here goes, whenever an item like this is been contemplated it’s always good to spend some time in planning a sequence of operations and assessing the problem area’s at the start of the work and if possible dealing with these parts first. Failure of the difficult process doesn’t mean you have wasted work on other parts that are now scrap. I think the most difficult and problematic piece is the pipework that sits at the top and curves round in two halves, this in reality is a casting, however replicating it can be done using brass pipe. Brass pipe can be purchased in annealed form; however my stock wasn’t so the first job was to anneal the tube. Heating to a dull red heat and allowed to cool, this treatment will soften the metal completely. In some books it is suggested that the brass should be quenched in water (which is what I do) after heating but this is to speed up the commercial process, and quenching has no effect on the annealing process. So tube annealed we need some method of retaining its tubular form during bending, in plumbing I use a spring but when you compare wall thickness/dia a spring would have to be mighty strong and so small. An easy alternative is to crimp one end of the tube and put some soldering flux down the tube, follow this by heating with a low temperature blow torch to melt solder and fill the tube, then allow to cool. You now have a soft tube which when bent will hold its shape. That’s the next challenge, the shape, and being able to replicate it twice, so an easy jig is required. Having marked out a scrap piece of hardwood I cut the “U” shape using the band saw and filled a groove along the top edge, this was then placed under my drill press with the appropriate dia bar (this must be calculated accurately as it helps to create the final form) on top of the tube, then just pull gently down (it takes very little force) this jig leave a small amount to finish bend to a complete a circle, the excess length is trimmed off and then I used a piece of hard wood with a small radius on the end to tap the final curve. Next the circle needs to be cut into two pieces I used a small slitting saw in the milling machine. Now it’s time to remove the solder, simply heat up holding in plyers and then shake vigorously to expel the solder. (Make sure you do this on your own and wear safety glasses.) The white metal “main pillar fitting” and the s final “exit pipe” will be used in the unit and all that is required is to mount them in the lathe and drill a 4mm hole through each and clean up the casting. Next I cut 4 pieces of 4mm brass pipe; these will form the main water passage. Two more machine turned items are the “pivot post top” that feeds water through the 2 brass pipes into the “junction block” which then feeds into the exit pipe, sounds all very simple? Having made all the components, it’s time to think about fastening them all together. First items to be joined are the “upstand pipe” to the “pivot post top” X 2 also the “feed to exit pipe” and the “junction block” X 2, these four joints are all to be silver soldered. I mounted them in a piece of wood and placed a tight spring brass ring around the upright pipe to stop then sliding down when heated. Having the joints spotlessly clean is paramount, the flux is added, I insert very small pieces of silver solder into the holes at the top cross holes (less is more) a gentle heat, and watch as the flux goes “glassy”, this is closely followed by the solder melting, watching at the lowest point of the joint for the tell-tale shinny liquid metal. No fettling is required so the 4 parts are dipped for 45 minutes in masonry brick cleaner (dilute hydrochloric acid) the parts are now clean and ready for the next soldering activity. See part 2

