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(Pleasure Craft) "Jessica" A Sea Scout renovation
Originally built by my Dad in the early sixties, fitted then with a Taycol Target and two very wet lead acid accumulators.
First renovation about 26 years ago for my daughter Jessica, fitted with a 6V Decaperm. Performance was VERY sedate. Perhaps fitting for a Broads Cruiser? The Taycol will now go into the Danish fish cutter I am currently renovating.
First two pics show her condition, incl. engine room, last year after about 25 years in the cellar.
Last three pictures show current condition after extensive renovation, see 'Build Blog Jessica' and refit. Video shows her Sea Trial end of May 2018 https://youtu.be/b0BWJ3duzDw
Now just cockpit fit to do and suitable crew to find. Can't 'select' Speed here as she wasn't equipped with GPS! But quick! Now she planes well so I guess I've turned her into a Sport Fishing Boat!? Rating I also can't select for myself, that's something for you guys to do! ;-) (Motor: Propdrive 2830 1000kV) (ESC: Quicrun 16BL30 Hobbywing) (5/10)
Update: Crew have reported for duty
RNinMunich
7 years ago
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(Naval Ship) HMS Belfast
Performance not yet known, still in the fitting out dock. Power is actually 2 x 6V 4Ah. ESC will be Graupner Navy V30R. Maybe 2 for differential control to support rudder. I've left 'Number of Props' as Please Select cos Belfast has 4 and this ain't an option!!
Long term plans for smoke (borrowed from model railway kit!) lighting and gun control. Have already bought magicians 'Flash Paper' for main battery gun flashes. Ignition using old 'out of work' glow-plugs? Any ideas welcome :-)
Ship is Graupner Premium line. NOT IMPRESSED with quality of cast resin parts, lots of air bubble depressions :-/ Fair amount of rework / repaint necessary! (Motor: Speed 540 x 4) (ESC: Navy VR30 or Viper Marine. Trials on 40MHz then 2.4GHz DX6) (7/10)
RNinMunich
8 years ago
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(Naval Ship) Graf Spee
It's a Graupner premium line ARTR! ;-/ Wanted some 'quick fun' while working on more complex constructions (HMS Hotspur H Class Destroyer 1936, 1:72 and Type IA U26 also 1936).
Didn't work out that way! On first test of motors and ESC I discovered that the shafts were so badly fitted that they were binding ;-( So back in dry dock for some hull surgery! That's why some inputs are missing above. Plan is to gradually add functions and special effects; lighting, gun controls, magicians Flash Paper for gun flashes. Maybe fired using my old glow-plugs!!??
Now I'm freshly retired I have more time for this ;-), as long as Gisela doesn't drag me off around the world too often ;-) I also have HMS Belfast from the same series (approx 1:128) also awaiting fitting out. More soon - don't hold your breath please ;-) in the pipeline is some 'Plastic Magic' with Ark Royal, Hood and Bismark all to 350 scale ca 70-80cm. Sorry been in Munich for over 30 years don't think in inches any more (except when buying mag wheels for the chariot!)
Cheers, and as my German boating friends say 'Immer ein Handbreite Wasser unterm Kiel!) = I wish you always a hand-widths water under your keel.
I sail on the lake in the Ostpark near me in Munich. Very convenient, right next to the Biergarten! (Motor: 600) (ESC: Graupner Navy V30R) (5/10)
RNinMunich
8 years ago
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Gina 2 Billing Boats Fish Cutter - Restoration & Conversion
As promised (or threatened?) stage two of the hull work and thoughts on motorisation. The hull was sprayed with two coats of grey primer/filler. Pic1.
As usual this showed up the remaining imperfections (pics 2 & 3), but I'm not going to worry about them until I've got prop shaft tube and rudder stock sorted out and permanently fitted
After my attempts to make and thread a 3mm prop shaft went awry Martin (Westway the Mechanicals Master) stepped in and made me a decent one complete with a bushed stuffing tube Vielen Dank Meister
I did however manage to make a 4mm to 3mm reducer so that I could fit a Rabeosch 35mm prop as seen in pics 2 & 3.
The tube and shaft from Martin, arrived Saturday an' he only made it on Monday, have been dry fitted so that I can start setting up the gears, necessary to bring the drive down to the prop shaft fitted very low down in the hull, and motor mount. Pic 4.
