Billing Boats Smit Nederland

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Colin , ……and on half wages.

As you were busy posting this morning I was probably down in the cellar store fishing out scrap brass from the Colin Archer box😀. Below are the new wipers. Exactly the same width as the ones I misused. Primed and painted inTamiya Rubber Black. But not yet cut to length. Made the casings/covers which house the horizontal widow wiper mechanisms, which of course aren’t there anyway.

Three photos further up and you can see my bottle of Canopy G. In the background👍.

Richard, I am pleased with the black surrounds. Looked a bit bland without. As with all of my work, to be viewed at a respectable distance!

George

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Ah yes, right in front of me if I had scrolled up! You seem to be doing a very good job. Me, I’m still messing around with my liner engine room skylights. The original construction would have been a hatch with grilles with heavy hinged covers with windows that could be closed over it. I’ve made the hatches and windows but debating whether to show one or two of the covers open – maybe a step too far but we will see.

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Saw the photos of some skylights, they look very good. Have you posted photos of hatches too?

Smit Ned’ now has the bridge unit glued to the deck. A bit of hassel getting it centred due to all the light cables sticking up through the deck . Had to enlarge all the holes to allow adjustment of the bridge position. The bridge deckhead is still not glued or faired…just sitting in place for ‘show’. I will fit a steaming light to the railing and the wires have to be led below and hidden around a top ledge in the bridge.

Wipers are on, painted Tamiya Rubber Black and almost invisible, as I have ‘parked’ them very close to the window edge…. which is also black!

Black ‘skirting board’ added to the deck-bulkhead glue line.I note that paint does not adhere too well to styrene strip. Read last night that it should be wiped with alcohol. What a waste🥂

 

 

George

 

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

I originally was going to leave out steaming and sternlights to keep things simple-ish. But the tiny lights were just lying there in the placky bag begging me to fit them somewhere on a tug.

I have a nasty habit of adding complexity instead of adhering to the KISS principle.

The deckhead is hanging on a ‘dockyard crane’ while I attach some tiny wires to a grain of wheat.🤓

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

<p>Hi George,</p><p>I wish I had your attention to detail and crisp appearance, as I get further on with a build I get rather lazy !!</p><p>Just spent a lovely morning with my slope soaring glider flying off the North Downs here in Kent, strong lift in a south westerly breeze, variety is the spice of life :-)</p><p>Best Regards Ray</p>

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hi Ray, if I had the chance, I would also vary my hobby activities a bit more. Did some slope soaring from the hills west of Aberdeen airport when I flew helicopters out to the rigs many years ago. For several years now, my wife has needed me to be nearby relatively often, so I adjust my activities so that we are both content. The weather in SW Norway suits boating ( and being indoors!) better than flying model a/c -so no complaints.

I am going to have to TRY to curb my build-enthusiasm a bit for a while. I’m getting almost obsessed with the detail work on the Smit Ned. And in addition I find new things to add that are not part of the kit.

Finally got the bridge deckhead on. Been looking forward to that for ages. The bridge and ‘internals’ have taken a lot of planning, but would have been much easier if did not get crazy ideas like a radar screen, backlit chart plotter, ambient lighting etc! My own fault.

George

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Jar of wheel balance weights now removed. Radar head and compass binacle in it’s plsce.

The rest of the week should see more small details bring added. Maybe start on exhaust stacks too. I’ll stop hogging the cyberspace until ca. Sunday. No promisses though.

George🤐

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Been beavering away all week but not much to show for it. Mostly locating tiny parts, both ply and brass, and then trying to find out where on the tug they are supposed to be fitted!

Assembled a few parts and mixed my own version of “mediterranean blue” for the exhaust stacks and fittings.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

As mentioned earlier, I bought in some Hammerite “special metals primer”. It seemed to work OK on the railings which I sanded/filed before application of primer. When I did the same with the tug’s mast, the primer did not stick very well. I filed it all off and phoned the Hammerite importer in Oslo. I was told to clean  the brass with a “Nr.1 thinner” before applying Hammerite. I hapened to have a tin of thinner left over from the Fisher build and on the side of the tin?….”nr.1 Thinner”

So, I will find out tomorrow if the primer grips the brass tube of the mast. I notice that the mast is just visible at the bottom of the photo above. That’s the first application of Red-brown Hamerite…before I started scraping too much off it!.

I have been looking for Carr’s ‘etching primer’ over here but cannot see any ref. to it in Norway.

