Eezebilt PT Boat

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Just a few pics of an Eezebilt PT Boat I have started. This has the plans resized to A3, and next I will be fitting the prop shaft and rudder servo. The hull is about 28" long.

Any recommendations for the motor? I was thinking of one of the Leopard combinations from Component Shop. Perhaps the 2826/17 100W.

Tim

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By Tim Cooper on 18/04/2017 13:10:01

Edited By Tim Cooper on 18/04/2017 13:12:25

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Tim

I run one of those Leopard motors in one of my Huntsman 31 models which is the same sort of size. Battery is LiPo 2S and prop is 1315 3-blade fast-scale bronze (from Protean Design). ESC is the ComShop 30A V3 one. Excellent! Avoid 2-blade pros as they induce a lot of torque roll, especially on a relatively narrow-beamed boat like yours.

Dave M

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Thanks Dave.

Tim

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

What are you thinking of skinning it with? The original 1/16" balsa is light, but it will need extra support if you increase the gap between the bulkheads.

The alternative, as many people have done when they double the size of EeZeBilts, is to go for 1/16" ply. This is much more puncture and handling-resistant.

The EeZeBilts are VERY light, so they go surprisingly fast on not much power. I had two prototypes – one used an old Towerpro motor that I had, the other used an Emax CF2822 brushless out-runner running on 7.2v from NiMH batteries. KV was around 1200, I think. These cost around £5 on ebay (another point about EeZeBilts is that they are meant to be cheap!) and can output 140W, though I would only have given it around 30-40. I would not be surprised to find the same motor running on 12v pushing a 1.4x PT Boat around just as fast, though you would probably want to worry about cooling at that point.

Here is a link to a Dutch build where there is an EeZeBilt PT Boat build, some discussion of motors and props, videos, discussion of finishing colours and some downloadable art for the side of the bridge…

**LINK**

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Thanks Dodgy

I have strengthened the bow and stern with extra lamination of balsa and I have the 1/16 " ply for the skin. Also I may tissue and dope over the top of that the boating lake I use has vert hard edges.. I would like it to be fast but not manic.

Tim

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have used 0.8mm ply successfully on a number of models (including the top and bottom skins on the pontoon boat). It is very light and has the most wonderfully fine grain giving a good finish with very little preparation.

Ashley

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

I have to agree with Ashley. 1/16" ply is twice as heavy as 1/32" [0.8mm] and a lot more difficult to cut and bend. For a model of this relatively modest size which doesn't require the stiffness to withstand the vibration of an I/C motor, like Vic Smeed's old designs did, then 0.8mm ply is a better choice. To compare it with a commercial kit, the original Huntsman 31 – which was almost twice as long and had a 1.5HP glowplug motor – used 1/16" ply skins. I prefer 2mm liteply because it's easier to work than birch ply but it does have a more pronounced grain and it will de-laminate quickly if you don't waterproof the inside and outside of the hull adequately.
If your lake has hard sides then I suggest you fit hardwood rubbing strips around the edge of your model's deck. 1/16" x 1/8" mahogany would be fine. Here's what I mean:

You can round off the edges to form a D shape when it's set.

Dave M

[Mark Jarvis 2Participant @markjarvis2]

Hi Tim, instead of the tissue and dope, why not use a stocking and resin, far stronger and a better finish

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Moving from A4 to A3 means moving from around 1:48 scale to 1:35 scale. There are lots of useful PT boat accessories at this scale.

Here is a set of figures **LINK**

and a conversion kit with Bofors, Oerlikon, masts, torpedos and such like: **LINK**

Incidentally, what resin would you use with a stocking?

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Thanks Dodgy

Yes I have the figures and the conversion kit ready to use.

Tim

[David StillParticipant @davidstill31471]

I have just started one of these myself as a bit of a fun build I’m doing the same size and plan to make as many of the fittings as I can. The 1/16 skin will have some glass tissue to add strength or maybe some light cloth.

Dave

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Fun/make it yourself is what the EeZeBilts are all about!

I found that the only fittings I needed to buy were the cowl vents – two at approx 35mm high by 10mm wide. I ended up getting then at 15mm wide, which is a bit big. I think the 20mm Oerlikons and the 37mm M4 came out well – I'm still wondering how to do a simple 40mm Bofors.

One of the prototypes had rather soft 1/16 balsa skin – it would have benefited a lot from a glass coating!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Perhaps an area (skinning) that these EeZe craft could benefit from, the use of stuff hitherto considered too expensive (at the time).

​Whereas I realise that balsa would have been the choice of material at the time, the use of glass/z-poxy/ezecote and so on can make a big difference to these craft.

​I should have thought that substituting 0.8mm ply would require no boat plan mods?? other than a bit of additional trimming to allow for the thinner material. I am not suggesting altering the plans of course.

