Todays Boating

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

The let down on the electronic front was self inflicted, and hopefully the maiden voyage (official) will be on Sunday weather permitting. The crew will be fully tooled up this time as there was a RIB on the water with some dodgy geezers on it dressed in black, toting. Don`t want to be out matched.

I need to make a box for it, and also for the last one for protection. Hopefully also my spares will arrive for no 3 and I might have that out as well.

Perhaps the Sunderland if not too windy.

Ashley.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Sorry chaps, looked at the trees being bent in half in the garden and decided it would not be a good thing on the pond, so have missed todays boating!! shock horror and sorry about that.

Have applied some camo striped/patches to the larger lct and it looks much better. I am going to apply a waterline to it in the form of "watermarks and weed"…so will mask off the line with tape and apply a bit of a wash of light brown/green underneath. Landing craft not painted with anything special underneath as far as I can see, just sprayed grey all over.

I did buy some woven "straw paper" some weeks ago, brown almost like course sacking, which I have cut and folded strips to form shrapnel mats, and stuck on the conning tower. Next up will have to be some rope and so on. Undecided quite what at the moment.

Ashley

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Ashley

I like sand bags!…..They look the part…….A flashback from my playing soldiers days……..Lead of course!

Bob

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Bob, Good idea and I have sand bags on the German lander but there is not much room on the LCT to put stuff on (fortunately) and I think a few ropes will do.

It is the sides that look so plain, and they were of course, and I suppose what they need is weathering, but I am not keen on trying this as I know it will not look quite right..I dont normally "do" weathering. The camo has helped no end, and I might just try some faint dry-brushing with brown paint.

Ashley

[LARRY WHETTONParticipant @larrywhetton68737]

My flack mats using very soft balsa,scored folds and sanded fold profile, a little scuffing …. Larry…

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Modelling air hardening clay is good for sandbags as you can stipple it with a nail brush, or tooth brush to get the sacking look.

I just happened to see this woven straw paper and thought I should make something with it, interesting texture and all that. I eze-coted it first before folding and glueing with UhU glue.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

What a fabulous Sunday morning. Sun, water at normal levels in the park, bit of a breeze.

Took the big LCM, Hasty and proj no5.

Proj No5 has a steering issue; the bits all work but something is out of balance and i am going to have to play with swapping motors, props, reversing the prop rotation and so on. Not insurmountable, and in any event the …craft..is never going to steer straight anyway. Took nice piccies but sun a bit strong. Had a moment of inspiration for "artistic" photos involving a big xxxxx xxxxxx on the xxxx. You will see later what I mean however it may be a bit of a cheat as the craft does not, but I will make this clear on the captions.

Andy, Ian,Barry, Chris Pete and ray down. Peter had his jet boat (trials still ongoing…) and had also outfitted the bare LCM3 shell I donated with gear and a charity shop tank and men. Very effective and cheap.

No "moments" to speak of, everything went like clockwork. Took the LCT4 down for comments and suggestions, and was pleased to find it fitted easily fitted in the car in its bolted up mode. I am thinking I may not need to dismantle it at all. The Lct and lcm both fit in the well deck like Russian dolls, will be handy for transporting gear on D-day. I shall probably have 4 Landers, The Nelson and Sunderland on the day.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

It looks very horrible outside at the moment, and I cant see it getting any better, Barry, You may be on your own (again) !

Have been fiddling with LCT4 all week and not proj no5 so although I wanted to swap motors and so on I have not got round to it. I do need to take some more photos mind, as the sun was very bright last week and this is never very good for taking decent pictures due to washing out and really black shadows. I did use fill-in flash but these snaps ar a bit "lifeless" and thinking about it I should have stood further away and zoomed in, so as to dilute the flash a bit.

I have no boat Nimh batts charged so if it does brighten up I may take Hasty and Devastation.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Fabbo Sunday, what a beautiful day at the pond. Unfortunately didnt get down last week due to late night gig and so on and so forth.

Firstly, Proj no5 was in the water and displayed the same left veering tendancy despite now having changed both motors for JP400`s as a matched pair. I swapped the props around so that now the props rotated inwards and not outwards and that has cured it completely !! Full throttle in a more or less straight line and more manouverability than you could shake a small boy at. Job done. Sun too bright for morte photos again unfortunately,

LCT4, and I was off with my draught estimates. It take about 20mm at the bow and possibly 5 or so at the stern!! No ballast has been required at the stern sits visibly down, and the props are suitably immersed.

A good number of chaps down, and one new man turned up with a whopping great Severn, but with flat tx batts !!

