yvesvidal

I was lucky to be able to use the kit's slot in the deck for its on off switch control to mount my ESC on off switch.  I can now attach the decks and be able to turn the ESC on and off without needing to remove them,. I had to remount the ESC.
 
All that needs to be done is to deal with the correct shaft rotation and to adjust the throttle.

Great model. Thank you for presenting your build log.
 
Yves

Continuing a bit on the stern gallery.

Thanks! 😊
 
I went ahead and cut out the gunports and framed them. Not much to comment on that really, it was straightforward.

 

Good progress, I've cut the moulds & have started assembling them. It's always exciting when the model starts to go from 2D to 3D...
 
But first I have to make some comments that may assist others who choose to cut their own moulds from laser cut drawings they do themselves: the assembly was more difficult because when I worked out the shapes to have cut, I didn't include the building frame in my thinking. Assembling them was more complex then it needed to be. Anyway, it worked out ok.
 
I originally planned to screw the moulds to timber strips to hold them, but it's now quite obvious that if the moulds interlock in the way that these do, then screwing them together wasn't possible. So they were all glued to the main building frame beams with PVA.
 
The photo below includes a detail of the bow extension - the laser cutting bed was only 600mm long, so there were some extra pieces at the bow. This gave an opportunity to make the bow thick enough for the inner stem to land on & sit against. you can see how the front moulds include a cutout for the 8 x 8mm inner stem. You can also see the lateral pieces to give rigidity in the planking stage.

 
The inner stem will be glue laminated by the jigs I cut, also by laser. 3 thicknesses of 3mm plywood. The pale lines will help to position the final piece.

 
The transom piece has just been temporarily tacked on with hot-melt glue. The plywood is still loose, although I pinned it with dogs of hot-melt glue to stabilise it. In the next few days I'll glue them with epoxy glue.....once I've had a good long look at the frames to see if I need to tweak anything.

 

 

The uneven spacing of the moulds has a reason - the lines drawings I got were the actual moulds from the boat's build. The moulds were used to shape a series of glue laminated frames that were not evenly spaced. The hull was strip-planked (timber/epoxy composite construction) & there are only 10 or 11 frames (or ribs) instead of the 60 or 70 needed for traditional construction. So, because they were the only lines drawings I had to use that same spacing, which was to locate the frames in relation to hatches, mast etc.

 
thanks, 
 
 
 
 
 

I managed to get the wedge shaped ram on the bow this afternoon. 

I found these stool/chairs on eBay as I did the people.  They all are 1/20 scale.  I think the chairs look better than the platform the kit supplies.
 
I go to model boats and search for 1/20 scale and find these treasures.

To get to the components you have to remove the decks. I built the boat to be able to do that and keep them in one solid piece.  The rear deck is held on with two screws and the cabin has tabs that stick into holes in the main deck.
 
With them off you can get to the components.

On a side note I found this lifeboat and deck chairs on EBay.  They are from one of the early MARX constellation kits.
 
I think the boat looks very realistic and I will add the chairs and the boat to my model.  I need to paint the chairs to match my other deck chairs or maybe not and add some more color to the boat.

The first step for me is to charge the batteries.  I could not do that before.  On rereading the charger instructions I learned you have to hold the start button for 3 seconds to start charging.
 
My batteries are NiMH 1,2 volts in packs of six totaling 7.2 volts.  There are two of these together supplying 14.4 volts to the R/C system.
 
I have one charged to 8.43 volts not 7.2.  I don't know if that maters.  If you are new to this log I'll tell you that I know little to nothing about R/C boats.
 
The next step is to plug the batteries into the system and see what happens.  One battery is charged the other is charging.
 
 

I am back
I am going to finish the electronics and float this boat

That is the trick.....faking the holes and not connecting them.
 
Yves

Time to lay down the boatdecks, so I glued the little plastic pilars with Tamiya extra thin cement, and lined them up with the holes in the wooden deck.