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Fire s Part 3

I have finally fitted the s onto the boat. Servo mounts were made from aluminium angle. The position of the mounting hole in the forward cabin roof for the 8mm tube (see Part 2) was calculated based on the distance between the servo shaft and the mounting face of the aluminium servo mount plus a couple of mm. for adjustment. This dimension gave the distance of the hole from the bulkhead (CF3) on which the servo was to be mounted. The 8mm tube was glued into roof hole using epoxy. Once the epoxy was set the roof was put in position and a 7mm tube with wet paint on the end was slid down the 8mm mount to make contact with a temporary wooden block attached with double sided tape to the CF3 bulkhead below. The wet paint left a circular mark on the wooden block indicating where the servo should be positioned so that it's shaft would align with the fire rotating column in the roof. The extra couple of mm. allowed for a spacer of suitable thickness to be made and fitted under the servo mount to achieve the correct alignment. The distance between the top of the 8mm tube and the wooden block was also measured allowing the required height of the servo mount to be calculated. The same process was followed for the second fire mounted on the engine room roof. In this case, the bulkhead (B4) had to be extended vertically to position the servo close enough to the roof. The servo mounts, and the new timber within the boat still need to be painted. I had intended to use the crucifix servo arm to drive the rotating column, as can be seen in one of the photos. Whilst this worked OK, it was difficult to fit the roof and get the four pins at the bottom of the rotating column to engage in the holes in the servo arm. To make this easier the servo arms were adapted by adding a disc of 2mm plasticard with radial slots to engage with the drive pins. This has made fitting each roof easier. The servo stretcher worked well, giving 180 degrees of rotation. However, once I saw it in operation, I decided it would be better to increase this to around 240 degrees as I had suspected. As stretching the drive pulse even further would not give more rotation I decided to try modifying the servos instead. This turned out to be easier than expected. Each servo was dismantled and two 3K resistors were added, one to each end of the feedback pot. The value was determined by trial and error. There was plenty of room to accomodate 1/8W resistors within the servo case. You can just see them in the photos. The servos now give the desired rotation without the need for the pulse stretchers. I was hoping to include the plumbing details in this post, but I have had a few issues making this work acceptably, so I have had to go back to the drawing board and now have a few more bits and pieces to make. More to follow.....

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: Fire s Part 2

Mike, No I haven’t. I don’t have any experience with sail winches. It looks like they will certainly rotate more than 180 degrees. I think the one you have found will do 4 x 360 degrees. You would need to be careful not to tie everything in knots with that. Found the attached video which shows the rotation. It looks like the servo takes a little while to complete its rotation which could make it a rotating difficult to control. Regards Graham

5 years ago by Graham93

Forum

HMT Resolve by Caldercraft

I am currently working on a project that will use 16 channels. 3 fire s rotating, lifting, lowering and shooting water, a raise and lower anchor, a twist, lift and lower crane and all the usual. I am using an eight channel Tx with a further 8 channels using s-bus. We will see.🙀

5 years ago by MouldBuilder

Response

Re: Fire s Part 2

Thanks Rob, Yes, I did try them before I painted them and was pleased with the water throw. If I was to make them again, I think I would arrange for the nozzle to screw on to the front of the to allow it to be dismantled and flushed out. I’m going to fit a filter in the pipework but I suspect I’m going to have problems with blockages on the lake. Good point about securing the pipework. Would hate to watch the boat slowly sinking in the middle of the lake. Regards Graham

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Fire s Part 2

The fire 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 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 at the top of the tube. A brass bush is soldered into the top of the tube and the 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 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 . 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 etch primer 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

Response

Re: Fire s Part 1

Hi Graham. Your fire s are excellent work as they are the first 'working' ones I've seen that actually look like they should. I think that the 'plinth' that it will sit on will present it's own problems with articulation and plumbing but you've cracked the hardest bit 👍 It was a pleasure meeting you at our club exhibition in St.Albans at the weekend and discussing our FireBoats, I know that you travelled a long way to see the show. I have put a report about the show on the club website with a video that I produced that has some shots of my Fireboat on the water and the Thames Police Launch on display. Keep up the great work. Rob.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Fire s Part 1

I want to have working fire s on the boat, so decided to make them in brass. I also want them to swivel. To give the right appearance, the water needs to pass through the vertical support column into the body of the . I don't want a separate tube from the body of the going through the cabin roof as it would not look accurate, and will likely restrict the rotation of the . The body of the is made from a short length of 6mm brass tube with two turned end caps. The front cap, the nozzle, was turned and filed to a suitable shape on the lathe. The inside is drilled out as much as I dared to reduce the weight. The nozzle outlet was initially drilled 0.6mm dia. During initial trials with the pump connected this was opened up to 0.85mm dia. to give an increased water flow without having any significant effect on the throw of the jet. The rear end cap is also drilled out internally to reduce the weight. Two 3mm holes are drilled at 45 degrees at the rear of the cap to attach the curved copper pipes which will carry water from the vertical support column. Bending the 3mm copper tube to shape was tricky, it is a tight bend but I managed it without it collapsing too much. The tubes will need a bit of cleaning up before painting. The connection to the vertical column is formed as a T piece from two short pieced of brass tube. These were soldered together using silver solder for strength. Two small turned flanges connect the copper tubes to this T piece. The handles were cut from brass sheet with a length of 1.5mm brass rod as the cross piece. All the parts were soft soldered together. The completed body was connected to the pump and tried out. One of the soldered joints was leaking and had to be remade. Having drilled out the nozzle to 0.85mm dia. the resulting water jet looks effective with a throw of around 2-3 feet.