Ashley

Photos; the chaps at the pond, boat and project storage area (oh dear proj no5 seems to be hiding)

see D-Day thread fo lct pics

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Oops.. previous statement wrong about lct4 draught.. should have read actually 15mm at the front and 20-25mm at the rear. Painting today, painting yesterdaya nd the day before. At least the day is a bit warmer, helps the undercoats dry quicker!

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Another fantastic day at the pond. Beautiful weather.

LCT4 looking good now in camo and with railings, Sunderland out as well, but with one engine misfiring and eventually stopping altogether. Plane also very noisy witth vibrations at full throttle. Beginning to show her age as I think it is about 8 yrs old now! Have more than a few spare motors for repair. Lastly proj no5, going well but again frustrated by the bright sun,,,this is no good for taking photos.

Proj No1 apparently about to be outed in next months MB mag (according to my informant).

Fullish crew there today, 7 or 8 chaps. Usual variety of boats, see snap. Need more men on D-day, even at two landers per chap this doesnt get us the massed landing I would like. i will be bringing three, and Trevor I know will be bringing family reinforcements. I will have Berengar on the day, and at least 2 spare craft for anyone to play with.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well. yet another birthday has come round and I am splashing out on a 2.4Gig set. As far as I can see a Planet T5 will do, the possible range issue (lack of) will not be a problem where we sail, and the receivers are cheap, so I can fit a number of boats and things with them. I may order at the end of the day unless anyone can say that anything else is worth buying.

I will then have extra channels for more features!!! not sure what they could be on the boats I have , but..

An MP3 player on the Titanic is also required.

Spent 30 mins replacing the no1 port engine on the Sunderland on Monday as well, this was simply "just not working". A bit of nifty cutting work to get the cowl off (with a scalpel) and I managed to remove it in one peice. Wires are soldered to the motor on top, and once the duff `un was prised out of its Araldite bed, a new one was re-glued in place and painted black, propped up and the cowl reattached.The old girl is vibrating a bit nowadays, and a few small cracks and so on are showing. I may have to try some magnets to hold the rear centre wing box down to stop the noise.

I need also more batteries, several of the last items I have built are very power hungry and two 7.2 batts have since gone low so I am down a bit on numbers. I should unwrap them I suppose and test the cells.. it may be only one has gone and I can re-solder them up to become 6V packs, which would still be very useful.

Off today. Pub lunch and curry in the evening.

Tomorrow big day…evening premier of the short film with my boats in!! Tux at the ready , speech for "best boat in film" already written….

Ashley.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

See "modelboatwantedforfilm" post regarding boat silver screen debut.

Titanic appeared in shot on the dining room table..all in one piece, in a bit where the lead chap was sitting behind it deciding on a course of action. It was lit up so the red-oxide glowed red, and had been shot to deliberately fill the screen with him behind it. Fabbydozo. The hull gleamed black, the top glowed white and the funnels ALSO glowed (buff colour). It did look good.

If you are building a liner, it has to be black and white…classic combination.

Batts charging for tomorrow. The "duck" will be out and oooh something else, poss the MFV or even the Ecranoplan if I can get the small 9.6 pack charged. If not perhaps the foam flyer.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Only a small but enthusiastic gathering, it was a bit COLD at the pond! despite the bright sun and showers..

Had the Herald out and Toyboata. Toyboata going very well with 8.4V pack, impressive bow wave despite the cutaway under the grill. The "duck" didnt ghet an outing due to the cold and it got a bit windy..ducks not keen on wind.

And, Ian, Chris and Ray (boatless!!) very hardy souls.

4 small landing craft almost completed. Found a way to further simplify the rear end deck !! This ply board not as nice at the one used for LCT4, rougher and a bit splintery. Boats all looking a bit rough until zoomed over the belt sander, whereupon they look OK !!

Will see if anyone has spare gear. might be nice to have a couple of landers available for the public to try, let the kiddies play and so on (would put a bit of foam on the bow door!)

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well. Batts charging but ti looks as as if I will be boating-in-a-bag tomorrow by cycle as the Mrs is cubbing and it finishes at 11 ish which is too early to collect them from the pond.

In this case I will have to take THE DUCK, as this is still a new toy , and also they the toyboata again, to keep a similar thread going and it is also compact. Shame as I had charged the Lotus battery but that is WAY too heavy to carry without a fork-lift.

OR I might take also the DEVASTATION (what a cracking name for a warship…much better than a shopping centre ) which is a bit supercharged on 12v and is great fun.

Found a cracking white ensign flag for the landers, printed,cut,varnished and stuck on a halyard and it is very good, better than a horizontal stiff cloth one.

