Hi Ian, I still have a scratch built model I built a year ago, which still hasn't had a test flight yet (just a high speed taxi test). Waiting for just the right day as it took a while to build from a few photos. It was a 1 off prototype by a guy who had worked for Curtis aircraft in the 40s. Model's an Aeroflight 'Streak' tandem 2 seater from 1939. Problem is to find someone who wants your models, (most people want them for nothing) but I'd rather strip them and bin them than give them away, and use the motors etc for other projects. When you consider the cost of motors, servos, ESCs etc, and the time it takes to procure them these days, it's probably the best option. You can probably sell the bits for more than the complete plane.😁

JB

Hi Nerys, we still have a few down here, NZ, (we looked at changing it, -Maori have their own semi-unofficial flag,- pic), Aust, (they looked at changing it) Cook Islands, Fiji (they are looking at changing it) Tuvalu, Falklands, I think there are still around 21 countries with the UJ on the flag (could be a few more?) but it's slowly disappearing, where it used to be everywhere. Mainly now just used by smaller Island nations and Australia, (the only continent to use it). BTW, fun fact for those who haven't thought of it,- NZ and UK have almost the same land area, (we are 10% larger) totally different population figures though.

JB

Hi Doug, the Aust site is very old (up to 2012) but appears to be still up, maybe they have the flags made by a German screen printer? Forum's still live but list of links is a bit glitchy. Probably haven't updated the site for a while. Funny how the prices are in euros. Just checked the OZ business register and they are still current in South Aust. Grise Wink (or the other way round) seems to be the only director.?

JB

Great model Hammer👍

JB

A few models for sale at the moment, (check out the cat,- 0nly 400mm long $$ are they serious???). Fairmile kit with lots of bits (Kingston mouldings hull) $800, - 38" seaplane tender (ex kit?) $1000, - 800mm trawler (scratch built scale on real boat I think, fantastic model detail) $500, and a very nice scale (SY Medea) $2600.

Unless someone is very keen, I'm sure all of the various owners next of kin will be appreciating them at those prices.😁. That's the problem with scale models, very few people would buy them at the prices asked. My boss at Toyota (owner of the dealership) bought a lovely big scale twin engine Pucara,- (Argentina built military plane) about the size in this vid but a lot better scale features, (had everything, - probably cost $3000 to build) for around $1200, just to hang in his roof to display. He'll never fly it as he doesn't know how, and it just ended up in a dark back room in one of the workshops, probably still there, - bit of a shame ☹️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP6j-iqvI9A

Update. --Might have helped to include the photos, (senility setting in lol)

JB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP6j-iqvI9A

🔗

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One for sale here in NZ last year.

JB

Spot on PJ, young ones these days just want a 'quick fix' , all about 'Me' these days, not what 'I' can do. If it takes more than 5 mins, it's a no-go. Now it's all about what I had for breakfast, where I was 5 mins ago etc! Young people today have more choice than we ever had by a country mile, and that appears to be the problem, they don't know what to choose.

I lived in Fiji for 2.5 yrs, a while ago, and kids there were still having fun zooming through puddles with a coconut husk on a stick, - basic stuff like we did. My friends and I used to race (sail) big bamboo leaves, (bent back and the stems pushed through) in big puddles, which was fun back in our younger days. Simple but fun.

JB

Hi Peter, just one of those people probably. Had a guy in the helicopter club who was the same. You'd spend hours sorting stuff out for him for various projects so they would work, and he'd go and do something totally different every time, and stuff it up. Needless to say I stopped bothering in the end.

JB

Similar thing happened to me years ago Doug, went to sleep at the computer and woke up to find the same message - no DOS detected☹️, never got it going again, think the pull starter cord broke😂 My next HP did a similar thing (trying to start, then stopping before it did, -ECU fans starting etc) Dove into the guts and found it was just the BIOS battery, -replaced that, reset the clock and it was away. THEN, my newer HP Pavillion 23 did the same,- new battery and all was well. Did you try the battery? they only last maybe 5yrs.

Something to cheer you up, - found a great pic of 'Royalist' in Queen Charlotte sound, way back, (probably 60s) Might have mentioned,- a friend of my parents was the ships surgeon (RNZN)

JB

How dare you sir, what sacrilege, defacing a colonial flag like that, our cousins across the ditch won't like that😂

JB

I know this is old news, but I just found this while searching our local 'Trade Me' site for a camera battery. Shops in NZ whinged about people buying things on line and not buying from them (that's why the present clever govt losers decided to take even more money off us by way of putting GST on even the smallest on line purchase) This sample is a prime example of why people won't buy locally. I use these sound modules in my boats, and they are not a bad unit, (I have bought them from Ali Express, Banggood, and RC Echo (Hong Kong) for roughly the same price over a number of years. You can see by the 2 Ali Expr prices that you need to shop around (a lot) on there as well.

Take a butchers at the price difference on-line here! I'm sure it's the same in most countries, but this is just beyond a joke. Many things you can buy for $2 on Ali Expr etc are being sold here for $15 + (such as the cheap battery alarms for eg) I was just looking at RC car parts and the same applies,- some of the price gouging there is horrendous ! This is the sort of thing which is killing hobbies round the world. If you want something quickly (or at all), pay rip off prices, or if you want a fair price, wait for up to 5 months from China,- not great choices!😐

JB

Hi Fred, put 'smoker' in the search box in the forum section and you will see all the experiments Graham and I did with them.

JB

Very nice Graham, do you wear them on special occasions?😂 Doing that would drive me mad, I'd have to work on the floor, as that's where all the tiny bits would 'gravitate' to lol.

