Todays Boating

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Cheers geezers!

bright but a bit cold and breezy. Car parking dreadful as a big run taking place at Hampton court just round the corner. Eventually someone pulled out in front of me and I was able to park.

Carrier good. Moana struggled in the wind. Needs a few more mods. LCT ok.

Trevors Mayfly showing promise.

Pub for nosh tonight…hic!

Asgley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Many Happy Returns Ashley.

(The unhappy returns are when you have to wade out to get it back! )

Colin

[Simon Anderson 1Participant @simonanderson1]

Hi, I was thinking of coming to the bushy park boating pond – are speedboats welcome there too?

thanks,

Simon

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

First Club 500 meeting of this year and back after two years absence. Time to defend my title! Boat went well considering it hadn't got its bum wet for two years. Bit choppy and very breezy so makes for interesting turns.

Top of the leader board already so a good day.

Edited By Richard Simpson on 20/03/2022 15:49:43

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Sunday boating. Only Peter and myself. A bit nippy, sailed big LCT only. A bit breezy still for Moana.

However popped to the park yesterday with Trevor to test his new project, the Mayfly….and it almost does!! Trouble is, it doesn’t like staying upright at speed….

Unbelievably the Mintanic (I was boating by bike) just sailed over the fuselage between the pontoons so we had to ballast down the nose by an inch using two pairs of pliers and a battery (giving me about 20mm of freeboard at the nose) and this was enough to effect a recovery. Good job the forward deck is glued on and not loose as a hatch like the stern!

Bit of a quandary for Trevor now: How to stop the boat falling over at speed. It’s a futuristic design from 1910 or thereabouts and although intended to go as fast as the model briefly exhibited, the real thing was desperately slow and never achieved any sort of speed…luckily for the inventor!

A bit like the Larsen in this respect, but in my case the boat does NOT perform well, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to improve it.

All to play for….?

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Nice at the pond, not too cold, bright sun…almost warm sometimes.

Nice to see a new boy, Simon ~where can I sail my speedboat~……well, he has found the place and only lives in Wombledon, a stones throw away. He had two speedboats, RTR.

We were almost embarrassed by the lack of anything unusual for him to look at, apart from Trevor with the Jessie rower and the Mayfly. Anticipating it to be a bit colder, everyone had bought easy to sail, non-fiddly conventional boats.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Have a new project on hand, an M33 monitor for my gp hull. I will call it the M33 1/2.

It works out to roughly 1:75 ish scale so I can use some 25mm figures for it (most important).

The hull strictly speaking is, at 600mm, 100mm short, but the beam is about right. A bit of adjustment on the foc’sle and shortening the superstructure will have it right. As long as the 6 inch guns have the right amount of deck space all will be well.Making the raised foc’sle to sit on the existing bow is a bit tricky and may not be perfect as I have painted the hull already of course and can’t therefore sand the new raised section properly against the hull to get a 100% fit, but once the white paint goes on, no one will notice.

There was an article on the M33 a long while ago…may even have been by PF, which I don’t think I have and would be very useful however I do have the souvenir M33 booklet from Portsmouth which has some nice photos in it.

Railings may be an issue, as my normal garden wire ones don’t quite work at this scale, or at least, would be ok for small bits, but the entire run of the ship needs to be done. I may just have to have a single rail setup as a representation, which as it will only be about 15 or 18mm high should look ok…or I could add a second rail using superglue and very thin brass rod/wire.

Ashley

Ashley

 

Edited By ashley needham on 06/04/2022 08:18:27

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

With all the boat building you do you could call it M33 1/3 that would be some sort of a record !

I will get my coat.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have been reminded that PF did a model of the M15, a 9.2 inch gun monitor. This was a very similar vessel to the M33, however it just had one ridiculously sized gun on the foc’sle.

Although an interesting novelty, the slightly non-scale proportions of my build coupled with a gun that looks on the face of it to be totally out of scale would be a bit out of sorts.

Simple things, these monitors were knocked up in about 4 months, and the raisin ‘d etre of them them were the availability of guns. The 6 inch ones came from removed battleships (I think the queen Elizabeth class ones) while the 9.2’s came from spare Drake/Edgar/Cressey large cruiser guns.

Mine will be M34, as there were 5 ships in the M29 class….29-33.

Ashley

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

I guess that you are aware that a M34 plan appeared in the August 2006 Model Boats Mag?

M34 Mag Link

Sarik

Article

It must have been interesting on that small boat when the big gun went off. What is a "gp" hull?