5 years ago by Graham93

Blog

Midships

When the boat was fitted with a diesel there was no deck between the forward cabin and the engine room. This was to allow room for the engine cylinder head. So the first task was to construct a planked deck to fill the space. The opportunity was also taken to add the cabin door detail, complete with dummy hinges and door knobs. The davit was constructed from plasticard and painted gunmetal grey. Basic height and reach dimensions for this were taken from the plan. Details were added based on photos found on this site. The scramble nets were made using black woven cord. This was laid out on a piece of scrap plywood using panel pins to space the cord into the desired net structure. The cord crossover joints were then glued with superglue. This didn't work well. The joints were not strong, some having to be re-glued. The dried glue caused a white stain on the cord. This was disguised with permanent black marker pen. A bigger issue was that the cord had absorbed the glue which wicked along the length from the joints making the net inflexible in parts. It would not roll up neatly and looked a mess. Fortunately I had enough cord left to make replacement nets. This time, each of the 100 crossover joints was sewn with black cotton thread. This took some time but the joints are now strong and the completed net is fully flexible. This post brings us up to present day with the refit. There is still more to do including the fire s and spotlight. Just to show it does sail, I've included a photo of it out on the lake yesterday. It is only running at approx. 1/4 throttle which doesn't show how it planes. I haven't yet mastered driving it at full speed while simultaneously taking photos!

5 years ago by Graham93

Response

Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build. mods and improvements.

Hi Doug, - rats nest indeed! 😂 Thanks for the nice comment BTW, I do actually have ID tags (masking tape on wires),- you can't see most of them as they are hidden behind the felt lining and under the deck and floor boards. I also use male and female JST plugs reversed when 2 connections are close together. Main power into systems comes from each battery, and splits into a number of JST connectors which supply each particular unit. It's hard to get so many wires neat and tidy in a limited space, as they don't always exit or enter the units in a convenient direction, and some don't bend all that well. Short of cutting all the wires off and substituting my own, I just do the best to fit them as they come. Looks messy but when you are trying to fit 2 ESCs, 2 sound units,(which have to be lifted out while wired, to get at batteries) a water pump, 2 1800 mAh LiPos, 2 remote switches, a battery , 2 shaft oiler reservoirs and a UBEC and associated wiring (including light feed wiring to cabin top) into a space of around 200x200x100mm it's bound to get messy! A problem is finding nice quality flexible silicone wire (especially on JST plugs) which bends nicely round things. Most wire products you get on line are stiff poor quality stuff, and you don't know what type it will be till you get it. Main thing is that it all works and you can't see it with the top on😁😊 Re- the smoke,- I have 3 Heng Long smokers (one of which I've modded (see vid) and am experimenting with ways of making them compact, (been done on You Tube with a smaller fan than I used (in place of original pump) stuck directly to the side of the smoker tank. The smokers work really well, - just have to reduce the size (maybe a small motor in a tube with a propeller to replace the pump) Hard part is finding smoke which is 'waterproof' as it has to come out with the exhaust water. Usual baby oil smoke just disappears and doesn't travel well down tubes, (even without water) so the unit needs to be close to the exit with a non oily smoke. Perhaps an incense stick or cigarette in a tube?😀😊 JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Response

Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build. mods and improvements.

