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    Model Boats Website
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    Registered
    9th Aug 2020
    Last Online
    30th Sep 2023
    ToraDog
    Member Stats
    Stats
    Member No.#5952
    Registered📅9th Aug 2020
    Last Online📅30th Sep 2023
    City📍Union
    Country🇺🇸United States
    Gender♂️Male
    Age👶Not Provided
    Posts💬619
    Followers📣4
    Likes Received👍1357
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    🇬🇧 Norway ( Petty Officer 1st Class)
    🇩🇪 RNinMunich ( Fleet Admiral)
    🇨🇭 Mike Stoney ( Sub-Lieutenant)
    🇨🇦 Ronald ( Vice Admiral)
    4 Followers
    Recent Activity
    Liked Four Merlin Engines 13 days ago
    Liked Four Merlin Engines 13 days ago
    Liked WEED PROBLEMS !!!!!! 13 days ago
    Commander
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    Lieutenant 1,600
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    Chief Petty Officer 1st Class 450
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    261 Points Away From Captain!
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    👍 Likes (rcv'd)11,357
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    ✍️ Comments2278
    ✏️ Blog4200
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    Members Harbour
    USS Fletcer, 1942
    1/48 scale destroyer, lead ship in a class of 175 built.
    ToraDog
    11 months ago
    12 Attributes
    4 Comments
    USS Eastwind 1/48th scale
    USS Eastwind, a US Coast Guard operated icebreaker, circa 1944. !/48th scale plank on frame with F/G covering. Lots of lights, three motors, 1 bow, 2 stern.
    ToraDog
    3 years ago
    0 Attributes
    11 Comments
    V4-MA-1 Tug
    My V4-MA-1 US maritime Commission tugboat. 45+ built in WW2. Based upon the the Dutch(at the time the HMS) Zwarte Zee. Plank on frame construction cover in F/G. Lights, sounds and fire monitors.
    ToraDog
    3 years ago
    0 Attributes
    6 Comments
    USS Jimmy Carter
    USS Jimmy Carter, based upon a 1/48th scale F/G Seawolf hull. Lengthened and modified. High pressure( Scuba tank) air ballast system.
    ToraDog
    3 years ago
    0 Attributes
    8 Comments
    USS Diver
    A WW@ US Navy salvage/rescue ship. Built from a F/G hull and scratch, except for fittings, from there on. Working fire monitor, lights, radar, and anchor.
    ToraDog
    3 years ago
    0 Attributes
    1 Comment
    USS Halford
    My 1/48th Fletcher class destroyer. One of three converted to carry a catapult mount amphibian. Controllable gun director, guns, torpedo mount, catapult and airplane motor start up, sound system and smoke system. Her camouflage scheme is not accurate, but it was a learning experience to try to do.
    ToraDog
    3 years ago
    0 Attributes
    3 Comments
    Members Blogs
    22 Posts
    17 Followers
    152 Likes
    A new build
    I will, most likely, have to rename this Blog, at some point. In the mean time...please do not expect much for a while as she is in her very early stages. First a disclosure: This hull was built for me by another gentleman. It was delivered in a not quite completed state. Therefore I have spent the last two month working on it to get to it's present state. So.. what is it? She is one of four ships in a class that was later enlarged to around eight maybe ten members of the class. Her main armament was eight 5"/38 caliber twin turrets. She and her class namesake sister were both lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. This ship is most noted due to the loss of an entire generation of one family, five brothers. This should be enough for identification. She is being built in my preferred scale, 1/48th or 1/4"=1'. This ship was used for numerous camouflage scheme experiments and, sadly, there is little definitive documentation to pinpoint her second to last and last schemes carried. That said, my plan, subject to change without notice or reason, is to present her as she appeared following her New York Navy Yard overhaul, or perhaps as she may have appeared after repainting in Placentia Bay NewFoundland, 1942. She measures out to 11' 3" and her power plant is to be two 24 volt Buehler motors. Pictures of her and the build to follow. Wish me luck please, she will not fit in my van....
    ToraDog
    1 month ago
    12 Posts
    11 Followers
    69 Likes
    USS Fletcher DD-445