Motorisation: (Remember folks - this kit was designed and built as a static model!) I want to use the old 1950s Taycol Target motor which my Dad originally fitted in the Sea Scout which I have renovated and upgraded to work forward and reverse with a standard ESC. See Build blog 'Sea Scout - Jessica'
Many of you will know that the Taycol motors were field coil motors, meaning that they have no permanent magnet around the rotor coil, and thus reversing the battery connections to the brushes had no effect on the direction of rotation, as this simply reversed the magnetic fields of both stator and rotor coils
To counteract this so that the motor could be used in both forward and reverse with a conventional brushed ESC I modified the motor slightly (separated the two coils) and built a simple converter board to connect it to the ESC. Again see the Sea Scout blog for the details of the conversion.
Basically; once the field coil and brush-gear (rotor coil) have been separated a simple diode bridge can be used to apply the output of the ESC to the motor. This enables the reversal of EITHER field OR rotor coil polarity, depending on how you connect the converter to the motor. Thus reversing the direction of rotation of the motor. Beneficial side effect is that the diodes also suppress the commutator sparking
In my case, with the Taycol Target, I also cleaned, flattened and polished the commutator. Thus significantly reducing the potential for spark generation in the first place!
A peculiarity of the Taycol motors is that they all use metal brushes, pressed phosphor bronze strip, so they need oiling!
DO NOT oil conventional brushed motors with carbon brushes unless the brushes are exchangeable or you want to have to buy a new motor!!!!!
Pics 5 & 6 show the proposed position of the Taycol in Gina 2 and pic 7 the prototype converter board I knocked up to test the motor, together with a Graupner Navy V30R Marine Brushed ESC. Details and results in the Sea Scout blog, including video of the sparks and oscilloscope pics of the drive waveforms before and after conversion! The latter showing the spark suppression effect of the converter Some samples attached - last 3 pics.
Pic 8 pic shows a more compact version of the converter, one of a few types I'm doing for Martin's various Taycols as a trade for the prop shaft he made for me and some useful material he sent. Thanks mate
Next steps will be
1) mounting the gears correctly on the shafts, requiring the manufacture of a 3/32" to 4mm adaptor and a 1/8" to 4mm adaptor, and keying them to the shafts - Hooray for mini milling machines
2) manufacturing bushed end plates to hold the gears in place,
3) fitting the motor mounting platform. I'll probably borrow from my experiences of real shipbuilding and do this as a suspended 'false floor', i.e. mounted on stiff springs to enable adjustments to optimise the gearing mesh!
On real naval ships this is done to improve shock resistance and to minimise engine noise / vibration conduction to the hull, thus significantly reducing the acoustic signature of the ship.
Not that I'm tooo worried about being torpedoed
Worth a try
Pic 9 shows the cleaned up and renovated Taycol Target motor.
Pic 10 shows the drive waveform complete with sparks before modification.
Pic 11 the cleaned 'forward' waveform with the converter board.
Pic 12 the cleaned 'reverse' waveform, no suppression capacitors needed More soon folks, Cheers, Doug
PS Along the way a new keel was fitted as can be seen in pics 1 to 3.
The original builder had 'buried' the keel in the hull planking!
RNinMunich
7 years ago
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Aerokit Sea Scout 'Jessica' Renovation
Some of you may already know part of the story but, spurred on by Martin 'Westquay' and commanded by Admiral 'Dave' here goes
Dad built her originally when I was about 12, so ca 53-54 years ago. (As at 2017!)
She was 'No name' and free running with a Taycol Target, ahead only, and a 6V (very) wet cell lead acid. (Down to the garage again for a 'top up!)
Anyway, to cut a long story slightly sideways
MY daughter Jessica found the boat in the cellar when she was about 12!
And immediately wanted to run it on the local lake in Munich, as I was doing with my HMS Hotspur (but that's another shaggy model story!).
Sooooooo, she was cleaned up, resprayed pink (!) and white, Taycol Target field motor (no reverse) removed and replaced with a Decaperm 6V 7A with 2.75:1 gearbox. 6V 4000mAH SLA (weight half ton or so) Performance was rather sedate. Well it seemed like a good idea at the time!
RX, battery and rudder servo were shoehorned into the aft compartment, Jessica nameplates stuck on and off we went. Jessie was happy with the boat and I was happy with the Biergarten. Can't remember where 'the management' was
Jessie soon lost interest so I used the boat as a test bed for a while.
So now, 25-26 years on; prompted by Martin, I took the old lady down off the shelf (I TOLD her not climb up there!) and started inspecting the damage. Photos attached. (Yes I know 35Megs is not for boats but I didn't have nowt else then) The ancient DIN Audio socket was for charging the RX bat, double throw switch on starboard quarter. The big 'ole was for the telescopic antenna borrowed from an old radio. Needs must when ...
The funny looking 'thing' hanging out the transom is a dummy exhaust hiding the bolt holding the antenna bracket inside!
