Todays Boating

[Kevin BeallParticipant @kevinbeall91525]

I keep seeing models coming up at auctions and have to resist the urge to bid, it's when you read the listing and find it would have to go on roof of the car as too big to fit inside!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Hi Kev. Yes size can be an issue.

I only had two bags of music, An amp, sax, stand, bag of leads in the car for last weds rehearsal and wondered if the thing would fit in the car, which it did…diagonally with passenger seat fully forward and seat back forward. I recon if it it was 6 inches longer it wouldn’t fit. My little Suzuki Ignis is like a Tardis inside, really is.

i am off to Halfords now to get three big tins of grey primer , some lacquer..satin if they do it, and aluminium mesh for the 102 radar (not 1066).

The 992 radar head is a whopping 6.4m long….the boat scales to about 1:64, so the radar needs to be about 4 inches long (but I will see how that looks on the model, but I cannot find the length of the Holland’s LW-08 derived 1022 radar head?? It doesn’t look to be too much longer than the 992…I may just scale it to look right against photos.

The boat has a this wash of something water based, and it’s going to take some sponging to get it all off.

I would do the boat in Ford something or other grey gloss, but it’s a rare find at Halfords. Undercoat grey will have to do.

Ashley

[Francis MacnaughtonParticipant @francismacnaughton39461]

Hi Ashley,

FWIW I did a 1022 for my 1/32nd Glouster some time back and the main curved section was 240 mm in width so in 1:64th I reckon you are looking at 120mm width

Francis

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Thank you Francis. I oddly enough I have made the radar to be 4 1/2 inches long, simply based on pictures etc, so just about there with your calculation, thanks. It’s nothing special, just a strip of wood slotted a bit to represent the feed horns, Aluminium car repair mesh and a bit stuck on to representing Cossar 1000 and something IFF radar.

Hull was wet’n’dried and has now been sprayed, along with all the upperworks, sea dart launcher and 115mm gun.

When in Halfords I saw that they had several tins of Ford Polar grey, and beside the grey primer they are really different..the primer is far too dark, so I bought two tins of each.

I used one large tin of primer and almost two standard tins of Polar grey, barely enough (as of course I managed to get a couple of runs on the hull!).(corrected but used extra paint) It looks nice now. Today’s task is to hand-paint the decks in a ‘custom’ dark grey, and do the comms mast and rear mast tops black. I also need to buy some white-outlined naval letters for the finishing touch (pennant number). Then windows and rear cutouts in Matt black…I might even splash out on a white ensign?.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 24/06/2023 07:33:01

Edited By ashley needham on 24/06/2023 07:36:26

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Going to be scorching at the park today!

I am taking the big’un Down for the chaps to see (the 6:6 T42) and get some pictures of her by the waters edge.

Also…the Crusader for only its second run/test, it’s a couple of years old now and it’s not been tested as working!

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Very warm at the pond Sunday. Park fairly empty, car park remained only 3/4 full.

Good and bad from the Cobb Crusader. Good: the waterproofing measures taken viz silicon around the esc and a plastic bag around the receiver worked well, and after 4 runs during which “an amount” of water was shipped, the boat ran fine. I can’t renemer if I made a larger rudder for it after the last time, or just dropped it down a bit, but the steering was ok…not great, but ok. Having the rudder in the middle is a bit odd and it streets opposite to having the rudder at the stern, however this is easily sorted by reversing the right hand stick.

It makes a sound to die for! The muted jet noise is fantastic, and like the Bluebird, it kicks up spray from the jet pipe just great,

Not so good; it sits very low in the water and when it gets going there is water over the sponson struts, preventing it rising up on the plane. It also makes it very wet hence the water ingress.

The plan is to make some styrofoam ‘shoes’ to fit under the two sponsons, and the front wedge in order to lift it up. The slippers will be a bit wider than the sponsons , the extra width being inboard, and they will be pre-shaped and painted black so I don’t have to re+do the smart paintwork. The bottoms of the sponsons and front wedge were deliberately left unfinished for just such an event.

If I can raise the boat up a bit I am sure it will fly. The original was very wet as well at low speed.

Trevor bought the beginnings of the ‘flying shovel’ down for a peer review and we were impressed, the pivoting “outboard” drive was quite ingenious….(assuming…..)

