Very nice Rick, clever block hiding idea👍

JB

Wasn't a bad day today after a week of rain and storms (the 4ft sand bank was almost level with the creek before the storm, creek's moved 30ft sideways, - normally tidal right up under the bridge) so I took the airboat out for a thrash. Bit hard going up the creek with all the rocks exposed and shallow spots,- stopped a number of times. Lot of fun but not a lot of room to manoeuvre. I'm going to do it again on a calm day when the tide's in, and go out to sea a bit.

RC AIRBOAT CREEK BASHING ATTEMPT

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You'll have to let him blow something up Graham,- how's he going to learn otherwise. ⚡⚡⚡🔥😮🙈 That's how most of us did it, (at least I did)😂

JB

Looking good Graham, (couldn't help yourself I see)😁😉 The young fella should be happy! Are you going to get him involved in the electrical side,?

JB

Hi Steve, the paint is Duplicolour Acrylic lacquer (spray can) so it wouldn't hurt it. Actually cut it initially with some Repco cutting compound, then Brasso. Still needs more cutting to get it flat, as the nozzle on the can was a bit rough and the weather was too cold at the time.

JB

My toes are almost worn out Martin😂

JB

Hi Phil, been wanting to do that for a few years, but haven't found a cheap enough set yet. I've struggled with trying to position one boat with a camera, behind or beside the subject etc, while trying to drive 2 boats at once. One thing I was thinking of, was to put the camera on a 360Deg gimbal so you can rotate it and follow something, rather than have to constantly re-position the whole camera boat to keep the subject in frame.

JB

Very nice Martin, another nifty addition to the boat👍 Your getting pretty good at these handy conversions. Plastic, wood, steam punk, electrikitty, upholstery,- what next😁 ?

JB

Martin noticed that there were no cleats on the stern to go with the fairleads😁, now it has some so he'll be happy (till he spots something else😂) - I know I haven't painted them yet Martin😁LOL. Excuse the pond scum I missed, who knows what's in that lake,- can't be too bad though as the eels are thriving. Just sticks to your boats whatever it is😐.

JB

Hi Peter, biggest problem if you want to do a YT vid with any music in it, is finding something they allow. Fine if you can make your own music, (as long as it doesn't sound like something else) pretty hard to do these days. This YT copyright stuff is beyond a joke now,- virtually have to have no music around when doing a vid (even your next door neighbours loud stereo will probably get you warned if the YT algorithm latches onto it and recognises something )

I think you can get away with ethnic/cultural music, just not individual artists. Think I might have found some Italian tunes to try. These little BT boards area almost plug and play,- just need around 4v supply, a couple of small speakers and a micro SD card with your tunes loaded onto it. - very light. It's all light enough to put in a 12" boat (with a bit of beam),- board weighs nothing,- speakers are the only weight. Can be run off your main battery with a VReg in the line.

I do have a habit of making slight improvements to models, after 'finishing' them (reducing size of components if something better comes along etc)

JB

Re More additions! Will your ingenuity never end?

It'll have to soon Graham, I'm running out of room😁 (and my brain hurts)😂- and besides, after the nice launch day, the weather overnight turned to real stormy rainy rubbish, (probably same for the next week) and I have to do something to stop going mad😂 BTW you started this radio lark, now I'm hooked on it😁😂

JB

Re More tinkering that is what I like to see.

Trouble maker😂 I'm doing your cleats soon Martin😁

JB

Found a good way to make any sound you like for a boat. I recorded the sound of a set of air horns I have, with my camera, and transferred it to my small RUIZU BT player. The sound was then played via BT to the small BT/stereo card in the boat. Worked pretty well, and also managed to demo a bit of music with the system (Cuban,- YT doesn't seem to mind,- probably don't like Cubans). I'll add the horn to the micro SD card in the boat, which should then be able to be played via IR remote, using a track selection. Need to find some musical horns for better effect, (and find or make some air horns for the deck)

https://youtu.be/_-3898RK-cE

https://youtu.be/_-3898RK-cE

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Thanks for the comment Peter, I'm pleased with how it turned out. A lot of fiddling due to scaling up, but it was worth it in the end.

JB

Great job Peter, certainly looks the part on the water👍. Kit makes a very nice model, certainly doesn't look like a beginners model now ! Will be interested to see the upcoming 'extras' when installed.

JB

HI Steve, brilliant stuff as usual. Certainly need the right type of wood (and sharp blades) to do such fine cuts,- especially cross cuts without chipping. Just a thought- if you ever have problems with chipping, (say eg for a job like this) you could cut a rebate (just deeper than the part) in the front of a thick board, and cut into the board, using it as a backstop (clamped to your slide), - supports both sides of the cut and should stop chipping). You can create a tunnel on the offcut side to collect the cut pieces, (for mass production).

More for less skilled wood choppers than you, as I'm sure you'd figure that one out😁

BTW how's the chinflu battle going with you 'Southerners' ? - we're just ramping cases up over here now. (we're a bit slow)😁

JB

Hi Peter, missed your question sorry. I used car window tint on my Hartley cabin boat, but I applied that before fitting the screens. Might be too hard to do it later, as it requires a bit of force on a flat surface to expel any air bubbles.