    Well, while I have been laying low since finishing the USCGC Eastwind, I have not been idle. I actually started this build about a year and a half ago. Like the Eastwind and the majority of my fleet, she is in 1/48th scale so she is a little over seven feet. Quite a few years back I bought a second hand 1/48th Fletcher hull which I built into the USS Halford, DD-480, one of three Fletchers which mounted catapults and OS2U Kingfisher float planes. She came out pretty well. Later I was offered 3 1/48 USN destroyer hulls, another Fletcher, a Sumner, and a Gearing. I gave the Sumner and the Gearing to friends and kept the Fletcher. I had decided that I wanted to try to build the name ship of the class, as she was commissioned. I need to point out that, as commissioned, lasted only until she had completed her shakedown trials, after which she entered the New York Navy Yard and her appearance began to change. As such, she is modeled to represent a period of about a month of her life, which ran from 1942 to 1972 when she was sold and broken up for scrap. I will not go into her history, except to say that she was in the thick of the Southwest Pacific campaign from Guadalcanal right thru to Vietnam. She was the first of 175 ships in her class. The fastest recorded build of one of her class was 90 days, from keel laying to commissioning, built by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine. Her functions, to date, are independent motors, rudder, smoke from both stacks, independent search lights, independent control of turrets and gun director with the ability to mix as needed, torpedo tubes, and some sound systems as well as radar and sonar. To date she has passed her trials and is awaiting the placement of stanchions and wire ropes, which I hope to finish this year. Her radio system uses telemetry so I can read her running voltage and amperage. I know her lat/long( like I need that!), and her speed in knots. She does not quite make the true 39+ knots that she did on trials, rather about 36, which is quite fast in her scale as it is. When I compared trial photos of the original to my model, they had almost the exact same bow waves and wake patterns. I was happy. Here is the Fletcher on trials. This is the image that I am aiming to achieve. I will start the build blog in a day or so. Enjoy and I will entertain all queries.
    ToraDog
    2 years ago
    16 Posts
    8 Followers
    86 Likes
    USS Eastwind 1/48th scale icebreaker
    This may ramble a bit as I am not that straight forward. I have always loved icebreakers and thought that they were a very under represented class of vessels in the modeling world. I remember building a plastic kit when I was around 15. It may have been a "Wind" or the Glacier. Either way, at around 14" it was way too small. Around 5 years ago, I stumbled upon an advertisement for a 1/48th laser cut keel and rib set for a Wind class icebreaker. It was a one off the gent was not going to produce it again. I grabbed it up. The "kit" consisted of the keel and a full set of ribs cut from a decent grade of aircraft plywood around 1/4" thick. The first thing I did was start my research. Which ship, what configurization, date, paint pattern, weapons, ect. There were seven ships built for the US Navy and Coast Guard combined, and one built for the Canadian Coast Guard. There were many variations, but two ships stood out. The USS Southwind and her sister the Eastwind. I chose the latter. Furthermore I chose to build her pretty much as built and commissioned. This led to her carrying an impressive weapons suite and an aircraft, which just happened to be available in a 1/48th kit form. There were many challenges to build this model, not the least of which was to get accurate plans and photographs. The US Coast Guard Museum in Seattle, Washington was an immense help in that regard. Next was that research indicated that all equipment on Polar rated ships had to be of larger, stronger sizes than standard CG or Naval standards called for. Ie, lot's of masters and castings to be made in the future. Lastly was the weapons suite, which calle dfor large and unique fittings. Shapeways came to the rescue there. More of all of this as I go along. These first pictures are of the kit set up, just to get a feel for it, on a build board. Followed by some planks pictures. The shaft logs are unique. They taper for there entire length and the shaft runs through them, but NOT centered. The shaft centered on the outboard end, but off center on the inboard end. I had a local shop turn these for me. WAY above my pay grade.
    ToraDog
    3 years ago
    Recent Posts
    📝 Question of the Day?
    8 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 63 Views · 0 Likes
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    I used mine when I ran out of Rum, but no one would answer me....😴

