Member postings for neil howard-pritchard

and today i have put the sump on to the tractor engine.......just a dummy gear ger box to make now.

thanks Colin..........but knowing me, that is probably exactly what will happen lol.

had to ask stavros this afternoon what esc's to buy for this project, as Milb's and my electronise esc's are far too big physically to fit anywhere........but that is sorted now with two little mini ones.

at least with me always building twin engines models and always using 2 esc's i think i can wire them up now profficiently lol.

thanks for the vote of confidence Bob, but to be honest ........at the moment this is a new avenue to my modelling, and a bit trial and error...........but i suppose i'll get there.

however to answer richards questions.

firstly, all of the tank tracks that i have seen are ALL the wrong "shape" at both ends and not high enough to give me the profile of the old RNLI Case, and at 1;16 scale they are too long.............the case tractor is only 12" lomg from extreme front to rear.

as for the motors, they actually have gear boxes attached to them and maximum rpm at 12v is 345 rpm....... i will be using 3.7v 2700ma batteries running in series [or is it parallel] giving 5400 ma of duration.........so i would presume with those batteries, maximum endurance with minimal rpm...................

and the Case tractor had a maximum speed of 6mph...........which i reckon will be scale for what i want.

Still on with the Case tractor, I was having a bit of a tidy up now that my back is feeling somewhat better in my workshop whilst casting a lifeboat crew figure for a regular gentleman when after casting I decided to give the tidying a break.................well you cant do it all or you'd never know where everything is and you'd loose sight of it all, being a bear of little brain my memory cant cope with such strains on such things...............

And secondly I came across some old drawings/sketches that someone had made for me years ago of an old RNLI lifeboat and RNLI tractor engine,.........

There and then I decided that as the Case L tractor has an open engine compartment on show with all the parts on show, so would my model, to a certain degree [not going into earth shattering rivet counting detail], but the basics will do.

And so I got some nice old obeche out, set the laithe up and started with the "heavy" flywheel, followed by the cylinder heads, half engine block and then the cylinders from dowel.

Hope you like it........tonight i'll make the top of the gear box, and then tomorrow the exhaust pipes, 4 into one, lol.

Hope you like it......excuse me for just playing, but at times it is enjoyable just to do something that probably isn't right to the purist, but looks alright in model form.......

My old mate Frank Hinchliffe of Caldercraft Models once said to me whilst visiting him over at his house in Yorkshire.........."my [franks] models conform, but often things are put onto them that aren't necessarily correct, but always remember Neil.....buls*** baffles brains"

He was the father of modern model boat kits..........so why should I complain. lol.

and that is the "build" up to the presant date.

who needs unreadable inadequate chinese instructions.....

with a little thought and some BA spanners and some mag spanners, plus my box of 3mm screws and nuts/washers.........and my laminated platform..........

job done.......i can start building the tractor unit to tow my Liverpool now.

WELL, as I hurt my back shifting a garden box containing all sorts of crap yesterday, I am taking it easy today and resting it............but if anyone knows me............I cant sit still without some sort of modelling to do or my hands start twitching and I end up picking my nose or ears for something to do...........and so!

this afternoon, I couldn't leave my new little box of tricks out and start fiddling.

I first mounted the motors onto the steel chasis, only to find that the wheels with tracks on, didn't match up centre wise with the mounting holes for the motors, and so had to make a choice...........

Either to shorten the tracks as supplied...........and shown in the "instructions" or to lengthen the chasis.

The instructions are in one line "have a guess" type sentences with photos so dark as to be stairing up black holes [ and I dont mean my nostrils] I decided to cut the chasis into two parts, and use the bed of the tractor, [to be made in plasticard as a new chasis top which the engine and other things can be mounted to] where I can stretch the positions of the motor centres to keep the tracks tight, by using the slots in the chasis as adjustment tracks.

Once I had cut the steel chasis in to two parts,using a fine metal cutting blade on my band saw I made the bed from 3 parts, a piece of flat grp sheet and two pieces of 2mm plasticard.

I then glued these sheets together using 30 minute 2 part epoxy and then used a piece of ply wood to keep it flat, by clamping the sheets to to the ply...........and there it will stay until set.

Then it will be drilled for nuts and bolts as the fasteners and left until I figure out how to fit the guide wheels lol.

So, what did i do...........i bought a box of nice tricks from eBay.

The box contains something pertaining to lifeboats but something i have never ventured into before.........a TANK.........

well not quite, but some caterpiller tracks, drive and trailing wheels and all other parts to make an RNLI Case L tractor to pull my Liverpool class lifeboat on a trailer.

