gjdale

Great to see you up and running Joe. I’m sure you are going to be kept extremely busy in your new venture - a nice problem to have! Best wishes for every success.

John,

No problem. Just PM with your email address and I’ll send you a copy.

A great project for you Sjors - we will expect to see your accumulated skills and experience being brought to bear on this one! I look forward to following along.

Hey my old friend - what a pleasure to see you back posting again! It’s been far too long.

I have to agree with what others have said about Chris Watton’s offerings. He really seems to have filled a hole in the market and is delivering what he promises without too much of a delay, despite being a one-man operation. Sphinx does look to be a beauty and it looks like it should be ready by the time you’ve finished Beagle. The added bonus for you is that he’s in the UK, so you won’t have to contend with horrendous shipping fees.

I look forward to following your logs again and enjoying your company here. Welcome Home!

It might be a lot of extra work Kevin, but it’s worth it - that is looking really good!

Could you use the slitting saw blade in the mill, with the head rotated 90-degrees? I have used this type of set-up before, albeit for an entirely different purpose.

Nicely done Kevin.

Congratulations on completing a fine build. It has been a pleasure to follow your progress. 

That looks excellent Andrew!

Looking great Kevin. I bet you’re glad you decided to resurrect her!

Don’t know how I missed this one, but I’m pulling up a seat now. What a marvellous tutorial this will be. Such a privilege to watch a real master at work and to be able to read your explanations of both the “how” and the “why” of everything you are doing here. Thank you for sharing with us.

Kevin,

The brass will tarnish over time (I’m sure you remember polishing lots of it in your early Naval career!). If you don’t want to polish it now that it is in place, a coat of clear finish will prevent it from tarnishing further as it will seal it and prevent oxygen getting at it. You should be able to apply the clear coat with the brass in situ.

6 hours ago, Yoshka said:

please please get rid of the imitation wood dash panel. It makes the car look like a replica kit car. No Alfa spyder was ever made with that. All panels were painted black or silver or in some cases the body color.

Perhaps before leaping in with this advice, you might do me the courtesy of a little more research. Here are two examples of actual cars with wooden dash panels. Whether they were “as built” or added later by subsequent owners I have no idea. But they do exist and I chose to make such a modification to my model. It is not for you to tell me otherwise.

I’m not familiar with this particular boat set-up but I imagine it would need something similar to my Dumas Chris Craft. For that, I use a 2.4GHz radio controller (which all the modern ones seem to be). I opted for a handset that is the same as that often used for RC cars - the “trigger” type. It is much easier to use with a simpler learning curve than the “two stick” types. These also have a third channel, which I used to control the lighting (navigation and cockpit lights). The other thing I did was to use LiPo batteries in the boat - lighter and greater endurance.

Lou is right in that your local RC hobby shop should be able to give you good advice, even if they specialise only in cars and planes. Lou also mentioned a speed controller - often referred to as an ESC (Electronic Speed Controller). Again, your local RC place can advise.

Very nicely done Dave!

Looking great Chris!

Looking good Andrew. Seems that the cat scan was all clear too! 😉

Congratulations on your purchase Ron, you will not be disappointed!

"Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten"

Welcome back Stuart. Nice to see you back at the bench and bringing this beauty along.

I agree Kevin - it’s always interesting to see your progress on this one, particularly as this has been a resurrection from a subject you had all but given up on. I might not comment much, but I do enjoy following your progress.

Very nicely done!

I’m  in too! Sounds like an interesting project.

I honestly can not see your “disaster” Bradley, so either it’s not that bad, or you did a superb job with your fix.

Must be a relief to have reached this stage! She’s looking great.

John,

As others have suggested, check your gear sizes for the Venus gear. In your Photo #2, Step 1 it shows part #28 (41-tooth gear) on top and part #34 (39-tooth gear) on the bottom. There is a difference of only two teeth in these gears. Your subsequent photos look like there is a larger difference in size. I've just had a close look at mine, and the difference in overall size is negligible, as shown in the instruction pictures. I suspect you have somehow got a wrong gear in there.