Ian_Grant

OK, so this has nothing to do with Lion or even ships, but seeing as penguins are a recurring theme among the cognoscenti like Keith and Glen, I bring the following to your attention: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/penguin-poop-helps-drive-cloud-formation-over-antarctica-according-to-a-new-study-180986686/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=92646438

What character in a model, Keith! I love the lounging cats.....we too have always had one. Our current old man has been living with cancer for over a year after my wife the vet predicted his demise within weeks of diagnosis. She has him on prednisolone (sp?) and he's the same character though a little thinner. To get him to take the prednisolone, we crush the pill in a small bowl and stir it into a wee bit of vanilla ice cream. When we went away to Italy, my son messaged us worried that Ginger was suddenly refusing his medicated ice cream. My wife realized she had bought a different brand just before we left, so told Alex to go out and get a carton of "Kawartha Premium Vanilla" ice cream. Problem solved. 🙄

Finally got around to painting the bootstripe. It adds nicely to her appearance. I was out of "Frog Tape" masking tape so went to HD to discover they now sell Frog Tape only in really wide width; all others are "Painters Tape Ultra" which I know from past bitter experience is crap in terms of bleeding but I wanted to get the job done so I bought it anyway. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. As you might expect the tape bled in many places along the upper edge even though I tried my best to burnish it down. Redid it with 1/4" Tamiya tape with the green masking tape overlapping to shield the grey paint and got nice clean edges. Printed two little jigs to help me bend the steam vent pipes consistently; needed two because there were two different offsets for the various pipe s-bends; 3/16" and 1/4". Pipes at the aft funnel; "Q" turret's gun barrels traverse perilously near them. 🤔 In fact there are a couple of cross-pieces to add across the gap between the blast shields which must be concave to provide clearance for these barrels. Pipes at the main funnel: The funnels are not glued on; pipes are not glued in; need to form the support eyes and drill into the funnels to attach them. Looking at 12V lead-acid batteries I now see I can only get 5Ah in the size I had planned, as opposed to the previous 12Ah 6V battery. An unexpected consequence. I can get 9Ah if I can shoehorn in a battery that is 15mm taller. I'm thinking I can move "Q" turret's rotator servo and mount out from under the turret by moving it to the next compartment and using a longer belt, if available. This would make room for the thicker battery, however this battery is also 0.8kg heavier so I need to, sigh, do another ballast/flotation test. At least the pools are thawed now. Finally, I thought I'd buy the little sound card I saw a while go, which has an SD slot to store WAV audio files and is triggered simply by pulling any of 16 control pins to GND to play the associated sound. I can't find it now! Damn! 😠 Thanks for looking!

Cathead is absolutely right. My daughter's 2012 Camry has no maintenance manual and I encountered "AI Overview" while searching for maintenance intervals for fluids. It would have had me changing all fluids quite frequently. My world was turning upside down until I noticed that little "AI Overview" title.

Part of a patent application is to describe "prior art" ie the current state of whatever you are trying to improve upon. If you read down in the 1950 patent you come to a list of prior US patents, including the one from 1871. Hmmm, maybe I should have become a patent examiner, specializing in electrical stuff.......too late now!

I read the 1950 patent. It's for a new idea of pushbroom construction, with a new handle design to allow the user to sweep under low objects without having to stoop as with a straight handle design. It was so successful I've never seen one for sale. 🤔 US11504A is a patent from 1871 describing an improvement in handle/broom attachments for pushbrooms, so they must have existed even before then. As a side note, after one of my high tech layoffs there was a government ad for "junior patent examiners" with technical backgrounds; I actually applied but when they sent a list of reading materials to study it made my eyelids heavy. More dealing with paperwork than anything so I did not continue. I ended up working as a handyman for 15 years which provided much more variety and enjoyment and outdoor time.

Thanks Keith! I see those have electric lights on the arms for night signalling, unlike the pics I found. Perhaps I will try to represent them although they'd be tiny at scale.