JB

Really Graham ! haven't you got anything better to do? 😁 Seriously nice bit of work, complete with vid to prove it works! Chain making! what next? 😁 Five stars from me 👍👍

JB

Ho hum, back in level 3 again tomorrow for a week, due to some moron going to work and other places when they were supposed to be in quarantine! These people should be put in a special isolation jail (not a fancy hotel) and left there for 6 months. Our feel good 'kind' PM asking everyone not to judge this family, you have to be kidding 'bucky', - these people are the ones dragging it out, making businesses close, loosing people their jobs etc. They seriously need teaching a lesson, big time!!!

JB

Excellent job on the vents Rob, -very smart. Tricky things to make!

JB

That's looking excellent Nerys, a lot of nice detail going in there,- you've been busy!

JB

Hi Graham, MKII is a much nicer scale, (sort of like Dr Evil and Mini Me 😂) and the shaped 'bearing blocks' and pawl really add to the look👍👍 Perhaps you could still use MK1 on the main halyard? You might need a lifting handle on the pawl to be BS65000 compliant though, LOL

JB

Here are a couple of items which may cheer you guys up a bit,- oldies but goodies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaCaNSY8Rh8

JB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaCaNSY8Rh8

🔗

Jeremy Taylor..The pot song.

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Re, I did like the wooden commutator you made.

I think if you used a wooden stator Doug, it might catch fire😂 You'd probably have to use leather brushes ⚡💡🔥

JB

Hi Graham, I just use good old windows paint (pretty basic). Nowhere as good as Corel print house was years ago ( my copy won't work on Windows 8.1 unfortunately) but is useful for certain things. Can't draw oblique objects and rotate etc like Corel. Handy for cleaning up old photos using some of the tools. I also have Rhinoceros which is quite good, but a bit much like hard work.

Re the windlass, thought you might have had a stash of old printer gears or similar to play with😁. Don't know about hobby shops in your area, but we can buy various gear sets from our local Jaycar electronics store, which are used for hobby robots etc.

JB

Hi graham, won't it look a bit bigger with some anchor 'warp' wound on, a crank and a pawl mounted behind the ratchet gear ? Perhaps a larger drum to the left of the sprit with a central bearing, just to the right of the gear with a step-up gear set.

JB

Sad to hear Martin has left us, as he has a great sense of humour and is a fantastic modeller. I will miss his witty comments and helpful suggestions, and hope he is able to solve his current problems and return to the site one day.

Best wishes from NZ Martin, hope everything works out for you.

JB

Nice job,- huge change since you started the project👍👍

JB

You've done a lovely job on the model Geoff! colours really suit it as well👍

JB

Saw some very nice trailers on YT, which had nice small wheels for the wobble rollers at the back. I wondered where they might have got these, as I've never seen any for sale. Had a brain wave this arvo and went and had a look in the toy section of our big Warehouse store for suitable donors. After looking at all sorts of cars, I found the perfect size on a 'Hot Wheels' Batman car. Bought 2 cars for $4 , took them home, ripped the wheels out (bit of a job surprisingly,- probably because they were made in Malaysia😁) drilled them to 3mm and hey presto, better looking wheels. Pretty sure now, that's what the other guys used (or from similar models) Wheels are 13mm, - almost spot on for scale! (old bead set shown for comparison)

For those who may not have expreienced the joys of 'wobble rollering' and are even remotely interested, I've added a pic. They are a nylon roller with a large centre hole, and are a loose fit on the axle sets (which are sort of like a small truck bogie), so as to make the boat self aligning on the trailer (the rollers follow the shape of the hull) Usually come with black, red or blue tyres.

Correct Steve, quite a clever little item and well made, not particularly powerful fans, but they are only small, (30mm I think) but at least there is some air flowing.

JB

I've been saying that for years Mike, - you can't scale water,- drag, surface tension etc. Do what you like, it's your boat, your money and your time😁.

JB

I trial fitted a thermal switch to the fans in the dummy motor, which is mounted on the 540 motor. It starts the dual fans at 30deg C and switches off at around 20deg C. Bit hard to hear in the vid (plus the YT transfer removed the middle of the vid, -there was a gap before I put the soldering iron on again,- and at the end don't know why it does this, - doesn't like the format I think😠) Anyhoo, not doing it 3 times! (clipped the end 10 secs off the previous try as well😠)

Fan switch is powered at 8v via a small voltage reg from the main battery (3s 2200 20c) and works pretty well. All fully hortomatic like😊

FANS AUTO ON OFF ON DUMMY V8

▶️

I recently bought some thermal switches to try with the twin cooling fans in the dummy motor. Switches are 30deg C- N/O. I managed to find a handy position on the alloy heat sink to attach the switch (filed flats on a 3mm screw head and fed the screw from behind through a slot in the heat sink, where the wires exit) and was able to simply bolt it on. Interrupted the positive wires from the 2 fans and soldered them onto each terminal of the switch, (in and out).

I did a test with a 2s battery (fans are max 9v) with a voltage reg to reduce the power to 7v (fans sounded happy at that,- no increase in speed with any more volts). The fans came on straight away, as it was around 29 deg C inside at that time, so I got some ice from the fridge and cooled the heat sink, which turned them off in about 5 secs. Next, used my soldering iron to heat the alloy of the heat sink, and they came back on again,-works perfectly.

I have a spare power JST plug from the power board and will plug that into a small voltage reg for the reduced voltage (I'm using a 3s in the boat), then to the fans. Should be all automatic from now on. Could have just used copper tube,-but that's boring😁 lol. Could have used a higher temp switch, but I want it to start cooling sooner, rather than letting the motor get to say 60deg, then trying to cool it (copper windings take a while to cool)