Returning modeller

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Ashley's motor mounting method works well with 2 provisos both of which are to do with overheating and a third practical issue.

1. That you don't block any ventilation holes

2. That you are not working the motor anywhere near its limit as you are reducing its ability to dissipate heat. The bit of the motor touching the filler is effectively wrapped in a blanket. The idea is not to have half the motor sitting in a bed of filler.

3. There is no adjustment. The prop shaft / motor alignment needs to be spot on before you bed the motor on the filler. A solid coupling for setting this us is a very good idea.

Edited By Chris E on 19/01/2021 09:47:35

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Jim,

Ask 10 people on here and you will most likely 10 different answers some negative & some positive I like the motor to be flexibly mounted as I find the Huco type couplings may not be 100% concentric, I mount the motor on a simple cradle sometimes balsa with single sided wing seat tape and have a simple elastic band over the top, quick to change, It works for me, the fullsize boat engines are on rubber mounts

Here are White Marlins twin brushed 480's during winter maintenance.

Regards Ray

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

Alternatively, take two strips of aluminium, form them into a pair of conduit clips (looked at end on, a near semi circle with a flat ear at each end), clamp the motor between them, use the ears to fix the motor down. Has the benefit of providing a bit of extra surface area for cooling the motor.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Good morning Ashley, Ray, Malcolm and Chris E,

Many thanks for your suggestions, each one very interesting. I`ll take a look to see if any can be adapted.

You`re correct when saying, the lower the shafts the better. I was just surprised when I saw how little room there was owing to the shape of the hull at that point. I thought of longer shafts but I don`t really want to go there.

When I get doing any filling on the hull, I`ll have to do it outside. I bought some p38 for later and forgot what a strong smell comes with it.

Thanks once again, I`m sure more questions will come,

Regards,

Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

I bought a pair of these props for the boat ( RH and LH ) and wondered if anyone has used this make before?

They are 35mm diameter, but I don`t know the pitch. It looks quite fine to me and I`m wondering how much thrust they would produce. They`re nicely made in brass coloured nylon.

Regards,

Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Things have been a bit slow over the last month as,since last posting, I`ve been in hospital after having a heart attack.

At the moment I`m limited to nothing too strenuous so hopefully the modelling won`t be affected too much but I`m surprised at how much stamina is missing just now.

Anyway, trying to start catching up, I`ve made a couple of support posts for the end of the prop shafts. The base will be stuck to the hull with araldite and the uprights soldered to the prop shaft. On the actual boat the shafts were exposed and the uprights held the end bearing.

Hopefully when the weather warms up, I can get outside and carry on filling and sanding the hull.

Jim.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hello Jim,

Yes I thought you had gone AWOL ! sorry to hear your news, but very glad you have come through it

Your running gear is looking good, I never fancied having exposed shafts on a model as there is a fair chance they could pick up weeds or an old piece of string !!

Still glad to see your going to have some relaxing modelling time ahead to aid your recovery

I find plastic kits a great diversion, Building a Short Stirling bomber at the moment, and 5 other projects !

Best Regards Ray

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Hi Ray, nice to hear from you to.

The good thing about this hobby is most of it isn`t too heavy to manage although I wish I`d done some shifting of stuff in the garage before now, but there we go, It`ll get done in time.

I haven`t built a plastic kit for a long time, having spent years building ( or attempting to build ) the railway in the garage. Like most people, I`ve got kits still to build including an O gauge Black 5, so apart from the boat, there`s lots to do. But for now, the boat takes priority.

Best wishes , Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Trying to plan ahead at present with the idea of using glass cloth on the hull, I`m interested in knowing how much sanding down needs to be done to get a smooth finish after applying it or does the cloth lay down fairly smoothly anyway?. At the moment I`m filling and sanding the hull to get as many blemishes out as I can before the cloth goes on but obviously they won`t all go so would it be correct to apply more than one layer of cloth?, having not attempted this before.

I realise it`s pretty thin material but just wondered how much lee way you had to use afterwards.

Many thanks,

Jim.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Jim,

Your doing the right thing to sand smooth before the glass cloth, Epoxy is less forgiving if brushed on with runs etc also temperature sensitive, but my preferred resin is the water based these days as you can build up multiple thin coats to fill the weave of the cloth, and wont need sanding just priming & painting.

If you look for youtube features on glass cloth and epoxying model aeroplane wings they use a squigy or a plastic card to take most of the resin off to keep it light.

Bucks Composites sell the water based resin

Regards Ray

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for your answer. I remembered you telling me earlier about the water based resin and that will be my route, I just wasn`t sure about the sanding side of it all. There`s a fair bit of filler gone on already ( and a lot rubbed off ) so I`m pleased I`m heading in the right direction.

Thanks for the pointer on you-tube.I`ll look that up and see what I can learn. I take it I can glass cloth the inside of the hull but just leave it unpainted?

i`ve got Bucks Composites booked marked for when the time comes.

Many thanks once again,

Regards, Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Now that I`ve finally managed to sand my hull to a level I think might be acceptable for putting the glass cloth on, after application, what sort of drying time would I be looking at before handling and avoiding finger marks etc? The reason I ask is because room in the garage is a bit tight and I`d like to leave the hull to dry naturally without risk of being knocked.

I`ve bought the glass cloth from Bucks Composites with the one coat adhesive and they say , fully hardened in 4 weeks. I just wondered if it could be handled (with care ) before that? I`m going to wait until the weather warms up a bit before the cloth goes on and in the meantime am cutting the deck profile out and any other bits to fill in time, including a stand to sit it on.

Regards, Jim.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Jim,

Glad to hear your making progress, slightly mystified with you description of one coat adhesive ??