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    📝 WEED PROBLEMS !!!!!!
    13 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 24 Views · 0 Likes
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    Ditto!

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    📝 WEED PROBLEMS !!!!!!
    19 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 41 Views · 5 Likes
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    True enough Lew, but our boats( and operators) don't get eaten by alligators, bit by poisonous snakes, AND... we have ice boating!😁

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    📝 WEED PROBLEMS !!!!!!
    19 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 39 Views · 1 Like
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    Ha ha Lew,
    I see an awful lot of Florida license plates in Maine during the summer....😂

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    📝 HMS Amethyst
    22 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 14 Views · 0 Likes
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    GdayNorm,
    PM sent.

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    📝 HMS Amethyst
    23 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 23 Views · 2 Likes
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    GdayNorm,
    Looking at the plans for Amethyst, as fitted 1950, shows large box-like structure, immediately aft of the funnel. It is labeled gun crew shelter. The plans show it on port and starboard. It is rather confusing. This area was modified in 1950. I can scan the plans and send them to you.

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    📝 Question of the Day?
    28 days ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 63 Views · 3 Likes
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    Loved that story. Perhaps more so because "A Modest Proposal" was packaged in with it.😊

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    📝 Need help with Aeronaut search light
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 20 Views · 1 Like
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    Hi Westwind,
    What a beauty!
    The outer shaft rotates the light. I would glue a gear wheel, toothed or belt driven, to it. Put it's mate on a servo, something like a GoBilda 320 degree rotation servo. Then you need to raise and lower the inner shaft to elevate the light. Turn a servo on it's side. You could use a spring return system and a cam, a direct linkage, there are so many ways to do it and everyone has their way.
    BTY, what scale is that light? Thanks
    Jonathan

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    📝 A blast from the past
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 61 Views · 5 Likes
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    I do believe that you have dated yourself.😁
    I recognize it, guess that says the same about me.😂

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    📝 Fly sky FS T4b
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 56 Views · 2 Likes
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    As RogerA1 said... on most 2.4 ghz systems, the transmitter can over power the receiver if set too close. Move your transmitter at least six feet away from your receiver and try to bind.

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    📝 Using 2 Mtronik ESCs
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 66 Views · 3 Likes
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    What Doug said... except I tape off the red wires. One never knows what the future might bring....😊

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    📝 Using 2 Mtronik ESCs
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 66 Views · 4 Likes
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    PS: It is not important if the ESC's use separate batteries. What matters is that they are electronically controlled by the same receiver, which can tolerate only one BEC connected to it.

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    📝 Using 2 Mtronik ESCs
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 63 Views · 4 Likes
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    Whenever running more than one ESC THAT IS EQUIPPED WITH BEC's, the red lead in the servo lead from the ESC should be removed. This ensures that only one BEC feeds the required current to the receiver.
    My current build uses five ESC's, all equipped with BEC's, but because of the current requirements for the # of servos each receiver drives, I am using stand alone BEC's. Therefore the red lead on all of the ESC servo leads is removed. Hope that is not too confusing.😀

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    📝 Miami Crash Boat
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 45 Views · 0 Likes
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    Ed,
    Have you seen this site?


    https://uscrashboats.org/
    ▲
    📝 USS Juneau
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 35 Views · 7 Likes · 1 Comment
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    I have been playing with the superstructure decks. They were printed without any shear or camber, so I am working on fitting them to the main deck. It seems to get tricky because while. the main deck has shear and camber, the 01 deck has no shear and a different camber, while all higher decks lack both. Lots of measuring, sanding, and a few un-social words thrown in for measure, good or otherwise.
    Meanwhile, I am dreaming and beginning to ponder servo installations while considering top weight. The prototypes were tender and I am beginning to suspect that this build may work out that way as well.
    Pictures show why and where my dreams are going.

