Doug,

You are a bloomin' genius!
That has got the creatives working for when I start adding Scnellboot 'bits and bobs'. Thanks so much (a dear friend of mine has seen the article and offered to machine the components (one or two working hands are so much better on a lathe or mill!)).

Cheers

Andy

Hi Bill,

Congrats, it will be spectacular!
As a bit of an addon to Martin555 comment, he's right. From shore side of our boating lake, no-one could see the movement -until!

I hid a bright white flashable LED in the shell catcher 'fake' canvas of the 4 pounder with a simple power supply (via main arduino nano), and also used a 'record yourself' card digital chip to record HMS Duncan (type 45) firing her MK8. Then I placed a OO gauge bass speaker in the anchor chest with some tiny holes drilled through the fore deck (sealing the speaker to underside of the deck kept her watertight) and fed the chip output through a simple home made DIY guitar amp to boost the signal. I had to mess around a bit with a 4 contact copper strip under the 4 pounder base to give a 4 position contact point to energise the light and sound.

Result? When the gun trained to a group on the pond side, it 'fired' with a flash and bang sound! - caused a fair bit of merriment on Newquay boating lake! They certainly saw it from right across the lake (especially at dusk) and the ducks weren't that happy with the bang to start with.

Hi Bill,

If teaching my Grannie... etc, please forgive.

For the front gun rotation on my HMCS Regina, I used a spare channel on my Flysky (one of the rotary pots) to enable servo controlled left and right and by a paperclip cam, as it turned I had elevation and depression of same.

For the Nav lights, I found 2mm LED's a perfect fit if drilled from rear of Nav housing before gluing to bridge and then fine wires through the bridge to a lighting board.
I also had functioning searchlights, by using thin, but stiff copper wire (from old transformer, 'cos it was already enamel insulated) and ground the head off of each white LED (to make them flat but in scale), then put thin heatshrink around the wires to act as pillars so that they stood on the bridge and looked very much like searchlights on stalk mounts.
The only other electrical extras I fitted were a dimmed down LED in wheelhouse and ('cos I'd drilled out the hatches) - flickering LED's in the engine room, together with a timed on and off controlled by a 555 chip - simple and cheap.
Finally, by using plastic tube as conrod, I fitted a motor to underside of bridge that turned the Radar horn, controlled down by a miniature fixed pot to give about 10 revolutions per minute.

If these ideas old hat, then sorry for that. If not might give some easy solutions to help achieve what you want.

Cheers Andy

Just had email, paint has shipped on 24 courier.

Hopefully, make a good start very soon then.

Oh, just an aside - and I know I'm crazy, but - - -

The dimensions of the torpedoes set me thinking (all about bang etc). Turns out a 7.62mm blank shell (£8.00 for 50) would nicely take the place of the torpedo warhead area and with a metal 'firing pin and brace' made up in the main torpedo body, it might just give a great bang and flash, above all its totally legal. I'm going to model the torpedoes before installation in case the blank is too powerful, leading to unintended destruction!

Andy

Hi Nerys,

Totally agree with your points.

What gets me is people are so lax when they use them - just wave it at a terminal, don't check if the terminal has actually been asked to debit a larger amount than needed and then go about their day!

Security, contactless cards and common sense do not go together it seems!

Glad I'm old school and in relation to our money, trust no one and nothing!

Andy

Doug - You are a star!

Many thanks, indeed in this kit the hand rail would stop lower depressions (or greater depression for the crew mates!). Will remake it in copper wire, there's nothing really wrong with the kit version, but Amy's learning soldering up hand rails so it's great practice.

As to the paints, I am indebted. As you say, the DKM Hellgrau seems ideal so will be ordering the Lifecolor Kreigsmarine Set 1 in the morning and at £17.99 it seems a steal.

Many thanks

Andy

Hi All,

As I said this will be out of order of instructions in places, I have to make things fit and wire a loom around the hull as I go.