Browsing videos of RC boat models, I came across one of a beautiful steam-powered model of the pre-dreadnought HMS Canopus (1897). Have a look at the snapshots below. See those black "umbrella"-looking things at the four corners of the upper decks? I think I found the answer to my question earlier about the "semaphores" on Lion. Those look like mechanical semaphores with arms drooping when not in use. The front right one in the shot has a crew member standing at its foot, showing the scale of the thing. LATER EDIT I did a google search before but I must have not included a key search word because I just struck gold: https://www.flickr.com/photos/signalmirror/albums/72177720309364503/

Greg, amazing model which I just stumbled across! Truly a work of art! I'm working on an RC model of HMS Lion also from WWI and have been wondering for a long time how to represent the coiled torpedo net; your idea of braided wire is brilliant! I had not thought of that though it seems so obvious now. Many thanks for this great idea!!

I've been using Lepage's CA for years, both liquid and gel, in these small 2ml tubes. Never hardened in the tube except once when I stepped away from a model for nearly a year. On the other hand, once you puncture the end foil with the screw cap, I find I get nice glue for the first few squeezes, then a bit of air, then glue again but the tube is really collapsed. Kind of like a bag of potato chips. https://www.homedepot.ca/product/lepage-gel-multi-purpose-super-glue-adhesive-no-drip-dries-clear-2-x-2ml/1001537908

No, the 1060 doesn't have complex programming like the 1080; it just has two simple jumpers one of which selects "driving " mode (brake/no brake etc; for boats we select simply Fwd/Rvrs), the other of which selects battery type. I asked tech support and they told me for lead-acid just set the jumper to NiMH mode. I must say this simplicity appeals. Also, the 1080 is $25 more, $50 more for a pair to run my pair of motors. I downloaded the 1080 user manual; programming is done via a single push button and an indicator LED which blinks different numbers of times depending on where you are in the programming flowchart and what you have selected. From my experience trying to program "Cateye" bicycle computers in a similar low-tech programming approach, this might be ok or it might be an exercise in frustration. They do mention, though, that selecting a higher PWM frequency will increase ESC heating since it is "on" more often. I know what you're saying about the whine, though. I will ask the club members who recommended the 1060 if they have this problem. I'm still inclined toward the 1060 but hope I won't regret it. In related news, my 12V motors arrived today! I need a 12V battery then I could buy a pair of ESCs at the local shop (they have both the 1060 and 1080) and try them out. All new to me! For reference, here is a link to the 1080 user manual. There are 15 programmable functions. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0109/9702/files/Manual_QUICRUN_WP-1080_G2-Brushed.pdf?v=1670441020

Found this museum steam launch; gives a nice colour scheme to use. I also like the Hotchkiss gun, the mount for which is molded into the printed boat. I wondered what it was for........

Actually on closer inspection the vents and funnel are pretty good, once you cut off the little "filament hairs" that the head spun between them while flitting around. The launch seems detailed enough for me at this scale; I don't plan to add railings. I don't think....

Kevin, I've forgotten most of what I learned (and all of what I didn't understand!) in second year electric machines class. I just took a look around on this topic and you're really opening a can of worms. I never realized how expensive motors can be. As you say, for a tumbler the word on the street says 1/3hp to 1/2hp to provide the torque to turn a barrel with (xx?) pounds of rocks in it. OK I thought, let's look for some. Brand new ones are several hundred dollars, which I guess is why you asked the question. There are many tumbling hobbyists recommending pulling an old motor out of a washing machine; seemingly a decent motor outlasts the washer. Apparently the "National Geographic" tumblers, which are pretty economical, are economical because the motors they use cannot cut the mustard in tumbling applications and soon burn out. Sorry I can't recommend a motor; perhaps ddp has his eye on something suitable?

Hi Kevin; Do have happen to have specs/model number for your motor? If it's getting hot I suspect it lacks the horsepower to tumble pounds of rocks.