Billing Boats Smit Nederland

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Many thanks to you both,

I’d forgotten that basic supply info about deviding the voltage by the number of bulbs!

I don’t think Caldercraft do sell them any more. Mine came from CMB in ca.2020 for the Fisher but were not used (used a stringIof IKEA Xmas LEDs! instead). Same system in the Colin Archer too!

CMB still sell them but they come in RoMarin packaging. The ‘Floods’ are called LED deck lights but they are not LEDs.

I was looking at 4.8v packs yesterday thinking about powering just 2 bulbs from each, but the whole lighting project is becoming ‘a tail that’s wagging the dog’ affair. I may also try to produce a bus bar, and supply them in parallel which is what I first planned to do!😵‍💫

I’m taking a mental brake from “illumination’ this week and starting to construct the rest of the deck equipment.

Thanks again,

George

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

It looks like when I click ‘backspace’ that all the pargraphs aquire a large gap/spacing. When I correct this, the large gap then remains below the text in my post.

May be finger trouble, hmmm,

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Aahhh yes, the winch. Lots of small-ish parts, mainly plywood, a bit of plastic and a few brass parts. Preparing and gluing has occasionally been interupted by various attempts at cleaning up the grouting between hundreds of tiles on the bathroom walls and floor. Different mixtures have been tested, from neat chlorine to a peroxide and baking soda paste with vinegar as an extra catalist. The flat does not smell too good just now, but the grouting is getting back to light grey from the unimpresive brownish-grey. And the spiders have “left the building”.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi George,

I know where your coming from with the bathroom grouting !! I re tiled the shower about 6 years ago with grey, but I should have used black 🙂

Good to see the winch fabricated with plywood pieces , where would the world be without it ??

I sold my big and heavy tug Cullamix today as it’s not being used to a clubmate, so now I need to build another tug but smaller and a string of barges for it to tow, always looking 5 models ahead 🙂

Regards from the UK

Ray

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Been ‘winching’ all day today too. Cleaning the grouting between assembly stages just for a break. As the plans show, lots of parts. Even the parts have parts. PartlyI.

Turned the page and there was a tow hook; a dozen parts there too. Luckily, most of the parts are to be painted white.

The laser cut parts are easy to axcess, so full marks there.

Hope to get the winch painted and glued together next week, so now I’m de-

parting…ooohh sorry.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Family issues “stopped play” most of this week. Managed some priming of winch parts and added mahogany cooling fins to the winch drive motor. No waffle.👍

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Been buisy building a small cobler’s workshop for the youngest (52yrs!) Stepdaughter. Finished it today. Managed to get winch done just before starting the ‘cobler’s’.

Winch on board, not glued yet.

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

I know what you mean George about spending time doing things for our youngsters having spent a major part of this year working on my son’s flat. Back to models though now.

Good to see another of your builds and to your usual high standard.

Chris

[bkuParticipant @bku]

Hi George,

I have been reading your posts with great interest, as I have started to build the Smit Nederland a few weeks ago.
First mistakes already made.
Something that helps me a lot is a hudge number of photo’s placed by another builder on the dutch modelbuilders forum.
You can find it here.
https://www.modelbouwforum.nl/media/albums/smit-nederland.4787/
Maybe it can help you with some details.

I also keep a blog there about my building (although in Dutch)
https://www.modelbouwforum.nl/threads/bouw-van-smit-nederland-in-zuid-afrika.290696/

Regards from South Africa,
Bert

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Just a word on lighting that might be of interest to some.  I have a steam lorry and was looking into how to light it and the obvious areas to look at are the RC car accessories.  I notice they now do LED light sets that are pre-wired into a harness with a resistor ready fitted and a plug on the end that simply goes into a spare outlet from the receiver.  They are powered by the receiver outlet, which has to be a non-proportional on-off channel.

These are available in up to sets of eight lights and I’m sure could also be adapted for boat use.  The wires would probably need extending and, in some cases the resistors might need moving as they can be challenging when directly soldered to the lamp tails, but I’ve not come across before a system that is potentially so simple and so easy to use.

Balanced against this has to be the reduction in life of the receiver batteries but I’m certainly going to do some experimenting with my steam lorry.  The lamps tend to be in either 3mm or 5mm diameters, so not the smallest but they may well be worth investigating.

LED Lights

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

The trouble with most of those LEDs is that they have an inline resistor in the lamp tail which can get in the way. It is possible to buy 12v LEDs which incorporate a resistor into the LED itself which are much neater. They work on a direct 6v supply too.

E.G. https://dmgelectech.co.uk/product/3mm-leds/

The warm white varieties are very effective in simulating interior accommodation lighting. The difference between the warm white and white can be seen below.