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

The big T42 is almost done. I stuck windows on the bridge bit and drew the quarterdeck cutouts on and painted them black. They are probably a bit small, but they are only for effect.

Most pleasingly I managed to paint on quite an acceptable circle on the flight deck, using a compass to draw a concentric circle and then filling in with white paint. After a few adjustments and re-touching with deck grey, it looks ok. The straight lines were easily done with masking tape and went on ok, no retouching required. My spare letters furnished E X for the flight deck marking (for Exeter).

Just waiting on RN lettering for the hull pennant numbers.

I painted a couple of railway figures as crew, just one on the bridge wing either side. They sort of look a bit small overall, but fit well as regards the solid sides around the bridge walkway. I’ll say it again, figures like this bring a boat to life…even just the two figures are instantly noticeable as soon as you clap eyes on it.

It’s a ‘thing’ of mine…figures, and open topped things without a driver/crew..???

Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Interesting you have called it Exeter Ashley, a famous name! I visited the ship at Portsmouth not long before she was decommissioned in 2009. I have the HMS Exeter souvenir mug as a memento. The ship herself was in poor condition with a lot of rust.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Colin. I asked the CO of the unit what he wanted it called and he suggested Exeter, as the last Falklands veteran T42 to decommission.

I have just stuck extra foam on the Cobb. According to the bath test, this has raised it up by about 1/2 inch.

IF it’s still not enough, I could put some on the rear underneath the centre hull, although I don’t really want to. I think this may just do it. I will also see if the gubbins can be packed in better (there’s very little room for them) and perhaps put a bit of styrofoam to stop the battery going right back, so just keeping it where it needs to be.

Ashley

[NoelParticipant @noel26080]

Hello Ashley – do we get a pic of this Type 42? Sounds good.

I realise I have not made a posting on here in nearly 2 years and whilst I have been to Bushy park only a few times this year, I have tried to get on with some boat building.

I realise it was July two years ago when I last posted about the big Ark Royal model I had been working on.

After doing some organisation at home to make space to work on it (ie building a car port in early 2022 so I could make garage space), I have got on with filling and shaping the hull, then glass clothed and epoxy-ed it.

The hull then looked like this a couple of weeks ago after much sanding an resin coats:

Then I primered it up, which covered a lot of the imperfections

Now this week I have the prop shafts all fitted, and the A-frames too. What a massive faff they were to line up! Motors in next then it will be ready for a launch and trial run to sort out the ballast and waterline. I want to do that before I get on with any more painting and deck installation – in case anything has to be changed.

Its very close to being on the water, I'm not going to think about a date but it will be soon.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Good work Noel. I can imagine what a faff it was setting those shafts in place.

Remind me how big the props are again??

Snaps of big T42 to follow. It does not look that big in the photos…just against other models!

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Today. A bit breezy. Grub screws on Seagull loose/missing on the coupling!!! unable to fix on the grassy knoll as a bit tight. Fixed at home with new grubbies and Loctite 222, after a bit of dismantling.

Cobb marginally better, but not by much. POSSIBLY I think we have spotted the way forward based on similar issues with Trevor`s ITI racer/Ferrari , namely the addition of some fences, which made all the difference in his case.

The sound is still to die for. Its one I will get a video of as and when.

Delivered the big T42 to the sea cadets and there was no bugger there barring the gangway staff as they were all at a sail handling comp in London!!

Took photos on the floor and it looks very nice (no room in my house to get a picture with loads of toot in the background)

Ashley

 

Edited By ashley needham on 02/07/2023 16:20:17

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

They should be pleased with that Ashley. – very nice.

Colin

[NoelParticipant @noel26080]

That looks terrific Ashley.

The props on the Ark are 44mm, which is 10% too big. Scale would be 40, but I could only find those 5 blade props in 38 or 44. It caused a problem in that the outer props fouled the hull when in the correct position so I just moved them aft a bit!

I went up a bit to be on the safe side – ie too much thrust better than not enough!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Dead right Noel. A 10% dimensional diff is hardly here nor there, but an extra 25% in thrust (or whatever the extra blade area works out to be) could be crucial in avoiding torpedo tracks.

Destroyer. Looks very nice and clean and I am glad I didn’t try and add any extras to it. The pictures do not do the size of it justice bearing in mind the “sea” plank is almost 7 feet long!

