rshousha

Here is the latest project I am working on. This is a 48" tug. Plywood is 1/4" birch. The hull was done in Rhino. The rest is SW.

There is the same discussion with golf, sailing, skiing, and a variety of other hobbies. Some people just want to try something and then move on. More power to them. It's a big world out there!
 
Cheers, 
 
Rick 

Our industry is very small, whether buyers, sellers, or manufacturers. If we want to encourage some small manufacturers to invest in machinery to make products locally, we have to lead by example, and buy locally-made products. Otherwise, if we are always looking for the cheapest solution, manufacturers will have little incentive to invest, create jobs, innovate, and feed our industry. 
 

Great job with this model. I sure wish I could participate more but I can no longer do so. 
 
Good luck to you. 
 
Best Regards, 
 
Rick 
 

Nice!

good evening everyone
day 291-19
its been a couple of weeks since my last update, real life has hindered the progress, lost central heating for nearly a week, the puppy has had a operation to remove his bottom fangs, but some progress has been made i will let the photos do the talking, but i am presently working forward to aft, and every now and the i will go and tie in some more ratlines,
loving this build, and have another @chris watton kits for Christmas " the Duchess of Kingston, amongst other non maritime kits

 
 
 
 

Fairness of frames

Slots for break of poop

 
 
 

Wonderful! Here is where the CNC work is shining through. This is the way it should be done. 
 
I'm glad you haven't sent the frames above the level of the deck. Once the hull is planked, she'll have to look like she has steel frames; lots of soldering! 

About that
what I have planned for the Foredeck is to laminate the deck substrate with its camber out of 2 or 3 layers of .4mm ply over a form  the after end is housed in the heads and its forward end in the knightheads and its sides rebated into the bottom of the main rail which becomes the margin plank, therefore the deck is strong and not needing to be supported by frames at all. this means styrene can be used to create the framing seen under.
of course the samson posts and pillars will offer support though but the planking can be reduced in thickness to take up the thickness of the substrate.
2-3 layers of this .4mm 3 ply is very very stiff when laminated with epoxy, its surprising

A couple more shots of the forward longitudinals fitted, keep in mind they need to be clamped down flush with beams.
Also  the hatch coamings are not fitted yet, I have not cut them yet.

Wonderful! Here is where the CNC work is shining through. This is the way it should be done. 
 
I'm glad you haven't sent the frames above the level of the deck. Once the hull is planked, she'll have to look like she has steel frames; lots of soldering! 

Here is the latest project I am working on. This is a 48" tug. Plywood is 1/4" birch. The hull was done in Rhino. The rest is SW.

Wow, that's amazing. I just bought a Rhino license, but I have asked a fellow in Ontario to make the organic shapes for me. He's very good and I am sure he can use the features you are mentioning. I will have to talk to him about it. I use Solidworks and I am a bit tired of the $2000 USD annual maintenance fee. The software is really good but I don't use it enough to warrant the cost. I may buy the license for 2025, but that will be my last one. 
 
For now, I use a combination of Rhino, to create the organic shapes, and SW, to create all the internal parts, and make the 2D drawings. I suspect, from looking at your work, that Rhino can deal with the work just as well as Solidworks, for a quarter of the cost. 

Here is the latest project I am working on. This is a 48" tug. Plywood is 1/4" birch. The hull was done in Rhino. The rest is SW.

I am looking forward to seeing the fit of the deck. I use pretty good software and can't make my deck conform to curves front-to-back as well as side-to-side. I use sheet metal fabrication to make the curved surfaces and those can only be "flattened" the way they would be with real steel. I do not have "stamping" software that is found in the high-end CAD solutions like Catia. 
 
It looks like you have some real experience with CAD. 

Absolutely fantastic model!  A really enjoyable build.  I built mine the way it had been when it flew over Toronto, in 1911. The float was great fun to build but I ended up throwing it out as it was not used on that flight. I gave it to a museum in Toronto in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of that flight.  I have pictures, if people are interested, but I don't want to interrupt this excellent thread of a review of the kit. 

