Member postings for John W E

hi there

as Ashley has pointed out; hopefully in the near future the plans may be available once again from a new source. If not, and it doesn't work out right; Jim Pottinger drew the plans for the tug FC Sturrock and I know Jim is on Facebook and I have purchased plans directly from him in the past. So if all else fails, or you are in bother trying to get them, maybe try and get in touch with Jim Pottinger directly.

John

hi ya Steve - there is one way round of learning about our hobby and that is one of the oldest ways going long before computers. There are several excellent books on the market:

for beginners and everyone

one of them should be on every shelf of any modeller and that book is by a guy known as Vic Smeed, he has written a book called Boat Modelling

the other one is a book buy John Cundell, the ex-author of Model Boat Magazine and his book is called Radio Control in Model Boats

Dated books they may be - but the information they give you will give you a good grounding on all of basics of model boats construction & their internals.

cwAAOSw5cNYmerW">http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Radio-Control-in-Model-Boats-Paperback-1854862316-/132089211346?epid=86646326&hash=item1ec12169d2:gcwAAOSw5cNYmerW

**LINK**

john

hi there

the model looks quite familiar, I am sure it may come from Glynn G stables or even from Marine Modelling plans; if you have a look at pics that show the internals - the top left hand corner shows evidence of a servo mounting and what looks like a tiller bar or a push rod to the rudder. If you move this bar back and forwards, does the rudder move? I will have a search for more information - I will be back

John

hi there Ashley

couple of golden rules with fibre glass - Get the mix right; i.e. hardener to resin - making sure you have the correct temperature (not too hot - not too cold ) and don't mix batches that are too large. In other words the size batch which you cannot use up within 30 minutes.

With regard to materials from which to make moulds - as has been stated previously; there are 100s of items which can be used. Make sure though that whatever you use doesn't react to the resin. You may even use cling film as a releasing agent; the other thing is watch out for undercuts in your moulding for when you release the moulding from the plug. A lot of folk don't foresee this and they don't realise why the moulding doesn't release properly and they end up breaking it. So you are making a symmetrically based hull? Could this be the Russian circular ship from the 1800s? Have to go and do some Google.

John

Edited By bluebird on 12/07/2017 17:06:40

Hi there

One model that hasn't had much mention of Vic Smeed's is the Pathfinder, the pilot vessel - I thought there would be a lot more pictures of it. It seems to have been a popular model. I know there are one or two in our Club, and I myself have the plans. Its on my build list. The only thing I need to sort out before building it, is the actual underwater shape of the vessel at the stern. I know Vic simplified the hull shape on a lot of his drawings for ease of building - and I wonder if he simplified the Pathfinder Hull? I have done a bit of investigation and I have found that there are one or two other vessels with a similar shape of hull to which Vic has drawn. I would like to know if Vic actually had access to the shipyard drawings of this boat. Or, if anyone has photographs of the Pathfinder in dry dock showing her stern and props set up.

John

Hi ya Tony

As you requested, here are a couple of pics of Vic Smeed’s Custom Launch that I build from the free plans. I made several alterations to mind, where in the plan, the wheelhouse door is on the front. I moved it to the side. Also, I extended the rudder to give it a bit more manoeuvrability. I used the model a few times in Scale Regatta Competitions and on a normal sized rudder it was a bit slow to turn. That was my excuse for poor ability to steer.

john

hi there picture of Vic Smeed's Cervia the funny thing on the front of the bridge is an actual spy camera - onboard videoing -

Edited By bluebird on 27/06/2017 17:05:04

Hi ya Richard

I have been spending a bit of time doing a bit research on different adhesives - no doubt you will have done so yourself. One of the things that came to mind - I wonder what the aero industry use when they glue their aluminium components together and also to other materials. This adhesive must withstand extreme temperatures/heat and movement without coming apart. The other thing, when I was doing research that kept coming up a lot were motor cycle forums - people asking what glues to use for bonding aluminium and materials to carbon fibre. I know you will have your choice of which way you are going to go but something you may not have thought of and if you haven't thought of this - it may give you an area to look into.

