Todays Boating

[Byron Rees…(Ron)Participant @byronrees-ron]

Hi Ashley,

You sound as bonkers as me, loads of things on the go at the same time, most of it experimenting to see if will work. Playing with self made plastic couplings at the moment and spent all week making a vac-former for a club racing hull….first test….it sucks!…or doesn't as it turned out and the wife won't let me play with her Dyson..(1800 watt, lovely!) Who would ever think I would get exited over the sucking power of various household appliances.

Melted the frame off the camper electric heater!! so, off to the doghouse for that as well. Still new ideas for model boats germinating all the time, and like you have become an 'Editor basher'…Poor Paul F must get really frayed by some of us.

I'm happy to be a boat nutcase…but how on earth did I ever do all this and work full time as well…I love retirement.

Keep it up……..cheers…Ron Rees.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Ron. Retirement, the only way to go. Keep at it (when the Mrs isn't looking)

​Despite the ramblings I don't usually have several things on the go at the same time, but some things do take a while to get going properly after construction! Project No1 is an example, due to the size of it and the weather conditions I need for it to work, coupled with (in this case) small battery capacity and the need to proved JUST the minimum amount of power to work, it has hung on for a while, a bit longer than projects No 2 3 4 5 !!

​I think that the issue of vacuum moulding at home is likely to be the even heating of a large bit of Styrene rather than the amount of suck you can develop??

​The next special is due soon in the mag…no hints, but I think its spectacular, and in parts tested my patience somewhat. This patience testing item takes up only a small part of the write up, but those who have done the same will know what I am on about, especially Paul "25-50 coats" T.

​I have others finished, simply awaiting some minor tinkering and better snaps of them on the water. One does need some extra attention in the stability-at-speed area though.

I should think Paul F welcomes submitted articles and wotnot, or he would have nowt to put in the mag !

​Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Well, the spectacular special is out in April as no doubt those who have perused the "next issue" bit on the home page will have seen. I do not want to veneer anythink ever again! (although the next one does have some veneer unfortunately). The performance of it can be judged by the photos! I will need a longer pond soon. There are several interesting features to this craft, chiefly the xxxxxx and the xxxxx not to mention the xxxxx at the rear, but you will have to wait and see.

​Yesterday, Thursday, Trevor and I popped to the pond to test T`s new sub…from a 1980`s mag plan. A sort of boxy affair originally designed for twin swivelling thrusters, but these have been left off as having been judged to be unnecessary. It works a treat and the boxy shape combined with the weight combines to give it a rather decent steady depth holding capability, much like my Lotus (which I promise will get more of an outing this year). It is also a rather bright Orange.

​His DDR is finally measuring up, in part due to the new waterproofing, and was finally going rather well. We took some better pictures of Proj No6 although the camera seemed to be playing up.

​The completion of the DDR sets the stage for a final tidy-up and paint and then all three boats (I use the term loosely) will be able to be photographed and documented for another possible submission…..but not too soon!

​Boating in a bag/bike again this week as again the Mrs has the car and also next week I am carless! Depending on the weather I may bring something exacting exciting down, as the last few builds have been light and relatively compact. Or it may be an LCM, the safe bet. But an interesting LCM of course.

Ashley

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Congratulations, Ashley! That's a cracking article on the 1932 pontoon hydroplane in this month's MB, m'duck. You sure know how to make life difficult interesting for yourself.

I shall read it again while the various glues etc set on my current model.

Dave M

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ashley

As Dave says it is a cracking article.

Nice one

Paul

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Great photo on the cover too – who took that?

Colin

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Chaps. Thanks for that. Possibly one of my most interesting boats, what with the pontoons and new drive setup AND all that veneering.
Colin are you implying I cant take good pictures??? The neighbour across the road took the snaps, as he has a DSLR camera. The boat was going too fast to get any decent shots with mine (!).

Ashley

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Of course you can Ashley. Hold the camera in your right hand, bend over and touch the ground with your left and you will become a human tripod. Probably with an almost eye level view too….

Colin

[Trevor HollowayParticipant @trevorholloway99134]

Ashley was sitting on the dock to get pictures of one of the secret builds on Thursday with decent results.

Mid week boating is one of the advantages of early / semi retirement.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Great boating Thurs afternoon. Trevor's new orange boat performing amazingly well for its first outing, followed by the best operation yet of his DDR, helped in no small measure by the now adequate waterproofing!!. The scene is set now for the final paint job on the DDR and the Puffin, and then we need decent pictures and I may bother PF again. I am looking forward to trying for some group shots on the move.

​Rain stopped play today. Light, but persistant and I would have been on me bike. At 1000 it was heavy-ish, and handy as I was tempted at 9.30 to go, but didn't.

​I have spent the morning fruitfully though, painting the cockpit of the new Cormorant boat. Or was it Guillemot?? (code, sorry chaps) . This suffers the same as per the pontoon boat, STUFF underneath the hatch preventing it having any depth to the cockpit. I had just gone for simplicity again, but in this instance it didn't look right. The Ponty has some depth to it, so looks the part…this one is just flat. I have been creative with the paint to give the illusion of depth, and it looks ok.

