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    Response
    Re: Exhaust Smoker
    Good chance this sort of thing is what's driving the sound in these modules I have. Wonder if it would be possible to download a new sound by using another SD card (if my
    units
    do have that type of system,- haven't pulled one apart so have no idea what's inside.) Too hard to contact the manufacturer,- they say if you send them a sound file they will email you a file to upload to the unit, but my last query was unanswered (no email back) Not to worry, the sounds I have work ok, and there are probably 0 people in the country who know what a Napier Sea Lion engine sounds like, (in the HSL for eg). When it comes down to it, unless you are trying to score points in a scale competition, who would ever know (or care) what engine a boat had in it (except perhaps you). If it sounds close enough, it will still impress people. It was quite funny when I demo'd the diesel sounds I was first using in the HSL, to the present owner of the original 100% HSL, as he thought that it sounded just like the engine he had fitted to it (GM 8v-92- previously 2x GM 671). At least 1 person in NZ liked it! JB
    4 years ago by jbkiwi
    Forum
    Night Watch
    FLEET TO Lt NERYS SW SQUADRON: MESSAGE TIMED 0030 ZULU 2019:11:01: CLASS: EYES ONLY***** Welcome aboard Lt. Proceed BC Patrol with all speed. Coordinate with LRG
    units
    and Sub Lt. Rooky's NW Squadron in support of actions ref Dublin Bay prawn poachers and escapees from Boris Trump land. As senior officer on scene you are requested to coordinate efforts with NW Squadron, LRG and Irish Navy. (Reserve me a crate of Dublin Bay prawns. Last time I tasted them fresh out of the bay was about 1984 - splendid rooftop restaurant in Dublin๐Ÿ˜Š) You are herewith authorised to requisition a refrigerated truck to transport aforementioned prawns to RN Detachment HQ Munich. Include a batch of your renowned sausage rolls if you please ๐Ÿ˜‹๐Ÿ˜‹ FLEET EoM// ๐Ÿ˜Ž
    4 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    Night Watch
    To- Fleet Admiral RNHQ Munchen Today as part of our training programme for the Bristol Channel Patrol, in conjunction with
    units
    of the LFG we held a series of pulling and sailing races within the Cardiff Bay Barrage. We are lucky to posssess a number of traditional ex RN boats which we consider ideal. Between us, we have six 27ft Whalers and six RNSA 14ft sailing dinghies. The whalers are used for both pulling and sailing races. As has happened before, whilst we dominate the sailing races, the LFG have the upperhand in the pulling races as one of their midshipmen is a Cambridge rowing 'blue' and takes charge of training as well as rowing as stroke. However, a good days competition was achieved and it was decided to hold similar days perhaps monthly depending on weather. Lt. Nerys. EOM 2024 28/10/19
    4 years ago by Nerys
    Forum
    Night Watch
    Don't panic Lt.๐Ÿ˜Š I remind you that the Fleet Surgeon Commander Gisela has insisted on signing me off on a weeks recuperation leave. ๐Ÿค• Suspect that the therapy consists of clearing up what seems like a half million tons of leaves! โ˜น๏ธ In the meantime all
    units
    are to operate on the initiative of their respective COs. I respect your decision to cancel patrol due to weather extremes in the SW Command Area. Hope your HQ is not affected by the flooding Lt. I'll bet Construction Chief Alice is cussing like a true Jack Tar ๐Ÿ˜ฎ Probably in several languages ๐Ÿ˜‰ Chain of Command in my absence is; Admiral Ed, Commodore Martin, Captain Robbob. EoM. FLEET// ๐Ÿ˜Ž
    4 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    Post code
    I have three of these
    units
    and find the sounds excellent. The added advantage is being able to sync gun flashes with the respective sounds and add whatever you want in wav. format. Downside is the software is ancient and long winded and will not work on a Mac. I would still highly recommend it.