Have commission for some dolls house furniture!!! easy. It is junior chunky stuff so simple lumps to cut on the bandsaw, glue together and wizz over the belt sander.

Ashley

 

 

Edited By ashley needham on 29/03/2014 19:36:35

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well. a turn-up for the books.

Had the car as it happens but had to drop off the Mrs and Berengar to church for mothers day service..was obv going to be a bit late (arr 0925) and was worried about parking as it was such a fab morning…but car park almpost deserted!! and stayed that way until at least 1100 and even when we left at 1230 it wasnt full!

Pond had a lot of small twigs and leaves in it oddly enough and at was a bit scummy, not too bad, but dont normally see too much of that sort of thing (barring over very long hot spells)

Had the DEVASTATION, on 12v , and very swift it was too.. Proj no5 running well and demonstrating the wisdom of ensuring the ducts and so on could be cleared of foreign objects easily..having ingested several leaves. Unfortunately there was a technical problem with THE DUCK. One of the leads on the Deans connector (to the battery) appears to be dodgy..how can this be? thew connector bits are solid and the wire seems to be soldered on well??? I will just have to cut it off and change it. This meant THE DUCK stayed on shore, collecting admirers as it does, or at least those who have *********************, or those that recognise **************., if you know what I mean.

Ian had a really really spiffing Flower corvette (the big plastic kit, not sure what kit sorry)down, its first trip and what a stunner. Smoke courtesy of a wossisname fogger unit, and when I arrived the sea was dead flat and there was just a hint of breeze to take the smoke clear. He has fitted oversize bilge keels on it, very wise, and they appear to do the business as the boat was quite steady,he says all the ones he has seen do wobble a tad and that looks silly.Nice one Ian, fantastic job, great weathering. Just paint that little bit we spotted, eh??.

Andy had a small "cabin cruiser" he had made from depron foam, covered in brown paper and PVA glue. It had a £5 small brushless motor in it (2Kv) a £5 brushless aircraft ESC and an X30 prop on a 3s Lipo and wow what a performer! at least up to 1/2 throttle and then it got a bit scary and started going on its side. The problem is of course it is very light and so you reach a sort of speed that it will handle and thats it. Not bad for an experiment, and he is going to re-engine it with something less powerful and that should be just about right. We looked at it twitching on the pond and thought "sponsons!!!" but of course this would be a last resort thing for a hull that really should not be going so fast, or possibly so fast., maybe. The boat indeed could have been twice as long, and probably then would manage the top speed capability of the motor.

Ray arrived by cycle with his airboat trying out a few of my spare props to see if there was any improvement in speed (no) but he has more than enough weight allowance for the reasonably substantial hulL to fit a 540 and that should sort it out.

And that was it…space on the pond and peace and quiet.

A late arrival was a new man of mature years (compared to my very YOUNG self—and indeed my companions, well, most of them…a few perhaps…but when I think about it..) with a tug under his arm…it looked to us like a RTR model, however there was a massive bolt-on keel underneath it???? Not sure why you would want a keel on a tug?? Not sure I have ever seen a keel on a tug?? they are short and fat with big bottoms. It was obviously its maiden voyage as the rest of the relatives came along and they bought out a bottle of champers to toast the launch with !!! I did wonder that the bottle was a bit big for the bows at first. I can see where we go wrong now, Barry brings a flask of coffee along, we should get him to up his game a bit.. Perhaps I should not have bumped into it with the DEVASTATION however.

Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 30/03/2014 18:03:24

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I am off to the IOW next sat for a week with Berengar and fully expect to bump into Colin as he is always over there.

Name the time and place (Steamer inn, Shanklin any time after 6pm, table at the front).

I shall be gathering maritime inspiration and visiting the Classic Boat Museum marveling over the sailing boat with the propeller for a sail and the lifeboat wot they used to drop from Wimpy bombers in the war (had two lawnmower engines driving props..the whole lot swivelled for steering…very curious and I recon the basis for a very interesting model, complete with action men survivors).

Always something to see through the salt encrusted windows of the FastCat ferry, and pictures to take of the hovercraft on the flat at Ryde (just in case one day….)

Paint hardening on the landing craft and I shall be starting, or rather, continuing with a truly spectacular build (assuming I can get it to work) and must make an effort to develop Proj No1 a bit more (see next month). plenty of scope there, a bit of an open-ended project that one..I have a feeling I have only just scratched the surface of the capabilities of it..but how long is a bit of string eh??

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Its amazing how a stint on a semi-tropical island recharges the old batteries. Both voyages were calm and we spent most of the return trip on the sun lounge.