The idea came to me some time ago after seeing both

Mike Pendlebury

and

Mike Davies

trailers and tractor units for their boats.

Having seen both their beautiful works i knew i could never build similar, but a simpler tractor unit would be within my capabilities and as such i have muted the Case L for some time.

However a Fowler tracter came up on eBay a couple of weeks ago for sale, and as offers were asked on the price of £250 quid, and the fact that instead of having the wrong type of tracks [in fact Tiger tank tracks] i made an offer, but was rejected as the vendor said he had had better offers..........

Mick French

unbeknown to me had also put in a bid with similar replies.

I am actually very pleased that my offer had been rejected as a] i found the person selling it had made unpleasant remoarks on other forums about members on here and b] i wouldn't always have to think that i had used basically a tank track on a tractor that didn't have tank tracks. and so i started doing a bit of research and homeworck on ebay, and found the perfect thing to fit the bill, as i found this kit..........

Absolutely perfect.......tracks and wheels perfect, right length, correct width and only two main wheels per side, with a chasis to build the main body on to.........and with some offer discount, i got it for £27.20p...........a tenth of what a tracter with wrong tracks would have cost me....................plus, i will have great pleasure in building the body and towing hooks etc to fit onto the chasis.

and with the kit came the two motors to get the tracter working under r/c.

i also bought a set of tracks with similar wheels plus two extra wheels to fit inbetween those sets of wheels for the bogies on the trailor............they are from seperate suppliers, but all the same size diameter wise, but this "robot" took only 8 days to arrive from China...........fantastic service..............and i am sooohh excited to start this too,The case l that was used at blackpool with the lifeboat i am going to buils was the older more exposed case..........and have one very handy to go and photograph this summer in Blackpool.

**LINK**

I am at a point where i have to clear away a lot pf unused duplicate parts from the last part of my Tyne class build, those parts that i made for the Mersey lifeboat that i duplicated if needed........and there is muck and debrie all over, and so before i fling myself fully in to finishing the big tyne class boat on the other thread, i thought i would start on parts for my Liverpool lifeboat later in the year.

the boat is based upon one which served both in Cornwall and then at Blackpool and was launched into the sea by a tracter and trailor.

And so, i started by building the tracter unit, based upon a Case L unit.

A Lovely service and a wonderful address............

And Dave, as true to his superb and dry sense of humour, could be the only man to have chosen "Wish you were Here", by Pink Floyd to welcome us all to his service.

God bless you Milbs........we'll miss you.

a very interesting model, Bob.

I used to live and teach in Maidenhead.............and these were a source of beauty to me down at Boulters Lock, and up at Henley on Thames where I had friends and often visited.........and got the chance to sail in one whilst down there from '78- 1980.

As a woodwork teacher, I think I took more notice of their beautiful build than I did the river...........glorous boats................and seldom seen in model form.

Good luck and pleasant modelling with yours Bob..........it will look lovely when you have finished all that gorgeous woodwork and brass.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 11/04/2021 17:45:19

they always look better when the final job is naming them, and this morning was no exception.

So, here it is, Mick French.........

your completed Mersey.........even got a relief crew on board today, but sadly they have a home to go too when the mersey leaves Poulton le Fylde, and sadly for you it isn't Cornwall,
Hope you like it, and dont bloody break it...................i'm NOT doing another refit.
now back to my Tyne...............my single Tyne.

and my heartfelt thanks go to Mike Davies,who supplied the transfers for the model, for he saved the day when i cocked up the spacing on the air intake ducts on the cabin sides, size wise to the window frames, and he had to work to the minimum size to get the name of the boat to fit the gap.................cheers mate............they turned out well. thanks a lot.

And now that i, Dave Stavros Jones and Mike Davies who have all taken part in this restoration of the Mersey for Mick French free of any renumeration, so that he can show this and his other lifeboat models at shows around the south west of England to raise money for the RNLI, i can now get back to the title of my topic....the TYNE class lifeboat.

i still have the Tyne to finish which is what started this thread Bob..........the Mersey just highjacked it as it was a refit, which turned into a rebuild for a friend who shows his boats to raise money for the RNLI...........

As soon as i have made sure all is done on the Mersey ready for giving back to my mate, i will be back onto the Tyne which started off this thread and build blog....

but rest assured, my model building will go on hopefully.

so back to my tyne in a few days.

its in a brown bubble post it bag somewhere Grorge..........just locating it lol...........

started rigging the stanchion "rails" this afternoon around 16.30, and finally just finished..............errrrno, sorry, did some time on them this morning.

