Todays Boating

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Larry. Take it easy. Not too much posting, bad for the constitution.

Computer mended! ALMOST finished the Foam Flyer !! But foiled as had to get the BSA MOT`d (one hour wasted) and then take the lad to Kingston to get some STUFF (2 1/2 hrs wasted). I did make the motor mount Monday eve, and cut the foam up and Gorilla`d the wings on Tues, but that was only an hour or so`s fiddling. Looking good though, a bit fatter than the original, but the six blade prop arrangement looks so much better than the other ones single two blade prop. It weights absolutely nothing! I have used two sheets of 300×600 styrofoam, a small block of foam and a bit of sheet balsa fo the tail rudder. I may have made a bit of faux-pas, in that the the tail sweeps back like the original, and that makes operation by servo in the body tricky..the other poe has the servo in the tail and so at the right angle, however I think I should be ok.. i am going to use some sleeved control line and have a bit of slop in the coupling to compensate..?

I will bring it along tomorrow, to show. I will be taking the BFB2 and Sunderland , so get yer air boats and hovercraft out as I dont suppose the weed will have gone away after a very hot week..

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Chaps. After all that, there was a bit of a wind blowing and the pond was weed free (a bit on the leeward side only). BFB2 still bneeding work to stop water flooding the front gunner and pilot positions, methinks a windscreen and spray rails (large) will do the trick. I may put a layer of foam underneath to boost the bouyancy a bit. Sunderland has lost the Starboard No1 engine..may need just oiling perhaps.

A bit more work on the Foam Flyer..Rudder able to be operated via an aircraft type sleeved control wire O.K. More filling and sanding to tidy as now I have a week to finish it! Floated it in the pond and can see that the battery has loads of effect bon attitude so no reason it should not go well. Weight perhaps now on par with the balsa A90,,,as the foam one has an 8.4V C cell pack and a heavier motor. Love the prop though, it is exactly right..looks just like a 6 blade contra-rotating job.

Trevor had his 007 bond sub down, with a couple of mods but sadly it needs MORE mods! There is such a lot to fiddle with and a change invariably alters the effect of something else so…  As I may have said, its not neccesarily the building of an oddity..its the getting it to work is the difficult bit! He does not lack installed power though, and sometimes a lot of power is what you want. Will get there, I am sure !

Not many there? Seven all told. Nice and cool.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 21/07/2013 17:02:34

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Had today (Fri) off and finished the foam flyer. I few suprises along the way, I will submit a report after Sundays first outing. Should makean interesting comparison to the rather more conventionally built A90 (ok, it is not conventional at all, but ply and balsa construction).

Paint job rather snazzy, and not quite what i was after, but snazzy none the less, nice colours. Should go rather well if indications on the grass are anything to go by.

Have stuck some 10mm sheet Styrofoam under the BFB2 in an effort to lift it a bit, now my AA niMh packs have died, and I am using a fairly heavy C cell pack. Wondering if I should do same with A90 or leave well alone??? Hmmm

Will have Foam flyer, A90, BFB2 and one other Sunday, other to be decided, poss project no1, just so I have a…but I can`t say.

New project all ready for the man. Tools down, sweep the sawdust away and give me aching arms a rest.

Did you see the new Top Gear Hover van???? Would be too big and demand atrocious amounts of power for a model, my decision. I was hoping for a van with a hovercraft skirt.. THAT would be doeable, but the huge platform and large floatation bags they added would just tip it over the top, size wise. Shame there has been nothing I fancy lately, but we shall see later on what comes up.

Ashley

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

Ashley ,

What the the hell is a foam flyer..?….picture please Larry….

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Larry, all will be revealed after Sundays boating, assuming it works. Basically an all foam Ecranoplan A90.

4th boat will be the Titanic tomorrow.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Great today, 7 of us? Lovely and bright, despite the rain ealier in the morning. Pond weed free (almost) and only a couple of rescues..one of which was the top from Andy`s fake steamer that blwe off, and was collected by the `Flyer, by tucking the offending top under one wing and coming back using slow throttle and max rudder.

I took the A90, Foam flyer , Titanic and Herald..as it was blowy. really too windy for the Ecranoplans, steering trouble and drag from all the waves. OK for the Herald, needs a bit of a blow due to the inferior sailing qualities.

See seperate post concerning the flyer. They are about the same size despite the new one looking a bit larger in this picture. One day and a few evenings work!

Roads closed around Surrey, affecting park access next Sunday 4th, due to road cycling races. I am off for a couple of weeks after this…will have to see what I can sneak in the boit to sail on the sea,,…

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Back off hols. Charging batts!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Hope you had a good time Ashley. I visited the Dairyman's Daughter twice yesterday.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Colin. TWICE! must have been a lot of shopping going on! Yes thank you, two hols..one in Cornwall with Mrs N and Berengar and then 4 days in Yeovil with Berengar to see the FAA museum and the Bovington tank museum (as you do) AND the Museum or army flying in middle Wallop..