The Rat's nest grows!😉 Bet you wish now you'd fitted some wire IDs before the connectors🤔 Nevertheless, a great and impressive build👍👍👍 Like that with the , will add one to my Sea Scout. Gotta couple kicking about in the workshop. Now where did I last see 'em?🙄 For the smoke; You won't need much smoke, not like a coal fired destroyer with the 'pedal to the metal'.😉 So have a look at your "local" model railway shop. They have nice tiny ones for fitting into HO locos. I have a few to try in my Plastic Magic conversions. Just hope that they don't cause a Meltdown!!😭 Cheers, Doug 😎 PS Just saw your weather on CNN 🌧️☹️ Only 13°C, that's colder than here 18 to 24°C and we have autumn, thought you had spring!? Commiserations!

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

40'' Seaplane Tender, new build. mods and improvements.

Due to rubbish weather at the moment delaying the launching, I thought I'd fit fans to the ESCs, as I noticed them getting slightly warm during testing. Fans (5v) now come on with the cooling pump through a 5v UBEC, and powered by the same 2s 1800Ma LiPo as the pump. Also made a few brass tube fittings to divert some of the cooling water to some new side outlets (vintage 'Frog' fittings from my collection). Another small refinement was to fit mahogany anchor chain/ warp rubbers at the forward fairleads. Have also fitted a battery /alarm which is visible for checking through the rear cabin window. If it keeps raining and the wind keeps up I might think of something else to do to it. It's already a plumber and electricians nightmare! (I want smoke but I've run out of room! (I'm working on that though.

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Forum

Krick and Hobbyking

Hi guys and Gals. I do not blow the trumpet for suppliers too often but I just have to mention the superb customer service I have received from both Krick and Hobbyking. 1) Krick. The Dusseldorf model from Krick I am currently building has a superstructure mainly formed by one piece of blow moulded clear Lexan which incorporates all of the windows also. The windows are covered by preformed stick on masks which are supplied on a pre-cut sheet. Just peel and fix. Well, I peeled and fixed a few a little out of place. They were so difficult to remove that I damaged the corners. Not much good for spraying. I wrote a note on their web site asking if they could give me a price for a replacement sheet. They wrote back the next day saying they would replace it f.o.c. True to their word, it arrived today, three days after my request. Well done Krick. Good products too I might add. 2) Hobbyking. I like Hobbyking. The products are good but their customer service is excellent. Over the last couple of years I have made many purchases and two have gone wrong.The first was a Li-Po battery. One cell was down when it arrived. I went to customer service on the web site and it asked me to take two pictures, one of the battery serial code and one of the battery connected to a showing total voltage. I did this at 2pm. At 4pm I had an email approving the claim and a replacement was sent the next day. The second claim was this week. My relatively new Frsky Taranis X9D Plus (six months old), strangely started turning itself on, beeping, and the screen flashing and then off again repeating this every 30 seconds. The only way to stop it was to remove the battery. I wrote to Hobbyking on Sunday advising them of the error. On Monday I had an email asking for a video of the problem. I sent this on Tuesday. On wednesday they responded by saying that they had not seen this problem before and to send the unit back to them for replacement. They sent three emails over two hours today. The first said that they had received the faulty unit and that it would take around two weeks to assess and respond. Well that became one hour. They wrote again and said that the claim was valid and passed on to sales for replacement. Sales wrote one hour saying that a replacement was not immediately available and a full cash refund would be made. Five days and sorted. I can now buy a replacement. It would be good to hear of others good outcome supplier stories, or in fact the horror stories too.

