Todays Boating

[timgParticipant @timg12590]

Hi All

I tried to post yesterday but for some reason it didn't work, anyway not so much as today's boating it's about last Sunday boating for me.

I popped down to my local club pond only to find it frozen over, no great surprise really.

After breaking a hole in the ice at the edge i enjoyed two and a half hours of Ice breaking, four flat batteries later half the pond had been cleared. A few pics hopefully

Cheers

Tim

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Ah, a bit of ice breaking….my sort of sport!

Popped to the pond today, but had a bit of trouble with pond life and had to use full throttle.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Waiting for some googly eyes for the fish, clear acrylic domes.

undecided as to having them clear and the figures illuminated…front or back? Or will bright leds just make them silhouette figures? Will they mist up like the saucer and nullify the whole effect? Would painting them white inside and strongly lighting them up from the rear be more effective?

have reverted to the usual winter build pattern….cut, fit, glue then bring inside to dry.

A couple of snowflakes spotted earlier on….ever hopeful!

Ashley

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

Clear eyes, figures lit from the front and a bit of a background – figures do get noticed by onlookers especially with the big windows.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I am leaning to that. I have abandoned the 75mm figures I was converting and am going with 60mm ones. These will be cheap U,S "peacekeepers" painted green and with a comb on their hat. They are a much better size and make the fishy look bigger!

I will allow a channel in the front cabin to put a 50mm strip of leds (3 leds on a bit that size) and on a 2s batt they should just be bright enough.

Walrus pictures in the mag look good, but on the pc they are exceptional! We shot on two nice sunny days and the lighting was really good, with great colour and contrast. Unfortunately I could not shoot them myself as the boat is a bit tricky at speed and I did not trust anyone else (if it crashed, I wanted to be the one crashing it) and also it needed the use of a DSLR with fast image capture. Between them, Colin and Jim took literally hundreds of pictures and it took ages to get rid of unsatisfactory ones (bits missing off boat, blurred, ducks etc in the background, not quite the right pose and so on.   Thanks chaps.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 08/01/2021 17:42:37

[geconParticipant @gecon]

I, like seemingly most of us, often 'click' in to 'Today's Boating' for general enlightenment and education.

I must admit that I often feel that I need a photo of the vessel being mentioned in order to understand what type of 'thingy' is being discussed. I see by the above illustration that 'fishy' is indeed quite a 'fishy-beasty'.

I also understand that many of Ashley's productions are 'top secret' and are only seen by prior to launch, by 'M' -or publication in 'MB'.

Could Ashley consider a photo or two on occasions, just to illustrate for us foreigners and non-locals what some of his wonderful contraptions err… innovative vessels…. look like? Please? What has happened to all the pics of Titanic derivitives, and landing craft etc?

Things are getting 'heavy' now, so stay very safe.

George

Edited By gecon on 09/01/2021 08:49:03

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

George. It is true that most of my projects are top secret, and this is mostly due to paranoia on my part in not wanting someone to jump in first, and secondly to preserve the building of these things for the mag article.

They are however not ultra top secret, so I can tell you that the last thing to have been built was a Stingray (from the TV series) and the natural follow on is a Terror fish, to provide some opposition. The last picture I posted may have been a clue……

In the case of the Mintanic, the build of this has lead on to something else which I have NOT talked about, and as I may be using pictures already outed, I have deleted them from my album. The pictures are still in the thread of course for viewing if you want to search

Perhaps I am being over careful, as the amount of people who look at “today’s boating” is miniscule compared to the number of people who will see these things in the mag but it is nice to have the element of surprise when/if they get published.

As I have mentioned before, anyone can have a preview of these things if they would like to mail me….pm me.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 09/01/2021 09:50:12

[geconParticipant @gecon]

Thanks Ashley, all understood -which is not bad for me! I look forward to your next post irrespective -even if it's not 'all understood'. I accept of course that you must be true to 'M'.

Cheers, George.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Pm’d You George. Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Just seen that angling is still permitted under lockdown provided you do it all by yourself.

Colin

[geconParticipant @gecon]

So that's why Ashley is building 'Fishy'.

George

[Richard BarnettParticipant @richardbarnett67129]

It’s getting to and from where there might be an issue, it’s all a bit iffy at the moment as the police are on high alert.