No.1 - Took Part 7G (page11) and trial fitted in Forward Deck (Part 5C) - great fit, terrible ejector marks inside on 'wooden' floor. Oh well, the coffee stirrers will be used for a new floor!

No.2 - Took a standard, cheap, 9G servo (as low as £11.00 for 20 online!), mocked it to base of part 7G and tried in the hull - Loads of room underneath assembly. Removed mock up and measured diameter of hole in driven gear of servo - it's 1.7mm (arrowed). Measured stub on shaft of part 70E (page54) - it varies between 1.8 to 2.0mm (arrowed and it ain't round!!), which means with a bit of thinning of the base that would fit over the floor of the Gun 'tub' and a tiny piece of silver wire drilled and threaded between the stub of 70E and a drop of epoxy in the servo hole, we'll be good to go.

Couple of questions if anyone can help please?

In larger ships, you couldn't rotate a for'ard gun to fire backwards at the forecastle (now there is a surprise!). On the S38, I can't work out if the weapon could rotate 360 degrees or was a 180 to 180 sweep. Depending on thoughts I can leave the servo as fixed limits and sweep via an Arduino Nano, or remove the stop in the top gear, centre the wiper pickup and make it constant rotation - Rotary switch A on my TX will adjust rotation so that seaman isn't doing a camel spin!
Any thoughts?

Secondly, The only pictures I have are black and white - like me very old!, the kit calls up 'white' as the gun frames colour. Well I can weather them white or use a different colour altogether if any member knows better than me (and that can't be hard!)

Cheers Andy

Hi Doug,

Whoa there!

I contacted the secretary of the Porstmouth Model Boat club and asked the same question i.e. Black Powder. They answered politely and promptly that unless you have a home office licence for Black Powder (you may have one), then it is liable to get an arrest carried out under the laws regarding explosives i.e. Terrorism offences!

That put me off rather a lot, I don't think Her Majesty's Home Office will consider a one armed, electric motorised guy would be a safe candidate for an explosives licence!

So we'll see how the thunder flashes work in reality (might give a reasonable effect?).

All the best Andy

Hi Doug,

Much appreciated - 385's sound like a much better idea. I like the idea of sitting her on Newquay lake and watching the wake go by and an extreme scale rate of knots!

Cheers Andy

Hi Bill,

Yes, I do remember and I also remember the envy I felt at your incredible work! (Is that envy or just awe of a great builder?)

Any photos would be very gratefully received, I've looked on line and the details for the S38 seem limited to wartime images (obvious really!), but nothing like the great 'Flower class' book I bought that had all the dimensions and details I could have wished for.

Take care Andy

After carefully checking the 56 page instruction book, I am going to put the two crewmen on a clear platform (simulating their positions better) to rotate with the rear gun mount.

The Radio antenna will make a slow 90 - 90 degree sweep as if searching for triangulation of radio transmissions.

I might be way over the top and launch the depth charges tied to monofilament( cos I don't want to lose them!) and tie any launching to a safety cut-out on the props to prevent fouling until they are retrieved.

There also seems to be enough room to servo the main searchlight for a sweep across the sea search.

Maybe the engine room hatches need to be openable.

Let's get building!

Hi All,

I.C. Crips here!
This will be a fairly long build for me, but I'm looking forward to this immensely.

This isn't a new release, it's been around for a while. the inclusion of some nicely done Photo Etch parts will help somewhat - although I like making my own metal parts. Italeri have produced this kit in 1/35 scale and its a monster! Checking the very well packaged parts, there is little or no flash to be found and plenty of size to make many improvements in detail to a fine kit.

The total cost so far, including the 5607 kit from the Netherlands is around £200. I have the RC tx and rx, many LEDS, electrical components and a ton of paints (italeri to other makes has been done where possible).
I'll need to buy 10 cheap simple servos at about £17.00 and 4 good quality servos at about £50.00. My ESC will need upgrading (about £40.00), will still use NiMh or lead acid - I like old, simple to recharge via plug in port hidden is deck locker. No worries about Lipo fires etc. I'm still a 'brushed' man and I reckon on 3 * MFA 380's might be ok. Motors, shafts, mounts etc and general electrics I reckon will add another £40 - £60. We'll see how close I am!