    4 years ago by cormorant
    Response
    Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, on the water at last
    RE - I like the lake. Very calm. Thanks MB, it's a good lake when it's not too windy. There are some nasty 'no mans land' areas where you'd need a boat to get your model back, if it stopped with an'offshore' wind. Ran my HSL there at night once, surprising how hard it is to track a model at night, even with all the lights going. Lucky I had sound
    units
    fitted and could hear roughly where it was till I got within about 30ft! JB
    5 years ago by jbkiwi
    Response
    Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build. mods and improvements.
    Hi Doug, - rats nest indeed! ๐Ÿ˜‚ 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 monitor, 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 on๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜Š 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?๐Ÿ˜€๐Ÿ˜Š JB
    5 years ago by jbkiwi
    Forum
    Do you Hear there Promotion announcement
    The Bristol Channel Patrol will be at sea tonight despite the inclement weather. Will be patrolling area between Monkstone LH and Ilfracombe in conjunction with
    units
    of the Llynges Frenhinol Gymraeg. Further reports will be posted in the Night Watch thread. Nerys SubLt.
    5 years ago by Nerys
    Response
    Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build. Quest for the correct engine sound
    True Martin, the whistle is from the turbo but the originals in the ST are non turbo. It would be great if someone would make a cheap sound unit, where you could record a sound and upload it to the unit and it would convert it to a usable proportional sound. The sound
    units
    I have work like this and have an SD card in the system where an original sound is split into small WAV ? bytes and each one loops if stopped in a particular position, or steps up the folders in sinc with the TX (bit like going up the scale on a piano. Problem is to find a genius who can hack this system and find a way to copy a sound into the SD card we could all use. Only way at the moment is to use an installed sound, or find a smooth continuous 0-full power sound and make a WAV file and send it to the manufacturer (GT Power-China) and get them to convert it, and send you a download an hope it will install, -super complicated! Got to be an easy way!? The sound on this vid is (this is a bit like your cryptic stuff Martin) made by an inkjet printer carriage motor on 4v run through one of those adjustable voltage regs we discussed recently, and just sitting on the deck (as a sound board). I've been trying things like this for years, on and off, and you can get some quite good sounds from electric motors attached to resonator boxes, - even found the lid of a jam jar sounds like a hot bulb engine when clicked in and out over a small box (like the old clickers we had as kids), Thought of making one with a cam on a geared electric motor on an ESC. Always on the lookout for a cheaper alternative. JB
    5 years ago by jbkiwi
    Response
    Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build U
    Hi MT, sound
    units
    are actually for cars but have a choice of 58 sounds from V8s to diesels and are the only ones I've seen which seem to sound ok. You have to go through all the sounds and try them through the throttle range but there are a number which sound ok for boats. You can also plug them into your computer and make a few changes such as throttle sensitivity, turbo sound and volume etc. The sounds are proportional, from starting to full throttle and are all WAV sounds which seem to be split up into small 'samples' and as such, some are not quite linear but are useable. There are 2 different models, One is the 'GT Power' sound and lights model - version 2 (the better I think) which comes with all the pre wired and plugged LEDs needed for a car, (h/l, t/l, indicators etc) and comes as a module and separate speaker, (you can plug 2 speakers into this module for better sound). The other model is the 'GT Power' Car Engine Sound 'mini' which is just the sound module and speaker in one box. This works the same as the version 2 model but at present I'm having a problem with the Mini, which has the wrong model for USB adjustment installed, (sounds can be selected manually on the module but when you plug the module into the comp and open the module control panel, it's for the wrong model, - sound files are still viewable though) I'll have to contact GT Power for a fix (going by their on line help page, they seem quite ready to sort problems out and give solutions) Cost is around $56 NZ for the version 2, and around $ 51 for the 'Mini' version which is comparable to most other sound
    units
    available, but with more features than some. Apparently, if you send the GT Power tech/help guy a complete WAV sound file (ie, start, idle, and steady slow acceleration to full and back they will make a sound file for your unit and email it back to you,(yet to try but would be brilliant if true)
    units
