Hi, guys. Is there room for another in the Model Boats seamen’s mess? I am a retired 63 year-old returning to modelling after some 45 years away piloting a desk and pushing a pen in the meantime (in addition to the usual domestic offices). My, how things have changed!

As a laddie, my main interests lay with aircraft and AFVs although I built a good number of the models in the Airfix catalogue through the 1960s in all categories. I later moved into modifying kits and some elementary scratch-building.

My second childhood has found me developing an interest in boats, and in particular WWII British warships. In 2014 I decided to dabble in some boat modelling in a small way whilst doing mega research into the multifarious techniques demanded of the scratch-builder.

By late 2015 I had considered that I had learned enough to try putting a radio controlled model together. You can learn only so much by reading; it was time to see if I had any of the basic skills, given that my eyesight and manual dexterity were nothing like they were when I last wielded a modelling knife. What had come with age, though, was patience to see a project through (just!).

Early 2016 saw boat number 1 take to the water. A random plan off the web with freelance superstructure and fittings (any resemblance to Graham Buckton’s THV Vigia is purely in passing!), it is 23 inches long plank on frame and powered by an MFA 280/5 motor driving a 40mm prop on a 6V 1.2Ah SLA battery.

Boat number 2 was already forming itself in my head as I was building number 1. I wanted to build a warship this time but felt daunted by making the fittings involved. I liked the lines of the Castle class corvette and it was relatively lightly armed. Again, I found some plans on the internet, did as much research as I could, and ended up with a plank on frame hull of 31inches (just under 1/96 scale), powered by an Mtroniks Power 400 motor. Provision was made for it to carry 2x 6volt SLA batteries or an 8.4volt NiMH pack, driving a 40mm screw. At 6volts, the performance is probably close to the scale speed of 16.5 knots; 8.4 makes it look like a fleet destroyer; at 12 volts it would just about catch an Eboat!

Again, apart from the electrics and drive train, all is scratch-built. If it’s short on detail, that it is because it is very much a test bed for things that I have learned. I don’t see myself producing museum quality stuff (that’s a laugh!) just to have bits knocked off at the pond side or in transit.

This model has been on the water throughout 2017.

For my next experience in the discovery learning process, I became interested in the Black Swan/ Modified Black Swan class sloops. Time to “up the ante” on the fittings front and to attempt twin screws. As of March 2018 this is as far as the build has progressed:-

Living in a flat,I do not have working space beyond my side of the dining table, so I am greatly restricted in the size to which I can build. This model is to the size of the John Lambert plans which accompanied his article in MMI December 2003 and which I obtained through Sarik Hobbies. It is 27 inches long which works out at a scale of about 1/133.

After all of this rambling, I am coming close to the point of this post (sighs of relief all round!). I am fitting it out with a pair of MFA RE170 motors rated up to 3volts, with a 6volt 1.2Ah SLA battery for power. I had naively thought that with an ESC for each motor run in parallel I could “do a Glynn Guest” (Earnshaw, issues February and March 2016 of Model Boats) and run them on V-tail from my transmitter.

Problem is that I’ve only encountered ESCs that require an input in excess of 3volts (and of course there’s BEC to consider). In the short term, I propose wiring the motors in series from one ESC. I appreciate that I will not have individual motor control, but there are enough other “what if” factors to overcome such as; will it float?; will it be stable enough? etc, etc. Assuming that it eventually does become a water-borne proposition can anyone suggest speed controllers for my intended set-up? I suppose that an alternative would be to replace the RE170s with small 6volt motors but I don’t know what sort of endurance 1.2Ah would have. (I don’t think that the hull displacement will support a heavier battery)

I’m aware that there have been other threads on the subject of multiple motor control but haven’t come across one that fits my circumstances (if indeed my circumstances can be fitted!).

Cheers, Peter

Hi, Ashley. Thanks for your reply. It crossed over with my previous post in which you can see that I am considering ditching the 3volt motors. I was referring to series connection in relation to running these motors from a 6volt supply.

Thanks for the additional perspective on SLA vs NiMH. I was thinking of the old adage that ballast should be useful weight when deciding on SLAs.

I think at the end of the day that simplicity of installation and operation will win through! I was leading myself down a blind alley and it has been of immense value to put my thoughts down on “paper” and to be guided back to the straight and narrow!

Wow! A veritable plethora of wisdom and expertise, and all at one’s fingertips.

Thanks gents. It is also an able demonstration that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.

Colin- I read your first post concerning series connection, stood up from my computer, stepped out into the hallway and, in John Cleese fashion, banged my head on the wall several times. I had known this but it had been lost in the volume of info that model boat building entails. Thanks for the timely reminder.

Dave- I’d decided in my own mind that I had it all sorted after Ashley’s post. Now I’m only confident in my indecision. I’m very grateful to you for your input. (ps- that last sentence could be taken as being sarcastic; it’s not!)

Francis- Thanks for reminding me of your Lucky XI harbour tug conversion. It’s at times like these that I wish that I’d started compiling a cross-referenced index of subject headings published in Model Boats since I bought my first issue. It was Abdiel that was to the forefront of my mind together with some kind of blurred memory of having read several plastic kit conversions. I had not considered the Lucky XI approach for motive power. Yet more for me to think about! Thanks also for your invitation to ask any questions; I will take you up on that when I’ve caught up with some refresher reading.

Edited By Peter Crow on 14/03/2018 16:33:29

Edited By Peter Crow on 14/03/2018 16:51:35

No cries of consternation and horror from me, Ron. Welcome to the party!