Have also started dismantling and renovating the Taycol, which I want to put back in with a reversing circuit and a 2S or maybe 4S LiPo. That was day before yesterday. Yesterday I took out the junk (siren, water pump, servos & micro switches to operate them and the running lights) and wiped the dust off - last two photos, incl. THE JUNK.
Stripped of all the junk & Decaperm she weighs 1214gm (about 2lb 11oz).
Also tested (cautiously!) the Taycol with a regulated / current limiting PSU. She rattled and protested but ran Now being dismantled, cleaned up and brush gear refurbished. Might also fit proper bearings!
Next step: clean up the old gal, check for leaks and load capacity.
I will probably use the 4S LiPo ca 310gm, the SLA was 660gm, so lots of spare capacity, or maybe I can get her nose out of the water for once
More soon Cheers from Munich
PS to Dave and Martin: NO! I don't propose to go full authentic nostalgia with a wet cell accu
RNinMunich
7 years ago
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๐ฌ Re: Better, sheโs starting to look the partโฆat least the hull is๐
1 day ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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MUCH better Cash๐
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๐ Modello RC scala 1/60, di piroscafo armato a goletta, liberamente ispirato alle cannoniere classe US
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Semplicemente bello๐๐ฎ
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AI loosing his bearings๐
Or his marbles?
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๐ For our cozy a little Humor
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Inaccurate, inappropriate and very bad taste Brian๐
Not funny at all๐ Cease and desist if you please!
Doug
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๐ฌ Re: 5. Old Stern wheel steamer
2 days ago by
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Bon voyage Michel๐
A bientot๐
Doug๐
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๐ฌ Re: Sangsetia
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Hi Res photo of sister ship PX 19.
Doug,๐
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๐ For our cozy a little Humor
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Pub sign,
'WCs THIS WAY -->'
G'night All๐ด๐ค
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๐ Email format
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'Ere ya go guvna๐
Cheers, Doug๐
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๐ Question of the Day?
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Hi Rick, good to hear from you๐How ya doing?
What prompted your odd post?
Cheers, Doug๐
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๐ Dental Water Pic ?
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๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Thanks Guys๐
One lives and learns๐
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๐ Question of the Day?
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"A trireme (/หtraษชriหm/ TRY-reem; from Latin trirฤmis 'with three banks of oars'; cf. Ancient Greek: ฯฯฮนฮฎฯฮทฯ, romanized: triแธrฤs[2], โ'three-rower')"
๐
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๐ Email format
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๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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It's not just you Dave.
Happens to me as well.
My email App tells me, accompanied by blinking the mail on/off, that it has reduced the size of the displayed mail. I agree, looks like lots of irrelevant tabs/spaces added before the text.
Irritating ๐
DougB,๐
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๐ Dental Water Pic ?
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๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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What the blue black pink and purple blazes is a 'Dental water-pic'?๐ค
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๐ฌ Re: Oh my word what have I roped myself into!!??!
4 days ago by
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Hi Cash,
Sackville started her career as a short forecastle Flower.
In 1944 she was refitted and heavily modified: new propulsion and a long forecastle.
Which is the version you are re-creating as used for 'Greyhound'.
Attached are the appropriate deck plans.
The deck plan in Ron's pic is as she was built with the short forecastle.
Z62 is the designation she was given in 1944 when she was converted to a 'loop layer' Workboat following a boiler failure, and used to lay induction loops across harbour entrances to detect submarines.
Re Camo paint
You are right, the blue you've used is much too garish.
It looks more like 'Flight deck blue'. See pic 2.
What you need is Western Approaches Blue, which is more like a pale turquoise.
See pic three.
Camo colours should 'fuzz' the image of a warship, not highlight it!
For this reason it should also be matt or most likely a satin/eggshell finish.
To avoid sunlight glinting off the ship attracting attention.
More info on authentic paints and sources, and links to zillions of Sackville photos tomorrow (later today๐) coz it's now almost 3am here! ๐ด๐ค๐ค๐ค
Ciao for now, Doug๐
PS If you ever make it to Munich I'll buy the brunch, 'Frรผhschoppen'๐๐
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/hmcs-sackville.html?sortBy=relevant |
https://www.military-modelling.com/a-47066911/lifecolor-colors-from-paint-sets-u |
https://www.military-modelling.com/a-44113719/lifecolor-paint-sets/cs34-lifecolo |
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๐ Question of the Day?
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Hi Roy.
Re "Mike! You are not English and living abroad?!!!!!"
A few of us English have also managed that feat.
