Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'radio'.
-
Hi all, After completion of my submarine Auguste Piccard, I started on my long delayed Corsaro 2. I bought the kit about 12 years ago from a model shop that went out of business. Price on the box is 288 UKP, but I bought it in Holland for less. Looks complete but someone made some pencil scribbles in the manual before returning it. I intend to make it radio-controlled. Never built a sailboat before but I understand I will need to build light (I.e. take weight out of the hull where possible), likely need a deep add-on keel with lead bulb, enlarged rudder, and much more I don’t know about yet. Started sawing out the insides of most of the frames and the keel”plate”, before mounting the frames. One of the difficulties with this model is the curved deck needing to be glued to the frames right away. So access to the interior is very difficult. I cut out the deck under the deckhouse, and will make the deckhouse detachable. I did think of putting a first coat of varnish on the frames and keel before planking, and ensuring water coming into the hull can find its way to the lowest point. Then started planking the hull. The manual is short but highlights the important steps such as planing the frames and adjusting the width of the planks. also made sure I drilled out a cavity for the rudder-“axle”. The wooden keel and rudder seen here need work much later but I can mount a “sailing keel” on it later. Both are of course not attached yet. so after about a week the hull has a first planking. Instead of the second planking, I intend to sand - epoxy - putty - and cover the hull with glass-fabric and epoxy. That requires some time, stuff to be ordered, and anyway, the holiday is over. Later more. All suggestions of course welcome! -
Hello All, As I'm in the downward section of the designing and printing the USS Maine, I couldn't help but start on the French Battleship Charles Martel. I think it's a beautiful boat and comes from an interesting time. I'm fascinated by the tumble home designs and the Charles Martel has that in spades! You can read more about the Charles Martel on Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Charles_Martel Will write more later but for now, here's a shot of the hull in work. there's not a lot of definition in the pronounced armor belt ...yet, but there will be!- 91 replies
-
- 7
-
-
- charles martel
- battleship
- (and 1 more)
-
While waiting for some parts to finish Project X I started my next project. It is the Robbe Dusseldorf Fire Boat. I was lucky enough to find an old Robbe kit with almost all of the extras one could acquire for this model. It came with the Robbe Navy-Kompackt geared motors, the two accessory kits to embellish the model and animate the Fire Monitors, that were not supplied with the kit, the water pump, the miniature motors for the radar and anchor, and all of the sound generators. The condition of the rest of the contents is immaculate, no plywood warpage and in excellent condition. If I were to make one criticism, the die cut plywood sheets have just been lightly embossed with no cutting action at all. These parts are easily removed using the scroll saw. A real pleasure to become the owner. This will be a complete build with all the bells and whistles (LOL). For those who are familiar with the Fire Boat, the finished model is quite impressive. Most of the functionality is controlled using Robbe Multiswitch devices of which I still have a nice assortment. My F-14 has been converted to 2.4GHZ using the RIPMAX TM-24 module but I am disappointed with it in that there are very few receivers that will work with it. I am going to convert to the JETI TU2 TX module which is a perfect addition to the F-14. It will also be fitted with a JETI Box. It will work with most of the JETI R# receivers. Looking forward to this. To get started, the hull was drilled with all the necessary holes for the anchor tubes, the rudders, motor stuffing boxes and water intake for the fire monitors. The usual deck support strips were added and 2 x 2mm strips added to the outside of the hull. These will hold the rubbing strips which have a 2 x 2mm groove cut in them for mounting. The two motors have been bolted to the support bulkhead and it has been placed into the hull for fitting only. Permanent installation after the hull is painted. Painting will be done in the next few days. With all of the detail and animation, this is going to be a fun build. Until next time, IR3- 38 replies
-
- 5
-
-
- Dusseldorf Fire Boat
- Robbe
- (and 1 more)
-