JB

New cabin looks good Cash👍, gives it a more more 'official' look,- similar to our new Auckland police cat.

JB

Looks real nice Peter👍- monitor works well and radar looks spot on, - nice job👍 You can always go up a bit in motor size if you find cruising not to your liking. It does let you stay out longer though, and enjoy it more.

JB

Hi Boatshed, the model was basically scratch built using an old Model Maker plan, and blowing it up to roughly twice its' original size. The plan was just used as a rough guide for the bulkheads and their positions, the rest had to be modified to suit the larger size. All dimensions were irrelevant due to the size increase, (from 18" to 33 " and a lot of changes made to accommodate twin electrics etc.

JB

Hi Mike, interested to see how you got on with the 'water jet' idea, -should move it on calm days. As long as the sound of running water, after 3 beers doesn't get you going😁!

JB

Hi Bill,- have you seen his display sub?!, all Martins' work is amazing, the detail he gets is just superb,- museum stuff !

JB

Hi Steve, thanks for the comment. The sheilas are still smiling, (strange that😁) I was pretty stoked with how it went, apart from a small problem with my couplings. Think I might have fixed that now with any luck, having added the stops in front of the motor bearings. Really need some thick walled silicone tube for it to work better. At least it's a 'built in safety measure' against stalling. For some reason, all the boats I've built, haven't had enough room for common couplings. Must be what I'm building, - next one will have some room. Probably have more room if I didn't fill them up with 'after market extras'😁.

Regs,

JB

Tidy solution Bill, going to look good when all together. Can't see the vids unfortunately as I can't convert Quicktime MOV, .

JB

Good solution Bill👍, tried to look at your movies, but they come out as MOV files and I don't have a converter (I just get the sound)

JB

Hi Martin, I have a spare hand held one which would be just the ticket for you, as it would also tie up one of your typing hands😂😂 (you'd only be able to make 1/2 the suggestions😂)

JB

Hi Gary, - the first name's the same as his, - haven't started mouldering yet though😁. Most of the fittings were made by making male masters and making impressions in modelling clay, baking that, coating the inside with f/glass mould parting wax, the filling them with polyester resin. taken out of the moulds, cleaned up and painted with chrome paint, (there is a section on my runabout building blog showing how it was done). very simple and cheap to do.

The bow T cleat was just brass strip and rod, and flag pole base was brass strip and tube. Spotlight was a modified hardware item (plastic screw cover). I don't have a lathe unfortunately, although I'm looking at some small modelling lathes at present, but don't like the price. There are a few nice Myfords for sale, but they still command a high price.

I do have a large bench drill/mill which gets used for everything, Mill, router, sander, (sometimes 'vertical lathe' for light stuff) press for brushless motor shafts etc. One of the handiest tools is an Austrian EMCOSTAR multi machine, (bench saw, band saw, disc sander, belt sander, jigsaw etc) which I was given,- a perfect tool for modelling. Other than that, everything is just made by hand with ordinary tools.

Regards, JB

I've fitted the rear rubbing strips tonight, so that's another small addition done. Holes were measured and drilled in the hull for the pre dowelled and varnished strips, and thick cyano was added round the dowels to lock and seal them, as well as spots along the inside edge. They don't need to be completely glued, as they fit reasonably well, and are completely varnished and waterproof. I might run a bead of thick cyano on the top and bottom, once I can get into the Korean $2 shop which has the type I need (thick, but slow setting- good for small gaps).

Next small job will be a few cleats for the rear fairleads (thanks to Martins' eagle eye,) I thought I had almost finished LOL, - thanks Martin😁 (remind me to buy you some dark glasses😂)

Hi Will, thanks for the kind words. There is a vid to go with this in the media section (doesn't show in the current topics section) Perhaps I should put a link here as well.

JB

Hi Gary, no chastising necessary 😂 all suggestions welcome😊 Your tube solution would have been good if I had been able to line the shafts up perfectly (actually purchased some of your suggested devices off Ali Expr, (nice looking expensive brass ones) but the tolerances of the holes were so bad, I couldn't use them). I had thought as you did, a solid connection would be good, but I couldn't buy anything from China which wasn't drilled to stupid sizes and almost rattled the motors out of the boat😐

I now have a good collection of almost every connection they sell for boats and cars, and all are useless. Good for slow revving boats or rock crawlers only. High revving shafts need precision fittings, and with Chinese stuff , it's all different, and mixtures of metric and imperial ( I mean, what sort of size is 3.25mm for a shaft,- why not just 3mm,4mm etc, and ream a hole for clearance in the fittings) I think they make stuff to be easy for hobbyists to assemble, and don't worry about precision. Too many companies making too many things to their own tolerances.

The one good thing about silicone I've found, is that even if the shafts are a little bit out, they still flex and run smoothly. Re pond weed,- My HSL ran into a patch last year, and both the shafts twisted the silicone off, which saved the expensive in-runners. Had to launch a rescue mission with my faithful old Vic Smeed MTB (only has 25mm 3 blade props which don't seem to attract weed so much.) Not a lot of weed where I run the boats, but long strands seem to pop up from the bottom occasionally and snag things.

JB