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.

Wow!! Thanks for the great tip! They have three designs for the steam launches; 40ft, 45ft, 51ft. I picked the 45ft because I think it's the prettiest plus I only needed to scale it down by 7% (to 3-3/4" long) to be the size needed. Incidentally, I see my drawing calls them "Steam Picket Launches". Here are pics of one sitting on the build plate, and in situ. The funnel and vents didn't come out too well but I can replace them. I'll need to cut off the circular pads at bow and stern; stern might be tricky as the rudder looks pretty fragile. Need I gimp up a prop somehow.....?? There will be another on the opposite side of the engine room vent hatches. There will also be a pair of large launches outboard of the steam pickets.

The boats vary in size. All my drawings show is dotted outlines in the top view with notes as to length/type. Many are stored between the fore and main funnels, some in stacks of three, sheltered from Q turret by the blast shields. The well deck in the aft superstructure contains larger boats like the admiral's barge and the pair of identical steam launches, as here: In a wild coincidence, a chap contacted our model boat club last month, offering his father's old drawings of various things among which was plans for the Royal Navy steam launch circa 1915! I contacted him tho we're yet to meet for an exchange. As for the other boats, I'm hoping to find 3D files of generic boats with/without flat sterns and print their hulls suitably scaled for the various sizes. Then I'll have to add seats at the correct scale. My drawing doesn't show any inflatables but I have photos of them in such places as attached to the blast shields by Q turret!

Hi Glen; yes RC has its own "techie" jargon. "ESC" = "Electronic Speed Control". They have two wires input from battery; two wires output to motor; and a plug-in connection to the RC Receiver on whichever channel you select as "throttle". Move the Transmitter's stick and the ESC varies the voltage to the motor.

Been a while since I posted. A giant overnight wind blew over part of my fence, and part of my neighbours. I don't mind putting fences together, but I hate digging to reset posts. 🙄 I had a major re-think about the electronics. I was unable to find an ESC from an esteemed manufacturer which would happily run on a 6V lead-acid battery to run my 70's decaperm motors. Members of my RC club recommended the Quicrun 1060 ESC but they all operate on 12V. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a pair of new 12V brushed motors to use with the 1060, one per motor. These motors come with planetary gear reduction with many available ratios. The company specs the motor's rpm and torque; using this data I selected 5:1 reduction which should give me the same max propeller revs as the Decaperms. I selected the 5:1 version from this family: https://www.mfacomodrills.com/pdfs/942D-series.pdf I will be acquiring a pair of theseESCs, driven from the Receiver via a y-harness: https://www.hobbywingdirect.com/products/quicrun-10-brushed-esc The water is back in at my club's pond so weekly meets started this week! Summer has caught me with Lion still not ready to get wet so I'm trying to get more done. When I have the propulsion system in I will go to the pond meets and add details as the summer progresses. One large question is how I am going to make all the ship's boats and the two steam launches.......🤔 Here are some pics of the funnels with the "cages" on top, made from 1/32" brass rod, which support canvas covers when boilers are drawn. I printed some jigs to bend them consistently but even so it was a bit of a pain. Cages will be painted black. Also added two copper steam pipes at the fore funnel. These are the simplest; no bends. The other six steam pipes on the main/after funnels require bending for which I will print some jigs. These will be painted grey. Also printed hawsehole covers, main windlass, anchors (with pivoting shafts), and anchor winches. Started to plan how to place them but it's been days since I looked at this aspect of the build. Looking at the pic, I see I will have to sand the little ridges off the flukes to improve their appearance. Also, I noticed during this that teenage Ian made a mistake on the hawseholes - there should be a pair up front then a single behind the starboard one, i.e. the port hawsehole should have been even with the forward starboard one. Too bad I didn't notice this before I added the laser-etched deck. I am not going to attempt to correct this now.

Jim, she's going to be stunning! Your work definitely "goes to 11". 😉 Remind me of her scale again, please?

I'm always amazed at the finished appearance of your card models. I should try one...........🤔

Michael, it's nearly beyond belief, at this scale. As always, amazed by your fine work (and your eyesight!).

Masked everything off and applied a darker grey. I'm a much happier camper now. Here the funnels, in various stages of priming/painting, are just sat on minus their lower flanges except the fore. They need more detailing (drilling for steam vent pipe supports) which is easier done off the ship. I had to print a new fore funnel after noticing that the cap did not quite click-in when I glued it and was thus a little bit crooked. Still need to put darker grey on the flag deck and bridge tower parts. The grey is actually slightly darker than it appears here.

Glen's video reminded me of this National Geographic footage from earlier on. Continuing the digression, but hey, it's my build log.

And now we take a brief break from the build for some humour. Today's topic, and I know this will be appreciated by Keith and Glen, is the penguins of the Heard and Mcdonald Islands. Here are a few pics.