Nice-looking parts! Going back to the laser-vs-CNC question, these parts look so much more "finished" than anything that could come off a laser. It just takes a tiny bit of cleaning and the parts are pristine. The inside corners of the windows might not be square, like what you come out of a laser, but that is easily rectified with a quick pass of a file. 
 
And any work that you do with a file is directly related to cleaning or adjusting the part. It is not related to simply getting the char off in order to get glue to work well. 

That's right and in this case the inner panelling will need to be filed flush to the hole anyway so it has to be done, not to mention a corner from a 2mm cutter is gone in 2-3 strokes, its pretty small, the whole square hole is only 11mm.

My company builds frame sets for large-scale R/C boats. We have been making frame sets since 2015 and have always used a laser. When I visited my supplier, Jotika, a couple of years ago, I spent a few hours with John Wright, the owner, and he really opened my eyes about the difference between a laser and a CNC cutter. There is no doubt, for many reasons, that the CNC does a much better job. 
 
First, the precision is much higher with the CNC machine. As long as you measure your drill bit and your material, you can get more precision that with the laser. Even you account for the kerf on the laser, and you measure your material, you still have a char on the laser-cut parts. That char needs to be removed or the glue doesn't penetrate the material.
 
Second, you can make pockets with a CNC. For example, you can make parts fit without passing all the way through. Also, with pockets, you can do things like "engrave" windows in the stern panels of models. In your case, you might find that quite interesting for your model. That cannot be done with a laser-cutter. 
 
I spent about a year using a full-size CNC machine at a furniture-maker, designing furniture, and then actually using the machine and making the prototypes myself. It was great fun and taught me a lot about woodworking. 
 
So, as soon as I can find someone around here that has a decent CNC machine, I will start designing for that. I suspect the price of my frame sets will go up slightly but, when people are paying many thousands of dollars to build a big R/C model, I think they will appreciate the improvement in quality. 
 
(By the way, I am planning on building the Cutty Sark myself, in 1/48 but, hey, your model might be even more fun to do!)
 
In brackets because I do not want to market a kit in 1/40 scale. It just isn't part of the large scales that I use. 
 
Best Regards, 

Rick
 

The construction came to an end after approx. 4600 hours. All that remains is to post a few last photos and thank all the followers for watching and commenting on the progress of the model construction. Thank you.

My company builds frame sets for large-scale R/C boats. We have been making frame sets since 2015 and have always used a laser. When I visited my supplier, Jotika, a couple of years ago, I spent a few hours with John Wright, the owner, and he really opened my eyes about the difference between a laser and a CNC cutter. There is no doubt, for many reasons, that the CNC does a much better job. 
 
First, the precision is much higher with the CNC machine. As long as you measure your drill bit and your material, you can get more precision that with the laser. Even you account for the kerf on the laser, and you measure your material, you still have a char on the laser-cut parts. That char needs to be removed or the glue doesn't penetrate the material.
 
Second, you can make pockets with a CNC. For example, you can make parts fit without passing all the way through. Also, with pockets, you can do things like "engrave" windows in the stern panels of models. In your case, you might find that quite interesting for your model. That cannot be done with a laser-cutter. 
 
I spent about a year using a full-size CNC machine at a furniture-maker, designing furniture, and then actually using the machine and making the prototypes myself. It was great fun and taught me a lot about woodworking. 
 
So, as soon as I can find someone around here that has a decent CNC machine, I will start designing for that. I suspect the price of my frame sets will go up slightly but, when people are paying many thousands of dollars to build a big R/C model, I think they will appreciate the improvement in quality. 
 
(By the way, I am planning on building the Cutty Sark myself, in 1/48 but, hey, your model might be even more fun to do!)
 
In brackets because I do not want to market a kit in 1/40 scale. It just isn't part of the large scales that I use. 
 
