Blog

Cabin detail part 4 Steering wheel

The steering wheel is a simple 3-spoke design; first, I machined a ring and a centre boss in brass. I then made a wooden jig to hold the parts in the correct position whilst soldering, this consisted of a turned block with a recess to locate the O/D, and the taper towards the centre hole to give a “dish effect” that locates the centre boss. This just leaves the three arms to machine; these are cut using a slitting saw to cut a 3mm wide strip from a piece of 1.5 mm brass plate. These are the cut to length ready for soft soldering and then the parts are all cleaned and placed in the jig, ideally a minimum of solder is used to minimise cleaning afterwards. The finishing/fettling I find is always easier if you use a sharp craft knife to slice any excess solder away as it doesn’t easily mark the brass in the same way you might using Swiss files, finally finish with 600 and 1000 w&d before ready for topcoat of black gloss. The first wheel I decided was too small so the pics are of that construction; the final larger wheel is in the last 3 pictures

5 years ago by mturpin013

Blog

Hull

Hello, Not too many photos today as I am focusing on sealing the hull. Photo shows the gray primer in progress..... Haven't finalized the paint scheme yet, probably red, green, white, some gray. Thank you everybody for your interest, please ask questions, comments appreciated. if you see me doing something GOOFY, let me know...... Regards, Joe

5 years ago by Joe727

Blog

Deck, servo mount

Put together a pilot house based on some tugs I've seen. Just freelanced it as I went. I build a lot with styrene so I am used to just cutting and building. I use liquid styrene cement that fuses the materials together. See photo, will trim it out as I mount it, need to add some detail at roof and some Navigational lighting. Put on on 3mm plywood deck, same as hull bottom. The deck is also curved (proper term is SHEAR) and I started to build up some wood edge at the opening. Will sand everything well, then start sealing and all surfaces. Made a bracket for the rudder servo mount and an adjacent platform for the ESC and RX. Ordered two 6v 5ah SLA batteries. I will wire in parallel to stay with 6v and get 10ah. I like to stay with 6 volts as I want the motor to run slow like a tug should. Will wire in an in-line fuse. Haven't decided where I will put switch, up high somewhere to avoid water. I will show the wiring once I get to it. This build is going fast because it's a simple design, just what I was looking for. I work on it late afternoons and into the evening while I watch basketball games. About 4 hrs a day. Looking forward to building the hatch and getting some primer started tomorrow. Regards, Joe 👍

5 years ago by Joe727

Blog

Hull sprayed

My son has finished filling sanding then spraying in 2 pack. See photo smashing job, over the moon.l

5 years ago by Dick

Response

Spraying Again.......

Hi Neville, Check out my Sea Scout 'Jessica' renovation blog for how to achieve good paint finish! 'Wet n dry' is the ONLY way to go. Right from the stage. it stops the 'riding' you describe and the generation of flying dust which is anathema to any paint or varnish finish, but you do have to clean and re-wet the paper and the object you are sanding from time to time!!! Any mistakes at that stage will carry through to the top coats and still be visible 😡 Don't quite understand how you created 'mouths'. I'm wondering if you sprayed too close and/or too heavy!? Your apparently exorbitant paint consumption seems to hint at this🤔 For the record; I started with 240 on the primer/filler for my Sea Scout and worked up through 400, 600, 1000, and 2000 and 3000 for the final top coats and deck varnish. All 'Wet', with a few drops of liquid soap added at the top coat stages, i.e. from the 1000 stage. At the end I polish with a mild cutting polish 'Anti hologram' they call it here, from the auto industry. Tedious I agree and a generous dollop of patience is required (the 'Secret ingredient' I have often mentioned here 😉 But when you see the result it warms the cockles and makes it all worthwhile.😊 Happy spraying, cheers, Doug 😎 BTW; for the blue on my Sea Scout hull I used a 400ml rattle can for several coats (more than three in the end) and there's still some left ! BTW2; For masking I use Tamiya tape for nice crisp edges. Fill in behind that with 'normal' fine masking tape and newspaper.

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

St Canute Planking Help?

Hi Richard, Unless you are planning to finish the hull with varnish, to show off the wood, the easiest way is to fit hard balsa or obechi blocks and cut, file and sand to fit. This is the 'way out' I chose on the renovation of my Billing fish cutter. See pics. Pic 1. The mess I started with, Pic 2. Block fitted and shaped, new keel fitted, whole hull then covered inside and out with glass fibre tissue and EzeKote, Pic 3. Preliminary prior to final filling (minimal) and sanding, Pic 4. Nearly there 😉 Otherwise you are faced with some tedious steaming, bending and pinning😲 Hope this helps some. Good luck, keep us up to date with progress please👍, Cheers, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Still Stripping......With Care!