5 years ago by MouldBuilder

Forum

Batteries in a DX5e

No, Doug, I don't think it caught on with VW, although M-B made a lot of it later with a very crude version and I didn't really think anyone would OK the replacement of an air bag with a glass screened ! Daft idea! The CNC machined carrier for the rear central arm rest mounted computer was 10,ooo Dm of work and even that had a glitch that had to be filled with metal powder filled resin and covered with a small sticker! The PCs in the boot were intended to be miniaturised, of course, but Siemens and VW fell out, so none of it ever happened. I couldn't find out how to remove the automatic gearstick, so I sawed the bugger off! Took a team of "mechanics" a day to come down from Wolfsburg and replace it! But, all in all, it was the best contract I had in Germany. Martin

5 years ago by Westquay

Forum

Batteries in a DX5e

Hi Martin, There are still some 'Synchros' around! Don't see any backrest s!? Don't know if the ancient PCs are still alive though🤔 Cheers, Doug 😎 https://suchen.mobile.de/auto/volkswagen-passat-syncro.html

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Batteries in a DX5e

Haha, stammtisch...I haven't heard that since I stayed at a lovely country hotel near Sontra. The proprietor was an Anglophile called "Fred" and always welcomed his English guests to the Stammtisch with his family for English breakfast or Friday night Fish and chips, without fail. As a thankyou somebody smuggled in a Sky card so his guests could watch sports in the back room. In Germany then you were not allowed a Sky card oddly. Very happy memories of that particular contract, making the first car with s in the backs of the headrests and touch screen centre console. It took FOUR PCs in the boot of a Passat Syncro with beefed up rear springs to take the weight! CM2 it was called ...Car Multi Media. Laptop in the rear armrest pop up in the dash where the passenger airbag was (!!). You could 'phone the car or e-mail it to open windows while you walked to it in the airport carpark, etc. Very new then, almost old hat now. I digress terribly! The one friendly MBC i know is Victoria Model Steamboat Club in East london, the world's oldest model power boat club and one of which my Grandad was a founder back in 1904. Still very much a family club, despite its location in a less than desirable end of that stinking hole, London. I wish I lived nearer so I could attend some meetings, but with nowhere to park nearby, I ain't walking in knife country! Martin

5 years ago by Westquay

Forum

Batteries in a DX5e

Hi Martin, "Bloody silly they couldn't make rechargeables the same voltage as dry cells in the first place!" It's 'bloody silly' fact of life of the physics of the chemistry used in NiMH!😉 LiPo chemistry is different again, being based on Lithium instead of Nickel. Which is why there nominal cell voltage is 3.7V. All to do with number of electron shells and charge carriers I believe 😮🤓 I can assure assure you there is no charging socket on your TX inside or out👍 If your 'wee gizmo' looks like the one in attached pic it is a battery , in particular for LiPos. Plugged into the balancing socket of a Lipo battery it displays the cell voltages and then total voltage. It also screams it's nuts off if a cell drops to it's lowest safe voltage. ~3.0V (some say 2.7V!) So you could use it as an alarm if using a LiPo in your models.👍 Happy flying, "Straighten up and fly right" 😉 Great Glenn Miller number. Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Re: Steampunk Pike.

Colour looks coppery on my Martin👍 Clean fresh copper is pink anyway. It just struck me that our very own 'Mactin', the recycled tin clockwork sub man, would be proud to have built that!😉 Marky; I'm assuming you mean 'biscuits' 😁 Cheers, Doug 😎 PS: all this submarine mania is tempting me to jump my Akula 2 to the top of the 'To Do' list 🤓

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

New In The Shop

Hi Stephen, I would certainly like a pair of 1/16 and a pair of 1/12th scale s providing I can afford them. Please can you let me know when they are available. Kindest regards, Dave W 😊

5 years ago by rolfman2000

Forum

New In The Shop

To all water cannon enthusiasts:- The shop is now selling working fire s. These can be attached to a pipe at the base. The design is based around the crash tender, but any boat or tug of the same scale would be able to use these. Currently 1:16, if there's any interest for 1:12 I'll look to add this scale too. Separately... any parts not available which people would be interested in? Stephen

5 years ago by fireboat

Forum

EeZeBilt RAF Crash Tender trial video

Given all the discussion, I thought I would put a video up of the Mk2 EeZeBilt Crash Tender on its first test. Very choppy water for a small boat at that end of the lake, but it coped. Perhaps a bit bow-heavy? Poor quality phone pics, but you can see a bit of detail when the boat comes close. You can also just see a fire operating at the end when the boat comes back in....

