Second ever build – airboat

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

I decided to use the same colour scheme on the deck and painted red on the top end and a solid blue wedge in the middle. As you can see I hadn't learned at this stage my masking wasn't sufficient, so again the white needed a bit of touching up afterwards with the brush, but overall was pleased with the improvement from the first version.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Here is the new paint job after the red and blue bands were painted on:

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

In order to support the new rudder I glued a spare piece of wood and drilled a small hole so that the rudder support wire would go down into the body of the boat to help it with stability.

Once that was in place, I cut and painted a cover piece to tidy up the back and act as a base for the new rudder structure:

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

I then put the new rudder onto the support wire through the thin tube glued to the plywood. It was a bit "flappy" as the tube I used was so small I could only put a very thin wire through it, but already started to look much better.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

In order to give some more stability to the rudder structure I added a second thicker wire rod and glued the top together with the thinner one going through the small tube.

Once that was dried I added a small water rudder and glued it to the bottom of the rudder, and at the same time started fitting the new servo turning arm on to the servo rod. I held the new small rudder with some pliers while it dried:

The servo attachment was at a bit of a funny angle and kept falling down, so I supported it with some random bits of plywood while it dried:

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

And after a bit of touch up paining it was ready for the second test run today (Sunday).

After a bit of getting used to the new 'driving' style, especially the steering I was reasonably pleased with how it was going overall.

After running it a few times at full throttle it started making a bit of a rattling noise, and on the next run the entire motor and attachment came off. I had only used small screws to attach it and hadn't yet got round to bolting it in as per Ashley's suggestion, so all 4 of the screws had come out when running at full throttle on a 3s battery.

The other thing pointed out by Richard was that I could use the opportunity to move the motor down a bit and get the prop closer to the deck and also get more direct air flow onto the rudder area.

Edited By Simon Anderson 1 on 10/07/2022 19:55:40

Edited By Simon Anderson 1 on 10/07/2022 20:21:08

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

The original screws are somewhere lost inside the boat – I can't get to them so they may forever be lost inside the boat as a reminder to use bolts in future …

After moving the motor lower down the mount I bolted it on using 3mm bolts with washers and nuts and finally glueing in place with araldite, so should be much more stable in future.

Once it's dried properly I need to find something to cover the bolts up, but overall a good improvement.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

… and here is how it all looks now. It needs a bit of tidying up but overall not looking too bad.

I think I'll call it a day on this boat after the next test run, so not planning to add more detail, but I think it's coming close to a decent working boat, and hopefully has achieved the goal of having a better quality outcome than the very first boat I made. It's still a long way from the quality of the other boats on the pond, but it's been another good learning experience with this one.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

.. and to help remind me what I started with and what it looks like now:

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Simon. Overall it went well enough, well done.

I use superglue a lot. The tube on the rudder, as its long and has a large contact area could be superglued on, and finished with a fillet of PVA, same with the nuts `n` bolts, a drop of superglue would lock them up easily.

A semi-circular thin cover could go on the front, a bit like my Hobbies Hydro to cover the bolts and also make the box more aerodynamic. you might find something that just fits over, or use card.

The rudder was a bit wobbly and perhaps a wire brace or something might steady it up. As you have found, vibration can be a killer, and if the rudder starts vibrating……

Ashley

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Thanks Ashley – yes good idea. I'll put a stronger rudder brace in place while the hood is up – no sense in leaving it to come off at some point in future (i.e. the next time Richard asks for it to go full throttle!)

I would quite like to put a curved shape around the upright and maybe over the existing hatch, but I'm not sure how I would make that (I haven't really got onto making curved shapes yet apart) – if you have any photos that might help me, please share them. Worst case I can leave it as is and maybe sand down the edges a bit.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Curve. Two ways really. First is to make two semicircles of ply or balsa and stick one at the top and one at the bottom (of the flat front face) and then cover with thin card

OR

stick a bit of balsa or foam on the front and sand to a curve, or point/whateva. I have loads of bits of styrofoam…I will bring a few bits down,

Ashley

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Ok – that helps – thank you. Here's what I've put together so far – it will need a piece of something to go in between as well, but be removable to allow access for the battery and so on. I think it definitely has made the overall shape better.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

… and for the rudder strengthening, I took off the old posts, made 2 larger holes through the deck and right down into the spare piece of wood below (you can just see the holes below deck in the picture)

and then replaced the thin support wire but something a bit chunkier (slightly heavier but hopeful not detrimental to the overall balance… we'll see)

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

So next steps are to paint the new curved sections and find some card or something as suggested to go over that and at the same time leave a mechanism to access to the battery. I also noticed looking back at some of the other pictures, on the left hand side of the boat, there is a thin gap between the hull and the deck that needs to be filled in and sanded down a bit.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

That looks good Simon. In fact you have done two things there…made it look better and also added support to the upright. With the front support I would then be getting rid of the two rear sides and trimming the top down.

This will allow a much better airflow around the prop as the prop will be some distance away from the upright and not really close to it. Simply moving the prop 8mm or so away from the rear face of the support on my Hobbies Hydro made a big difference to bOth performance and noise.

regarding filling in the gap, I would reach for the foam, cut a bit so that it’s a push-fit into the gap, profile the top to match your curves and skin with 0.8mm ply, or card. You could use also sheet balsa and make a box affair to do that.

Ashley.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Ok – since the last pictures I've painted the curved sections white, added some foam to hide the bolts and trimmed the hatch cover to fit inside the curved uprights. I also made the end of the hatch cover more curved as well.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

and here's the view from the back after initial paining of the new curved sections:

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

and decided to give the boat a name based on the initial idea of making this a swamp boat …

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

You could fit a seat and figure in there.

Chris

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

I'm not the best artist, but added the name, a star a number 7 on the rudder for some finishing touches which at least gives it a bit of character …

I did experiment with the idea of making a curved foam section to fill the uprights and nearly got it working, but I decided to abandon that for this build – maybe will do something like that in future. I also took on all the points about trimming down the upright around the motor but I think I've got to the point of saying I'm happy where I've got to on this build, pending a final test to see how it runs. I also made some trim tweaks to the steering which will hopefully give it a better driving experience.

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Posted by Chris Fellows on 16/07/2022 21:09:31:

You could fit a seat and figure in there.

Chris

Yes, definitely – great idea! I've been looking around my kids stuff to see if I can find something to go on there, but not found anything yet. It might need me to create a seat from plywood and then get a small character glued onto it or something. Luckily the hatch cover where the seat would go just pops out, so should be simple-is to add on there anytime.

Thanks!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Simon. You need a minion in the driving seat. That will make it even better than it is. Trust me…..

Ashley

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Posted by ashley needham on 16/07/2022 21:24:10:

Simon. You need a minion in the driving seat. That will make it even better than it is. Trust me…..

Ashley

Yes could do … or Gru driving this one and the minions following

just been having a look on eBay for batches of cheap figures for this kind of thing in future. Any other ideas or sources as to where to find figures etc for model boats that are not too pricey?

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Charity shops area good source of figures, unless you want something specific. Poundland, Wilkinson’s and Home Bargains do stock toys and have various figures from time to time.

It was pure luck to see a whole tub of minions at the car boot a few months back. You just have to buy these bargains when you see them and put them in the ‘come in handy box’ for possible use later on.

Architectural or cheap railway figures are good for smaller size applications. The crew on my big destroyer are 38mm railway people with hole-punch disc hats and a paint job, and from normal viewing distances look just perfect.

Ashley

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