Evenin' Neville, I told you you'd get the hang of it pretty quick. (It was either that or you'd burn the house down😲)😁 Seriously; I'm proud of you👍 You had the guts to give it a go and you're learning fast 👍 Hat off Sir! A few observations; (Colin might also have some at this point, had a very nice chat with him on the phone this afternoon - but that's another Encyclopedia Britannica!) #1 if the paint scraps are smoking the gun is too hot or too close, or moving too slow. Wind it down to 350 and see how that goes. Back up to ~400 if seems necessary. #2 Bow cracks; I see a bodge up there where someone couldn't bend the skin properly or, benefit of the doubt (In dubio pro reo!), maybe it was collision damage. Whatever; filler in a thin crack will always vibrate out again sometime😡 Try to get at the inside and seal it with two layers of fibreglass tissue well soaked in resin, EzeKote is what I used. Wait about 10 minutes before applying second layer. Then it should bond well with the first. When that has set (ca 20 - 30 minutes) then you can apply some fine filler from the outside. When set sand smooth and seal the whole hull outside with two layers of FG tissue. Sand smooth and if any bare wood appears apply wood sealer or EzeKote thinned with 10% warm water. Don't overdo the water or it takes yonks to dry and set - Yes, it happened to me🤔 Then continue with / finishing as described above; or look in my Sea Scout 'Jessica' blog for the fine details. The beauty of using EzeKote for all this is that you can get a whole hull done inside and out in one day and no mixing ratios to cock up😊👍 If it's any consolation to you; when I did all this on my fish cutter and PTB loads of filler went soft and fell out as well, and the 'goo' holding the prop shafts in my PTB as well. No sweat as I wanted to realign the shafts anyway! TIP: I removed all shafts rudders and any other protrusions in the way so there were no 'twiddly' bits left to make things awkward. Leaving the odd patch of sanded paint which is still firmly fixed to the wood is OK; as long as you can't feel a 'bump' with your finger tips and you are going to seal it with resin and primer anyway. Then it can't react with the new paint. Here endeth the 3039th epistle from Admiral Doug. Will all dissenters, contradictors and other lobbyists and Trump lawyers please queue up at the Spanish inquisition Office next door. Take a number, we'll grill you in turn 😁😁 How do you like your stake? Cheers All, Happy building and renovating, Doug 😎 Now back to me fish cutter gearbox, mechanical gubbinses are not really my strength🤔 HAMMER, have you got a minute please!? (Viewing / reading tip; click on the thread title, then you can read the the structured version in paragraphs as I wrote it 😉)

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Fitting

"But, Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In proving foresight may be vain; The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!" Poor little homeless mouse 😭 squeak squeak! Your pump sounds like one intended for a small fountain. Look for one which is specced as 'Self '. Car windscreen washer pumps from the scrap yard do the job, most need 12V though. Graupner & Co do some small 6V jobs. Next time plasti-card for the superstructure!? Cheers, Doug 😎 Oh, and for the rest of us Sassenachs amongst us, the modern English version- "But Mouse, you are not alone, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!"

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

PT109 Refit

Hull is now stripped, strengthened with EzeKote and glass tissue. Chine rails repaired / replaced. tomorrow I hope, weather (and England's performance against Panama permitting😲) Not to mention Lewis' performance in France tomorrow! Anyone know who's on Pole?? Details and the next steps will appear in a new Build Blog (Renovation/Conversion Blog?) shortly. Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Clothing complete, fenders on!

So, managed to get all the glass clothing done at work at the weekend! So far, 1 coat of resin followed by 2 thinned coats to come. Today has seen all the fenders/rubbing strakes added. it took some careful measuring to get positioned correctly but well pleased with the outcome. it paid to pre-shape them prior to fitting. I’ve added filler where needed and a couple of coats of sealer, all seems to be faired in nicely. May need some touch up after . Also fitted the rudder mounts as today’s final job. Tomorrow should see the prop shafts fitted, motors mounted and will make the shaft struts. Postie arrived with some RNLI resin crew figures that will add a great touch when painted.

6 years ago by Skydive130

Response

HMCS AGASSIZ (Corvette)

Spectacular detail work! how realist, look at the weathering! Good thing the crew is hard at work painting her! guess there's no time for ! Great looking Model....

