Tecko

Thank you @BANYAN, @oneslim, @John Allen, and @mtaylor for your 'likes'. _________________________________________________________________ Decided to build another boat using the leftover stern sections from the kit. This boat will be a Buoy Tender, called CLEM-PETER, named after the two museum members who had built a diorama showing the different types of buoys and navigational signages around the Port of Ballina. Their display will be replaced by this Bridge and Boat(s) diorama.

Thank you @BANYAN, @Farbror Fartyg, @Tigersteve, @*Hans*, @druxey, @mtaylor, @oneslim for your 'likes' and comments. ___________________________________________ Started doing something about the empty space on the left side of the diorama. It needs some sort of side-line attraction. I have a few ideas, and one of them is to have a bit of drama on the bridge. The police farce force has a broken down highway patrol car approaching the headlights. Another policeman, from behind the car, will be halting other approaching cars, The blue flashing light will be only ON the same time the orange traffic lights flash _ for fifteen odd seconds (at start of bridge operatations). Somewhere on the south bank there will be a angler, appearing to have caught a fish.

@*Hans*, I have not seen Catweazle before, until now on YouTube. Very funny. Would like to have seen it in Australia. Also, thank you for compliment. Thank you @KeithAug, @druxey, @BANYAN, @oneslim, and @prutser for your 'likes'. _________________________________________________ Completed the boat. The rigging string, as someone previously suggested, got pre-stretched since November (I think). I added weights to either end of a lenghth of string, and hung it over a door. Since rigging the boat, we had over a short period of time, both high and low humidity. Neither effected the tension of the rigging, so I am very pleased about that. I really enjoyed building my first vessel. Though it is only a small boat, I have learnt a great deal from putting her together. This introductory exercise has increased my respect for model ship builders. It may turn out to become a new hobby for me.

Fantastic build.

Thank you @KeithAug, @mtaylor, @BANYAN, @prutser, @Jack12477, and @*Hans* for your reactions. Much appreciated. ___________________________ Started building the boat vane. The gap in the table is 3 mm, and I am using 2 mm aluminium plate for the vane. Electrical connections, or tracks, must reach the boat from under the table, to operate the nav lights. A printed circuit board (PCB) is 1.5mm thick, leaving a 0.5 gap if the PCB is mounted within the aluminium plate. So here is my attempt to create this by-pass. The slots in the vane is to allow bulkheads to fit in. Making brackets for both the PCB and the base plate. Made the PCB and attached it to the vane. Have ordered some parts to further my progress with the vane section. Will return to this later-on in this build log.

That is unbelievably good!

Added deckhands having a conversation. The name of the boat is BINGAL, named after the aboriginal name of the place before Wardell (where the bridge is). Bingal reminds me of the word 'bingle', which means 'collision'. The boat is a collision of sorts with two bow sections. To play with the words, an added bingle occured on deck as well. Altered a plastic figure to make him look as if he tripped over the rope.

You are smart druxey. Without being questioned or given suggestions I would end up doing things I have to undo later. So I am grateful for your smarts.

No Mark. Never watched river ferries along the Mississippi. Its just a solution I had to work out if I were to use navigational lights. I did not have to use the lights, but did so as an educational exercise for the museum visitors.

Yes. That is why the LEDs are clear when off. Each bow section has its own wheelhouse, with its own red-green nav lights on its roof. The above image showing the lit green and red LEDs are located along one side of the boat; signifying the changover from port to starboard, and from up- and down-stream.

Thank you @hexnut, @KeithAug, @druxey, @oneslim, and @BANYAN for your 'likes'. ________________________________________________________________________ Made several LED cables. All LEDs are 3 mm and clear until lit. It makes for less confusion especially for the red and green nav lights. Only one LED lead needs sheilding for insulation. The black mark on lead is to tell me which is the LED cathode (K)/(-). Used the end of a pen as a beacon housing. Added copper wire railing on cabin roof. The front cabin walls were too thin to contain any interior lighting. Made a light shield and reflector to compensate. Made stern light hoods. Added nav light hoods, and a radar unit.

Thank you @oneslim, @BANYAN, and @hans for your 'likes'. ____________________________________________________ Made some extras that did not come with the kit, including two sets of red and green nav light hoods. The kit winch did not come with winch drum or driving mechanism. Painted a plastic figurine and placed him on a wooden piece as if on a box. Stained some doors and roof panels with cloured inks. Added bits of copper wire to represent door hinges. Painted four life-savers to look like tyres bumpers. Unravelled some string to make the deckhand look as if he is doing some rope splicing. Used a bit of wood putty on the hull and gave it a good smooth finish (it will get painted). Made some eyelets for rigging from a paper clip. Drilled and glued them into place.

Thanks for encouraging words. Steven, be careful not to touch the can, it gets very hot. Best to clamp can to table top, with a thin piece of wood in between.Then hold one end of plank against the tin can with the edge of a flat screwdriver. Then after a few seconds, apply pressure down on other end of plank with hand. The rest you will work out for yourself to your needs. The funny thing is, I already used a similar setup for keeping my coffee mug hot, in winter, in my work area. You will notice it has two triangular inlet air vents, and a series of holes across the top to keep the air fllowing. Otherwise the candle light sufficates. Believe me, it took several attempts, on the same tin can, to get the air flow just right. It sure keeps my cuppa nice and hot.