Gosh that Colin doesnt half put them away.I had to stop after 15 pints, and was well and truly beaten and couldnt quite manage the second 12Oz rib-eye steak..

Batts charged but only surface craft tomorrow, unfortunately I have not managed to get another Deans connector to repair the DUCK, and cant be bothered with a sub of either variety, although I shall have to break out the sharks fin at some time if the Hippo surfaces.

Sunday;_ LCT4, LFM and proj no5. Passengers now screwed down to stop them falling over under rapid acceleration.

Anyone wanting a bare LCM3 shell had better put their order in soon as only two months landing craft building time left….

Ashley nb if anyone wants an explanation of this posting they had better bring a boat down to the pond tomorrow!

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Gorgeous day at the pond. All my craft went well, no mishaps but I shall have to increase rudder throw on the LCT4 which was struggling in the light breeze.

Peters "jet" boat out with more mods but…back to the drawing board. Funnily enough, Andy gave his Bluebird a go and we suddenly saw the real use for Peters fabulously sounding EDF unit…a Bluebird style craft. This ticks all the boxes for minimum drag, and the sponsons are available and easily adjusted for unwanted nose-diving and stability issues.

SOMEONE left a pair of wellies at the pond, will bring them down next week.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have found an issue with at least one of my previously-thought-of-as-duff battery packs….corroded wires, Despite feeling ok, I stripped back the plastic insulation and almost the entire wire was green, and severely corroded.

I have soldered on some new ones and hey presto!! one useable battery pack.

The 12v pack I purchased for the Lotus I also have my doubts about,,,doesnt seem to be holding so much charge and I think one of the flat pack 9.6V AA batts for the Ecranoplan A90 has had it, and I am off to the workshop now to do a bit more investigation.

It is a nuisance, as I build more and more different things they all seem to be demanding different battery pack styles and voltages. A blooming nuisance, but there we are. I shall have to give more thought to this aspect of the design for the next one. The next one is a biggy, this is the … thing…. I have previously posted about concerning massive layers of wood or even MDF, yes I kid you not, a monster build! After testing batteries I shall be getting the filler out and my scalpel to continue work.

Ashley

[shipwrightParticipant @shipwright]

Ashley,

Re "I have found an issue with at least one of my previously-thought-of-as-duff battery packs….corroded wires, Despite feeling ok, I stripped back the plastic insulation and almost the entire wire was green, and severely corroded."

There have been many discussions about this topic over the years – commonly referred to as "black wire corrosion". All sorts of theories have been proposed. Some say that it only happens with NiCad batteries but there are others who say that it occurs with all battery types. One theory says it is caused by chemical interaction between the chlorine atoms in PVC insulation and the copper in the wire. Another suggestion to prevent this problem is to only use copper wire that is tin plated – the tin coating protects the copper from moisture in the atmosphere. Were your wires plain copper or tin coated ?

Ian

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

They were plated. I have not had the battery that long either. It does get wet from time to time though? All the battery-battery connections were shiny new. It was just the wires.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Boaters.

Batts charged. Tomorrow will be Lotus day. I am going to prep it tonight, so all I have to do is load it in the car, there being an external (waterproof) on/off power switch. I have also repaired the connector on THE DUCK and so I will be slowly zooming around the pond causing havock. Slowly zooming??? yes it zooms a lot but goes slow!!

Also for an outing will be the A90 Ecranoplan and Foam Flyer. I am going to try my 9.6v AA NiCd pack out on both..it is very light and will be interesting to see the effect on the foam flyer..my prediction is that it will zoom along (quickly) and I shall not be surprised if it is not almost as fast as the A90….the actual plane is incredibly light, and really deserves a small brushless, however I made it just as an experiment..having some sheets of Styrofoam left over from the Km amongst other things. I am in two minds as to whether to keep the FF or get rid of it…it duplicates the A90 without having quite the speed, but it does use (normally) a 7.2V pack and so lasts a fair while on the pond while also having reverse!!! dead handy. A cash offer may secure..

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Rain stopped play! 4 of us down. Ecranoplans did not get an outing as windy. The DUCK is now vibrating and it was also too winsdy. The Lotus was superb, water crystal clear.

Peter testing his landing craft again…must say I kept on forgetting it was out… the sky and pond got greyer and greyer…the landing craft was simply fast fading into the background!!

Back to base. Another landing craft to knock up for Ray (done now), thats six so far…not bad.

Ashley

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Nice model, Ashley……But do you really need the ariel on show?

Is your model anywhere near getting airbourne?

Bob

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