    are sold on Ebay, Ali Express and Banggood (and many other model shops) and it's worth shopping around all of them, as there are big price differences. These are also sold as GOOL RC sound
    units
    but are made by GT Power. ( http://www.gt-rc.com/en/msgBoard.jsp ) You will see the home page on there. I use a number of their products such as battery chargers, rev counters, battery checkers etc and all seem very reliable and work well. I don't think they sell direct, but they are sold everywhere. For Rooky Sailors benefit, the motors are Gool RC 540-45T 7.4V brushed car motors which have ball bearings and replaceable brushes (motor is rebuildable). Haven't tried them on the water yet, but the 45T (12000rpm) should be tourqy enough (different turn Nos are available) John B
    5 years ago by jbkiwi
    Forum
    EeZeBilts From Keil Kraft
    This thread does wander widely! I am gratified to see people commenting on design issues - much thanks for these. But with such a wide spread of comments it will be difficult to please everyone! Perhaps I can recap a bit about what is going on here, and I will try to cover the comments in order... 1 - This design exercise started as an illustration for Martin555, who wondered about how I drew up EeZeBilt plans. I took his rather striking 'fantasy corvette' (thanks, RN, I like the name) purely as an example to demonstrate. It looked rather complicated, so I reckoned that it would offer some interesting design decisions. So it was not initially intended to be a 'simple starter plan'. Indeed, I was not sure that I would take it much further than developing a set of bulkheads and a deck. 2 - Having said that, I may well complete a set of plans, make parts for it and make it up. The exercise is getting interesting, and a range of plans for beginners should include some larger, more complex prototypes as well as simple craft? 3 - The sloping foredeck is indeed an interesting feature. I concur with RN that it seems unseaworthy - particularly in model sizes. I was not sure whether it really swept down, or whether this was an illusion brought about by camera angles and the angled chine. It does give the craft an aggressive look. If you look back over my comments - see fig10 and fig11 - you will see that I have kept a flush deck, but try to retain the effect by slightly expanding the stern and tapering the deck towards the bow. 4 - The anchor handling well is another striking feature which I suspect that RN has not seen anywhere else, since it is hard to see a practical reason for it. Indeed, on a real ship it would seem to be very impractical, as RN points out! It looks fun, though, and I was expecting to keep it. It would not be very deep, and would drain through the hawse holes (or, indeed, fill through them...). If it turns out to cause difficulties, it is an easy feature to remove without much plan alteration. Putting it in allows me to create a shape very close to Martin's original - which was the initial point of the exercise... 5 - Power train. Once again RN has put his finger on an important design decision. I had discussed this with Martin in the PMs - should I go for a single prop which would be correct for a simple EeZeBilt, the dual props in tunnels which his more sophisticated model had, or jets. I mentioned the latter because the stern looked very like the Visby design, and that was jet driven. Then I looked on ebay and found that I could get cheap jets which looked about the right size... So at the moment I would like to include twin jets to add to my own experience - in spite of Martin commenting that they may be too powerful (as he did), and RN feeling that they may be too complex. I may well be wrong - at the moment I am concerned about making these
    units
    leakproof, since they will be on or below the waterline, but until I see them I can't tell if it will be an issue 6 - Box construction. Effectively the 'egg-box' design is a box construction. Remember when I said " Most of the hull can be a simple box structure which the egg-box design is great for - it will only need a different approach at the bow."? Though I talk about "EeZeBilt" design as a shorthand for this type of construction, it is not an 'official' term, and this sort of structure is seen much earlier in model boats. A criss-cross honeycomb structure was often used for hydroplane shapes back in the 1910s. And building a boat on a flat base comes from the earliest model designs. If I were to try to define this construction style I might say: "A type of model boat construction where the bulkheads are assembled both on top of and underneath a flat sub-deck, the edges of which form the chine. The bulkheads are typically held apart by formers, creating a stiff compartmentalised structure which does not need support from a keel or building board, and can be held in the hand to be skinned with light balsa sheet." So the construction method tends to avoid stringers, and originally simply had slab sides and bottom rather than 'developed' twisted sheeting. The result was a simple slotted wooden frame that anyone could assemble with a good chance of producing a symmetrical hull.