We dined this week in the "Phelips Arms" Montacute (near Yeovil), very nice..although I was driving and so…

We visited Nothe Fort, in Weymouth on Wednesday, and there was a display of the most amazing collection of ships, about a 1/3 of his collection..built by one chap from NOTHING but matchsticks and matchboxes. The standard has to be seen to be believed, The accuracy and so on….the finish of the models…they looked like expertly built plastic models. I will put a seperate post on with snaps.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Blast! Sky is uniformly frigate grey, its dark and drizzling. Despite having prepped 4 boats/planes/whatever I have a feeling that unless things improve in the next hour I shall be staying in.

In any case I am now making a TOG2 tank for the lad. Its his current favourite, and we saw one at the Bovington tank museum. Its a whopper, at 80 tons. Looks a bit large compared to our current crop on Tamiya tanks, but of course it IS v large and the Tamiya tanks are all small at 1/35 instead of 1/32 (for Airfix polythene soldiers).

Why am I mentioning the TOG2?? well, if you remember we will be (possibly) knocking up some landing craft for our own "D-Day" landings next year. I know they only built prototypes, but a TOG2 in a suitable landing craft would get them talking!

We need a volunteer to make a large mother ship, eqipped with davits to sling our landing craft from, sail into the middle of the lake and then lower them all down so we can motor to the landing spot. THAT would be impressive! OR I suppose we could stretch a point and use a well deck sort of ship and swim our craft out from the rear..

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

Re The mother ship: You could always build a landing ship

It would be 100% accurate and solve your launching problems.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul. Yes, feasable, but launching from a distance is the thing. I suppose you COULD make essentially the exterior of a landing ship, and have the front bow door on a pivot with a long downwardas pointing rod; When the depth is right, the rod touches the bottom, pushes the bow door so the door swings flat and the landing craft swim out !

Food for thought and a bit of research may be required, as if I will not be busy enough next year. We need to think of something more spectacular than simply sailing 20+ LCT/LCM`s to the beach head.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

A long rod would catch on submerged debris / vegetation and ruin your display.

You could try a simple electro magnet as a door latch.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul, food for thought. Loads of different devices you could use. If a free flooded docking area was provided to start with, then very lightly sprung loaded bow doors would be easy enough for the LCM or LCT to simply swim through and push out the way !!

I should think that really the specularity of the landing needs to be addressed first.

Once on the beach, assuming parks department will let us use the only suitable shallow veg free area to land in..perhaps some tugs could bring along a Mulberry harbour in bits!!

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

Would the 'Mother Ship' from which you will be launching the LCMs be a static item or will that also be under radio control?

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well, this would depend on the no of bods available to control these things. I should think that it would have to be controlled ? Static mooring could I suppose be an option… After a glass or two (as I do when composing "todays boating, it gives me creative flair) I SUPPOSE, if we had "sufficient" landing craft (and I can knock them out for others to control no problem IF there was anyone willing to participate) then static moored mother ships could be used to release a veritable TIDE of LCM/T to create a good effect.

I hope I am not talking this up too much and there is sufficient interest at the ponf to realise this!!

On other matters. I have had a short cycle down the tow path and MAY have stopped in the Wier PH for a swift one, but there was the most delightful "gentlemans launch" going through Sunbury lock… a real "three men in a boat" affair , with a small chug-chug motor in a box centre mounted (I had thought it might be electric).. The varnished finish was reflecting the lowering sun like a MIRROR it was just fabulous. Nice green canopy and three persons quaffing wine. A perfect day out.

On a whim, having watched some episodes of Fireball XL5 last night, and having spotted a rubber-band type air prop in a box..i mad a balsa XL5, to run on a nylon fishing line down the garden, full length. 12" long, what a hoot! great fun. needs a paint . Berengars TOG2 tank is painted in "woodland" camo, lifted from a picture from his Tanks game. Looks great. At 80 tons, will need a bit more of a substantial LCT to land this baby..

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

While surfing discovered travis perkins list 1520×1520 sheets of 1.5mm ply, and 4×8 sheets of 3mm ply (hows that for mixing metric/imperial!)

This MUST be a cheaper way of getting 1.5mm ply? no prices on their site but other firms quote prices of similar sheets way cheaper than buying little bits in model shops. I shall have to ring them up nearer the time of considering a purchase.

I like the idea of 3mm ply.. strong but just that much more flexible than 4mm,. and of course a 25% weight saving ! both beech ply so a superior finish to normal 4mm stuff, possibly.

The other thing wot I did on monday was give my building board (4 foot bit of 45mm worktop) a good scrape with my special blunt chisel, clean off all the paint and glue, and then a quick wet`n`dry rub down. Like new now, apart from all the scoring. Amazing, it felt ok before, but now it feels like a mirror. No excuses for warped..whatevers..now.

This is in preparation for special projects 3 and 4, in between making landing craft for D-day or something. Probably a monster landing ship, and this may need to be in a two part construction, if anyone has ideas about bolting boat halves together..pass them on!.

