Member postings for neil howard-pritchard

NOW CLAIMED.

Thank you.

this evening i fully masked the hull of the TYNE, as the deck edge to the hull was a little ragged [not Dave Stavros Jones spraying,] just the way the deck was joined to the hull. and so i lightly sanded the deck edge for a smooth rounded join.

i then masked off the hull up to about 2mm between the hull sides and the deck. once masked, i sprayed the edge and deck lip with FORD R oyal blue to seal the edge of the masking tape.

now before Dave goes bananas with me the whole edge will be covered with the rubber belting, and the joint between the Royal blue and the RNLI RAL colour blue that Dave sprayed the hull with, will never be seen.

And once that had gone off and dried i left it a couple of hours, i sprayed the deck and edging with a grey primer to give a seperation mark between the deck edge and the textured paint that i will be applying tomorrow.

the edging is where the cleats and stanchions will sit, nice and flat, on a none textured surface.

thanks Richard,

i find it easier to silver solder than i do soft soldering brass parts together. only time i ever soft solder these days is wiring or very thin brass sheet, and as i work in 1;12 scale the thin stuff very rarely comes in to play.

getting closer now to spraying the deck with textured none slip paint.

but first i had to make sure that the holes were drilled for the stanchions i made above.

marked out acurately they were drilled with a pilot hole and then enlarged to take the brass rod.

they were dry fitted to see that they sat straight and,............

then the base plates taken off the stanchions and glued to the decks as they will be sprayed black to match the colour of the stanchions and then masked off before the main deck colour sprayed on.

finally the aft hatch that allowed access to the trim tab servos was placed back in the hole and glued and left to set. until later this afternoon. then the gaps will be filled with P38, and sanded off tomorrow.

the mass of white curly hair is in fact me Bob, but the Jrneil stands for John robert neil, which are my fore names, followed by my hyphernated surname.

my genetic father died of an acute heart attack brought on by an asthma attack when i was 18 months old.9he was only 35 himself] and that is the first part of my surname, as was his.....Howard, and his fore names were John Robert, the Neil being tacked on so there was no confusion.when mother was shouting at who ever, lol

Then when my mum remarried a police officer based at Fleetwood when i was about 5 years old from what i was told at a young age, that was when the surname Pritchard was given, but in 1966 my dad, and the only dad i have known except for one photo of my blood father which surfaced when dad died in 2019 aged 94 and we went through the family "jewels" lol.,he formally adopted me and it was then that i became a hyphernated surname,.......................

Howard-Pritchard.....

simples really.

hope this clears up the confusion, lol.

neil.

so, now that i have the rudders linked up and working well, and the trim tabs well................hit and miss.....more miss at times, so might just lock them in a neutral possition , i moved on to the final part before i paint the deck.

ant that was to make the foreward most stanchions which the safety grab rails anchor too.

they were silver soldered together today from 2.4mm brass rod.

brackets for the grab rails soldered on, and then the deck plates made from 1.5mm plasticard............they will be "rivited" with a fabric paint aplicator and then the deck marked and drilled.

Once drilled i can secure the aft hatch opening to access the trim tab servos fill the gaps, and then spray the textured paint on to the deck [after masking up the hull of course.

Hope tomorrow goes well.

thank you George, but there are plenty builders far better than myself.

looking absolutely gorgeous George.

i have four 40mhz transmitters,

2 x Hitec +2 Hitec receivers, 2 x Futaba transmitters + 1 x futaba receiver,

1 x 35mhz metal cased Irvine Sanwa transmitter ..and

1 x futaba 75mhz transmitter

all none working, but the cases are good, areals straight, ratchets and springs on the sticks all working and all actually charge except the Irvine sanwa tx.

all free to a good home, on collection from Poulton le fylde, or if you want to organise a courier pick up, i'll box them up for you,.........just want rid as taking up space.......i can also throw in some servos with the old pin plugs.

if you want them, just pm me.....first come first to have them, but i can't be bothered splitting them up.....just want gone as a job lot......as i said......none work as far as i know, but no idea why not.

they are all multi channel tx's

just a shame to bin them!