I have made a decision, and Dave M is quite right; the SLA is well and truly ditched. As to the rest, I think that I will book into a retreat and spend some time in isolated meditation and contemplation! Seriously, I think that I am beginning to see my way forward with this project, with more than enough information to ring the changes for my next as my learning experience progresses.

As an aside, I digress slightly (actually it could a bit of a shaggy dog story, so better put the kettle on!). Francis made mention of the need to consider scale displacement in deciding how best to equip and fit out a model. His approach is quite properly based on mathematical principles. I have already addressed this issue with this model, although my approach was rather more empirical.

Having decided on a Black Swan, the obvious first steps were to amass as much pictorial and other material as possible and to procure plans. What a godsend is the internet for research (used with discernment). My stash of reference tools got off to a running start and continues to pile up as I rove through the ether.

Plans, however, are quite another subject. I am a Scot. It’s best to state that right away given our national reputation for thrift. My projects up till now have been based on downloaded freebies. Nothing was forthcoming for the Swan. I was going to have to pay!

It became clear that plans were available at some expense, but entirely disproportionate to the use I was going to make of them. I could pay as much or more for the plans than the model would cost at the end of the day. I was not building for a commission or for museum quality, but for my own satisfaction. I did not need copies of the builders’ original drawings (although I would love to have seen a set!).

Then I discovered that MMI had published drawings. My problem was that I did not strike right away. By the time I decided to put in an order Traplet had closed the doors of its shop.

Searches under “Images” for plans showed some held by the National Maritime Museum. I clicked on the images and copied them in to a Publisher document. I had side elevation and plan views as well as 9 sections, all of fairly poor definition (quite rightly so – they’re not going to let high quality images be pirated, are they?). All I had to do was to draw the missing sections and I could build a model!! It shouldn’t be too hard to fill in the blanks should it?

I upsized the elevation and plan views to the size I required (about the size of my current model) by creating a banner in Publisher (I do not have and cannot use CAD). Printed these off and measured the beam at each of the sections and upsized the sections accordingly. I then stuck the hull profile and frames to some poplar ply left over from the Corvette build.

I sharpened my pencil (metaphorically speaking since it is a mechanical one!) and set to with paper to draw the requisite frames, eventually ending up with this:

I hasten to state that this build was never intended to be more than a doodle on a fag packet is to an engineering draughtsman; its purpose was purely to test my abilities as a naval architect. Construction commenced:

(I thought that the ironing board cover would make a change from that dreadful tablecloth)

Edited By Peter Crow on 15/03/2018 21:17:11

Francis

HNSA site was the source of the plans that I used to build the Castle corvette (other than the hull sections which I sourced elsewhere). It is indeed well worth a browse. I haven’t looked at the Dreadnought Project yet; thanks for bringing it to my notice.

When I was a lad, balsa was the material that I grew up with. I can’t think how many packs of assorted off-cuts of strip, sheet and block. I seem to remember that at 1/6d or a couple of bob they fell within pocket money range (if I saved up my tanner a week!). Even then, however, I can remember being quite exasperated at some of its limitations but I didn’t know of any alternatives.

This time around I have latched on to basswood, or American lime as it is sometimes referred to. My first ever attempt at planking (in 2014) was on a small (A4 size plan) version of the hull that I used for RC boat number 1, (“The Boat”- so called because I never got around to naming it!). I used strips of balsa. Yuck! It fought me every step of the way.

I read about basswood, and discovered that there was a stand of it in Hobbycraft next to the balsa. I have used 1/32inch (0.793mm) basswood strip for planking since, “The Boat” covered with tissue and Eze Dope and the Castle with 1oz per sq yd glassfibre fabric and Eze-Coat acrylic resin. I like the predictability of basswood, its strength and flexibility. I also find that it carves well in block form. I am intending to use the Castle formula on the Black Swan. The Castle hull (at 31 inches) worked out as very light. I did weigh it at the time, but my wife can’t remember the figure!

The underlying structures of the 3 boats differ. “The Boat” keel and hull frames are 1/8inch (3.175mm) birch ply; the Castle keel and frames 1/8 poplar ply.

Birch ply is great for strength but I can only work with it when I visit my Dad and have the use of his electric scroll saw. This is very inconvenient to one whose workbench is his dining table!

Poplar and Lite ply are both workable with a Stanley knife at this thickness (albeit with a bit of effort and a plentiful supply of new blades). I did not like the poplar ply as I found it of indifferent quality- looked good on the face of it, but the knife often met fresh air at its core.

I am trying the Lite ply for the Swan frames with Birch for the keel, and am happy with it thus far. I had started with a set of birch ply frames, but when it came to cutting out their internals, I gave up. I love my old man dearly but was fed up with working in his freezing garage every time I visited! An advantage of the change is that the Lite Ply frames are at least 40% lighter than the birch

Ashley

I have read of the stability and buoyancy difficulties with small models. When I was planning the Castle, I added 7mm beneath the waterline; 4mm above the stern tube and 3mm below. This served (1) to give me ample clearance between stern tube and hull bottom to run a 40mm prop, (2) to allow me to drop the motor in order to align it with the shaft, rather than angle the shaft up into the hull, (3) gain the displacement to carry 2 x 6volt 1.2ah SLAs and a little lead for trimming purposes.

For better or for worse, I’m building the Swan to plan if for no other reason than the discovery learning lesson. If it all goes to rats at the maiden “sea” trials (before any superstructure goes on), I’ll strip it out and finish it as a static model!

If anyone’s interested, this is how the Castle hull came together:-

(I’d already roughed up an A4 plan sized version of the model to test the un-extended hull sections) You can see my literal cut and paste efforts on the sections to achieve the extra depth represented by the horizontal lines above and below the stern tube.