Member postings for John W E

hi ya there, are you building HMS Hood from the old nexus plans - now Taplett - that's about 52 - 53 inches long. If I remember rightly, she is built bread and butter construction. If you are, is there no suggestion as to what size motors you should use? What also has to be taken into account are the materials you are building with, if you are building bread and butter.

I have built several 4 shaft models, but, slightly larger than what you are contemplating - I built HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax - both are 4 shafts. They are 72 inches long and have 4 x 500 motors in them. One has a mixer combined speed controller in it, where the other one I opted for what is called tank steering - this is where one stick controls 2 motors on the port side and the opposite stick controls the other 2 motors on the starboard side.

This can give quite spectacular turning abilities - what you must also bear in mind is you will need to play around with which way the props turn. If I remember rightly, the Ajax turns better with the props turning inboard (in other words as you are looking from the stern of the model - the props turn anti-clockwise - throwing a wash onto the rudder.

Just some food for thought.

Edited By John W E on 16/04/2019 18:55:40

John

Edited By John W E on 16/04/2019 18:49:24

hi there, 0.5mm brass sheet, 400mm square, 4 off from Ebay - a pack of jewellers fret saw blades and an old fret saw if you haven't got a jewellers saw. A plan from Traplet Plans photocopied and glued on; then chain drill into the spaces to be cut out with a 1mm high speed drill bit and a Dremel drill; then followed by filing with a small set of files and Bob's your uncle - easy peasy; lemon squeezy as they say - it just takes a bit of patience and time

John

Could it be that the prop is too big? and the motor is drawing too many amps with this big prop on and causing the speed controller to overload and shut down? Sounds as though you may have a Chinese speed controller with that size amperage?   Never trust a speed controller ratings from the East - We know all about them and the magic smoke - If there wasn't enough guts in the batteries it would just slow down and then shut off. Just a thought.

John

Edited By John W E on 17/03/2019 18:24:00

Hi jim when you tested your motors; were they in the model and connected to the prop shaft ? if so, try disconnecting the motors and try them free running - it may be that one of you prop shafts is a bit tight and that is what is tripping the speed controller out ,

In a ideal world, if your motor draws say 1 amp free running when you connect it up to the prop shaft it should only draw about 1.5 to 1.75 amps ,but we never really achieve this more like 2 /2.5 amps running with the model out of the water, best of luck

John

hi there, reading on Mtroniks website

"Running at 12V, at maximum efficiency, the M500 will run at around 24000RPM and pull around 4Amps. Start up current, depending on prop size, would be around 15Amps".

So, therefore, although you have both motors fused, the total load on the actual speed controller on start up is over the limit of the speed controller and the speed controller may think it has been overloaded and shut down - so that is why you may not have two motors to run off one speed controller, so that is one possibility. The other thing is when a normal motor starts up, even not on load, it can take horrendous amperage just to get it started momentarily. 

John

Edited By John W E on 24/02/2019 12:12:25

Radio Control boat modeller Jan-Feb 1991 when you did a write up of the Maplin speed controller, Colin you didn't think they were a dog's breakfast then and your conclusion was that you recently fitted a Maplin controller to your venerable old coaster model Reculver in place of the faithful Bobs Board - how time moves on eh.

John

One big flaw in that argument though is Glynn Guest's free plans and balsa packs aren't available on bookshelves in the paper shops, such as WH Smith & other book shops. Fair comment they could have picked another subject such as the Cutty Sark.

I think this is a typical answer by all modellers, due to the fact we all know how to build/attempt to build models. But what about the ordinary gent/lady in the street with no modelling experience whatsoever - who sees the magazine and says I would like to have a go at this . So, this is the first stage introducing them into the magic world of modelling - easy, one bit at a time, although may be expensive - obviously good instructions and not overwhelmed with a boxful of parts as you purchase in a whole kit. So, instead of trying to rubbish the idea by saying they are expensive and you can buy a better model - we have to think outside the box - they are a good idea to introduce people into the hobby. If Model Boats were to do the same thing - I wonder if it would increase the number of people purchasing the magazine - I think it would. People may get bored and purchases might dwindle down, but even if we get 2 out of 100 people into the hobby, its better than what we are doing now, by rubbishing the magazine. My thoughts anyway.

Edited By John W E on 17/02/2019 16:58:48

15 amps approx. with a 30 mm 3 blade plastic prop

Edited By John W E on 15/02/2019 15:50:27

Edited By John W E on 15/02/2019 16:03:52

Hi ya this is a pic of my late old friend DickyD's HMS Javelin - are you referring to the lattice work mast assembly when you are thinking of aerials or the aerial that is on top of the mast?