After struggling with restorations on several kits, it just turned out to take much to much time and very little progress was made. I have several Marten, Howes, Baylis kits and decided that building a kit with high quality materials and excellent instructions accompanied by photographs was the next thing to do. I chose a project the Brian Marten and Liz Howes made available in 2019. It is their Project X. It is a prototypical concept that M and H designed to represent a fast commuter launch of length 50 feet. Its in 1:12 scale with a length of 50" and a beam of 7". With the steam plant installed it has a freeboard of about 2.85" so for steaming purposes it will remain in a very calm pond or swimming pool. The Steam Plant is by Martin Baylis custom built for this project. It is a very nice Triple Expansion Steam Engine with a Kingdon boiler. First cabin if you will pardon the expression!. I will start out with a few pictures of the unboxing and checkout of the bits and pieces. The hull is magnificent. It will be a very simple process to smooth the bulwarks and finish the outer hull. The rest of the contents are machine cut sheets of various thicknesses and woods as necessary for the various structures in the model. Also and appropriate amount of strip woods of various sizes along with several wire sizes. There are very nice fittings and a prop along with assembled rudder assembly. The instruction manual is very clear and it is supplemented with pictures showing every step of the assembly process down to installation of steam plant and position of radio components. This is going to be a pleasure to build. It is the perfect area to post a build thread as there is a significant amount of wood work and finishing that needs to be done and the MSW is the place to go for the expertise. Here are some pictures and the first build update will be the display stand. Until next time, IR3
-
Hello all, I’d like to share a project I’ve been working on for the past month. I chose to start with the USS Maine in 1/72 scale but in truth I’m captivated by just about any pre-dreadnaught design especially some of the tumblehome hulls like the USS Brooklyn and the French Massena, Carnot, etc. Most of the work accomplished thus far has been in the cad program (fusion 360) but I’m just about to start printing parts as I move through and complete the design. I am including the torpedo boats that were meant for the Maine, and hope to eventually figure out a way to launch them while underway.
-
Hi all Slowly and steadily construction goes on. Hull planking driving me mad 😠. Started 30 years ago and now returned to finish as I am retired from sea. Billings boats recommend the Power-speed 660 motor but is out of stock in UK. Any suggestions for equivalent would be gratefully received.😊- 2 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- radio
- smit rotterdam
- (and 1 more)
-
I usually scratch-build RC ship models of the 19thc. Recently, my interests changed to earlier time periods where I have little source material. So, I'm posting here for your help. I've read/viewed some great build logs here of earlier ship types. I hope my efforts may add to that interest. I'll begin to post my research that I need to do to determine what the model will look like. As far as I know, no plans exist of a of Irish Galley c.1580. Historical background: It’s hard to research Irish Maritime history for several reasons. At first glance, you’d think it wouldn’t be. It is an island. Of course, they’d be interested in the water and boats. But, that has not been the case. They are a culture that has been suppressed for over half a millennium. Since English King Henry VIII in the 1500s, Ireland has been under siege and then conquered by a policy called Surrender and Regrant. Later, there was the Plantation Policy by Queens Mary and Elizabeth I. Their language, customs, laws, and certainly history have altered to demoralize them through the filter of a conquered nation. Any state promotion of an anti-English history (which this model represents) was suppressed. And this in turn, lead to a perpetual rebellion against a corrupt authority. One of those rebelling clans was the O’Malley clan in western Ireland in the County of Mayo. In the 1500s and as it had been for many centuries, Western Ireland was the far west of western Europe. So far west, that it was not even conquered by the Romans or Vikings. This gave the Island a longer period of insolation to form their own customs than any other peoples of Europe. Ireland never had the unifying force of the Roman government and army. Various clans ruled and warred amongst themselves for limited control of limited parts of the Ireland. The O’Malley clan was one of those Western clans. They ruled over the baronies of Murrisk and Burishoole. They were somewhat unique in that their power came from a combination of warriors to control land and seafarers to trade and war on the sea. This gave them the ability to trade not only with other clans but also other lands. It’s recorded that they travelled to the ports of England, France, Spain and Portugal. Theirs was no small enterprise. English State Papers record O’Malley maritime activities from the mid-1200s to the early 1600s. Some of their vessels, oared galleys, were recorded to hold 300 warriors. That is a significant size vessel of the 16th century. The most famous of the O’Malley clan leaders, called chieftains, was a woman called Grace O’Malley. She lived from circa 1530 to 1603. It is her life I find the most interesting. Because she grew up when the old Irish customs were still in force in Ireland. But by the time she ruled and for the rest of her life, England was conquering Ireland clan by clan. Usually, it a was