 
When this was dry, I glued the boatdecks on the bulkheads witg Revell Contacta professional and the necessary clamps.

 
Untill next update, enjoy modelling.

The last building sequence was a bit fiddly, with wiring the spark plugs with tiny etched parts and micro rivets, followed by the distributor, which consists of about 20 parts, a lot need to be pre drilled for various installments. There are two variants and I chose the more complicated. The magneto has a fewer parts count, but looks odd and the pictures I have of the real bike always have the distributor installed. I prepared the wires, but add them later, when the engine meets the frame.

 



And that´s how tiny the distributor is, you find it on the left side of the engine, lower middle.



Cheers Rob

I added more details to the engine and also prepared the distributor. Drilling the tiny oil tube connectors proved tricky. They need to be drilled to accept the oil tubing made from solder wire.
Most of the screws shown on the casings are separate parts and also need to be pre drilled and then inserted. The manual suggests to add the oil tubes next, but I will do it later, because handling the still not finished engine would be a nightmare with the soft wiring on. Luckily the places for the tubing should be reachable later.
I also added some dots of black panel wash here and there to enhance contrasts.




 
Cheers Rob

The engine is on it´s way and it is a bit fiddly, but due to great engineering and tight tolerances manageable. Adding all the V-shaped cylinder parts proved tricky, when the rocker came into play and the connecting tube (carburetor) needed to be added at the same time. Unfortunately, I mis-orientated this part and had to pry it loose later, which was no fun at all and caused some spots for later touch ups.





Cheers Rob

Well, first building steps are prepared. Note to myself, test fit often and understand the manual, specially where parts need to be drilled. I don´t know about the MFH car kits, but with the Crocker engine parts there are dozens of holes to be drilled and some are hard to reach in later stages.

The foot pedal and drill stand for my Proxxon mini drill help a lot to make the job faster. The good thing with drilling white metal, there is nearly no burr to be removed.

The engine block, with one cylinder mostly mounted, showing the parts of the other:



Mock assembly for test fitting of one cylinder. The ribs and heads are actually removed and primed and will be sprayed semi matte black later.





Cheers Rob

Today, I spent some exhausting hours to sort the parts, mainly the white metal cast ones, as they are the most numerous.

I made it a two step affair, first using the parts layout prints from the MFH homepage, to check if everything is there. These photos of the parts are especially helpful, as they are scaled and this helps to identify the parts.

In the second step, I sorted the parts into a plastic box with different sized trays, ordered after the steps in the manual. The tiny parts, like screws and bolts, I left out, as they are easier identified separately. Tomorrow, I will add resin and rubber parts along with screws, nuts and bolts.
 

 

 
Cheers Rob

the hull looks incredibly nice
 
I think i like it better as it looks, unpainted  The wood and brass combo is perfect also

The Nautilus has been reskinned.   The ink holds up so much better on paper than on the card stock. There are more details to add and some white spots to ink in.  Far from a perfect build but it doesn’t look bad at a distance. I may do another in the future if I get inspired. 

Merit steps 14 to 19:
The louvres were glued to the venttops, the vents glued to the middle deck;
 
Bulkheads glued with Revell Contacta professional.
All PONTOS hatches and rails glued to the middle deck. Unfortunately The Pieces H16 were replaced with Pontos-parts with other dimentions, so those did not fit. (I stied a couple of times to obtain the correctionfret #12, but with no succes) Si I end up using the Merit parts. Lost between the middele deck infrastructure this will not stand out.

 
Sides A16 and A17 glued to the sides.

 
6 and 3 inch guns glued in place with PVA-glue

 
Untill next update, enjoy modelling.

Interesting and unusual kit. I remember reading a review of that Kit and I am very pleased to see a Build Log of this large model.
 
Yves

Great model. Thank you for presenting your build log.
 
Yves

That is the trick.....faking the holes and not connecting them.
 
Yves

That is the trick.....faking the holes and not connecting them.
 
Yves