Edited By Chris E on 08/04/2022 08:35:59

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Ashley, the Queen Elizabeth class kept their 6 inch guns except for the aftmost ones which were washed out in a seaway. It's possible some of those might have found their way into monitors but most of the Monitor 6 inch guns would have come from old decommissioned or modified pre dreadnoughts and armoured cruisers which carried lots of them.

Colin

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Thought you might find this interesting Ashley:

Built by a chap at Kirklees, I'm pretty sure from scratch.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Richard. Yes that looks like an M15 type. You wonder with a shallow draft exactly how steady they were when firing that massive gun?

Colin. You might be right…I may be getting confused…I will re=check my sources. I remember reading about guns from the Drakes, Edgar’s and Cressey cruisers. These had 9.2 and six inch guns.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Nope, the M33 glossy says the 6 inchers were from the QE battleships. two 6 inch guns were resited on deck but the rest of the casemate guns were removed, leaving 10 free guns for the 5 M29 monitors.

The M15 lot used 9.2`s from the Cressey and drake/Edgar cruisers.

Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

The four after casemate guns were apparently only fitted to the QE herself. The other four ships had the casemates plated in while fitting out. This did free up 10 guns for the monitors. I think the others ended up on deck amidships on the QEs as you say. Burt's book says they were initially fitted forward on QE but this was found to be a bad location.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

My guns will be left over brass tube in the “brass bit’s” box !

So saying, I have yet to check I have suitable sized tube. Gun barrels are difficult, as pure scale ones, to me, can appear to be on the thin side sometimes. I will make the turrets and prop some figures up manning it and then see what tube looks right..that’s the best way.

i have a nice bit of bright green plastic tube for the funnel.

i also need Davits for the two cutters that were fitted. These will have to be home-made from stiff wire as they were very long, the boats sat on the superstructure. I may not fit the actual boats, I have a feeling they will be difficult to match in with the enforced semi-scale proportions and the crew. A trip to the garden centre for 2mm or slightly fatter wire may be on the cards.

just noticed that the Kirklees chap has used the same railway figures as I will be using! It also looks like he has used garden mesh for his railings. He is a man after my own heart!

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 09/04/2022 07:57:37

Edited By ashley needham on 09/04/2022 07:59:17

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Chris.thanks for that link. I forgot about that build.

I was going to call mine M34, but I will have it to call it M35 now!

The GP hull is a secret project. Messaged you. Read and destroy……

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 09/04/2022 08:21:23

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

You have a message

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Painting, Painting and more painting! its only small but dazzle always takes a while.

The figures sit awkwardly as regards my garden mesh railings, men being 25mm high and mesh is either 1/4 1/2 or 1 inch in squares. I will probably use 1 inch mesh set down 18mm and add an extra horizontal rail but the mesh i have is a bit thick at 1.6mm. I need 0.8 or 1mm wire size ideally. Squires garden centre has it but only a massive roll. I will have to scout around unless any of our chaps have some knocking about?? only need a bit.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Have been bashing e-bay and purchased about 50 times more mesh than I need but it’s 0.85mm wire diameter which is a great thickness for railings. Price wise, (10.90) a square of mesh from a garden centre (assuming I could find a bit) would Likely been about the same and 0.9m sq from Wickes was £7 but the wire is the thicker sort.

Although we used thicker 1.6mm did wire mesh for the landers and corvette, that didn’t matter so much at the 54mm size figures.

Painting coming on. Masts to make and 20 or so small men to paint.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have a pump now for the death-Ray on the Saucer. Should be fun. Hope it is sufficiently “deathly” on a 9.6v battery!!,

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

The death-Ray projector is simply awesome and in exactly the right “Mars attacks” style.

i have not fixed it in place yet so I can zero the sights properly.

A big roll of 25mm hole sized garden mesh arrived today and I have successfully railed the M35. Men painted, masts made and in the paint shop.

9.6v bats charging so I can deal death and destruction at the Pond tomorrow (we come in peace).

Ashley….take me to your leader.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Ashley,

Is Hampden Court Palace in danger from your Death Ray ??

You were not practicing in the Black Sea the other day with it were you ??

Regards Scared Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Hampden?????

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Henry VIII would have no doubt loved a few Hampdens to bomb the French with, May just have saved the Mary Rose.✈️🛒

You have nothing to fear Ray, but I know where you boat…..🛸🛸🛸🛸

I strongly deny testing the death Ray in the Black Sea.

The big cruiser ship simply caught fire and the fire was obviously strong enough to burn through the hull and let in water. Despite only being a fire and OBVIOUSLYNOT a missile strike, 🚀 all the Russian ships have moved a bit further away from the coast…

Camera charged, batts charged, Dilithium cells at full strength, what could possibly go wrong today?

Ashley

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