Painting is nearly all by airbrush - I can only use a tiny hand style brush for crew faces etc, in my mouth and it takes a lot of concentration to hold it and paint!

From the Photos you'll see the Bow, midships and stern sections. I've temporarily assembled them to check for any serious warping, or joining problems. Happy to report, apart from some sprue ends on the areas along the top of the hulls, there are no issues with fit.

The only 'serious' omission from Italeri is I have no 2.3*4.5 screws that will fit into keel to join the halves together. Main screws for hull top - all present and correct. Only other screws found are 6 * 2.3*6.5 and no spares either! Luckily, like most of us, it's not a problem to raid the hoarded supplies and find some. Shame really Italeri must ensure QC is carried out on all the kit parts.

Taking things as I will have to do them, some of you might spot the motor placed inside a torpedo half. This motor, from a £2.99 eyebrow trimmer, is perfect for what I plan for the torpedoes. Each weapon will be launchable via a spring system. Door opens, motor spun up and spring released. Each torpedo will have monofilament to keep it tethered to ship. After some great advice from the Portsmouth Model Ship guys, I'm not allowed to use explosives to simulate the torpedo hitting a target. But, after a long search of rules applying, I can use the 'throwing bangs' from the likes of Amazon - I've bought 500 for £3.75. These will be in the warhead section and by modifying the torpedo body will be replaceable within a waterproof warhead section.

I'm hoping to use the nimble fingers of my daughter, Amy, to solder the motor wires, include a 1.5v AAA rechargeable and, as my brain is still working on a couple of cylinders, I'm going to try to use a tiny PCB and have some form of steering and motor cut out. Hell and that's just the torpedo.

The first build part will be the Forward Bofors weapon. I'm going to adapt the crewman from the 5607 kit and cross drill a pin through his shoulders to give simulated arm movements, via a servo that will also raise and depress the weapon. Another servo will be used for slewing control.

Obviously I'm going for RC conversion. Not sure about the Lurssen effect rudders yet (might be easier for me to have outer two rudders moving conventionally - we'll see how much hand control deteriorates during the build), but will move as many features as possible, give her correct lights (I fancy a high power LED for the searchlight). I'll use Arduino and Nanos' to control the lighting, anchor windlass, searchlight rotation, Bofors sweeping etc. That way I can assign a lot of the 6ch RC I've got to operating sound effects, rudder, Throttle - leaving very little for these crippy hands to try and do.

Amy will help as much as she can with the very small fiddly bits, masking up for paint etc. I've had to be realistic with what is still possible for me to do, but I reckon I can do 70 - 75% still under my own steam.

Hope you like the build as it progresses.

Andy

Hi All,

First tentative Build Blog going up to site - hope you find it enjoyable, after the first bit of boring 'here's the bits in the box!'

Andy

Hi Gary,

Apparently it's 39.37" long, or in my language "B*&&$% Heck!".

Also eventually going to need to redo the launch lift I made for the Flower Class (but not for a year or so).

I'm also going to use same daughter (she's a star, well the whole family is to be truthful), 'cos she's got a posh Iphone that apparently can 3D scan the crew figures and I'm going to try and add to crew members by 3D printing them - well that's a plan I hope isn't going to fall foul of any copyright laws - it's not for sale or gain, so I'm hoping that's going to be allowed. More importantly, I hope I can actually do it!

Andy

Hi All,

The chief crip is back!