a process of the superior English power making deals by granting money and titles to those who would submit to them with the least effort. Often clan was pitted against clan with the backing of English power on one side. In the midst of this upheaval, Grace refused to submit her clan to this transition and warred on land and sea against the English. She is called in English State Papers as a “nurse of all rebellions”. The clan motto in Latin, a common language of the educated in the period, proclaims their importance with Terra Marique Potens. This means Powerful By Land and Sea. The vessel: It is stated many times that this clan used galleys or oared rowing craft. But, what type and how large? Surely a clan that was known for ‘piracy’ by the English were not using the same vessels for trade and warring. ...more next time. -
CONVERTING RMS TITANIC TO HMT OLYMPIC. Using the 1/200 Trumpeter RMS Titanic as the base kit. Acknowledgements. The vast majority of the source data I used were taken from the Titanic CAD Plans website, created by Dr. Bob Read. Sadly, the operation has been permanently closed, but the site is still available as a research center. If you purchased any of the Olympic plans when they were available, I would like to get some information off them, because the thumbnails on the site are too small for me to see some of the details. Caveats. This is just a construction log; historical information is available all over the place, so I will only discuss them as they relate to building the model. Also, I am not attempting to rebuild the Trumpeter kit from the keel up. To me, it is perfectly fine for what I am doing. If you are wanting to 100% "accurize" the kit, like correcting the stern hull plates, etc., I recommend visiting 1/200 Titanic Builders Group on Facebook. This kit has upgrade detail products available out the ying yang. I have no vested interest in any of these products, but I will describe what I used and why. HMT OLYMPIC. Below is a photo of Olympic in camouflage scheme, 19A. She is underway at around her full speed of 23 knots, with a full load of troops. She is in battle-ready condition, with lifeboats swung out and her complement of (6) 6" guns manned and ready (the aft two are visible on the poop deck.) She is also flying the white Royal Navy battle ensign from her aft mast. This scheme was applied in 1917 and sometime in 1918 it was changed to 19Ax. Note that the canvas is removed from ALL of the lifeboats: it was a lesson learned by the sinking of Britannic that she might be needed to offload her entire complement of approximately 4,000 souls in less than one hour! Of particular interest to me is the two long booms swung out near the forward well deck. I believe these are for handling lines to operate the paravanes, but if you have other ideas, please comment. -
As I wrote here http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/topic/11538-western-river-steamboat-heroine-by-ggrieco-scale-124-1838-as-she-appeared-before-hitting-a-snag-in-the-red-river/?p=401974I plan to build the USS Cairo, as all my modelships in 1:50 scale. The history of the ship is well known, there are so many pages in the internet, so I will not bore you with that. But there is a big question I have. I have a set of the plans from bob hill, and I am not sure, where to measure the length of the ship. Is the lenght of 175 feet measured at the hull, or includes this the rudders between the blue lines on the plan? I have marked the lines with red arrows. Would be happy to get some info about that, so I can scale the plans and start with the ship. Regards, and thank you all Gerhard -
This new building log is meant to tell a long and broken tale of model building. The serious work began a few months ago when I decided to try to rescue this model and take it further along. Perhaps to stop it with a deck only completion since it would be so big to include rigging, or to breeze through and design removable rigging to allow sailing. Before we get in to that dialogue I thought it best to tell the saga of the 15 years to get it here. Fortunately that will only take a few posts. so here we go again I started to learn the trade, and truly I still am really only learning, by setting up a small shop in the early 1990's, at a former summer home here in Maine and building a wooden kit of a Dark Harbor 17 at 1:12 scale sometime in the later 90's. Like many I was working away and had dreams to be relaxing in a shop but realty kept us away. I never worked closer than 3 hours from this summer home and usually further. During these years I thought about wanting to build models that would sail. I had roughly ten years to go before retirement and thought that was time to try a few things and figure it out. My first venture was to buy an Antique Marblehead Pond yacht, vintage 1936. I restored it partially and then copied it building a new replica. In august 2001 I went to the wooden boat school in Brooklin Maine with my son for a fun vacation and learned to build a 50 inch new Marblehead class pond yacht. They were called Naskeags. They are pretty but built purely for the challenge of sailing. Then looking