​Sometimes it is best to go for the simple but nicely executed look. The trouble is judging the point at which people will say "that's nice and simple" or saying " he has only made half a job of it". Tricky.

​Paint…one of the make-or-break items on a build….nice flat hull sides, crisp corners and deck edges. Good paint can turn a plain boat into something special.

​Model boat theory and practice: The last boat has a monster keel (electric, not sail) and a smallish rudder. By any accepted wisdom it should have a massive turning circle and be unresponsive to rudder commands, but not a bit of it. It works really well. Doesn't stop it turning over in gusts of wind but that's another matter!!

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

The trouble is judging the point at which people will say "that's nice and simple" or saying " he has only made half a job of it". Tricky.

Not tricky for us Ash.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Yes us experts…..

Project no4 has a plain cockpit and I have been busy painting detail on rather than actually adding physical detail, and I am quite pleased with the results. Pictures taken from the "right" angle will make it look good….

My mate Al came round yesterday and I showed him my boats, which nowadays means getting them out of their boxes. I know how many I have, but when it comes to getting them out, there always seems to be twice as many!

​The steel u/j couplings for the Seahawk have arrived, and it looks like I need a propshaft about 8 3/4 inches long…as unfortunately I glued the mount for the new brushless motor in good and proper. It may succumb to my Dremmelly thing of course, that would be the sensible thing to do and then I can use a shaft that happens to be in my spares box!! The steel couplings are a tad loose in their pin-fit but should be ok…they must be at least 10 times stronger than the plastic ones. Wear might be an issue, I will have to grease them and provide shields to stop the stuff being flung about the boat. The grub screws supplied for the double couplings do not fit either, and I have to get some 3mm ones. Still, at the price one cant complain.

Ashley

​Ashley

[Byron Rees…(Ron)Participant @byronrees-ron]

Hi Ashley and Paul T.

Great article on the Pontoon Hydro, reminds me of the mad 100mph flash steam ones they ran at Victoria Park (VMSC), its just the sort of thing I like to play with as well.

Thanks to you Paul for the nice comments on the Tug, I'm really pleased with the feedback, it did turn out nice, not bad for 2 months work and under £25.

The aforementioned club (Vicky Park, Hackney) have approached me to get a club racer up and running to try and promote R/C boating for the younger spectators at this predominately straight running club. I've designed it and have been trying not to set alight to the house with my home-made Vacuum forming efforts to make the hull and top.

I've done resin mouldings that support all the hardware inside the boat which brings the build down to basically 4 parts!!.

The heater for the former has now been changed to a 2200 Watt cooker element with a temperature sensor and variable control, but it still melted half the master mould!! Redrilled all 1,360 holes up to 2mm diameter in the vacuum table part and now get a really good suck, or perhaps I should say pull when activated. I am photographing as I go, warts and all and maybe put another article together, what do you think, would MB readers be interested in something like that?

Anyway, have reskinned the master pattern and made a plaster of paris mould of it now so no more sagging hulls I hope. There will be an initial 10 racing boats produced from all this and all up cost works out at about £35 each including 2.4 radio, servo, brushless 2820 motor and 2200 x 7.4v Li-Po. (All from China!!) All the other hardware is home made, rudder assembly, coupling etc and an in-house brass 6mm propshaft.

Ian Folkson has agreed to do stickers for simulated decking,numbers and windows when his new printer arrives. By the way it is loosely based on the Fairey Swordsman of round Britain racing fame and is 18 inches long.

In the meantime I look at all the part finished projects wondering when I'll get a chance to do them, still…keeps me off the streets and outa the pub.

Keep it coming………..Cheers all

Ron.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Ron, Thanks for that. I don't know about MB readers, but I would certainly be interested in that sort of article!! The theory of making a vacuum forming setup is easy, but the practice is not. Detailing a working, proven setup would be just great.

That is a very attractive price for a boat, however simple. Wouyld be interested in seeing the finished article.

​Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Spent a very pleasant few hours yesterday afternoon in the company of Gareth and Elizabeth, down from oop north on a visit to a vintage MYA "do" near Hampton court.

​They were treated to a grand tour of the boat shed in all its dusty glory and were possibly somewhat bemused as I pulled boat after boat out from the shelving for perusal. Perhaps they thought I was a magician! I was reminded that some of the boats need a bit of a clean before their next outing.

​Several hitherto secret projects were revealed, under oath of non-disclosure, although the editor has outed a couple of them at the end of the pontoon boat article. You will see these items in due course when I have obtained decent pictures of the first (another one that's frightenly fast) and got the second one to work properly!