Best Regards, 

Rick
 

I have had great success with cutting the square mouldings which range from .65mm and 1mm wide, of course these will be cut from thinner stock or narrow planks so they can be released by running through a saw but the point is the accuracy is there. next I will try a v cutter pass first to create the bevel before applying these cuts.
Another pro for CNC, clean-up on these to remove charring would be impossible with out breaking them.
The cut to the right was a test but it will actually be cut from .4mm ply, but as you can see I hit the emergency stop before it hit the screw.
below I have cut full shapes but in reality I will only be cutting the arcs, the straights will be made as separate parts with correct grain direction, maybe on the CNC as well.
The cutter used here is a .98mm end mill cutting 1mm deep in one pass

My company builds frame sets for large-scale R/C boats. We have been making frame sets since 2015 and have always used a laser. When I visited my supplier, Jotika, a couple of years ago, I spent a few hours with John Wright, the owner, and he really opened my eyes about the difference between a laser and a CNC cutter. There is no doubt, for many reasons, that the CNC does a much better job. 
 
First, the precision is much higher with the CNC machine. As long as you measure your drill bit and your material, you can get more precision that with the laser. Even you account for the kerf on the laser, and you measure your material, you still have a char on the laser-cut parts. That char needs to be removed or the glue doesn't penetrate the material.
 
Second, you can make pockets with a CNC. For example, you can make parts fit without passing all the way through. Also, with pockets, you can do things like "engrave" windows in the stern panels of models. In your case, you might find that quite interesting for your model. That cannot be done with a laser-cutter. 
 
I spent about a year using a full-size CNC machine at a furniture-maker, designing furniture, and then actually using the machine and making the prototypes myself. It was great fun and taught me a lot about woodworking. 
 
So, as soon as I can find someone around here that has a decent CNC machine, I will start designing for that. I suspect the price of my frame sets will go up slightly but, when people are paying many thousands of dollars to build a big R/C model, I think they will appreciate the improvement in quality. 
 
(By the way, I am planning on building the Cutty Sark myself, in 1/48 but, hey, your model might be even more fun to do!)
 
In brackets because I do not want to market a kit in 1/40 scale. It just isn't part of the large scales that I use. 
 
Best Regards, 

Rick
 

Very nice to see you are working on a CNC and not laser-cutting. CNC is so much more precise. Well done! I will follow this. Nice CAD work, as well. 

Hi again, and thanks for the likes and comments everyone. I have reached another major milestone - the hull is finished, and it is time to move to the masts and rigging. In preparation for this task I have been reading other RW build logs on MSW and I am amazed by what other builders have done - @marktiedens, @ken3335, and @pirozzi. I enjoy rigging the least because rope has a mind of its own and it never goes where I want it to go. But it's something that has to be done! 
 
Here are some photos with highlights on some ship features. 
 






Some vanity shots taken outside. 
 

Entry way. As per usual, I did not use the kit parts. The railing was made by coiling some fine brass wire around a jig, then flattening it in a vice, then painted. The columns were made by wrapping the same fine wire around a brass rod and painted. The roof was the kit part. Note the taper on the underside of the steps, this was quite troublesome to make. I milled out a "V" groove on my Proxxon MF70 and then sawed it in half. Then each step was shaped with a Dremel. 
 

The shroud stays reach down to the wales. The bottom stay has eyes for nails - these were too large (as noted in other build logs), but instead of replacing them I flattened them with some pliers. They were also pickled in some blackening solution because I did not like the shiny brass - it called too much attention to itself. The angle of the stays was set with a string tied to a dummy mast. 
 
The rigols were made from brass sheet and blackened. I could not find brass strip of the correct size and thickness, so each rigol had to be individually cut out of the sheet. The cutting process leaves them curled, so they had to be flattened in a vice. I found that the cap of a Vallejo paint container has the perfect curvature to form the rigols. 
 

Here is a carved chesstree. My carving skills are quite rudimentary and I was unable to obtain the finish that I wanted. Still, the part and the imperfections are small enough that hopefully they won't be noticed. 

The gunport hinges were from @rshousha at Modeller's Workshop. They are a bit too short, but far preferable over the overly thick kit supplied part. 
 

Roughtree block. It has all the features indicated in the Euromodel plans, but it has been slightly restyled. 
 

I realized I haven't posted a clear shot of the fo'c'sle deck so here it is. Note the fo'c'sle deck railing which deviates from Euromodel's plans. My research suggested that the beam supports should be round. Indeed this was depicted in the RW in the NMM in Greenwich. So I rounded the bottom and made them thick and sturdy.