at the half built dark harbor hull, at 17 inches, and the half built Marblehead Naskeag at 50 inches I decided on a goal. I would continue to build kits or scratch of classic boats to develop some skill. I would continue to read and read some more about the maritime history as well as model building, and thirdly i would continue to build sailable pond yachts to get some to sail. Ultimately I would learn to scratch build classic boats at a large enough scale that would respect the design but also try their luck in the sea....harbor or pond at least. Gloucester Schooners were also first on my mind for a challenge. When did we start this build??? Some of you have followed my earlier attempts with a four masted schooner the Charles Notman and the classic 1938 Boothbay Harbor One design racing sloops . Well here we have a boat construction that spans the whole period of 2001 until now. Here we see the 1992 to 2004 shop. I got to spend a few weeks a year there prior to 2000 and then weekends. You can see the two Marblehead pond yachts that filled much of my time . Hidden just out of the picture on the right is the partially built Dark harbor model. Most important on the back left is the building board and stations for a scratch build Gloucester fishing schooner that will become the basis of this build. This photo is dated 2002 At the time I built this frame, my memory tells me incorrectly as I recently figured out, that is built it up form Gertrude's lines. With the outgrowth of windows 98 and Auto CAD lt 97 it is not surprising that I no longer have any of the cad I did for this build. Here you can see the roughness of the build. I was clearly over my head at the time and fortunately stopped. The keelson assembly is made of three laminated 1/2 sheets of plywood so it is strong and true. [ It includes keel, stem, keelson and made up structure up to the the transom based on pond yacht construction methods... See my other log for detail] This method is Good for sailing but the forward stem is a problem [ you will see later]. Is she Gertrude Thebaud, Columbia or Bluenose??? I could write for pages but the short version is as follows. I read that Columbia was the same size as Bluenose and considered to be the fastest ever built. Unfortunately she died young. Here is the text from Ship Wiki ...remember length on deck 141 feet · Columbia is a Gloucester Fishing Schooner. It was built by Arthur Dana Story from the design of Starling Burgess, at Essex, MA, 1923. The Columbia represents the final development of the Gloucester fishing schooner, famous for speed and seaworthiness. It participated a number of international races, including the one against Bluenose in Halifax. In August 1927 when it was hit by the two Gales, the well-known "Graveyard of the Atlantic", Columbia was lost with all hands off Sable Island. · For years my memory was I had decided to build Gertrude. All my files said it etc. anyway part of the reason is in the following text from wikipedi....remember length on deck 135 feet · \Gertrude L. Thebaud was an American fishing and racing schooner built and launched in Essex, Massachusetts in 1930. A celebrated racing competitor of the Bluenose,[1] it was designed by Frank Paine and built by Arthur D. Story for Louis A. Thebaud, and named for his wife, Gertrude Thebaud.[2] In their first meeting at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in October 1930, the Gertrude L. Thebaud bested the Bluenose 2-0 to win the Sir Thomas Lipton International Fishing Challenge Cup.[3] However, in 1931, two races to none, and again in 1938, three races to two, the Bluenose defeated the Gertrude L. Thebaud to remain the undefeated holder of the International Fisherman's Trophy.[4] I further learned that she went to the arctic in 1934 with MacMillan one year as Bowdoin stayed home. I continued to think I was going to build her and I remembered incorrectly that I had taken measurements from her scanned set of prints when I built the frame.......you'll see Bluenose. Here is intro from wiki pedia ....and again please remember length on deck 143 feet · Bluenose was designed by William Roué and built by Smith and Rhuland in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She was launched on 26 March 1921, and christened by Audrey Marie Smith.[citation needed] She was built to be a racing ship and fishing vessel, in response to the defeat of the Nova Scotian fishing schooner Delawana by the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing schooner Esperanto in 1920, in a race sponsored by the Halifax Herald newspaper.[citation needed] Bluenose vs. Gertrude L. Thebaud, International Fishermen's Trophy, 1938, final race ·After a season fishing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland under the command of Angus Walters, Bluenose defeated Elsie (out of Gloucester), returning the International Fishermen's Trophy to Nova Scotia. In 1930, off Gloucester, Massachusetts, she was defeated 2–0 in the inaugural Sir Thomas Lipton International Fishing Challenge Cup by perhaps her most celebrated competitor, the Gertrude L. Thebaud.