Ashley’s a one man dynamo when it comes to boat building, just as well he’s human (well I think he is?) otherwise West London would have a modelling materials shortage! Sometimes I don’t know what he’s up to and I see him quite often (although not at the moment)

Stay safe everyone,

Ricky ye pirate 🏴‍☠️

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Pond busy this morning (went for a cycle) but sadly no ice at all. How can that be after a freezy cold day yesterday and a stupendous frost this morning?

Thought about getting the Zis out, but heavy frost is not the same as snow. On a close up picture (which effectively is what taking a snap of just the boat is) you would see the individual white blades of grass instead of a fluffy covering, even though the local park looked really white and fantastic.

As the lockdown is likely to cover the frost/snow period the local park should be ok for snaps. It a just a big field with a few trees and a fenced off swings and slide area, but it’s a decent size and 1 minutes walk away!

Waiting acrylic domes still, but am going to build a card prototype of the spring/summer (hopefully mass) build, as there are a few issues to sort out before we plunge ahead and start buying multiple sets of motors and so on. Not mechanical things, but artistic things need to be sorted out first, hence the card model. Sorry but this is a top top secret project however hopefully it will become a free plan Jobbie , my first, as we think that this has club merit.

i have not done a plan for perusal before as I just make stuff up as I go along and there is way too much freehand shaping and artistic stuff to adequately draw as an instruction. A bit like the old hobby magazine “make your own Hurricane” or destroyer kits, consisting of lumps of wood, a drawing and instructions..”carve to shape and glue together”!.

Although, so saying, I have rejigged some drawings in the past and annotated them with measurements and construction detail/materials for a few people who wanted them (fingers of one hand and all that). 

Ashley

 

Edited By ashley needham on 10/01/2021 13:39:36

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

I still think that your 20" landing craft would make a good free plan and could easily be shown as the different variants that you have built inc ferry etc..

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Chris you are of course right and perhaps one day….?

Todaysboating updates have been a bit sparse lately but as we are not boating and sharing intimate secrets of our builds at the jetty there is not much to report on. Not only that but the rain seems to have set in.

Cock up on the eye domes which I was waiting for….I hadn’t ordered them ! Damnation sir!

Ordered now, poss delivery Monday.

i did however take delivery of 55 teardrop plastic rhinestones, and these are perfect for the tail, where there are some bumps that look like sacrificial anodes ( but are something else). Only need 9 a side, so I can decorate something else now.

Thebody I’d dark green and the teardrops should be painted but they are a green/turquoise shiny clear colour and I am painting around them, just for a bit of bling at the back end.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

No ACTUAL boating updates, but various projects coming on well.

Waitng delivery today f a Barbie for our super secret project, the hull and body of which has been test floated in the washing up bowl, complete with weights to suit equipment and a stimulated Barbie (she was a bit lively) and thankfully showed no sign of falling over. Even the top looks fit for purpose. The novel propulsion has been made but not tested yet (no rudder) However it may be that a skeg at the stern underneath might be desirable to retain a vestige of forward control.

Fishy coming along slowly. The head is painted and hopefully today I can stick the googly eyes in using silicone sealant. By using sealant it should be possible to de-mount the acrylic hemispheres in the future if they get damaged or scratched, in addition the foam seating is not very even so the gunge will fill all the gaps while remaining invisible (it’s clear sealant).

After this lot will be something wheeled, again, using the 60mm wheels I got a while ago.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

The snow has allowed a very brief Tup ice/snow test, and also getting snaps of the Zis that I have been waiting for.

All good stuff if a bit cold..

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

[timgParticipant @timg12590]

10 out 10 for effort/ enthusiasm Ashley especially on a cold day 🖒

Tim

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

Hi Lads

A little warmer down south(Tasmania, Australia) 38C !!!!

Harry Smith

[Richard BarnettParticipant @richardbarnett67129]

You know we all hate you Harry!, 😂 we’ll all be back to happy days soon, hopefully 🤞

Ricky ye chilly pirate 🏴‍☠️

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

We had 38 degrees when taking the pictures but they were not centigrades !

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Posted by ashley needham on 24/01/2021 18:44:14:

Is that a Tupolev A3?

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Might be, possibly…Could be……clue is in the “Tup” bit….!

4 built here at Bushy so far.

Ashley

[geconParticipant @gecon]

One would be tempted to think that Ashley had a hobby room in the R&D cellars of Thames House where he craftily applies his craftiness on crafty craft. Even his mugshot is crafty

Sorry, just couldn't help myself, I'll sod off and install some switches somewhere. Preferably an 'off' switch on the PC did you say?

George

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