Seriously, my youngest daughter bought me the attached S38 (1/35th) as a birthday present (and I thought everybody hated me!) Trouble was wherever I looked there were no Italeri 5607 Crew kits available anywhere. Even my favourite store - Cornwall Model Boats, where she bought the ship, is OOS and like everywhere it seems to be a case of 'we'll let you know when it's available again'. Found one in --- Holland! It's from Most-Models.Com and including shipping was under £30.00, so big thumbs up for them.
Look, as some will know, I'm a bit limited in my dexterity (I love understatements) so I wondered if you wanted yet another Schnellboot build detailed in a log?
It won't be a fast build and I will be detailing the heck out of it and RC converting it. Crew will be first, cos I want to articulate the front gunner to match the servo control elevation and rotation of the Gun.
Let me know, I'll post a build log if you won't be bored or fed up waiting for the next installment.

As an aside - this thing is HUGE!!!

Andy

Hi Peter,

Echo the points about annealing (especially like the vertical bit - I'm looking forward to using that). For the bending jigs, I've used square section Balsa - Yep it does work! You can use tacks or the like to mark out your bending sections at very low cost, it's forgiving enough to move the pin/tack if you've made a bog up in the layout, but sturdy enough to make a low cost three dimensional bending jig. I should add that you can amend the material depending on the wire gauge - you might need to use 25mm Sq. planed wood from the warehouse sheds, but the principle holds - 3d at low cost.

Hope it helps

Andy

Hi Tim,

Give Silkaflex EBT+ a go - it's like a silicon, but totally waterproof, great grab adhesive (just use tiny amounts) and can be painted by anything. Comes in standard silicon gun size tube and we've had it outside on a heat and cold trap (i.e. expansion and contraction) for holding wood lathes onto concrete blocks and it ain't moved, shrunk, flaked or anything in two years.

Hope it helps

Andy

Brian,

My better half replaced my old 'cheapy' with a set from Amazon and these are the current prices -

GANZTON Airbrush Set Double Action Trigger Paint Spray Gun Kit Professional Sprayer Air Paint Control Gun with 0.2mm/0.3mm/0.5mm 9cc CUP for Makeup,Tattoos,Cake Decorating,Crafts @£29.99 +

ABEST High Quality Dual Action Airbrush Compressor Complete kit Paint Tool for Art-and-Craft Projects Tattoo Hobby Model Craft Spraying AC06K30W @ £34.99

The second airbrush is crud - BUT, the compressor is good enough for anything from very fine lines at low pressure to whole hulls - it's worth binning the cheap ABEST airbrush to get that alone, or just use it for general priming coats.

The Ganzton airbrush is amazing for the price.
I did polish the needle first, but it's as good as a 'posh' one a mate lent me to try out. Not the cheapest way of doing it, but after a year and a half, it's still going great guns and I ain't changing it for the foreseeable future.

By the way I'm no Amazon fan, but wifey likes 'em so for once they did a good job.

Cheers Andy

AT LAST!

Hi All,
Sorry for background, but you needed to see the holes in the brass sheet.

So, after about an hour in the room temp Ferric Chloride we have the basis of:
Rigging for sail nets, cargo net for warship sides, grating for ship deck - anything.

If you can scale it onto brass (or copper), you can DIY etch it!

The whole point of this simple series is to show that anyone (and believe me, with my restrictions I mean ANYONE), can take an idea, print it, put it onto brass, etch it and end up with a perfect personalised item for pennies.

After the initial setup costs we reckon this one cost about 35p, for an 80mm * 52mm item!
Surely less than commercial sources where you only need a few, or there are no comparable 'shop bought' items available.

Hope it helps someone else in the group.
By the way, the kitchen and my marriage are still intact - NEVER do this in your kitchen sink!

Next I'm going to try DIY Electroforming and see if I can make a gun barrel!

Andy

Develop or bust!

Hi All,

Now we're onto the developing part. Remove the remaining clear acetate sheet from the 'uv'd' board, it should just peel away by hand.

Place the whole board in the solution (remember, about a scoop to 100 ml of water) and wait for a couple of minutes (may need more, hardly ever less). GENTLY, rub the brass sheet with either an old toothbrush, or a soft modelling paint brush. Either way, you just want to rub the surface NOT SCRUB. The undeveloped film will be removed - leaving behind shiny brass to be etched away and film where we want to keep the brass intact.