[2] However, over the next seven years of racing, no challenger, American or Canadian, could take the title from her.[3] The question again...which to build There are so many Bluenose models I thought for a long time about making an American boat. The designers Starling Burgess and Frank Paine come up again and again. The 1937 Ranger for us here in Maine is a big deal. The fact a new replica of Columbia sails and all who see her say she is a marvel. [ Images of the replica is easy to find on the net]. Well to be honest there is a funny story here on me how in the end the model became Bluenose. To make the original frame in 2001-2002 I obtained the 3/16 scale rough model plans from Piel Craftman in Newburyport, MA for both models BN and GT. While I was in his shop however I fell in love with another boat named Dancing feather. My rear admiral feels the feather is one of prettiest schooners she has seen so guess what took priority. On again off again working on vacations and moving houses to our current home [ means rebuild a shop] only it took from 2004 to 2012 to get this one far along and it was a real rough job much of which may be redone. Here she is a year ago moving away to live in the new sail loft and thus make room for Charles Notman to hold the shop entrance way display area. I had made her 3/4 scale to size at 50 inches on deck. I will never work in that odd scale again. In the mean time, I was assigned to work in Canada for 3 plus years and while I was there came across a set of really nice 1/4 scale drawings of Bluenose. These I now see are easy to get on line as are similar plans for Columbia. They are both drawing by Philip Eisnor and available though a sister site modleshipbuilder. Finally...we start again It is summer 2012. I am assigned to travel overseas but spend several weeks through the summer here in Maine. What to do...... Please look at my other two builds [ Charles Notman and Boothbay Harbor one design] for detailed discussions on the sailable hull build method. The plans were scanned, plumbed and inserted to CAD. The white paper inside on aft stations was printed off and attached to luan plywood. Blue tape separated a 1/32 birch plywood strip rib. The cedar is rough milled from 1"/6" stock to be 5/32 [ which only means 1/8 - 0 +1/16 tolerance] by 5/16 . We want to start faring the hull with no less than 1/8th wood thickness. Planks soaked in ammonia water then wood glue and toothpick pinning to the sstations through the ribs.. Here the laminations for the Keelson assembly are clear [see Notman build] . Notice there is no transom at this point. almost finished. See the roughness of the bow. As I said i was way over my head when I started this hull. Here we have all planking on and sanded. And here she goes back up to the ceiling for storage....it's 2012. and I am still thinking we are building Gertrude Thebaud. They sent me away for work again and it was another year before I could really focus on my modeling goals. This was the year I found forums like this one and started reading articles , sites like models of dummies, practicums and building logs. I was getting ready cheers- 168 replies
-
- 14
-
-
Inspired by a large RC model of the Rattlesnake featured in an issue of Model Ship Builder magazine, I looked around for a subject to built and decided to built the ship in my own back yard, the sloop of war Constellation tied up in Baltimore's Inner Harbor since the mid 1950's. Some video of Rattlesnake Constellation was a sloop-of-war, of 22 guns, designed by John Lenthal, and built in 1854 by Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia; the last US warship designed and built to operate under sail alone. For a long time she was believed by many to be the old frigate of 1797, rebuilt and moderized, and that debate has raged in the maritime history community for decades. Her lines and sail plan were acquired from the National Archives where I got to handle the actual hand drawn documents. I decided to build her as she appeared in a portrait by deSimone when she was in Naples in 1856 and still a new ship. Her lines were drawn in 1:36 scale, which was perfect, giving a model: Beam: 13-5/8" (34.713 cm) Length over the rig: 96" (243.84 cm) Width over the rig: 36" (91.44 cm) ~ Main yard w/o stuns'l booms. Length on deck: 61" (154.94 cm) Length between perpendiculars: 59-1/8" (150.178 cm) Draft, without ballast keel: 7" (17.78 cm) With 3-1/2" ballast keel: 10-1/2" (27.94 cm) Height bottom of keel to main truck, without ballast keel: 65" (165.1 cm) With ballast keel: 69" (175.26 cm) Sail Area: 2,807.01 square inches in 17 sails (19.5 sf, 18,109.7 scm, 1.8 sqm) This log will cover my work on this model since it began in 1999 up to where it is now. Editor's Note: This is a log of how I am building this model, not a guide to how a model such as this ought to be built. It's full of fits and starts, changes of mind, errors, re-do's, more error's, a few mistakes; and somehow, despite all this, it seems to be becoming a working, sailing model that actually looks something like it's namesake. The director of the actual ship recognized it on first sight - I take that as a good sign! If you're considering taking on a project like this, please, please, don't let this build log deter you - it's not nearly as difficult as I make it seem. Just take away from it that which helps you along, and ignore the rest.- 427 replies