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Forum

Motor, speed controller

"....With every one I've used you can switch off the Brake and eliminate the double stick action to go astern....." Ah, well - it rather depends on the product you buy. I go for the cheap Chinese ones which can have very limited features, and are usually designed for cars alone. I agree that brushless tend to have jerky starts which are not good for rescues. Ideally bow thrusters or even pod motors would be best for manoeuvrability. One other feature which might be useful for long-distance recovery is on-board video. This is another facility where the price has plummeted in recent years. I have a steerable camera on the back of my Sea Princess with a mobile viewer built into a plastic box using a car DVD , and the components (5.8Ghx Tx/Rx) typically cost around a tenner each. Cameras can be £2-3! The boat also has a micro video recorder built in - pic below. The cable is for connecting the viewer to the main controlling radio - it diverts two spare channels from the radio to the video operator to let him aim the camera...

5 years ago by DodgyGeezer

Forum

Motor, speed controller

As you say DG " it rather depends on the product you buy." The Quicrun series are Chinese, not expensive (cheaper than mTroniks &Co for instance) and can do everything we boaters need. 'Taste and try before you buy'😉 or at least read the specs and manual. Pod motor is a good idea but not exactly KISS or C&C unfortunately. On board video is another good idea👍, especially when the victim is far offshore. I've recently acquired a waterproof camera about the size of a single cell LiPo (overgrown AA cell) 19mm x 68mm. Suitable is also in the stash. Next steps will be to investigate a controllable gimble mount and 5.8GHz back channel for ing operations. Where did you get the 5.8 TX/RX and micro-recorder? Looks very innerrestink! Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Holy SMOKE !! Video, Tin Can Madness

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

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Can't stop adding stuff

Good stuff Joe👍 Detail of the smoker please! That's the trouble / fun with ship modelling, so many possibilities. The only limit (within weight and available power considerations) is imagination and ingenuity. I've even seen a tug on which a cabin door opens, a sailor comes out and pees over the side😲😁 Some crew would liven up your boat. And a horn? Working winch and towing tackle? Crane? Radar? Signalling lamp? ... I once fitted a working on a boat - just to keep inquisitive kids with sticky fingers at bay! BTW; fires DO do VERY WELL on boats; all that paint and other inflammable material!🤔 Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Scale?

I have purchased a ROBBE 1:25 Working Fire to fit on my rebuild of a Keilcraft RAF Vosper Crash Tender. The plans for the boat state 3/4 to 1inch (1:16 scale). The ROBBE Fire was the closest size I could find, but when it arrived it appears to be grossly out of scale and looks far to big and out proportion to fit on my boat. Is it me or have ROBBE got the scale wrong. As an aside I am very disappointed with the poor quality of the which does not match its £25 cost.

5 years ago by RobbieMcKennan

Directory

(Working Vessel) Fairmount Glacier

A Billings kit, the Fairmount Glacier (or Alpine - comes with 5 naming options) is a sturdy boat... 2 props in Kort nozzles, extras I've fitted...37 lights, bow thruster, working fire s, radar, & horn. Runs on 2 x 12v 7AH batteries, so runs for a while! Colour scheme makes it visible on the lake too! (Motor: 2 x M500 Mtronix) (ESC: JP Marine) (9/10)

5 years ago by Harvey Kitten

Blog

Range Safety Launch?

The ‘Range Safety Launch’…………. Intro. I am now the owner of this boat. Wooden, good hull lines and hull paint work but needing to be finished. I am told that it looks like it started life as a kit, but has had considerable modification to at least the above deck layout and detail. Advice is that it could be a rather simplified Range Safety Launch, but maybe I can use a little ‘artistic licence’ and just make it look interesting and capable. There are two main reasons for sharing this project. 1. I will undoubtedly need guidance 2. Maybe some of the information will assist others The hull is 44 inches ( 112cm ) long and 14 inches (36cm ) wide, it has two brushed MFA Torpedo 800 motors………. and weighs in currently at 15 lbs 4ozs (6.91 kgs). It is large enough for me to be able to work on reasonably comfortably and apart from the cabin/upper deck areas to be ‘improved’, I aim to introduce sound, lighting, active radar sweep, search light, together with maybe a deck hoist and water /fire appliance. At my age it is difficult to tell the difference between wishful thinking and dementing…… However, the prime aim is to try and achieve at least some of this whilst having the boat usable during the current ‘season’. There is so much knowledge, good will and help available on this site that even before I touched a thing, information came pouring in. If anyone feels like making a contribution then please just ‘pile in’. Have ordered some parts so next time should have something to show. NPJ.