Best of luck - I admire you for what you are undertaking and it will be worth it in the end. Cos, I know how I felt when people asked me questions about HMS Exeter. One of the comments was I should have put it in a glass case and let the Maritime Museum have it - worth all the hard work that is.

http://www.henkel-adhesives.com/com/content_data/322139_ASA13010_RW_FL_MRO_Composite_Screen_081.pdf

John

Edited By bluebird on 30/05/2017 17:17:39

hi there,

Just as a side thought - and God knows we have a few of them - why do we really need to apply plating to the side of the hull and also assimilate the rippling. The reason I ask that I spent a lot of time researching the plating for HMS Exeter - then I applied the plating to the hull using styrene sheet. It took me a long time to get it right. When you have a couple of coats of paint on the model it becomes less visible and, if you stand say 2-3 feet away - you can just making the plating out. When I sailed the model on the lake - one had no idea at all that it was plated. It was only when the model was on a stand and people were asking questions about it and I was pointing it out that they realised. So, can you see what I mean? If your model is going to spending a lot of time being viewed by the public and out of the water, yes, it will be worth the effort. But, if it is going to live its life as a 'normal' model - i.e. in and out of the water and enjoy the sailing of it - it may not be worth going to the effort of detailing the plating/applying plating

See if you can spot the plating on my pic..

John

hi there

I have the same concerns as the previous post - about the expansion rates of the aluminium and the timber. I have been trying to do some Google research and you will have done so as well - I didn't realise that aluminium expands at such a rate and also contracts and is prone to temperature so much. When they use it on lifesize vessels they have to build special expansion joints on the superstructure to accommodate its movement,. Bit experiment may pay dividends.

Lithoplate, which I have used - and I must confess don't like using it that much - I found it difficult to glue to timber - even with epoxy. After a while I could get a scalpel blade to part the aluminium lithoplate from the timber.

John

hi ya Colin,

Credit to you she looks brilliant on the water that feeling when you first put the model in the water and you have so many eyes watching - its a weird feeling - cos you know you have checked everything on the bench and everything should go right - but that feeling when she sails off just perfect - great.

John

hi there

a while ago there was an article in Model Boats magazine on How to construct an electronic boiler feed circuit similar to the one you have done above. I built this circuit just out of curiosity myself, and I was going to alter it for operating other things - here is a link to another site which I did the write up on for those who are interested.

**LINK**

john

Hi ya Bob

What has your boat club Committee done about the public and their danger to the wildlife? To give you an example of how daft the ruling is that your Committee has proposed - the Club I belong to was opened before Charles Parson launched the Turbinia in 1894 and the lake was purposely built for the gentry to sail their yachts on. There has always been wild life on that lake from the start - if you dig a hole and fill it with water, nature takes over, and you cannot prevent this. You will always have wild fowl connected with the water and what you have to do is live side by side with the wild life. If the Committee has done its job, they should have educated those with fast boats to keep away from the wild life, which no doubt they will do. or, at least try their hardest to do.

The people that we need to educate are the general public - they do more harm to the wildlife than any model boaters do - to give you a class example - last Sunday a group of people feeding the swans and geese at the lakeside with stale bread and whatnot - finished feeding them and promptly threw the plastic bag in the lake. Two things wrong there obviously - and there are several large noticed to say do not feed the wildlife BREAD - its bad for their digestion and it sinks to the bottom of the lake and contaminates the lake.

A plastic bag speak for itself - the other one that got my goat is the lady with the dog - one running riot chasing the birds. She was just laughing thinking its great - one of the birds had its young out on the water.

So, I think you should re-evaluate what you are doing.

John

HI THERE

been looking through old pics to see if I can find better pic of HMS PENELOPE . Found a couple but as an afterthought - I am sure that Glyn Guest drew a plan and made the model for a stand off Type 21 warship.