-
- 4
-
-
- radio
- sloop of war
- (and 1 more)
-
If you woukd like to see Emma sailing then go on to you tube and Type in " Emma, rc sailing sloop by Gary Webb". Gary has quite a few vids out there now on how to do this and that with boats he has dedigned. Gary is a full scale boat builder and exceptional modeller. He models to very clear cut clean lines with practicalities coming foremost. I ordered up the plans from USA electronically so received them pdf and had them printed out to the correct size. Emma is a very simple hard chine boat and made from door skins as opposed to the really expensive 3mm birch ply from the model shops. So she is rugged but cheap to build. I cut out the four bulkhead patterns from the plan. I leave around 6mm on the perifery ( sorry my false teeth fell out saying that so I ended up spelling it wrongly). Then glued onto the ply and fretted out with my electric fret saw. The crotch of this hull is to build the fin box first and then glue it to the centre two bulkheads. The sides if the fin box were first treated with fibre glass matting for water proofing and strength. The centre two bulkheads were then glued on to it. The crotch was first C A glued to hold it together and then a fillet of 5 minute epoxy applied on every joint. Strong as an ox!. The sides of the hull had three small holes drilled biw and stern to enable the two sides to be stitched together with copper wire from an earth cable. After stitching, the sides were held apart and the crotch unit CA d in its marked position. It was then epoxy filleted at all joints. Finally the two other bulkheads were fitted in thr same fashion. The hull bottoms were then cut out and glued on using the same procedure. -
I do hope I've titled this right. I can't toggle twixt typing here and checking the rules without losing this page completely, so if it ain't right, moderators, please correct the order. Well It's a model of the boat I used to live aboard in Burnham-on-Crouch in a line of similar-ish vessels, one of which, Ann Marie, a yawl, was successfully restored and went off chartering. Vanity, alas was moved to Bristol where I believe she has been destroyed for want of somebody with a piddling million to restore her. A few weeks of a footballer's salary would have secured her future, then the footballer could have been thrown away. SO....I figured it fell to me to make a decent model of her for posterity. Because I don't have huge amounts of time, despite being retired, I had to knock this thing up a bit sharpish. I found lines for Clara in Traditions and Memories of American Yachting, which has plenty of English yachts in with lines. I had the lines enlarged on a photocopier and transferred them to 3mm ply to make the bulkheads. Then cut them out on a bandsaw. A strong back style building board was made, the bulkheads glued to upstands representing a line above the vessel when upright, purely arbitrary. These upstands were then glued to square bars which were bolted to the strongback. The keel, which varies in width along the length of the boat (I should say the sided measurement) was drawn out to a plausible shape on the enlarged drawings and cut out of 3mm ply twice, as it would go from being stuck to the other one fore and aft, but have hardwood sandwiched in between along the middle portion of the vessel where the real one had 12 tons of lead. Once that was in place in slots pre-cut in the bulkheads, planking began. Now here I should say despite copious amounts of reading, I had never planked a model boat before, apart from a large clinker planked electric canoe model of a Peter Freebody craft that was done for a lady in Cincinatti. That was planked in veneer over a thin strip-planked hull which was completely lined, so no need to see the clinker inside. Also, I had given my son some old chairs my Granddad made in the 20s, but which had fallen to bits in modern central heating and asked him to rip them up into 2.5-3mm thick strips. These he did. I don't ave a full sized table saw. They ended up about an inch wide, so that's where I began. I cut the stem angle and bevelled that off behind then took it round to the sternpost, which was extremely raked being the rudder post effectively. The first 5 or 6 planks went on like that unfettled each side. Then as the bilge (such as it is on a plank-on-edge cutter) was rounded there came a need to shape them a bit here and there, but still not a huge amount. Only a few part-planks where I'd run out of full length planks and the final few each side up to the counter stern were awkward. The time came to take it off its building board. Bolts were removed and the upstands broken away. The amazing thing to me was how light it was! Even with some re-inforcement, it is stupidly light, which augers well for internal ballast only as the hull is very deep. It is now at the stage where I have glued in some deck supports and have to add supplementary deck beams to give the camber