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 23/07/2021 21:55:19

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 23/07/2021 22:00:17

and after my hiatus of having to leave my Tyne class lifeboat for the past 10 months due to a commitment i foolishly made at around this time last year top "titivate" another model up........

never again!!!

I CAN NOW GET BACK TO FINISHING MY FLEETWOOD LIFEBOAT........whooop , whoop, whooooooop!!! as i have found some space to work in at last.

RNLB WILLIAM STREET here we go.

First job is to make sure that the servos, r/x and trim tabs work with the reversing switch i bought some time ago..

just sooohhhh glag i have got my mojo back after the last 3 months set backs for one reason or other.....

FULL STEAM [ or should i say Detroit V6 two stroke diesels] AHEAD.

i owned a 56' narrow boat for ten years, and even that wouldn't go astern in a straight line........its just a matter of going astern in little moves........an inch or so at a time..............but at least it is more realistic to the real vessel.

i was a good friend of Franks during his years with Caldercraft Models, having revewed 3 of his models over the years for all three magazines at the time, Marine models, Radio Controlled model Boats (the bimonthly off shoot of Model Boats) and Model Boats itself.

and when he had sold Caldercraft to John Wright of Jotika fame frank invited myself and a good friend over to [in Franks words] "raid his stocks of fittings" for future builds. Whilst over in Holmfirth, he showed me his collections of military soldiers from different ages, all painted and cast by himself in white metal, and it was those soldiers that gave him the idea of producing the first model boat kits with white metal fittings, which he went on to develope his empire which was a revolution in model boat building.

later he asked me to help develope the first of his new formed company Mountfleet models.........the name Mountfleet being an amalgamation of part of his thoughts of building a "fleet of ships and with my input, a part of Fleetwood, the Mount hill on Fleetwood promenade. our first and only amalgamation of thoughts and development were the Active tug which i developed the hull/cabin and parts in plasticard to be copied in white metal/brass, the Danny Boy, which i put together as the original prototype to make sure all parts fit properly, and i supplied original hull and superstructures for what was going to be a Veranda type deep sea trawler, with all fittings in plasticard, which Frank transposed into brass masters for casting, and that model became the St Nectan.

but Frank had more than one claim to fame.......for he is listed in the credits of 3 A rated movies of the time, which he told me his soldiers appeared in the films........sadly i could never remember the names of two films, but the one i can and one i watch regularly, for in the car chase towards the end of the film features a 14th century pub that i used to live in in the late 1970's in a village called Waltham St Lawrance in Berkshire, called The Bell, and the film features quite heavily in the story, Franks Prussian Regiments........the film is simply called Callan, and features Edward Woodward, and Franks company Hinchliffe Models comes up in the credits at the end of the film.

Frank taught me all i know about white metal and resin casting, which has served me well over the years. without his teachings i would never have been able to produce and sell the lifeboat kit Ann Letitia Russell, which Dave Metcalf has been selling since 1998, and other kits that i have designed and developed over the years. Frank was a wonderful teacher, and a good Yorkshire man who didn't suffer fools at all...........think i learned that off him as well lol.

mine at about 7 years old was a couple of flat pieces of fish box i found on the dock side where we used to roam inhibited, glued together,cut with an old saw that was in the cellar into the shape of a morecambe bay prawner with an old wooden match box sat on the deck as a cabin, and a piece of dowel stuck though it as a mast that was tied to the deck in slits i had cut with the saw as rigging.........and off i and a mate went to the local paddling pool in fleetwood to sail it..........unpainted and rough as a bears bum..............

it sailed with a paper sail remarkably well..............and that was me on the rocky road to ruin, as a model boat maker for life..........

apart from owning mg's and old bsa's when they were just cars and bikes, not classics..............it is the only hobby i have ever had...........

i'll master the art one day, lol.

its an adjuster Richard. in fact Richard, it has an adjuster at both ends to make it easier than unclipping the clevis pin.also as a single adjuster on the rudder angle setting as well but hopefully the two rudders are about as parallel as i can get them on a pre set possition on the adjuster.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 09/07/2021 11:36:11

the box for the servo has been made from some cherry wood and ply, and glued in place.

the steering for the tyne has now been completed

i'll charge some batteries for the tx/rx and have a play tomorrow to see if it all works as it should, tidy up the wires for the steering servo and the trim tabs and then close up the stern hatch.

a little more progress on fitting the steering servo.

base made from a strip of 10mm ply. pasted some filler to the underside and stuck it in place resting on the propeller tunnels.

then with some spare bits and pieces i connected the servo to the rudder linckages.

just have to build a box around the servo now to keep it in place.