    5 years ago by DodgyGeezer
    Forum
    Martin Westquay's Piper Cub ;-)
    Hi Martin, most of us played with the Keil Kraft & Veron kits in our youth. The small kits fitted the pocket money slot very well - most succumbed early - have memories of Jetex
    units
    climbing away from your new model on their own - never to be found. Others succumbed to the force of a penny Ronden "Flash Bomb" lit on launch - spectacular. Then there were the larger kits - rubber powered built with fathers assistance - home carved propellers - which flew out of sight - also never to be seen again. One climbed out on a thermal until a dot in the sky - turned up on a farm 20 miles away unscathed - always had name and address/phone no on a small card on the models.....Later the usual ED Bee's , Allan Mercury 1.5's etc . Watched a 40" span Piper of mine trying to take off with a friends clapped out Bee - ran the length of the rugby field and lifted just in time to intercept the posts............ Have 90% of the flying scale model plans - always mean to build one but designing and making commercial kids kits on the Laser intervenes. So far Land Rover series 1 , Defender, Suzuki SJ410 , Generic Jeep, Willys 1946 Jeep, Pitts Special , Tiger Moth and Eurocopter - all made with 3mm MDF - either fully designed or heavily modified by myself.
    5 years ago by redpmg
    Forum
    Boat retrieval
    There are a number of commercial 'missing signal'
    units
    available. Fly boys use them to set controls to default safety, or sound a beeper for finding a lost aircraft. I believe that there are some specific ones for subs. Washing machines and boilers both have pressure detection
    units
    inside. This is what a typical one looks like. They are mechanical microswitches operated by a diaphragm. The blue screw sets the pressure at which it operates. They could form the basis for an independent safety system - emergency blow with a Sparklets cylinder, for instance, or releasing a 'sub down' tethered buoy.....
    5 years ago by DodgyGeezer
    Response
    Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build D
    These have jumpers to select between NiMh and Lipo so I'm not sure if your info applies to these (most likely does, haven't seen your info before,- depends on who's selling them I suppose) but I have never had any probs, and can run the boats till I get sick of it and still have 3.8 v/cell left using 2200 Mah LiPos (1 per motor). Also am using the BECs in them for the RECs as I have very little draw,- being only REC and 1 servo to worry about. I use small props and run them at high speed to unload the motors (the brushless 2000kv in-runner motors in the HSL only draw about 3-4A flat out in a static test which translates to about 2.5-3 moving, giving a good hr or more of cruising round.) The MTB and Maiami use 12v 380 motors (15000 rpm) and 22mm 3 blade props which draw practically nothing while chugging around, and give slow maneuvering while spinning above stuttering speed, but will still run at scale speeds. Being cheap, if any smoke leaks out of these little rice cans you haven't lost much. Depending on performance I have 4 nice little 25A Trackstar programmable ESCs and 2 Ocday 25A programmable ESCs to use with brushless motors (the Trackstars being really nice little
    units
    with lots of features) the Ocdays not so much Ocday (& other names) programme card shown). PS I only use LiPos. PPS Haven't tried tasting them yet, probably be ok with a nice sauce Bordelaise peut-รชtre ?