​I shall be boating tomorrow probably 9.15 ish , as G&E are visiting the palace (don't forget to check out the millions of daffodils in the wilderness area) and may pop to see the luxurious boating facilities as provided by the Royal Park service (a concrete jetty). It does look a bit blustery , and I have no car again so will be boating by bike again. Terrapin probably due to the gusting. This is quite a heavy small beast and will/may/probably strain my poor shoulder transporting it down to the pond. but I am prepared to suffer for my art.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Belated report for last Sunday. Boating… Terrapin, G&E had bought down Nessie, and what a treat. It goes really well, and the green LED eyes look eerie on the water. It is surprisingly stable…I had expected more wobble than that, but Gareth seems to have it sorted. The waterproof sandwich box propulsion module (ok, its not ACTUYALLY a sandwich box) was waterproof and very easy to lid up.

​Popped into Kingston to get some tinlets of Humbrol paint….but now Model Zone have closed in WH Smiths (the paint stands remained for a bit), and now I find that Bentalls toy department has stopped doing Airfix and thus paints, I have nowhere nearby to get paint from. At least there are two model shops within 20-25 mins drive away.

More work in the meanwhile on the flying camper van. Adding foam underneath the rear deck to stop theg rear sinking. Will it work??? wait and see. It should have some effect but I may also need to add a shelf at the back as well.,

​I also need to try smaller props, of high pitch ( possibly) to lessen the torque reaction and keep it upright. It may be a case of one set of props to look good, one set to use on the water, a bit like decent scale model aircraft do. May try this on Sunday if its not windy.

​

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Nice day at the pond. Breezy but bright and sunny. Took HMS Nelson and lct68 along.

​Battleship no probs with the wind but a lot of water on deck and the usual amount inside. I am suspecting that this is coming up the rudder tube, as water is gathering on the rudder flat and this is above the level of the main interior floor. Something I will have to look at.

​Peter down with RAF recue launch and a lander , Chris with Anchor/ buoy tender. And a nice time was had by all, and then I went round to Mum`s to cook a Sunday lunch.

​Work at home….filled and painted extra Styrofoam on the flying camper van. Probably test this next week, wind permitting.

​Ordered several lengths of 4mm st/steel rod to get the Seahawk running again. I plan to use a bit of thinwall brass tube and a flexishaft liner instead of a normal propshaft, as there is no thrust/other forces on this component, the drive acts on the out-drive unit, the outer tube actually simply stops the shaft from wobbling, and provides a water seal.

Ashley

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Great morning at `t pond. Myself, Peter, Ray (bring a boat next time plse), Iain, Trevor, Chris.

I took the BHA, Oberon and Argus down, all running faultlessy of course.

Work at home….Installed new stainless steel shaft in Seahawk (running in the brass tube and flexishaft liner). All seems to be ok, has been fixed with silicone sealant as the tube does not take any strain, it is just to provide a waterproof exit really. Thinking about it, I could have made this a bit shorter?? but never mind..

​This Thurs will be having Tinker Time in the afternoon with Trevor (weather permitting). No smutty comments about tinkers plse, this Tinkering time….we take new and/or improved machines out to tinker with them to ensure they reach the peak of perfection. I believe the DDR may be out and I may take my PUFFIN and flying camper van along, the former needs some action photos as does the latter, but in addition the latter needs to run without upending…

​Ashley

Edited By ashley needham on 02/04/2017 15:36:35

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Although it was nice this afternoon, so everyone else thought it was nice and being school holiday time the car park was rammed at Bushy. With a car loaded with top secret craft, we did a slow circuit of the car park and went back to Trevor's for a cup of tea and to discuss the next likely project(s).

We discussed using a material hitherto unheard of for model boat building and this may be the next project, although it would not be seen for close on a year.

​Its amazing what you can dream up with a bit of brainstorming while sitting in the sun.

Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

'a material hitherto unheard of for model boat'

Sponge cake…………..then in the great british boat off the model can have a soggy bottom

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Blast!! How did you guess. The difficulty is….Victoria, chocolate or indeed gluten free ???

​Easy choice of adhesive (buttercream) Ashley

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

No – don't be silly! It has to be Filo pastry, draped over a mould and then baked until hard to make it waterproof.
DM

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Ah this reminds me of mothers baking.

If not cake or filo pastry then it could be duck feathers, lightweight and already waterproofed all Ashley has to do is sew them together and stick a motor in.

Paul

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

OK< Its not REALLY cake or any other comestible substance. Or any form of wood, man made or otherwise.

​This Sundays I will be zooming the pontoon boat, projects no`s 5 and 6, and as usual will have an LCM< for rescue purposes,. obviously not that I will need it.

THe boat box of one of them has some strips of sheet lead in it for experimental purposes, mostly so I can use a Lipo but have the same weight as a Nimh. There is logic in this which I will not explain.

​Any boaters attending are advised to get there early as the car park will again likely be RAMMED with cars, especially as it looks like being v nice tomorrow.
Ashley

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Its not REALLY cake or any other comestible substance. Or any form of wood, man made or otherwise.

Animal, vegetable or mineral ?

[Author]

Posts