Hope the above goes down as ‘info’ and not ‘waffle’, it was “news’ to me at least, but then almost everthing is.🤔

George

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

And now for my latest blunder….. the Smit Ned’ should have ” Billing ‘mediterranean blue’ paint on the exhaust stacks and associated parts. I googled that Billing Med’ Blue = Tamiya X-14.

I had 2 pots of Tamiya X-4 in store -which is a darker blue- so decided to try  to mix a lighter blue. Mixed Tamiya X4 and Tamiya white and added a little Billing ‘light sea blue’. Mixed it all together and painted two sides of an exhaust stack and left it to dry. Next day when I was going to paint the exhaust stacks the new paint mix was a bit thick and ‘gooey’. So I mixed in Tamiya thinners which seemed to fix the problem. When I started painting….small p articles/tiny lumps appeared on the painted surface. First I though that the brush had picked up wood filings etc but then I ‘woke up’ and googled for info.

You cannot mix Tamiya with Billing acrylic due to Tamiya having alcohol/solvent in their acrylic paints. So now I too know that.🤓.  You can wash out brushes in water of course, but should use Tamiya thinner to thin the paint. I don’t suppose many use Billing acrylic but there are several which are purely water based and won’t mix with Tamiya and the solvent based acrylics.

George.

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Sorry to hear the tale of woe George.  As you say Tamiya is a solvent based acrylic so is not compatible with any water based acrylic paints.

Even now, after all the years I’ve been playing around with building models, if I am intending doing any paint mixing or laying coats of different paint on top of each other, I still always do a test piece first.  Sometimes it is simply testing effects and finishes, but always it checks compatibility.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

This is something I have covered in my proposed upcoming article in the magazine on building materials.

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

I knew that I should have done a test first. Paid the price for impatience🫤

This weekend should give me time to flush the grey cell with thinners. We have a double great-grandchild christening. My wife voluntered US to make hundreds of sandwiches  (well….ca. 70). A sandwich in Norway looks like a full salad on a large round of bread.  Bit like a Danish ‘smørgasbrød’.

Have to tidy away the acrylics by 1200hrs Sat. so I don’t get paint on the prawns!

Next week should produce some assembly photos and no waffle.Wish all a good weekend,

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Tried priming/painting the navlights a few days ago. Could not get the primer to take, in spite of using all previous tricks. So mast nav and signal lights stay brassy, until they tarnish.

The exhaust stacks are getting the better of me. Need to route wiring up through them and out to floodlights and steaming light ++. They also need to be mounted on deck before all the connections can be made.

The bridgedeck ladder and handrails have at last been epoxied in place. The short access ramp has been hinged to the aft ‘gateway’ on the bridgedeck.

George

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Don’t know what caused a ‘long space of nothing’ below the last post. Maybe it’s white waffle!

Not to worry. Trial fitted exhaust stacks on deck. The wiring will hopefully not be so obvious by the weekend.

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hmmm🤔 the nav lights and floodlights were connected up yesterday but did not work as intended/hoped. Only the 2 P&S sidelight bulbs illuminated😬, the steaming light was very faint and the floods+sternlight did not show any sign of have a PD (volts) across them.

The the lightbulbs are 6v Caldercraft ( now Ro-Marine/Krick). 6 of them in all.

I may have connected them up wrongly. They are connected in series but,… the bulb iin the steaming light is in parallel with 2 floodlights and a steaming light mounted on the exhaust stacks. The floodlight bulbs are 6v 50mA, while the other 4 bulbs are 6v 100mA.

Ohms measured across all the bulbs show .36 ohms but don’t know what that tells me – other than something is in fact connected within the circuit.

I have a feeling that the parallel steaming lig ht may be causing trouble or the diff in mA of the two sets of bulb. Maybe 6 bulbs is too many.

Will do some tests later today  by removing the paralleled steaming light. And reducing the number og bulbs in the series wired circuit.

George

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Been juggling and testing all afternoon to no avail. Found an inconsistant fault with the battery box but even after elliminating that from the circuit/s there was no joy with the navlights/stern+steaming. Isolated the steaming light and tested with first 3v, then 6v directly to the wires with no other items connected. Still no light.

I think I may have knakkered all the bulbs when switching on for the first test. Though I cannot find any sign that could have been a short circuit in the system.

Anyway, moving on to other jobs. Maybe tackle the lighting at some later stage. But very difficult to get at some of the wiring now that the exhaust stacks are on board….but not impossible.