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thanks to Chris, Bert, Richard and Colin for recent posts. I have not done much tugbuilding in recent weeks though I haven’t had a full stop. I am not sure if I will put any more cash/effort into lighting although I may buy in more battery capacity and/or wire up again -but in parallel. A few family members will be impressed and say “wow” and that’ll be that. Chaps on the Forum will have seen much more impressive lighting efforts throughout the years. I will of course enjoy the pleasure of getting it all up an shining.

I’ll be adding the rest of the deck gear in between some Xmas shopping outings in the next weeks. Then I may go back to sorting the lighting.

Thanks again for the inputs, George

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Lighting is a nice optional extra but in reality you do not use it very much. OK for display in the dark and for the odd night time regatta but otherwise it is very much optional. I used to include it in my models such as the Fishery Cruiser but not sure I would bother in the future. It is a fair bit of extra effort for a limited return in practice.

You want people to look at and admire your models but they rarely do so in the dark!

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Colin, in that link above, what is the difference between the lamps labelled 12V and the ones that are not?  Can you confirm that they work on 6v?

What I would like to do is connect six lamps in parallel across a single receiver switched outlet (or maybe two) so using just the receiver 6v battery as power.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Richard,

Just checked one of my 12v 3mm LEDs across a 6v supply and it works fine although it is about half the brightness when on 12v which is not necessarily a bad thing. Many LEDs are actually too bright to be realistic on models.

I imagine the 12v LED would be brighter on 9.6v than 6v so ]you have options.

RX battery should be OK at 6v for subdued light output.

Colin

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Hi Richard,

A standard white LED has a forward voltage of about 3v, so two in series should work on your 6v supply without a current limiting resistor. Simply wire 3 sets of 2 series LED’s for your 6.

I’ve got some in a parts box somewhere, I can plug some in tomorrow and see what happens if it’d help.

Dave

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Many thanks gents.  It sounds like it should be OK.  I am lighting up a steam lorry so the lighting should resemble oil lamps.  I’ll buy myself a few of the ones in Colin’s link and have a play.  I never realised that LEDs dimmed with lower voltages in just the same way as incandescent lamps do.  I guess I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking of them as purely diodes so they are either on or off!

Thanks for the suggestion Dave but I’ll get some and have a play myself.  Its not an expensive exercise, for once!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

The 12v ones I have still work on 3v dimmed down.

Colin

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Not used them myself, but flickering LED’s are available in various colours and voltages. Might give extra character to oil lamps. I believe Ashley tried them on ‘bumper’ boats.

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Getting very slowly into the build again and after negotiating my way through all the info above on different light systems I have managed construct more deck gear and give it all a dollop of paint.

Regarding lights on the S-Ned’, I expect that I will have a go at re-wiring it all in parallel and supply via the 6v drybatt’ pack which is already installed. As mentioned earlier -and supported by others- the light systems will be seen only once or twice for show, and never on a lake in the dark.

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Hi, does anyone know the correct way to route/thread the tow rope on this tug? Should the rope exit from to top of the drum or below as I have done.

Should it be routed below the forward bollard construction as in the photo?

I’ve seen several diffrent methods on YouTube -some of which are strange.

When not towing, I expect that the whole rope would be on the drum but I want to show some rope on deck…as though en-route to start a tow.

I know that it should not be routed fore and aft on the deck as in the photo. I just stowed it like that before putting the tug away for the evening!

Respectful suggestions as to where to put the loop on the end of the rope would be welcomed😁

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Moved attention forward now to the bow deck and anchor windlass. Inccluded in the kit were two very impressive 11mm brass tubes -to be installed as hawse pipes for the anchorchains. These are far too wide for the job at 11mm dia. and if installed would protrude outside the edge of the achor recess on each hull side.I tried fitting them on the inside surface of the hull and the underside of the foredeck but I fIIIound that it was difficult to make a tidy glue join.

6mm alloy tubes were located in store and have been install instead. Not as impressive, but they look right.

The hawse pipes have been ‘water repellant -ed’ by stuffing a little medium foam up the tube and surrounding the chain.. The larger diamter pipes -if used- would certainly have needed plugging to avoid sending a lot of water across the decks.

George

[geconParticipant @gecon]

The anchor windlass, anchors and chain have now been fitted. Many other small parts like loud hailers, deck lights and crew members etc are waiting in line for a blob of appropriate glue.

George

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Slow progress as usual. Rewired all the exterior lights in an attempt to make a parallel supply. In spite of a lot of planning and sketches (and even thinking) most of the bulbs were still in series. Or rather they seemed to be, as only the steaming light and stern light were bright. The 4 others were dim as earlier. So, lights are still on the menu but will not be receiving attention until next year.

Did some more relaxing stuff recently in way of adding small details around the decks and railings.

[Roger FugeParticipant @rogerfuge]

That looks great well done

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