Todays Boating

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

Posted by ashley needham on 28/11/2013 10:03:21:

Colin, too true. Fate accompli (or woteva)

But how big will a carrier have to be to put 3" aircraft on it (to scale) ????

Ashley

Wing span or length? If the one, 1:144, if the other, 1:200.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Malcolm. The aircraft are about 3 inches long.. Have not checked up to see what scale this represents. The die-casts are toys and not scaled (as such).

My Invincible is 4 feet long (aircraft same 3" size) and it needs to be about 5 1/2 feet to scale for the aircraft, so, an Elizabeth… Transit van size I should think, or low loader !!

Ashley

[Malcolm FraryParticipant @malcolmfrary95515]

Going off wiki information, it works out at 1:200, so about 4ft6in. Just a few inches too long for across the back of a Scenic.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Malcolm..Its tricky this, the Invincible was made to fit in the boot, so 4 feet it is, and thats the length of a standard bit of ply, so winners all round there.

The aircraft are not to scale in themselves, being toys, and so scaling anything to them is bound to end in tears. My carrier was modelled on the carpet carrier deck, and so there are comprimises all round.

An Elisabeth, wow.. would have to either be much larger than the Invincible, or same size but with smaller aircraft. Assuming the RAF museum has some (they are supposed to be available) , I would have to buy a few (not too many, after all, there will probably only be a dozen on the new 5 billion pound ships…dont want to spend too much on armaments, eh !!) and make a large cardboard deck and mock superstructure to see what I can get away with. Glynn Guest says he dislikes non scale aircraft on a carrier, and I can understand his point. but no one has yet pointed out the smallness of the Invincible compared to its aircraft, yet…

In any case , it is 4 foot or nothing really. Or I build a bolt-together.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

In order for todays news:_

Yesteday went to Hendon, dissapointed with the dia cast aircraft selection..basically only F22`s so…no Elizabeth just yet;

Today- The small boy turned up and after having been grilled as to his goodness over the week and did he deserve a treat? was handed the controls of a superlative and correct in every detail LANDING CRAFT and only spent 3 minutes controlling it!!! was he over-awed by the AWSOME responsibility of handling that much power?? we thought it must be that.

Speaking of which, this was the landing craft that I had pinched the 40mm prop from, and replaced it with a decidily weedy 30mm one (off one of those cheap 2mm shafts, remember) and blow me down it if didnt go even BETTER thatn the 400 prop. May be that the puny 385 was more comfortable with the smaller size and revved out a bit more?

Also out was the Nelson, performing well, and the Midge also performing very well.. and I may just fit a 480 in place of the 400 to up the ante a little bit.

On parade we had Ray with the mighty Belfast, going much better with its new 12v Battery, Barry with an assortment of large fast (to a degree) boats, Andy with a teeny weeny little outrigger Hydro..whose performance and especially the speed at which it turns..while remaining dead flat..has to be seen to be beleived AND croc And steam river launch, Ian with a truly masterful American littoral patrol ship USS Independance..made as a fibreglass mould and using water jet propulsion and fabulous detailing, Chris with the "usual" fast`n`pointless red boat, hovercraft (a good performer, this) and the supply ship..and lastly Peter with his rather cute 50`s style small speedboat (dolls not dressed for the cold) and "Gentlemans racer".

A truly diverse mix of boats on the pond, to be sure.

Next week I should, all being well, finish proj no4 and have it along for a photographic session, hopefully the pond will be nice and calm again, and if it IS calm, then proj no1 may make an appearance..i need waterproof tape for this..as it lets in water, big time. If I can stop the water getting in, I may just be able to borrow a 3s Lipo and see if it really will…, well, you know, chaps.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well, project no2 is out in the open now and so I can use its proper name at last. The Lotus has a truly astonishing underwater performance, not so much in the speed department, but in the ability to keep depth, 3 inches below the water once you set the throttle just right. I have obv not seen the article in print yet and dont know if the editor has made any comment, but as proof I usually include a video clip with my scratchings and pictures, and this clip indeed shows this really well. i will try to put it on utoob at some point.