George.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Just in case anyone starts using their precious time on my light-bulbs. No need. After ‘sleeping on it’ -or rather not sleeping much at all- I have dismantled all the wiring and tested each light bulb. They all give a weak orange glow when one battery (1.5v) is applied across the terminals. The battery box did not supply power each time it was checked…without using a switch.

Bought a new batt-box today which will be checked in due course. Will wire it all again but with a dedicated circuit for the floodlights which were supplied as a separate unit.

Back next week sometime, when I’ve calmed down🫡

Grorge

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi George,

I had an intermittent fault on one of my racing yachts recently on the radio changed batteries , receivers even swapped transmitters…….. It was the switch harness 🙂

My advice on the wiring is don’t give up your day job 🙂

Best Regards  Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thanks Ray,

I have in fact ordered a new switch even though the one I have seems to be OK. As I mentioned above, i actually did some initial tests without the switch harness connected in the circuit.

George

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

All you can do George is exactly what you are doing, take everything apart and go through step by step in a logical isolated fashion.  You will find the fault.  Invariably it may happen to be a connecting mistake but we all do it.  especially easy when using lamps with resistors.

You may find it easier to draw up a sketch of the arrangement so that you can better understand all current paths and how the resistors affect not just the lamp they are connected to but possibly other parts of the circuit as well.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Resistors? Errrrr….didn’t have any of those in the circuit. Don’t have any in store either.

I made a sketch of the circuits before I started. Checked each bulb with a single 1.5v cell as I took it out of the circuit. All gave the required faint glow. There two things which may have caused trouble, but I don’t know exactly why.

I had two lighting sets from Caldercraft, now sold with RoMarine packaging (which I couldn’t use on the fisher).

One containing 2 rectangular flood lights 6v. 100mA. And one set of 4 lights “Yacht navigation lights”, red, green and 2x white for steam and stern lights. Also these are 6v but 200mA.

I wired them all in one bundIle BUT the steaming light was in parallel with the floods and sternlight. I don’t think the “electrickery dept” liked that too much.

I also found that the 4-cell Hitec battery box did not supply any volts at all on some of the times I tried to measure across the +& – terminals. The switch was not in the circuit during tests but that worked OK when tested. I twiddled the batteries and wires etc. /to no avail.

Bought a new batt box and will fiddle with the old one in due course. It’s not exactly a complicated peice of kit!

I will also separate the flood light circuit from the navlight circuit. The whole show is not at all important as very few souls will ever see the lights in use BUT I don’t like being defeated by something I should have no problem with in the first place.

This whole thing is getting out of proportion AND I’m waffeling too much. The next mention of lights will be either a photo of the tug with navlights a-glowing, or of a tug without approval for night operations.

Wish all a good weekend, George

 

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Lights re-connected in two different circuits. The two floodlights on the aft face of the funnels now work OK,  tested with 6v. across bothe floods.

The navlight set (red+green,]+steaming+stern) also now work but the emmitted light is very weak. Maybe they should wired in parallel -from a bus-bar- instead of in series? Or two nav lights and two white lights on seperate circuits, which I refuse to do!

I’ll take Ray’s advice for a week or two -ish, get on with the ‘day job’ and build some deck components like the towing winch which has about a hundred parts.

George

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

George,

There is some confusion here! I think Richard is assuming you are using LEDs which do need resistors but the Caldercraft sets are incandescent grain of wheat/rice bulbs and don’t. However each bulb does need the full voltage to work so daisy chaining them in series is no good, they have to be wired in parallel as you have discovered with the floods. If you wire in series then each bulb will receive the voltage supplied by the battery divided by the number of bulbs in the circuit.

You may well have a dud battery box, this happened to me recently with my Greek fishing boat. There was nothing obviously wrong with either the individual cells or the contacts in the box itself but there was no voltage on the exit wires. Replacing the box may do the job, in my case I switched to a 4.8v rechargeable NiMH pack which solved the problem. I suspect it might be something to do with the fact that AA batteries today seem to have slightly ‘fatter’ all round dimensions than they used to and the tooling for the battery box was is meant for the original size. This sort of thing does throw a spanner in the works when you are trying to fault find,

I’m a bit surprised that Caldecraft are still selling incandescent lighting as LEDs have long been the norm now. They last much longer and typically draw 25ma instead of the 200ma of the incandescent types so the battery lasts a lot longer too.

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

It was actually just a generic comment, not necessarily referring to this installation.  Apologies, not particularly clear.

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