Ashley

[Kimosubby ShipyardsParticipant @kimosubbyshipyards]

Have a care, Ashley,

I purchased some 4mm ply from this builders merchants and when cutting to sizes required for a new box for a model found that the sheet contained hollows and spaces in the ply layers. These sheets are are fit for purpose for the trade (floor lining etc) but can be annoying when a cavity is found right on the cut line (where else would it be I hear you say). Still, for a transport box, it was good enough for the job!

I'll see if they are getting any 1.5mm in, though what the trade use it for???????????

Cheers, Kim

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I'll see if they are getting any 1.5mm in, though what the trade use it for???????????

Building houses these days I think Kim!

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

1.5mm for cabinet making I think they said. It was labelled "aircraft quality" so perhaps they sell it to chaps doing up Mosquito`s??

I would bank on the 3mm being abit better quality. I am not sure if there is any difference in the 4mm stuff?? Bob is building one of Paul`s FANCIFUL creations with 4mm and has not had a void yet.

I must say I have not had a particular problem either BUT the stuff does splinter very well when cutting across the outer ply grain. If I were to build something larger out of 4mm I might invest in a finer tooth large bandsaw blade to overcome a lot of finishing hassles. Must ask Bob how he is cutting this. My small bandsaw has very fine teeth (16TPI) and cuts ply almost perfectly. Big one may be 6TPI and a thicker blade.

I purchased last month (or this month`s issue perhaps) MB to look at the aircraft carrier Glyyn made. Impressed..mostly impressed by the finish on the aircraft. A feature, as he points out, that is the bane of making an aircraft carrier. I did see some Revell 1/144 planes on hols but at £2.99 each, and they were Typhoons and Hurricanes (so not quite right) a deck`s worth is quite expensive. The sea harriers on my Invincible are of course too large but were available and cheap for this size. Glynn does not like oversize aircraft on carriers as he thinks it does not look right..and one can only agree, but when needs must (size and weight) so the devil dances (or whatever the saying is). Sorry Glynn for posting pictures of an undersides deck. When i retire….

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Ashley

The 1,5mm birch ply that Travis Perkins have is identified as aircraft quality because it is supplied for the aircraft industry, it comes in 5ft x 5ft sheets and is around £35 + vat but not every branch will stock it.

The people that buy these sheets are usually building their own light aircraft.

Oddly enough SLEC sell exactly the same sheet for £37 inc vat

Paul

ps Fanciful?

[Kimosubby ShipyardsParticipant @kimosubbyshipyards]

For cutting ply sheeting (good or bad) (trade or modelling quality) I've found that the japanese Dozuko saw, check spelling, works extreemly well, with little splintering as its a pull saw, and a very neat narrow cut. A bit pricey, but they are very good quality.

Kim

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

Good morning Kimo,

Here is my ply sourse,……….cheers Larry…..

[Kimosubby ShipyardsParticipant @kimosubbyshipyards]

Hi Larry,

nice to hear from you too – nice build you've got going.

Thanks for the up on Ply, I've just been on their site but delivery to me is out of the question. Still, I have a relative who we see quite often down in the Cotswalds, and once we're over and that far down – well Bristol just aint that much further to go, especially if I fill the car up!

I'm off on the canals soon (12th September), so will look out for Ashley. I know its the Warwickshire ring we're doing but if Ashley samples beer whilst riding the tow path who knows where he'll end up.

Kim

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Kimo. I usually only make it to the Weir at Walton…or the other way to teddington lock ( the Tide end cottage)

Buying large sheets of ply, especially thin stuff, is very attractive..as you get all sorts of ideas just looking at that vast expanse, but keeping it….another matter. Having purchased a 4×8 sheet of something I am loath to cut it up.. but the room it takes up!!

Project three is being held up so I am purchasing stuff for no4.. 1/4"balsa sheets and 1.5mm ply. I shall be getting the usual sizes from the usual shops.. Travis P delivers to a yard of your choice but delivery at this size is expensive from anywhere else, and for the forseeable future two 12×36 sheets will do me. The thicker 3mm ply I may investigate though, may need some as I said for landing craft and bolt-together landing ships/ Mulberry harbours.

I broke up the MDF SRN4 prototype yesterday, It weighed 2.125Kg, and supported a 12v 7Ahr SLA battery easily using two 55mm GWS EDF units, on 7.2v, just for interest…and this was on water, using plumbing type foam pipe lagging as a skirt! I shall never get round to an SRN4.. I was put off, after testing, by the propulsion difficulty. I used 4x speed 280`s and 110mm props, and this just wasnt enough..I think it would need at least speed 400`s, and the only other r/c srn4 I have seen use 500`s….but these look much too big on the pylons…or you go brushless. A hovercraft like this would then end up with 6 motors…two pylons at least have to swivel for manouverability. Something still on the list, mind, but way down. I should do a hovercraft, something I have not yet tried.

Off to Brookland museum tomorrow with the lad.. attempt to get to the top of the banking once again (how steep??). Fabulous place.

Ashley

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