Wow, thank you @BANYAN, @Louie da fly, @DaveRow, @hexnut, @KeithAug, and @Jack12477 for your responses and 'likes'. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Okay, here comes my first boat build. It is a boat that traverses under the bridge. It travels up and down stream but does not do a u-turn. So when it comes back it is not to look as if it were revesing. To get around this, I bought two wooden boat kits so I can make a boat of symmetry, a boat with two bow sections. I cut the keels, decks, and cabin walls in half. Glued bow sections together. Started planking the boat. Could not justify buying a planking iron, so I used a method seen on the Internet. It simply used a tea-candle and a tin can. This worked fast and efficiently. Was able to heat bend the planks to curvature of hull quite easily. Determined the waterline and marked the bulkheads, using the cabin ceiling as the horizon. Then I planked the waterline and built up the planking in between. Then I filleted the boat like a fish. Sanded the base flat and smooth.

Thank you @hans, @Jack12477, @paulsutcliffe, and @druxey for your responses. _____________________________________________________________________ A while ago I bought a pack of plastic figurines. Not sure if they were 1/72 or 1/74 (OO gauge) scale. The tallest figure is an inch (25 mm). Painted quite a few figurines. Half of them are painted as shire council workers in high-visibility clothing. Figures 3 and 4 in second row are similar figures, but (4) is my first operation with a relocated arm. This, as many of you know, opens up to all sorts of possibilities.

Hello all. I've been busy since my last post to this thread. Some may have realized that I started on a small boat kit. It was my first model kit build, and lots of things were learnt from it, but nothing compared to the average model ship builder. Have gained much respect for those here who build ships. Anyway, I thought I better catch up with my downloads to where I started building the small boat for this Bridge and Boat Diorama. To carry on from above. The servos and swing gate axles needed brackets so the two, via lever links, can work together. These are fixed under the display table, under each swing gate. These microswitches are stationed over the swing gate axle lever. The switches will indicate when the gates are fully opened and closed - for other circuits. The motor circuit is being tested. Discovered that the span would raise to top of towers in 4 seconds, which is too fast. To slow it down, without having to add reduction mechanisms, I opted for a drop in volatge supply to the motor. Halving the voltage almost double the time to raise the span (to about 7 seconds). Also discovered that the motor (unloaded) drifts to a stop when power is switched off. This is important to know, because the sensors used to disable the motor needs to be positioned to allow for such drifts. That is, the span motor must be turned off just before docking onto the bridge. The making of the span and boat motor control circuits. These circuits control the motor shaft direction (clockwise and counter-clockwise rotations).

Just been viewing great information about planking from the administrator Dan Vadas in the link at bottom of this post. So it looks like I will be reshaping the planks to fit. The base plate, I guess, will have to be done as I suggested, unless somebody else has a better idea. In regards to what this boat is for My real problem then is how to fit an aluminium vane through the base plate and any bulkheads that get in the way. Thinking allowed, is see myself cutting slots into the aluminium plate for a snug fit. Somehow I will need to secure the plate to the base firmly. Here is a sketch of what I have in mind (without showing boat framework).

Hello members. I need advice about planking, and about cutting and putting in a base for a wooden kit boat. This is my first model boat and I am altering it so as to appear to be in water for a diorama. Hoping you can give me advice, beside throwing it in the bin. 1) First of all the planking given in the kit is straight 1 x 3 x 250 mm strips. The top rail is 1 x 10 x 250 mm, and I cannot put this one in because the deck is curved, and so too are the tops of the bulkheads. I am assuming the 1 x 3 x 250 will bend, but not the 10 mm strip. What to do? 2) picture [3] roughly shows where the waterline could be. The actual picture shows how to lay in the planking. All instructions are in Chinese, so I am guessing here. However, I want to cut the bottom off [4], where the supposed water line is. I know how to draw a waterline, but I was thinking of using the planking as a guide. To cut the spine and bulkheads do I use a fret saw to do this, then use a flat sheet of sandpaper to rub the bottom of the boat on? 3) How do I add a base plate as in [5]. Do I first cut a template out, glue the boat onto it and then shape the base to follow the curved planking, as if the base was another plank? I am just thinking it out as I am writing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all.

Thanks Hans for thumbs up. to continue: Got a servo controller circuit working for this particular RC servo model. Here you can see the different pulse widths needed for the actuator to move about 90 degrees. Made four servo controlling circuits on one board. These will operate the four gates that close across the bridge road. Each gate servo can be adjusted to their OPEN and CLOSED positions via their trim-pots (blue blocks).

Remember when I built the bridge I left a space in the railings for the swing gates? Well, those gates got made. About a month ago I received an email containing a photo of the bridge when they used the gates. This was a breakthrough for me. Previously I was only going by what others described to me. But seeing is believing as they say. So I got started with making the four swing gates. These flat bits are lever arms which are linked in parallel with the servo arm.

The Bridge Street House had an old wooden fence to block access by pedestrians walking up beside it.

There is this house in the way of the project. About 80% of it is within the display boundaries. So a house has to be built. The model house. Yes it has rooms - for a reason to be explained later. For those who may be wondering; Yes I did build the house before painting the road. Decided to have five rooms, each with its own room light. I used some electronics to switch on and off the lights in sequence; in 15 second intervals. It won't be too noticeable with the display under a bright light. However, it will look good if the display gets dimmed down a bit. Clockwise: Design drawing; Testing board; Etched circuit board; Front room illuminated; Circuit board which is now located under the display table.

Hi fellow builders. Yes I am back for a short while and then out again, much like being a sailor I suppose . Road gets painted in similar way to the bridge road, but its bitumen instead of concrete.

This is the new pathway they recently installed: The landfill will be foam cut-outs.