This performanmce was completely out of the blue and I was hoping that it simply WENT under water, but there we are. Just as well as the water is only about 12 inches deep at the jetty.

The other week when I had the Lotus and Oberon out together, the Oberon was also displaying a hitherto unseen depth keeping ability. Usually I fiddle about with trimming weights for ages, but it just dived and kept on diving to order. I did have the stern trimmed down a bit more than normal so perhaps this is the trick.

No one as usual commented on the other photo of Barry`s sub, sticking its prop out of the water, having buried its nose in the mud (again) but Barry is discovering the joys of submarining. A brave man indeed, and to be applauded for making the effort. There are some mods to do, to be sure and I did suggest that he needs a method of adding small amounts of ballast easily, as currently the hull is sealed tight, but it shows promise and there is no reason he should not get it to work.

Trevors small lotus (based on the original bond car, unlike mine) was also showing good promise and I was amazed considering the size of it and the ingenuety of the interior packing but I think has been overtaken with LARGER things!

I find these odd projects are never really completed, and indeed proj no1, which is performing blisteringly well – and I may have found a way to stop the water getting in – has stacks of room for improvement, and the issue is of course where do you stop? In this instance the issue is money, it really would work really really REALLY well if I threw money at it, but our pond is relatively small for this sort of thing, and other projects beckon, and tyres for the car, new washing machine..cats vet bills..

Ashley

 

Edited By ashley needham on 05/12/2013 20:16:18

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

I may bring the little Lotus to the pond on Sunday, although having to keep picking it out of the probably very cold water to tweak the hydroplanes makes it really a summer toy.
More likely the ice breaking tug !
Yup the big boat is getting bigger on the base board and I must take some more build photos of it.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Trevor, know what you mean there. When it gets cold I take down models that simply need turning on and placing in the water.

Maiden voyage of the now finished proj no4 will be on for tomorrow, all modded up and varnished in the appropriate places and I have even made a stand for it, of sorts..not a stand in the usual way of things.. Batteries on the charger. Will be doing a photo shoot so I hope the weather stays nice.

To accompany this monster (and you muist not read anything into the use of this word, far from it) I will be taking the mighty FANTOME and the HASTY. Will I bung anything else in?? Possibly not or they will all be in the water for only 30 mins each!

I have taken delivery of a bunch of 90mm plastic wheels, intended for a trolley (I think they mean a childs pull-along toy sort of thing) unfortunately in a bright red but nothing a lick of paint will not cure. This may just possibly lead to project no5, I am umming and arring now.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

You will need a lot of those wheels to make a trolley for project 5.

Here is a quick design for you to follow and a photo of what the multi wheeled transport looks like.

By my calculations you will need 96.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Damn! I only bought 12…….

In actual fact project no5 (discounting the big landing craft for next years D-day event) will be in de-mountable bits and so need hopefully only 4 wheels to transport it.

Todays boatingw as good. Andy. Barry , Chris and Ray there plus a.n.other (apols cant remember the name) and proj no4 was performing very weel..mo scrub that….as well as could be expected and better than last week despite certainly more wind and waves.

We have persuaded Barry to get the cutters and glue out for his sub and hopefully by next week we will expect to see some improvement.

Battery for fantome not charged up in time so only the Glorious was out with proj4. Hasty made it to the grassy knoll but did not get wet.

Ashley

[Armando LoniParticipant @armandoloni78860]

I like your Lotus Excel rendition, Ashley – this is the version Hammond did for the Bond Cars TV tribute, if I remember correctly, although MB incorrectly refers to it as an Esprit. I've been planning a version of the original Esprit for a few years (Trevor beat me to it!); done all the drawings at 1/10 – it'll be a surface runner (water) only and based on styrene construction, with the four thrusters – going for scale appearance rather than road and submarine functionalities.

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

Armando, believe me getting the Lotus to submerge and run on the surface is not easy (still fiddling with it), a scale surface runner would have been so much easier.
My Lotus is approx 1:16 scale to get the waterline somewhere usable without adding ballast.