6 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

Fantastic Plastic

So I have been doing some paint and still messing about with the outboard.. It now has the rudder dry fitted and it will not be seen above the waterline.. Most of the shaping is done now And I have cut out for access hatches to both to fit and get to the servo. The hatches I have got are semi waterproof and come off of some wet wipes. Now all the shapes are about right I will just carry on with a little more. And start looking about for the foam for the sponsons and some paints. This I am sure is going to be very light so with the electrics as low in the hull as possible and the foam tubes I have no idea how much little ballast I will get away with...

7 years ago by none

Blog

.

Rubbing/fender strips finished, portholes fitted and primer coats applied ready for finish coats to outside of the hull.

7 years ago by sandkb

Blog

Rubbing strips

Rubbing strips are ready for filling, sanding and .

7 years ago by sandkb

Response

the hull.

The paint brand I am using is widely used by UK modellers and I too would also avoid bargain basement paints for the reasons you describe. I still need to find somewhere for this boats maiden voyage, other than the test tank (bath!), but that's not going to be until the spring.

7 years ago by robbob

Response

the hull.

Glad your up to date with all the paints out there,some of them can really be JUNK!!!Keep going,lookin good!!!Now that Christmas is out of the way I can start cleaning this place up too get back to building.Take a look at our club web site sometime (PMPBA )we are running our boats in the Tualatin Commons,very nice pond to run them in.Happy Hollidays and enjoy your build

7 years ago by chumbucket

Response

the hull.

Excellent article 5 pages of very informative advice. I am putting the final touches to my 1:35 crash tender and like many have found my experience within the auto trade and paints of various types extreemly useful. Purchase all paint from my local automotive supplier, lots more for your £. This is the first boat I have built since 1957! when I used an old railway loco motor and a clunk click MacGregor RC unit. Those were the days before all the modern technology available to day. 👍 thank you

7 years ago by pilgrim

Response

the hull.

Hi chumbucket. Thanks for the warnings, all good advice 👍 Fortunately I have had no problems with paint incompatibility, all the paint and lacquers I am using are acrylic based. Besides, I always do a test piece first to make sure. Rob.

7 years ago by robbob

Response

the hull.

Ive used automotive primer sealer to deal with the base coat,make sure its primer sealer otherwise your going to have bubble issues.Do all your hole filling,dent filling scratch filling before applying it.Let it dry and use scotchbrite to give the paint something to grab onto,do not change the brand of paint during the paint work.Seen several paint jobs messed up by this,paint with enamel then stick with it on the whole job.You can do a base color with enamel and go back with Laquer detail work,but dont do a laquer base then do enamel trim,IT WILL BUBBLE.Painted many cars since my college days and boy does that suck when you have to sand the whole thing again.To think at over $200 a gallon you dont want mistakes!!

7 years ago by chumbucket

Response

the hull.

At someone else's suggestion I have already obtained 'samples' from both aforementioned emporiums but the wood varies a lot in width, grain and finish and frankly I dont want to spend hours trueing them up beforehand. Probably OK for planking a hull but not a finished deck. Good quality stripwood is quite inexpensive so I will buy some from a good supplier and do the job properly. 'Hapeth of tar' and all that !. Rob.

7 years ago by robbob

Response

the hull.

Hi Rob, have a look at the coffee stirring sticks, they come in a variety of woods, worth a look in Costa or Mcdonalds, even better they are free, (if you borrow them!!!)

7 years ago by jarvo

Response

the hull.

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I will use lime or maple and then do a test piece with some .5mm black plasticard for caulking. BTW Stephens site upgrade will allow pictures to be uploaded in message responses, a feature that is something you previously expressed a wish for, and I can post more than 4 picture in my blogs too, thank you Stephen 👍 and Happy Christmas to one and all 😀

7 years ago by robbob

Response

the hull.

I used grey card for the caulking, I was lucky with some light coloured strip I was given, unfortunately no idea what it was, then I think I stained with clear satin or matt ronseal varnish, the final effect was nice. The battery access, and the large central access in the rear well was just painted with aluminium paint, rivet detail on the towhook reinforcement and battery access panel was with dressmaker pins 😊

7 years ago by pmdevlin

Response

the hull.