Using the bottle screws and the stereo ear phone wire, plus heat shrink i started working from the stern on the starboard side, until i got to the last but one stanchion, and whilst bending the copper coated steel wire to make the connecting loops...........disaster struck..............i broke the stanchion where the supporting stay was drilled and glued into the stanchion between the lower and top hole for the wire.........

had to go into the workshop to get a spare and refit, but couldnt find one, so had to cast a new one........in fact i cast 9, and will give the spares to Mick French when i give him the boat.............no good trying to repair them................just easier to refit one

anyway, finished them all and they just need touching up with either black, grey and or alluminium coloured humbrol enamel.

fitted the masts and aereals for photos, and that Mick french is that, apart from naiming her, which i will do tomorrow after painting and touching up the bits n pieces.

just have to find the motor for the radar now, fit it into the radar body, and feed the wires out so that it can be connected by Mick's electronics friend,..............

And that Mick French , IS THAT!

that is so beautiful and made with such love, care and devotion........

we will all miss you dave and with such love in our hearts, for you as a human being, and for what you gave to our hobby, and i would like to send my best wishes to your family to.

where ever you went to Dave, may yur spirit run wild and free and your charisma light the darkest of corners of your eternal home...........god love you, as we all did and do.

neil, the electronics idiot.

Safety lines have been applied to the cabin sides, and the spot lights, which along with the window frames are the only original fittings that came with the old boat, and used on this reincarnation are just about it for my part of the build apart from fitting the radar assembly.............but there lies a story...........i have lost the mini motor for the radar that i bought for Micks model, and so once i have tidied up ready for finishing the Tyne i will look for them.........if i cannot find them i'll just have to buy another off ebay.

the safety lines, as will be the stanchion lines, were made from some wire, 1.5mm plastic tube [for the bottle screws and the line is black personal radio/mobile phone earphone wire...............just the right diameter,

except for fitting the lines to the stanchions which i will start tomorrow, and hopefully complete by the weekend.

the areals for the cabin top i have made but left off as the boat will be going back to Mick in Cornwall in July for his mate to fit the electrics including lights.............i DON'T MESS with those any more after having to do 2 shannons...............just a pain in the accienda.

It will be easier ti do the electrics if you are not encumbered by then being fixed , snapped off or poking you in the eye.............just a simple blob of gel cyano will glue thos in place once with Mick French..

And once all the manual obs have been done i will finally name her to give her identity, thanks to Mike Davies and his wonderful sheets of identity transfers. Cheers mate.

thanks Eddie......really appreciate your comments........i've built all types of ships over the years, but seem to have gravitated towards lifeboats over the more recent years, and the older classics are much more to my taste than modern stuff in orange........but this is a rebuild for a mate who spends most weekends showing his vast collection of model lifeboats, all based in Cornwall where he lives raising money for the RNLI.

However, i can now shout EURIKA........eureka!!!..........

apart from rigging the stanchion guard/safety lines, and naming the boat, the hull of Mick French's Mersey is now complete, and shall put it away out of harms reach whilst i concentrate on the few cabin parts still to add, and there aren't many of those either.

But this morning, a visit to the lifeboat in Fleetwood to get the bow fairlead and strops correctly fitted, i took some photos of her, and then came home to do the same on the model.

I also attached some studded anchor chain to the Fishermans pattern anchor, for detailing.. Hope you like it, warts mistakes and all..

Sorry to correct you Tim..........but i'm not skillfull enough to put a tiny light into the top of the "EPIRB" nor a solar panel to collect suns rays, but it is an EPIRB................a very early design that the RNLI used but still an EPIRB.

and below is a whole host of different EPIRBS on the market.

EPIRB - Google Search

two jobs this afternoon....attaching the bow strops via the anchoring point through the bow ruffle hole.....which went to plan. the connection through the bow belting will be done tomorrow after i have visited the Mersey on hard standing on Fleetwood docks for a nosey.

and fitting the stainless steel protective plates over the belting.

the inner layer was a very sticky piece of aluminium pipe repair tape, ans the outer covering was a piece of stainless steel shimming that Mick French gave to me to do the job. the outer sheath was glued to the ally tape using Evostik contact adhesiv......

miraculously all seemed to go together with relative ease.

and then just spent an hour or so making some rigging screws for the stanchions on the Mersey got a few more to go, but of a longer variety.............but wont know length or how many until i see the boat tomorrow.