John

hi there, I can only endorse what has already been said about Glynn Guest's models - I have built several models from his plans - and as above, I built the MTB as per plan, with a standard motor and my model is very fast indeed.

If you have a look on Mayhem, there is a build on there of my MTB - but - be quick as every time Mayhem goes down we seem to lose some pics from postings. I found that out this afternoon when I was searching on Mayhem for a different topic.

Here are a couple of pics (MTB) and HMS PENELOPE on the water

John

Hi ya Bob

Are you not going to tell the readers - and those who have had nothing to do with oil tankers - one of the main downsides with them - the smell of the crude oil - there is no way to describe this smell - but, it gets into your skin and on your clothes and it stays with you for days (even when you have left the ship) you can smell it on ya body.

One of the jobs an apprentice in the shipyard has (as I know) what we used to call extended spindles on the oil tankers and basically on the deck of a tanker ship you have many handwheels which control valves down in the bowels of the tanks; one of the jobs of the apprentice was to remove the long spindles and repair them. You were working in the tanks for days on end (obviously going home and back ) everyone in the street knew there was a tanker in -they  could smell it -on you

then the valves had to be stripped down and overhauled - oh happy days

john

Edited By bluebird on 06/05/2017 19:15:05

Edited By bluebird on 06/05/2017 19:15:43

Hi there - large models are okay and finding power plants to fit them can and has been done - have a look at the link that I have posted about this guy's model/s. Where this all falls down is the physical size of the model and the weight - that is where it all falls foul if Dave remembers the first Mayhem when Marc took my Leeds Castle model down for me - he had a 'people carrier' to take it in - and my car I took the 3 batteries to power it (3 x 12 volt 14 amp batteries) and this gives you an indication of the actual weight of the model - it took two of us to lift it into the water. Although it has been sailed several times - it spent most of its life sitting on the shelf. This is due to the fact that its like an Army exercise to get it ready to go down to the water . There aren't many people who participate in model boating who are prepared to spend a lot of time at the lakeside preparing the model ready to sail it and this is only one of the downsides of any large model. Just my experience of it and my thoughts

**LINK**

John

Edited By bluebird on 25/04/2017 08:19:53

Hi Bob Ab - sorry for my posting - I certainly wasn't referring to the Model - Brutus - and its designer. My opinion of that is - it reminds me of a straight running model from Tynemouth. That one used to run in the course of a banana. To go back to the actual vessel of the super yacht Golden Supersport - what really concerned me - is - if you look towards the rear end - you will see what looks like giant air intakes. Especially so, if you look at the rear view of the model you will see there are no openings at the stern for any exit of water that is drawn into what looks like the air intakes.

If you have a look at the yard site, they who produced the vessel and look at more pics as I have done - I see that these ;air intakes; are actually stabilisers. Still no signs of her running in rough weather though I wouldn't like to be caught in a force 10 gale in this super yacht - it may upset the hot tub and champers

hi there

I would like to know what the designers of this hull are on and were they smoking it or taking it or even drinking it - before they went to the drawing board. At one time; we used to design 'nice' looking hulls. I would love to see how practical this design of this hull would be in rough seas/weather. I have been looking for photographs and they all seem to be taken on very calm days - bit like the designers mind me thinking along with a bit of Dave's country odour of rural farmyard nature

John

DM the cheque is in the post

With regard to plans - are they the free plans from April 2017 Model Boats for the Classic 1950s Sputnik Trawler? drawn by James A Pottinger. If so, the frames are read off as this:

looking from the stern of the vessel; first frame T is transom;

the half frame is the central line of your rudder post -

frame 1 gives the position of approx. positions of the propeller boss

and they work upwards towards the bow

Nice plans, could be a future build - but - if you go over to the Mayhem Forum and seek out the build for the Trawler Sea Lady - Angel Emial- it has a similar sort of setup with the flat stern.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,28028.0.html

John

Edited By bluebird on 12/04/2017 19:29:19