as I hadn't built that in. Weather has dictated that little has been done on the hull while I can't get the bandsaw outside, so I have made spars. I've used dowel as I didn't fancy the time it would take to do it by hand. But the surprisingly straight grained stuff from B%Q (yes really) still has to be tapered here and there. Mast and spar bands are made from strips of brass, bent round and silver soldered together or brass bar turned to fit with lugs soldered in to pre-drilled holes. For a complete change I started the after decklight. That was made in more Cuban Mahogany strip as the colour was gorgeous and the finish possible was hard and smooth. Here I should say that apart from using a small plane on the hull, I use metalworking tools almost universally on the quality woods I like. I cut using a jeweller's piercing saw against the metal vice jaws and clean up with Swiss files. I rarely use a knife and only for bigger jobs, a chisel. Even then that's likely to be a reground and honed Swiss file. I don't possess a razor saw. I tried one once, it stuck, I threw it away. Perhaps a life time of making brass patterns for the model industry has given me this preference. The casing has dovetailed corner joints and the lids have mortice and tenon joints, so that the whole thing effectively held itself together before gluing! Well, that's enough waffle. Please don't judge the hull too badly. It will be finished to a gloss black by the time I've filled and planed and epoxy coated it. The gaff jaws are made of Steamed Pear, a favourite timber of mine, fixed to flats on the spar, then drilled and pinned with brass rod. Currently this weekend I'm making a ropemaking machine from Perspex offcuts. I bought a random set of cheap nylon gears off ebay in order to make my own design of sail winches and I found just enough to make the ropewalk. It will be hand wound as I believe a man should suffer for his art<G> Cheers, Martin- 94 replies
-
- 15
-
-
I first set foot on board the Constitution when I was 7 years old, and I was hooked on sailing ships ever since. My elementary school library had C S Forester's The Captain From Connecticut which I loved and led me to Forester's other work, namely Hornblower. In fact, the 16 foot daysailer I've had since 1979 is named Lydia. I spent my teens and twenties working under sail and power, from barkentines to tugs. I've built several of the 1:96 scale Constitution/United States Revell kits, two of them were RCed; but I always wanted a sailing model of the ubiquitous British frigate, and no one made that kit. I finally decided to build one. Already deep into building an 1850's American sloop-of-war, and with a Baltimore Clipper schooner already planked up, I began a third model of the HMS Macedonian. I chose Macedonian because I could easily get Chapelle's drawing of her from The American Sailing Navy from the Smithsonian, and she was interesting. Macedonian by Gardner Macedonian was a Lively class frigate rated at 38 guns, another of Sir William Rule's designs. Launched in 1810, during the War of 1812 she had the misfortune to meet the American frigate United States, a Constitution class 44 and was captured. She was taken into the American Navy and served until 1828 when she was broken up and replaced by a new ship. Lively Bacchante The story of Macedonian is well told in Chronicles of the Frigate Macedonian, 1809-1922 by James T deKay and I've posted a fair history of the ship on my page There's lots of data available on how the British built and out-fitted their frigates, and even Macedonian's figurehead still exists, but I never have found any reliable information on what her stern looked like. What I've come up with is my own conjecture based on the sterns of other Lively class frigates. The mounted figure is from a statue of Alexander that existed when Macedonian was built. The round object is the "Vergina Sun" found at ancient Macedonian sites and dating from the time of Alexander's father. Symbology available when Macedonian was built and while this is my own guess, it's at least a logical guess. I considered using Alexander's profile from a coin in place of the mounted figure, but his face is already on the bow - given the choice, I'd think an English builder would choose the horse. When the drawings came in from the Smithsonian, the first thing I did was have them digitally scanned. I then rescaled them from 1:48 up to 1:36 mostly so this model would be the same scale as my Constellation. That done, I made up a sheet with each station drawn full-sized, and printed that on my plotter. At this scale, the model should be; Length: 59" taffrail to Alexander's nose Beam molded: 13.3" Draught: 6.87" without the removable ballast keel Her length over the rig will be about 7' and she will stand from keel to truck, about 4'. (I'll update this with more accurate numbers and metric equivalents at a later date) These paper patterns were used to rough cut the wooden stations from 3/8" plywood. Each paper pattern was then glued onto it's station close cut on the bandsaw, and then fined up on the beltsander where some bevel was put into the forward and after stations.