Despite Brexit chaos๐
Cheerio, Tschรผss, Ciao - Arrivederci, Adieu - Au revoir, Adiรณs, Viszontlรกtรกsra, DaH jImej๐
(Last is a greeting from Lieutenant Worf๐)
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๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Tri - reme?
How's your Latin?๐
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๐ฌ Re: Question of the day.
5 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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'Sailin on to glory, away in the golden dory'๐
(Sorry about the 1&1 ad๐ It don't last long)
๐
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=The+Moon-Man+Newfie#fpstate=i |
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๐ Question of the Day?
5 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Like I said ...
"Read the question and the answers carefully" Gents & Gals๐
Oh! I see you all are๐
๐
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๐ Cotre Pilote du Havre Jolie Brise ร l'รฉchelle 1/12รจme
6 days ago by
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For the rest of us ... ๐ Hope it's about right! Doug๐
"Hello Alessandro,
First of all, I want to thank you for your compliments, it always makes me happy.
As for the sails, they are made of a fabric made of 60% polyester and 40% cotton. Thus, if they take on water, they dry faster and leave fewer marks on the fabric
For the record, I had never done sewing in my life, it was a great experience."
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๐ Question of the Day?
6 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Hi Boatshed,
Tip: Read the question and the answers carefully, two or more times until the penny drops.
Such as: which word or words appear both in the question AND ONE of the answers๐ก
This often precludes an intimate knowledge of the core subject matter๐
Today was pretty obvious by elimination anyway.
Happy guessing, cheers, Doug๐
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๐ฌ Re: Sangsetia
6 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Hi Barumite,
Sorry, I don't have the book.
But there still seems to be a lot of them around.
See links below for sources of new and second hand copies.
Cheers, Doug๐
https://bookscouter.com/book/9780870211836-combat-fleets-of-the-world-1976-1977- |
https://www.google.com/search?q=Combat+fleets+of+the+world.+1976-1977&client=fir |
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๐ Question of the Day?
7 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Easy peasy today (ketches having been discussed at length several months ago๐)
Only 22 days to go now๐๐ค
๐
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๐ American Scout C-2 Freighter
8 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Hi Commodore TD,
Actually I've been to Newfoundland several times.
Contract negotiations with Park Air Engineering at St Johns airport.
Tried all 3 varieties of Screech. Very nice, but doesn't it actually come from Jamaica?
Very difficult to find here in Germanyโน๏ธ
There's a similar dark rum here, Pott 40 or 50 proof made in Austria, which is fine for making my Cuba libres.
But my favourite is Bacardi Gold (Carta Oro).๐
Also; Commodore, I shall overlook your impertinence this time you young whipper snapper.
On the grounds that you were probably incapacitated due to having been 'screeched in'.
"Indeed I is, me ol' cock! And long may yer big jib draw!"๐
Hope the cod was fresh๐๐
BTW "Her prop tip may have actually broken water if she were light loaded."
You're right. On visits to S Korea (Daewoo shipyard) I've often seen super tankers in ballast with nearly half the screw out of the water.
Down the hatch gents, FLEET๐
PS Pott with pineapple is good too JP๐
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๐ Bring a Boat
8 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Tell me about it Jumpโน๏ธ
I'm also in dire need of new eyeballs๐ค
Ciao, Doug๐
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๐ American Scout C-2 Freighter
8 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Hi JP,
Re " I am still a bit high."
Harrumph Mr Vice Admiral๐ Once too often to the Cap'n Morgan well?
We'll turn a blind eye this time๐
and put it down to promotion celebrations!
BTW; ship looks good. Congrats๐
Cheers, FLEET๐
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๐ trawler Boulogne Etaples 1/10รจme
8 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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I've run out of suitable adjectives๐ค ... sauf peut-รชtre magnifique๐
I think I'm going to have to give up model ship/boat building and take up 10 pin bowling again!
(Used to be a German national league player and Vice Champion Munich. Beaten by one strike๐ )
Au revoir et bon nuit, Doug๐
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๐ Bring a Boat
9 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Oops!
I believe you have your Threads 'in a twist' Jump๐ค
Too quick on the draw with the Post click.
Or your Mouse needs a SATNAV update๐
Cheers, Doug๐
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๐ trawler Toirette
9 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
And the Spirit of Alexandre moved upon the face of the waters.
And Alexandre said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And we saw the light, and it was good.๐
๐
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๐ Question of the Day?
9 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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What sounds and looks French ๐ค...
and what doesn't??๐
A and C were clear, and I was pretty sure that D was either Dutch or Danish.
A bientot mes Amis,Doug๐
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๐ trawler Toirette
9 days ago by
๐ฉ๐ช RNinMunich (

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Sheer genius๐ฎ๐๐๐
๐
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