Rudders have had their flats filed on the ends of the shafts, inserted into the rudder tubes, and therudder servo arms attached and linked up, using one servo to power both rudders simultaniously.........

tomorrow i'll nake a servo box, fit a servo to the arm, and then think about charching some radio tx's to test the rudders and the trim tabes to make sure they work before i seal up the small access hatch.

that is facinating Richard, and thanks for posting that............i can't remember who told me about vaciline and graphite mixed but it has served me well for many years without any leaks.

and what is more, the gent who told me all those years ago told me that even though i sail predominantly in salt water. i would have no need to strip the tubes and shafts down regularly, just to repack them if i have had a heavy season....

however i take note of your history and use of similar mix, and reckon if it is good enough for a real ship, its good enough for my models.......

again, thanks for that, mate....very very interesting. cheers.

i do think the man who told me all those years ago was a man called Des Newton who organised the Southport Lifeboat rally, but cannot be sure, but thinking back, i'm sure Des was a merchant seaman............but David Wooley knew him better than i.

even though my workshop is a s*** tip, and will take major removeable of c**p to fully operate, i can actually do bits to help clear the detritus whilst i wait fro filler, paint and glue to dry.....

and so with renewed vigor i desided to fit the prop shafts into the tubes, and fit the motors.

the main object though, was how to get over the millenium question of how to lubricate and waterproof the tubes and shafts from water ingress.

and this, true to the advice i give regularly, i followed my own advice. as i have done for the past 30 years.

i took the lid off my slowly diminishing stock of printers graphite powder and mixed 3 teaspoons full to half a tub of vasiline petroleum jelly. "Spooned" it in to a syringe [obtained foc from a local dispensary who looked at me with puzzlement when replying to them of the use that i was going to grease the propshafts of a model boat] and injected the concoction into the open stern end of the tube. 2 syringe fulls was just a little too much as there was a little squirt out from the motor end.

JOB DONE.

Then it was fitting the motors to the shafts......i used the rigid shaft coupling for straight alignment and to measure the thickness of the wooden engine bed to sit the motor on. meaqsurement fixced, i cut two out, mounted the motors on and then set the blocks into the hull using P38.........not a glue, but sticky enough to keep the wooden blocks in place.

just one slight problem was that when i took my eye off the game, the starboard one slipped slightly and i will have to unscrew the motor.........fill the screw holes with epoxy and then refit the motor so it is back in alignment with the shaft , thus avoiding out of line vibration. i alsi made my thrust washers from silicon tubing, rather than washers.

Also before fitting all, i filed flats onto both the inboard ends of the shafts and the output shafts of the motors to aid the grip of the allan studs

i came to the conlusion that my usual method of fixing motors into my old slow reving lifeboats......bluetack, just wouldn't cut the mustard with 19000 rpm motors, lol.

and miraculously more by good luck that management and fore thought, I managed to get the right propellors and shafts into the right tubes so that when rotating outwards from the fop they produce forward motion...............not done that before

Now, if you think laterally it's amazing what you can find that will do for a lifeboat.

i was watching my daughter take a covid rapid test today, as she has the past 3 days because her phone app told her to self isolate for 4 days........and what did i find.

that the little recepticle that you dip your swab into is absolutely perfect if the top rounded bit is cut off and saved, it will do for the lens cover on the all round white or blue light................

and whats more, the plastic part of the swab, can be once the swab end is removed is perfect for the short radio areals, lomge adds can be glued on to them, and even none operational hydraulic rams ....

just brilliant......and i washed them after surgical use.

AND YES........ for the fourth test in 3 days self isolation and the ninth since going into the same place as who ever triggered the app alarm.......she tested negative.

whooopeee.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 05/07/2021 17:22:42