    5 years ago by jbkiwi
    Forum
    Plan Sources
    Hi DG, I'd be MOST interested to see what you consider to be the 'relevant plan'! So here is your 'Round to It' ๐Ÿ˜‰ I heartily agree with you regarding the portholes / glazed
    units
    ! But as far as armament goes - Anything goes, especially for those operated in the Pacific theatre - which was the vast majority. Crews scrounged and used whatever they could get their hands on. The classic example is the 37mm Army Anti Tank gun JFK scrounged and fitted to PT109. To no avail; they were rammed and sunk the day after by the Japanese destroyer IJN Amagiri. If it worked it was introduced in the next production class. As far as your 'relevant plan' goes; I guess that depends on which boat of which class in which of 30 squadrons (RONS) of 80' ELCOS built at which stage of the war was taken as the basis of the plan. The early classes, up to about the 103 class (to which JFK's infamous boat belonged) had no radar at all. You are correct that there was a large radar pod on some PTB's. As built probably from the 200 class at the earliest. Earliest pics and references I can find indicate that the radar pods may have been first fitted to the 500 series. Highly likely that such such details were still secret and not available to Les & Co in the late 40s early 50s. I have seen some photos of PTBs with that odd 'button' on the mast top but haven't yet fathomed what it could be. Don't fit no radar antenna that I know of and it's way too small for the radar of the time anyway. Some earlier boats may have been retrofitted but not many. Most squadrons only had one or two boats fitted with radar at all (destroyers and upwards took precedence in the early days of radar, until centimetric and corresponding smaller antennas were introduced and could be mass produced) and most PTB skippers switched them off at night and lowered the mast anyway to reduce the risk of detection. The early classes also had no armament on the foredeck. As the official model of PT109 shows. Only the Carley Floats or some other form of liferaft. I also attach drawings from the USN Bureau Of Ships deck plan and profile drawings as designed and originally built. (Thanks for the pointer Maurice๐Ÿ‘). They and all subsequent classes were, consequent to operational experience esp. in the Pacific, rapidly fitted with a colourful assortment of single and twin barrel cannons fore and aft as well as single and /or twin 20mm Oerlikons midships and/or on the torpedo mounts - similar to British MTBs, e.g. Vosper. Later versions had all sorts of guns on the foredeck and a single 0.5" machine to port just forward of the cabin. so as far as a PTB model goes; Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice. You can fit a model with virtually anything less than a 3" QF/HA and probably be right for at least one boat somewhere at some time! In my archive I have dozens of photos of PTBs of various types and classes; as built, in operation, and as restored, if anyone needs 'em.๐Ÿ˜‰ Wrt the straight or front cabin; difficult to see what was intended in the Aerokits plan๐Ÿ˜ฎ I agree with you that the ELCOs had a cabin front slanted backward. The Huckins PTBs did have a straight cabin front. Not many were built and never saw war service being stationed mostly in Florida, Pearl Harbour and Midway and used for training. Maybe someone got their plans mixed up. Cheers and G'night, Doug ๐Ÿ˜Ž PS Have a look at Battleship Cove for lots of photos of the restored PT617. There you can see the later radar pod.๐Ÿ˜‰ "Armament The primary anti-ship armament was two to four Mark 8 torpedoes, which weighed 2,600 pounds (1,179 kg) and contained a 466-pound (211 kg) TNT warhead. These torpedoes were launched by Mark 18 21-inch (530 mm) steel torpedo tubes. Mark 8 torpedoes had a range of 16,000 yards (14,630 m) at 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph). These torpedoes and tubes were replaced in mid-1943 by four lightweight 22.5-inch-diameter (570 mm) Mark 13 torpedoes, which weighed 2,216 pounds (1,005 kg) and contained a 600-pound (270 kg) Torpex-filled warhead. These torpedoes were carried on lightweight Mark 1 roll-off style torpedo launching racks. The Mk13 torpedo had a range of 6,300 yards (5,800 m) and a speed of 33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph). PT boats were also well armed with numerous automatic weapons. Common to all US PT boats were the two twin M2 .50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns. Early PT boats (Elco PT20 through PT44) mounted Dewandre plexiglas-enclosed hydraulically operated rotating turrets.[12] Almost immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Dewandre turrets were replaced on the entire PT boat fleet with open ring twin mounts. The ring mount was designed by both Elco and Bell, and designated Mark 17 Twin 50 caliber aircraft mount.[13] Part of the Mark 17 Mod 1 and Mod 2 ring mount consisted of the Bell Mark 9 twin cradle.