John

Hi there - G Guest did do a set of plans for HMS Dido, the cruiser, and they are basically a stand off model which obviously could have detail added to as Ashley has suggested. Here is the plan number - from Sarik hobbies - this is the plan number MM1278. If you want a detailed plan Norman A Ough did a set way back in the 50s - 60s and his plans are regarded as pretty good, I know the plans are held by Brunel Institute whether they sell them I am unsure.

https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/features/ship-plan-scanning-at-brunels-ss-great-Britain/

John

Edited By John W E on 03/02/2019 10:09:37

Been trying to copy the link - but it wont work - so google the page below - it comes up with build of model for Virgin Challenger 1 - this model is over 4ft long.

this could be an interesting read - not sure if you have seen/read the topic

Challengers 2. Independent World Record Holders for long distance power models.

Edited By John W E on 21/01/2019 18:35:40

Edited By John W E on 21/01/2019 18:39:03

Edited By John W E on 21/01/2019 18:39:53

Hi there, would you be able to let us know which issue the plans are in ? and whether its a Model Boats mag or Marine Modelling?

hi there, the link the gent Empire Parkstone has added is for the Virgin Atlantic 2 build on mayhem - I believe the gent was looking for information on Virgin Atlantic 1 which was a Catamaran design hull. Sadly it sunk - now there was an article along with the original plan in either Marine Modelling International magazine or Model Boats mag - I know the plan is available on the dreaded Ebay marketplace, but, I think it may have been printed off on A3 sheets which I have heard along the grapevine may give a lot of problems lining the plan up to get the lines / etc right. No doubt the original plan calls for standard brush motors - but with today's technology brushless motors/speed controllers, someone somewhere will be able to come along and advise. Now to see if I can find the magazine which has the plan in for the Virgin Atlantic 1. I think we have done something like this before

Hi there Ade as has been mentioned - there are numerous materials which can be used to plank a model. It boils down to your own preference as to what you can work with that suits you. One of the favourite materials used by people in the 'olden days' is Obechi and - its still used today - it is slightly tougher than balsa wood - it sands and works easily though. There is also lime wood which is used for planking - a finer grain and slightly harder than Obechi and balsa wood. Tend to pre-drill it if you are going to nail it - and then, we come on to the hard timbers such as Mahogany and I have known ash and oak to be used in models. These can be a very difficult timber to work with in small scales. Personally, I tend to work with Obechi and/or lime for building hulls. I did a build for the MV Troyberg / Duberg where I double planked the hull and this was following the procedure of planking that the magazine who did the Titanic/Bismark/Hood builds where they used a very short plank which was obviously to accommodate what could be put through a letterbox, and they did it in two layers on the hull.

I followed this but only deviated where they jointed all their planks on one frame - but I staggered my planks similar to brickwork in a wall to increase the strength.

If you have a look at my albums - you will see pics of the build for the M

V Duberg/Troyberg.

Edited By John W E on 28/11/2018 18:38:31

this is the proper link to the build referred to by me above - I knew I could do it - put the proper link in.   Its amazing what a bit of reading can do.

**LINK**

Edited By John W E on 14/11/2018 17:04:10

hi there as has been said by our own DM I did a write up and build of the high speed launch and thankfully I did not use pukey bucket to save me photos - but they are still on the forum on the build. What I have been spending a bit of time researching on THAT particular forum and Dave should have remembered as Dave supplied the motors and electronics for this particular boat. The guy from the land down under (Martin 13 did a build of a 1/16 scale - Brave Borderer) and its a lovely model and good build. Here is a link but - to see the photographs you have to be a member of Mayhem

.https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,9865.0.html

You have to look for HMS Brave Borderer 1:16 build by Martin 13 Downunder.

Edited By John W E on 14/11/2018 17:01:02

hi there, Mr Milbourn - well I will give you 7 out of 10 for that recommendation for the Scroll saw - I ordered one on line and its just been delivered today. Sadly I had to return it due to the framework that holds the tilt table in - the alloy had cracked on the mounting lug, making the table unusable - I returned it to our local store who swapped it for me with no problem.

Overall, it took some setting up; to get the blade to cut straight. Once set up, it seems quite happy to cut half inch plywood no problems. Also I have managed to fit the fretsaw blades, which I use for my hand fretsaw, into the new Scroll Saw. Its a faff on - but in the end got there.

I am going to do a couple of amendments to the clamping arrangement of the blades, so I can clamp the fretsaw blades better - but me overall opinion from a dye hard fretsawer - its pretty good - be ideal for me next project which has a lot of frames to cut out John