​Ashley

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by ashley needham on 07/06/2017 07:47:01:

Perhaps an area (skinning) that these EeZe craft could benefit from, the use of stuff hitherto considered too expensive (at the time).

​Whereas I realise that balsa would have been the choice of material at the time, the use of glass/z-poxy/ezecote and so on can make a big difference to these craft.

​I should have thought that substituting 0.8mm ply would require no boat plan mods?? other than a bit of additional trimming to allow for the thinner material. I am not suggesting altering the plans of course.

​Ashley

By ALL MEANS alter the plans! That's what 'creative commons' copyright is all about! It's completely different from the old approach to developing products where one designer or team took 'ownership'. Operating systems like Linux work by an original idea being put out, and then developers from all over the world improving on it. And I would be the first to admit that a lot of these plans need improvement..

The original idea here was just to document the KK Eezebilts and some of their clever design features (have you noticed how the Terrier base is bent up and clipped into the formers during assembly to give a curved chine?). I copied that technique on the Tamar. Then I started to be interested in adding to the range, while keeping the original aims. These seemed to me to be:

1 – Small and cheap – suitable for pocket money, and building in a bedroom without a workbench, expensive tools or extra fittings.

2 – Made of a forgiving material – easy to cut and reshape when you go wrong, and unlikely to cause a mess.

3 – Near-scale – to stimulate a child's imagination. I never found profile aircraft very attractive for this reason. The EeZeBilts will take HO/OO figures or 1:32 soldiers, and are good for display on a child's bookcase (where they will actually spend most of their life!).

4 – Able to be assembled by a child with minimal help from an adult.

You can see that using glass sheathing or 0.8mm ply doesn't fit so well with these aims. Sheathing with modern materials is expensive, and ply demands good cutting tools and accuracy. But as soon as I had put out some plans, people started doubling up the size and making them as 'adult' models. And of course. in this regime, sheathing and ply make a lot of sense. Tissue covering, or doping brown paper on was a common strengthening technique at the time, but I always found this to be messy, and I could never get it to lie flat…

[David StillParticipant @davidstill31471]

I’ve actually double skinned the hull bottom and it seems quite solid. I would put a picture up but no idea how to put them on a thread.

Dave

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Posted by David Still on 09/06/2017 21:21:28:
I've actually double skinned the hull bottom and it seems quite solid. I would put a picture up but no idea how to put them on a thread.

Dave

The system is carefully designed to exercise your brain cells!

Photos can only be added as a link to a photo elsewhere on the web, or from one of your 'albums'. So the stages are:

1 – create an album (do this by clicking on 'Albums' on the menu bar at the top of the page, and then click on 'create album&#39

2 – put some pictures in it (once you have created an album, you will be offered to chance to put pictures into it)

3 – link those to your comment (click on the camera icon in the menu bar for your reply, and then chose the album picture you want)

I'd love to see how you're getting on…

[David StillParticipant @davidstill31471]

I will try that but I’ll do it on a seperate thread rather than hijack this one.

Dave

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

David

I don't think anyone thought you were 'hi jacking' a thread. They are there for any members to comment. You seem to be making more progress than me at the moment. I have some 0.8mm ply for the hull now, have made the templates for the ply and have the motor and Esc on order. So maybe some progress soon if those other jobs don't keep getting in the way.

Tim

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

A few pictures of progress so far. Next is the hull covering and waterproofing and gun tubs, or I may start the Bofors Gun.

Tim

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Looking good. And very rakish! How are you going to do the torpedoes?

With this hull you have a lot of choices for the deck fittings. The early boats had torpedo tubes, very little armament beyond the twin 'Ma Deuces' and a simple mast. These progressed through aircraft-type torpedo launchers, a rear Bofors, a front cannon and a radar dome, to the final boats which had a rotating radar scanner, multiple Oerlikons and rocket launchers. And there were lots of odd specials, like the Thunderbolt, and Kennedy's PT109 with an anti-tank gun strapped on the front…

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Dodgy

I was looking at the detailing kit I have yesterday afternoon. There are only 2 torpedoes, a mark 8 and a mark 12 ish. Very similar apart from length so I should be able to make 2 the same from them, then 2 more from tube , balsa , plasticard to to match. Exhausts are being made from some al tube I had left from my last kit.

Gun tubs at in progress, the twin machine guns will have to be from wire, plastic and tube, none in the detail kit.

Tim

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

Lots of 1:35 Brownings and parts available – though 4 aren't going to be cheap – **LINK**

These two links look promising:

**LINK**

**LINK**

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

Dodgy

Yes I think they would be wasted on a boat of mine. I have seen an Academy kit for US WW 2 Guns on Amazon but not sure if it's worth it.

Tim

[Dodgy Geezer 1Participant @dodgygeezer1]

I never realised that the conversion kits only had ONE torpedo of each kind included. I suppose that these are for use in shore-side dioramas…

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