Ashley, project no.4 was certainly tricky to manouvre in yesterdays conditions.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Armando. Thank you for that. I have a feeling that referring to the Lotus as the bond Esprit was for front page marketing appeal. But may be wrong.

I was most suprised and very pleased to find the car on the front cover, and a very snazzy cover at that.

I wish you luck with your Lotus. When you sat Styrene construction you do mean sheet styrene? The problem I had was making the thing heavy enough to sink. Trevors, a dinky little thing, and although made from Balsa, is packed with gear, motors and batteries and is suprisingly heavy, but still no where near heavy enough to dive, as such. Trevor, and this i think was only his 3rd or 4th boat, was going for brute power to power the thing underwater, the aim was not for a true submersible, but a "fun" submersible, and he almost got there (project ongoing). As such he had opted for the two props out the rear, as the 4x pods would not have delivered sufficient oomph. In point of fact, it was watching the behaviour of Trevors Lotus on and under the pond that made me think that I had a viable project on my hands!!!  (but i would never mention that).

To use the pods effectively, yours will have to be reasonably low in the water which will require weight, As it will be low, you will need to waterproof it, and a perpex hatch secured with waterproof tape is the easy way. Having done this…you may as well go the next step and make it heavy enough to run underwater. NOT on a 2.4G set though.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 09/12/2013 19:45:59

[Armando LoniParticipant @armandoloni78860]

Sheet styrene, yes -plasticard – the Esprit lends itself well to sheet construction as it's basically 'wedges'. I think it'll need additional ballast to get the pods submerged; the main concern is waterproofing, as you say. I bought an Airfix 1/24 Esprit kit for scaling/measuring up, and a couple of small diecasts of the 007 submarine version for info on the 'additions'. I guess the lack of a 'keel' in your version, Terry, makes it a bit of a skater?

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

I used sheet balsa and used pictures off the web for the shape, scaled to give approximately the right volume below the waterline.
Without a keel it can spin on one corner but that may also be down to the two 540 motors and the mixer.
It really is too sensitive to any controls – next step is to try it on 4.8v rather than 7.2v.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Charging batteries. Need to get video clips of No4, as the camera focus was all over the place last week. Hopefully the 12v Batt will be ready for the Fantome, and I may bung in the sub (figurativley and literally)

Santa hats at the pond tomorrow?? crackers on the croc? baubles on the boomer?

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Success and 12v batt charged, 7.2 batts charged for proj no4 BUT the wind is blowing mightily down here and I fear that the pond may be too choppy tomorrow. I had even contemplated No1, but again looks to be too choppy for that as well. In any case I have planned a couple of mods to no1 to keep out water and provide more xxxxxxxx but have not managed to get round to this yet. I can hear rain on the loft window now. Ho hum, I am getting that "no boating" feeling, but never know.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

Looking at the forecast the wind is going to increase over the next few hours………an ideal time to sail the Russian Sea Monster as there will be plenty of lift

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Paul, good point. As it happens today the wind mostly held off until later on in the morning and the rain only started at 1130.

Todays boating was stuffed by santas. There was a santa run and so the car park was stuffed full by 0945. Young Ray turned up, couldnt get parked, went home and came to say hello by bike!

Suprise visitor today was none other than Kimosubby !! He chose a bad day for car parking (not helped by Kingston also being very busy with xmas shoppers…affects traffic up to Hampton court) and unusually less chaps today than normal. I was slightly embarassed by only having one project of interest down (No4) which by way of compensation was going quite well despite the medium breeze. Kimo has been sworn to secrecy, and we know where he lives (as is well known there are only 10 people on the IOM). Managed to get some decent video footage thanks to cameraman Ian (last weeks footage from Barry, although decent enough, was ruined by the camera going in and out of focus (??)), including its little "dance". Say no more. Kimo had a sweet little tug, all self contained in a custom wooden box with all accoutriments, which I for one was well impressed with, and this went very well indeed.

I also took the Fantome, the Hasty and lct1. More embarrasment came when i went to change the battery on No4 to demonstrate its full awsome range of capability to Kimo, and one of the leads appears to have gone partially Disconnected (fairly new battery as well). Just so, I thought to then demostrate the Hasty….and the same thing appears to have happened to the ESC lead on this one !!!! I was left with the LCT, which is fairly plain and boring and nothing much to shout about. Such is life.