Fiddling with the Cobb at home. A 4mm foam layer has been added to the extra foam on the pontoons, and this will be chamfered so the water will tend to go outwards, and the addition of a fence either side should do the trick. As long as I can get the water off the pontoon ‘arms’ it should then rise and finally get going. The fences may need to be large and unsightly, but this was what was shown to be necessary on Trevors Iti racer.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

The big destroyer,Diamond, is now showing multiple cracks along the hull length, and will need to be fibreglassed.

Perhaps it has been the hot weather, but the imperceptibly fine cracks have now become ….er…less fine and a fingernail can be inserted in some.

Thankfully only the bottom bit needs doing, so I can mask off at the black boot topping line and sand then fibreglass the red bit. I think just a couple of layers of my very fine cloth will be enough, as it is not for strength, but simply waterproofing. In addition, if I don’t leave any resin runs or puddles,I won’t need to do much more than apply a couple of layers of undercoat with a quick rub-down to get a smooth finish.

At least, when it’s done, it’s done forever and I might use it a bit more without worrying about the hull. I mean, it’s got to be seaworthy to escort Noel’s 8 foot carrier later this year…..

Even on the T42 there were thin hairline splits at the junction of the 3/4 inch top plank and the massive thick 60mm deep side baulks.(to mix measurement systems).

Ashley

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Ash,

Yes wooden boats dry out and leak in real life ! , maybe worth keeping her berthed in the bath afloat ??

Regards Ray

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Ray. In an ideal world I would, but the captain of the house would veto such a suggestion……

Its really an easy job. One side at a time. Mask off, sand with course sandpaper, mix long-set epoxy resin, stick glass cloth on. No desperate curves or undercuts, big long sanding run. Couple of coats of red oxide rubbed down. What could go wrong??

revisiting my Cobb file I was again struck by the ludicrously small forward rudder fitted to the original. I suppose that at 200mph you do not want to have a large rudder, but the turning circle must have been massive. I suppose given the relative size of the lake and the boat it was not an issue, and (in my case) if the pond was 10 times bigger and the turning circle of the model was half the current pond length, I wouldn’t have a problem either, but.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 06/07/2023 10:15:11

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Ash,

As you know my current situation Captain less , where else would I put the Wherry

Regards Ray

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Wherry nice Ray.

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Groan!

Thats exactly the right place for it Ray. Comfy.

Ash

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have a gig with my band Sunday so won’t be boating unfortunately. Popping in early and going early is not an option due to flower show traffic. Parking should be ok, it has been ok in past years.

Trevor has found a really weird boat plan on Ebay, the ‘Whirlybird’, the efficiency of which is debatable. The plan calls for a propulsion of two of those plastic clip on submarine motors….and the hull is 400mm long. Hmmmm….

But..

Ashley

[Peter WardParticipant @peterward23105]

Me also

Roadworks around Shepperton have been a nightmare all week

Walton Bridge and sunbury Cross a no no

Over an hour each way !!!

Plus hampton court flower show hasn't improved things

Hope to be back as usual next week

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Had a quick test of the Cobb today. No good.

POSSIBLY a tiny tiny improvement with water fences and chamfer under floats but same problem remains.

Tried a 2s battery instead of the 3s and it actually went BETTER (but not by much) to to the lesser weight.

Will try further float improvements. Other than that, some foam under the main body. I will try to find a higher Kv motor than the one fitted to use on 2s. This did the trick on the Bluebird. Less weight, same thrust as a 3s but on a 2s.

Still have to get Sonic Sippi working, but thats almost there, needs a flat calm.

Next projects, one an outrageous concept from a MB plan, nd one a 1936 special, again….

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Edf in Cobb is 5400kv so not much chance of ‘enhancing’ this.

For the new project I need a double-ended brushless motor, by which I mean one that has a bit of shaft at both ends.

it needs to be a high-ish Kv as well, as I can only fit small 4 to 5 inch air props on this one. I have found a 28mm motor which has a shaft one end and a prop adaptor to screw on the other, but it’s only 1300Kv. They are not expensive so I might get a pair anyway. They would enable me to model the ‘thrust pods’, but if they are not up to it I could fit single ended 2200Kv ones to get the performance, that’s the beauty of these little motors…a very wide range of power and Kv available all at the same size.

Ashley

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