6 years ago by NPJ

Forum

Launch ELAINE,

Thought U were goin' to hit the hay a while ago John!? 😉 Greetings from one model fan and insomniac to another👍 BTW agree with your comments about the water jacket. Sweat the screws out and the rest should be relatively easy. "In this the most perfect of all possible worlds"! Cheers All, Doug 😎 BTW: TELL me about those relays! For a year or so back in the early 70s I used to service and calibrate the radiation s at various nuclear research / power generation sites around England. The detectors tripped a relay via appropriate drivers, which then triggered the unit Nixie tube, etc, etc. My job was mainly cleaning and setting the relays and doing a calibration against 'normal' background count, cosmic radiation etc. To reassure folks; during the whole year - year and a half I never ever saw a count above background! But then - that was 46 years ago 😲

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Range Safety Launch?

Thanks very much Trekil and to Doug for going into his archives. The issue that bothers me is this:- I am not going to be able to 'bring it back' to what it should be due to previous structural changes. Also I would like to have some additional items such as the Radar and say a Fire . So do I use such as a recognised number on the Hull or make one up? I will be able to have the Hull back to Black and change some of the deck layout. BTW are we looking at White top structures light grey sides and dark grey deck? I also fancied some 'anti slip' representation on deck. Where was that? Cheers. NPJ

6 years ago by NPJ

Forum

46Firefloat Mk2 paint

Have started renovating old kit build of the 93/94 firefloat with no fittings. Can someone please help with paint colours, the Red and Black on hull are they both Matt. On the deck is the Dark Grey Matt non slip and are the roofs with the fire s the same. The rest of the roofs are they dark grey Matt or gloss. The side are they Matt or gloss light grey. Also has anyone got the main dimensions on the lift davit and the tow hook. Any other info on this build would be appreciated as am copying from two old black and white photos. The model am building is 35” long and I think 16:1 scale.

6 years ago by Elsrickle

Forum

46Firefloat Mk2 paint

Interesting, valuable photos and drawings. More like that would be welcomed by many of us. As it would have been illegal not to have a stern light on vessels like these, for both normal passage and also when towing, perhaps that photo without one was during build before it was fitted? No draft marks either. The photo of 93 secured at Vospers (therefore probably before acceptance) shows the stern light while the early type fire s also show the date of the photo was early on. I also note one drawing shows the breach hose connectors aft of the cockpit that indicate it to be of later than original build. Similarly the cockpit roof cleats have been re-positioned athwartships rather than the original two being fore-and-aft. Considering their short operational life, it's surprising how many detail changes were made when all the available documentary evidence is studied! You'd think that after 60+ years all the answers would be known for sure by now!

6 years ago by astromorg

Blog

Fire !

The fire is connected to a water pipe. But in this case it's a solid piece of aluminum tubing! Which I had to bend and shape accordingly. To the Pilot House and Captain's Cabin! After bending to shape. I then glued miniature washers. To simulate connection seams! And there we have it. Fire and pipe painted the typical Red for Fire!

6 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

What transmitter , receiver

The flysky fsi6/tgy i6 upgrades to ten channels for the price of a of Data cable at £3.00 from hobbyking and a 10 channel telemetry rx £15.00 some sensers at £7.00 so it s main battery voltage and RPM which is very useful especially the voltage . RPM handy for prop choosing I have done my tx and now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the other channels better to many than not enough Good set and expansion at low cost 👍

6 years ago by catman