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    💬 Re: Main deck
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 69 Views · 1 Like
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    Expensive, but high quality.



    https://www.shapeways.com/shops/panzer-vs-tanks-2?section=1%2F96-1%2F100+Scale+F
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    📝 USS BARB.
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 58 Views · 2 Likes
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    Excellent!😀
    "A non diving model surface skimmer only unless it all goes wrong.☹️☹️"
    "How deep will it go?"...all the way to the bottom, as the saying goes....😁

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    💬 Re: Main deck
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 69 Views · 1 Like
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    Probably just a typo, but Lee's hulls are almost all 1/96 scale, except for his 1/4" hulls and a very few 1/100's. I believe the plan he supplies is scaled to match the hull he supplies.

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    💬 Re: USS juneau
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 44 Views · 1 Like
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    There is some existing documentation that Juneau wore a Pink paint color, most likely only on her superstructure, that was applied over her MS 12 Mod scheme that she wore leaving the NY Navy Yard. Unfortunately, the documents are not definitive enough for me to paint her so. And no, it was not Mountbatten Pink, but rather a very much lighter shade, almost Barbie Pink.

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    💬 Re: And relax?
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 91 Views · 2 Likes
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    That looks so nice.
    It is weird, to me, to see quad 40mm Bofors mounts on Allied ships, but then Richelieu mounted a slew of them as well after her overhaul.

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    📝 USS juneau
    1 month ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 49 Views · 12 Likes · 2 Comments
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    My wife's car is getting old. She hinted that it was time to pony up and maybe buy her a new one. I put on my most soulful face and told her that now was not the time.
    I did not tell her why.
    My superstructure arrived, and then some...🤣🤣🤣
    I did have a moment, just a tiny one, of trepidation about using all this 3D, but then, I adjusted to it.😊😊

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    📝 ESC and Rx Burning out, advice please.
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 64 Views · 5 Likes
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    I agree with Dave. I might add checking voltages of your battery relative to the BEC that you are using.
    BTY, you are not the first, if you did, to mix up battery polarities. Not something you do twice.☹️

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    💬 Re: USS Juneau
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 58 Views · 3 Likes
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    The smoke units are Harbor Models, large units.

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    💬 Re: USS Juneau
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 58 Views · 5 Likes
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    Commodore H,
    Yes, Yes. The WHOLE superstructure is 3D printed. I received the first shipment today and expect the second tomorrow. While I did commission it, it is now commercially available.
    I do not have a photo of myself, butt I AM a happy caper. Photos of the superstructure to follow when all the pieces arrive.😊

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    💬 Re: Eeehhh…I like this better😁
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 93 Views · 1 Like
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    Spam and Pepperjack sliders...Monty would be proud of you Crash!😊

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    📝 HMS Endurance
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 29 Views · 2 Likes
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    "even a small bathroom." That is a nice additoin for a luxury ship...😀

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    📝 Question of the Day?
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 54 Views · 5 Likes
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    But I learned that the Farne Islands are off Northumberland......now if I can figure out where Northumberland is...oh, Google.😁

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    📝 Question of the Day?
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 59 Views · 3 Likes
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    OK, I broke down and answered it, BUT, it was only to enable me to read your comments.🤣
    I could tell stories, but I've not enough Screech to carry me through.😁

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    📝 Question of the Day?
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 50 Views · 4 Likes
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    I am not going to even try to answer this one...they ALL apply on this side of the pond.😂

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    💬 Re: HMS Verulam R28 Refit Part 6 Mast,Anchors &Trim Test.
    2 months ago by 🇺🇸 ToraDog ( Commander)
    ✧ 27 Views · 1 Like
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    Really well done Bill. Computer radios are the cat' meow for us boaters, well actually everyone.
    You mentioned that you are using 360 degree servos for your turret rotation. Does your radio allow you to adjust the rotation limits?

    ▲


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