Epoxy or Water based resin is all I've ever used with glass cloth.

Regards Ray

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Morning Ray,

Sorry , what I should have said was, I`m using the single part coating system from Bucks Composites and I wondered how long it would be before you could handle it again. ( A day or a week say )

I`ve encountered a bit of a problem on my Surfury as well. As it`s been in the garage for a while now, some of the planking joints are showing through the paint. Nothing really serious at the moment but my feeling is, that might change when it gets in the water. I was thinking maybe a couple of coats of varnish over the paint would seal it again but I don`t know if that`s good practice or not. I don`t really want to strip the old paint off if I can help it. I`ve taken a couple of pictures which I`ll put on later.

Better to try and rectify the problem now. Thanks for your reply.

Regards,

Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Ray,

I should also say, I enjoyed your article and plan on the Cigarette.

Tempting , if I manage to coplete the current one

Jim.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Jim,

Strange I never give curing times much thought maybe I do a coat every day for 5 days and I suppose a week to cure before painting it would be ok, it's not as temperature sensitive as epoxy which like 15 deg or warmer

Cracking diagonal planking on the topsides as they are dark blue maybe ok with oil based varnish, I'm not a fan of any sealers which are water based !! must be an age think and being brought up with Humbrol .

Glad you liked the Cigarette, It's such a classic it had to be done and the old tech brushed motor isn't ridiculously fast but looks good

Keep us posted with your progress.

Regards Ray

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

A couple of pictures of the arising problem,

[Tim RoweParticipant @timrowe83142]

Hello James

Is the paint raised in the "cracks" or are they definitely cracks. If you can tell me I may have some ideas.

I like Ray's Cigarette so much I am building two. Boys games for my grown up son and me.

Frames and keel cut out, brushless, esc and servos sorted out and waiting no to go to the model shop to buy shaft, prop and coupling.

Tim R

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Hi Tim,

Looking at the hull through a magnifying glass and a light,some of the paint is showing signs of slight crazing and the diagonal lines are where the plank edges are.

It could be that the paint across the plank joints has just separated and the joints are still ok. The boat was built in the 90`s so I don`t expect it to be perfect after all this time. I was just hoping to slow down any more movement before I manage to see how it runs.

I suppose I could re-paint over the Blue. I`d have to colour match it as the paint on there came from Woolworths household range! Midnight Blue I think.

I`ve taken some pictures of what I think are Cigarette boats from a 1990 Offshore Boat calender by Beken of Cowes and I`ll try and post them. I wish I`d kept the Daily Express newspapers of the time of the Cowes -Torquay races. Double center page spread with all the boat details. A big event at August bank holiday weekend.

Many thanks for your reply

Regards,

Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

These are the pictures taken off the calender.

Not sure if they are are all Cigarette hulls or none of them. If they are, I just thought there was a different colour scheme.

Regards, Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Finally managed to glass cloth the hull which ended up better than I thought it would considering I`d not tried that before.

Since then I`ve been making and fitting the various wooden shapes that were attached to the hull. I`ve had to use modellers license once or twice to get round things but It`s a reasonable representation which is mainly what I hope to achieve.

The prop shaft supports are now glued and soldered in place so I can now give the hull some extra coats of epoxy.

Next job now is to fit the deck and work out where openings need to be cut. The deck will probably be glued down with araldite eventually, unless there is a better way. After that, decide on batteries and speed controllers, especially as there are two motors to control, so, some reading to do for information.

Beyond that, build the cabins etc . Looking forward to that.

Jim.

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

I`ve now got the stage of planning the electrics in the boat.

I`m using two Mtronics M600 motors but I`m unsure wether to use a battery to power each motor or one coupled up to the two motors.

Would two ESC`s be correct along with a mixer or is there another way.?

I intend to buy a new 2.4ghx transmitter and receiver and have looked at a Futaba T2HR2, which is a simple 2 channel Tx.

I`ve read up on quite a few articles etc but some of it is a bit of a Chinese puzzle and I didn`t want to go buying things that weren`t really required.

Sorry if the questions are a bit daft but I`m beginning to wonder if I`ve bitten off more than I can chew.!

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

With a 2 channel set, if differential steering is wanted, yes, two ESCs and a mixer. Choice of 1 battery or two is dependant on whether the one battery can supply the demands of two motors.

If differential steering is not needed, then one ESC "can" work both motors if it is rated for the motors used. The battery needs to be rated for the job as well. Or, one ESC per motor plugged into one channel using a Y lead. Number of batteries becomes optional, although one per ESC is probably the simplest option.

There are plenty of 4 channel outfits available, shopping for a "best buy" is a fraught business since unlike 27/40MHz, there is little compatibility between makes, although at the lower end of the market HobbyKing/Turnigy/Flysky receivers work with the other transmitters and replacements cost about the same as a pair of crystals used to cost.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

As I can see you have rudders fitted then one of your two channels is going to be used up operating them. A two channel transmitter is therefore going to be very limiting, even if you incorporate a mixer to automate manoeuvring functions.

Much more flexible is a four channel transmitter but it may also be worth considering the option of a six channel set that can accomodate more than one model such as a Spectrum Dx6e. This transmitter can then be set up with any other models you may wish to operate in the future allowing the use of four proportional channels and two switched ones for say lights, or horns etc. It might seem expensive to start with but you would only ever need the one transmitter for all your models and the latest generation six channel receiver is just over £30.00. You could still use it with four or even two channel receivers if you wished.

Also worth considering is the fact that these latest receivers no longer have an antenna, are very compact and light and binding is done by a simple press of a button.

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