Hi Paul. Yes I will be spraying a textured finish on the deck, another Halfords product, and then the custom colour BS 381C ' Light Grey 631 over that. The deck and cabin sides etc. will then get a final coat of satin lacquer. I have done a test sample of this on some scrap and the effect is quite pleasing. 😊 I'll keep all the roofs as gloss white. Right now I'm looking for some wood strip to plank the tow hook deck and rear cockpit. I think 6mm should be the right size but I want quite a light colour to contrast with dark caulking, any recommendations on that? Rob.

7 years ago by robbob

Response

the hull.

Hi Rob, are you doing the anti slip finish on the hull? Just a thought as you are at that stage Paul

7 years ago by pmdevlin

Response

the hull.

Very smooth finish just in primer!!! Gloss coats will realy shout for the hull

7 years ago by jarvo

Blog

the hull.

Again, not a particularly exciting stage of the project so there's not too much to say here. 😑 The hull is ready for its primer coats, but I first masked off the hull around the water pickup tube flange, skeg and propshaft and gave them a coat of etch primer to ensure that subsequent paint layers stick properly and after that had dried I put down the first coat of Halfords grey primer after pre-warming the spray can in a bucket of warm water. The second coat went on about 20 minutes later. I will leave the primer to dry and harden for a few days before I flat it down in preparation for more paint. In the meantime I'll start doing some work on the white metal fittings, hopefully that will be more interesting to read !

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Resin and Glass Cloth

HI all, At last I'm able to continue rebuild thanks to wife letting me use kitchen. The pictures show my next step, I've coated hull in sanding sealer followed by sanding to a reasonable finish. Then coated with Eze-Kote resin from Delux Materials, then sanded back lightly. I then covered with 24gsm glass cloth using Eze-Kote, which is very easy to use, I think that another resin coat will make it ready for with a filler primer from Halfords car paint range. I'm doing this work at the same time as going through the same operations on my wife's Fairey Swordsman restoration. Just off to rub down for last resin coat, will update in a couple of days.

11 years ago by Colin H

Forum

diesel help

HI all, newbie post so hope It's not too daft! I have a 2.46 ED diesel, not sure exactly what model but It has the water jacket and twin exhaust ports, It was bought re-con on the early 60's. Anyway It has only run a couple of hours since then and when last used about 30 years ago was fine. Now when I try and run It It will run fine for a couple of seconds after then Is starving. Fuel doesn't seem to draw In so I plan to remove the Intake/carb end and clean It, question really Is any tips specific to this type of engine? I am quite happy with engine builds but only full size, I have no real model engine experience. Also when the boat last took to the water I had a tank pick up roughly level with the fuel Inlet, Is that Ideal because now with the engine on the bench I can't get the fuel happy- If I put the supply above the Inlet, It floods, level or below and I get an airlock at the Inlet- perhaps this Is related to the fuel starvation? Any thoughts welcome and thanks.

12 years ago by fid2b

Blog

the superstructure

Now that all the holes are cut and finished in the superstructure, its time now to apply its white primer coat. The grey primer was purely to make it easier to spot any blemishes in the mould and alsoits an easier colour to work with, when making alterations or repairs. White is too bright a colour to spot defects in. Firstly, the antI slip coating was applied to the roof and engine cover area. For these areas I used a sheet of emery cloth, 300 grit. I first cut a paper template to the roof shape, remembered to cut out a section for the roof number and then mixed an ample supply of epoxy resin, coated the back face of the emery with the glue then carefull placed on the roof, making sure to gently smooth all the air bubbles out. I then cut similar templates for the engien covers and hatch tops and glued them on too. yes, I do know there are aerosols available to put this type of finish on, but being as this is a flat surface, its just as easy to do it this way and less messy having to do loads of masking off. Once the grit paper has had a coat of primer, then a couple of coats of top colour, the roughness smooths out a little, but leaves the antI slip effect visible. Don't what ever you do, use a hogh number grit paper, or once you have applied all the pain coats, it will be too smooth as you have filled all the gaps up with paint, be brave and use a low number grit! You will notice in the latter pics, the orange top coat has already been applied to the hatch openings, prior to them being masked off for the top coat to go on.

12 years ago by Gregg

Blog

hull re

Following on from the additional items being fitted and filled to blend in with the main hull, time now to give it a further coat of grey primer. I use grey primer as it shows any blemishes far better than using just white primer, this allows me to do any remedial work very easily and quickly, so once this final job is done, a couple of days drying time and I can apply its final/top coat of white primer before the white top coat/gloss goes on.

12 years ago by Gregg

Blog

hull

After painting with sanding sealer and yet more rubbing down, the first coat of primer was applied. the primer shows up Imperfections that need more work.

14 years ago by sbambi