Then dry the board and place under your UV lamp source again - this time for double the original exposure time. This will harden the resist and let you see any areas that you didn't clean properly with the toothbrush as 'discoloured' areas in the brass that should be etched away. If it's important, then use a scalpel, file etc. to remove the last of the film from those areas.

Next we're going to use a black sharpie to colour the edges of the brass sheet and any areas that either didn't have film on them or where a small part of the film is missing.

Good to go?

Now we're going to etch!

Andy

Hi All,

So onwards!

Picture shows super clean brass sheet, just basking in some washing up liquid water - to keep it wet.
Then, in line with the 'How to' we applied some photo sensitive sheet, then laminated it.

The other picture is showing the brass sheet after placing it into the plastic pocket (a la 'how to')
and exposing it for 65 seconds. If you zoom in you can even make out the fine grid lines from the mask.!

Next we'll go on to developing - get your washing oxy powder ready!

Hi Ed,

Many, many thanks for the thread link. Couldn't make it automatic, so very grateful for your assistance. Will contact stephen (Fireboat) to explain goof and ask him to remove it.
Again cheers
Andy👍

While I'm trying to link to the 'how to' section, here is next step.

So you've cleaned the brass, it's all shiny and ready to go - WRONG!
See how the water has beaded up?
You must degrease, wash, clean or whatever so that water forms a continuous sheet, without beads when you run water over the sheet.

Andy

Hi Martin,

Tried at first and screwed up the original 'How to' - lost all links to PDF files and couldn't put them back!

So created new 'How To' and although there is a button for files and photos, there is nothing to add a link (that I can see).
I copied the model-boats.com/forum/77241 ready to paste it, but I'm blowed if I can work out how to paste it in and now there is a 'how to' with nothing in it apart from text that doesn't link to the pdf and one that does - trust me to screw up the Model Boats website.
If someone can guide me how to get the link in, get rid of the now useless 'How-to' and show me where the link post place is I'll be over the moon!
Many thanks

Andy

This is a PDF of how we do my photo etching in a very simplistic and basic way. With help (cos of my crip status!), We photoetch small parts and larger ones, depending on what's needed. We even help out friends (see bit in PDF where we made aircraft ribs).
Hope its helpful and sets more on the same course.
Andy

forum/77241

Hi Martin,

Only problem is, I don't know how to do that!
Any tips greatly appreciated.

Andy

Here we are again!

First we cut the clear OHP into two pieces and overlay them exactly.

Then, next picture we taped three edges and placed a clamp into it to show the pocket shape.

Next we cut some 3mm brass sheet (see it will etch pretty thick stuff), notice the bent shape from cutting.

Then we flattened the sheet and inside the pocket you can see how filthy the brass is.

Now time for cleaning, we've done half in the pocket so you can see the difference.

Time for major cleaning on both sides.

OK here we go! Time for some netting / mesh.

It was thought some photo's would help explain the process, so here goes with the first in a group of them. If it's in the wrong place, or doesn't help please let me know how to correct things.

First photo to explain the text in the 'how to section'.

It looks like a pair of wired windows. In fact each is a black bordered set of squares. Each square is 2mm and all I did, in MS Publisher, was draw one square and then set it's dimensions to 2mm * 2mm, with a line border of 0.25 point, no fill. Then I copied it 6 times and aligned each square vertically with the first one and horizontally so that each line was an overlay of the one next higher. Then I grouped that block and repeated, growing the blocks in the group until it reached a reasonable size. Then I draw a solid black rectangle - sent it to the back and aligned it around the square mesh. That too was grouped to the 'mesh'. Then I copied the whole thing and pasted another one nearby.

Printed them onto Transparent film in photo quality. The image you see is them after coming out of the printer but before prepping for the etching pocket - that comes next!
Andy

Martin,
Thank you for your support - never know if these things are useful or not. We're already starting on the netting. Will post photos as we go.
Andy