[14][15] Another automatic weapon commonly mounted on PT boats was the 20 mm Oerlikon cannon. On early series of boats, this cannon was mounted on the stern. Later in the war, several more of these 20 mm cannons were added amidships and on the forward deck. Forward of the chart house of some early Elco 77-foot (23 m) boats (PT20 through PT44) were twin .30 cal (7.62 mm) Lewis machine guns on pedestal mounts. Beginning in mid-1943, some boats were fitted with one or two .30 cal Browning machine guns on the forward torpedo racks on pedestal mounts. Occasionally, some front line PT boats received ad hoc up-fits at forward bases, where they mounted such weapons as 37mm aircraft cannons, rocket launchers, or mortars. When these weapons were found to be successful, they were incorporated onto the PT boats as original armament. One such field modification was made to Kennedy's PT-109, which was equipped with a single-shot Army M3 37mm anti-tank gun that her crew had commandeered; they removed the wheels and lashed it to 2x8 timbers placed on the bow only one night before she was lost. The larger punch of the 37mm round was desirable, but the crews looked for something that could fire faster than the single-shot army anti-tank weapon. Their answer was found in the 37mm Oldsmobile M4 aircraft automatic cannon cannibalized from crashed P-39 Airacobra fighter planes on Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. After having demonstrated its value on board PT boats, the M4 (and later M9) cannon was installed at the factory. The M4/M9 37mm auto cannon had a relatively high rate of fire (125 rounds per minute) and large magazine (30 rounds). These features made it highly desirable due to the PT boat's ever-increasing requirement for increased firepower to deal effectively with the Japanese Daihatsu-class barges, which were largely immune to torpedoes due to their shallow draft. By the war's end, most PTs had these weapons. The installation of larger-bore cannons culminated in the fitting of the 40mm Bofors gun[16] on the aft deck. Starting in mid-1943, the installation of this gun had an immediate positive effect on the firepower available from a PT boat. The Bofors cannon had a firing rate of 120 rounds/min (using 4-round clips) and had a range of 5,420 yards (4,960 m). This gun was served by a crew of 4 men, and was used against aircraft targets, as well as shore bombardment or enemy surface craft. Gunboats In the Solomon Islands in 1943, three 77-foot (23 m) PT boats, PT-59, PT-60, and PT-61, were converted into "PT gunboats" by stripping them of all original armament except the two twin .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun mounts, then adding two 40mm and four twin .50 cal (12.7 mm) mounts. Lieutenant Kennedy was the first commanding officer of PT-59 after its conversion. On 2 November 1943, PT-59 participated in the rescue of 40 to 50 Marines from Choiseul Island and a foundering landing craft (LCP(R)) which was under fire from Japanese soldiers on the beach.[17] Towards the end of the war, beginning in 1945, PTs received two eight-cell Mark 50 rocket launchers,[18] launching 5 in (130 mm) spin-stabilized flat trajectory Mark 7 and/or Mark 10 rockets[19] with a range of 11,000 yards (10,000 m). These 16 rockets plus 16 reloads gave them as much firepower as a destroyer's 5-inch (127 mm) guns. By war's end, the PT boat had more "firepower-per-ton" than any other vessel in the U.S. Navy. PT boats also commonly carried between two and eight U.S. Navy Mark 6 depth charges in roll-off racks. Sometimes they were used as a last-ditch weapon to deter pursuing destroyers. The depth charge could be set to go off at 100 feet (30 m), and by the time it exploded, the pursuing destroyer might be above it. Additionally, a few PT boats were equipped to carry naval mines launched from mine racks, but these were not commonly used. "
    5 years ago by RNinMunich
    Forum
    Plan Sources
    This might become an 'occasional item' on the inspiration for Les Rowell's boats! The recent discussion on the PT Boat plans reminded me that I was always intrigued at the inaccuracies on the Aerokits PT Boat plan. The model is of the ELCO 80-footer and there are several departures from accuracy which I cannot understand. For a start. the model has round portholes, while all the glazed
    units
    on the original were rectangular. And the front of the forward chart-room cabin is straight across, while the original had an arrow planform. The radar dome was much bigger than the odd little button perched on the mast, and the armament is a strange mix which almost certainly never existed. I glanced at the Adamcraft model, which probably just predates the Aerokits one, and what did I see? The same odd armament, and the same tiny radar dome. The Adamcraft has a proper cabin shape and windows, but it looks to me as if Mr Rowell drew some of his inspiration from the Adamcraft kit. When I can get round to it I will scan the relevant plan...
    5 years ago by DodgyGeezer


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