Barry had his sub down, and I am pleased to say that after a bit more tweaking of the control surfaces and yet another bit of lead (15 g probably) from my spares box, he appears to have a working diving sub at last! It is running on a 2.4G set so will probably not achieve a dive for any distance, but it does enough to demonstrate the fact that it DOES go under..

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Sorry chaps looks like I will be doing Christmas stuff this Sunday as the social secretary has decreed that we go over the road to a neighbours gathering for copious amounts of wine and mince pies, so

Merry Christmas to all you Bushy park boaters and a buildy new year. I have enjoyed everyone's company immensely and you are all nuts.

What will next year bring?? Certainly project no`s 1 and 4 will hopefully be exposed in all their glory, Project no3 will get built, also hopefully, but this is a big and complicated build and will certainly demand tinkering over and above that normally applied to an Ashley creation and there are at least two more to do, one of which will be the big lander for the D-day event, something that will NOT be given secret project status, but will get posted on as I build. Trevor, pictures plse..

We shall look forward to Trevor trumping us all with the monster corvette, and possibly something outrageous in the animal department from Andy.

It`s all good stuff and every week at the pond brings either new or modified craft, on-going tinkering, technical mayhem and just jolly good fun. How we LARF, and that's why we do it. I have a large list of my boats and sailings and it makes interesting reading (to me) and when I find it again I will organise an analysis

This year the Lotus (actually technically NEXT year, but I built it a year ago now) has been the highlight, not only for featuring as MB centrefold for which I am truly amazed at and thanks Paul muchly, but actually working as intended! and looking dead cool. Getting project no1 also working was a bit of a relief after 18 months sitting in the garage being endlessly modified.

Ashley

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Posted by ashley needham on 20/12/2013 22:30:50:

, but actually working as intended! .

Ashley

Oh well back to the drawing board..

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

LB. Not QUITE with you there or are you building as well?

Tricky these TopGear things, being a shape that they are and not intended for the use that they are put to.

Ashley

[Kimosubby ShipyardsParticipant @kimosubbyshipyards]

Hi Ashley, left agreed cash amount behind tree number 6, to right of Diana fountain – I'll pay no more as I'm home.

Thanks for the welcome, I'm sure the duck and goose pooh will wash out soon. For all you boaters that live within range of Bushey Park and Ashley all I can say is get on down there. I travelled a mere 200 miles to join in, anyone beat that?

Here's Ashley with a small number of his floaters – notice secret No 4 – yes it looks like a duck to me too.

Here he's getting ready to launch it, and the one that follows is No 4 afloat and performing very well.

Nearly hit a submarine here.

and some what bubbling with energy here.

But still looks awfully duck like…..

Will meet up again one day and bring that new thames barge along too. Keep having fun Ash, and all you fellow boaters too. A very nice little water to play on except for all those birds and bird feeders!

Kim.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Kim. used tenners perfectly acceptable.

If only that duck was not in the way, my secret would be out ! Kimo spotted the only (I think it is a mandarin) duck on the pond, and it hogged the limelight. Proj no4 did not have its anti-photographing module turned on, still, well done the duck.

Nice to see a face from the forum, have seen a couple of visitors in the past. New thames barge, yes, very nice and I will enjoy seeing it sailing on the mighty Bushy park pond waters.

It is a shame you visited at Christmas, what with the Santa run chaps blocking up the car park and traffic from Kingston shopping getting in the way. NEXT time I will bring a few "specials" down for you to also get ducks in the of, or perhaps a swan in the case of xxxxxx.

All the best and a merry Christmas to you,

Ashley

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Posted by ashley needham on 21/12/2013 10:02:40:

LB. Not QUITE with you there or are you building as well?

Tricky these TopGear things, being a shape that they are and not intended for the use that they are put to.

Ashley

Hi Ashley

Normally in your reports something goes wrong. So as it worked perfectly I felt you needed to go back to the drawing board and have a problem built in

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