- 68 replies
-
- 11
-
-
Hello everyone. You will either be intrigued by this or bin it straight away. The foreground.... I am currently building a huge Bluenose which is going to take a very long time to finish. I wanted something to sail " now" that will not take long to build. I have learnt now that there is a " Footy " class RC sailing yacht that is a class in itself, has its dedicated set of rules, are quick to build, inexpensive, fun to build and then you get to sail them! A Footy must be one foot long and fit into a certain size box in order to compete. All Google able. Radio control today is really cheap especially two channels from sky fly. This little gem is Italian designed by Flavio Faloci a naval architect. The plans are a work of art quite literally and super comprehensive. Downloadable digitally. I have decided to make two. One for my grandson and one for the boy in me!!! Then we can go out on our bikes and sail them. I am hoping this build log will be quite quick. The model is largely built from balsa . I have varied a little by using 1/64" birch ply. Grief that was harshly expensive but it can be made cheaply from balsa. My decision! Hope you like and it catches on. Remember when you were a young kid, we dreamed of little boats this shape. It has rudder and sail winch control. The sail winch is nothing more than a Hi Tec 225 servo which has a 3.9kg high torque capability. It is fitted with a long arm. That's the winch! Full radio installation is in the plans and even tells you what Rx, which servos and batteries to use. The whole radio department just lifts out. It is an amazing design. I hope it catches on and you enjoy my build. Here you see the main hull patterns, sides and bulkheads. It will take shape later today. Flat bottomed hard chine with removable keel. Very easy. Pete
-
posting 01 the beginning The beginning of this story started in 2001. I was off to Newburyport, MA to buy plans for Bluenose and Gertrude Thebaud . While in the store I saw and bought a small kit of a beautiful little schooner named Dancing Feather. I was still working for many more years but got some good quality time in Maine in between foreign assignments and on weekends while working in Boston. I tell the story in my Bluenose building log where the first build of this schooner took place. It was never completed. I used the kit plans and fortunately scanned them, as they have disappeared. I built the RC hull in the winter of 2007-2008. We all know what happened in 2008 and it I went traveling for the next 5 years. It was January 2014 when I finally retired. That year was filled with other projects ending with the start of Charles Notman, a seven foot sailing Schooner. In 2015 I built the 42 inch long pair of RC sailing sloops and restarted Dancing feather at the very end of the year. Again, I never completed it, but I made progress in the direction of an under detailed potential sailing model. Everything I did was an experiment. I am glad I did that as I made many mistakes. In 2016 I drifted into Bluenose, another 7 foot sailable schooner. She was a great learning exercise. In that exercise I drifted into trying to do too much detail. My son visited and said to me that when I build a model I need to decide. Am I going to sail it or tell a history story about it. After two dioramas, I agree there is a lot of difference. Now that the Little Pinky from Boothbay [ phase one] is done I am working on the first ship of Boothbay, Aphrodite. It is very tedious at 1:96 scale and I love working on it , but I need something else to begin too. A week ago, I took out the old Dancing Feather kit. It is by A J Fisher and extremely basic. The only real piece to use is the carved hull. What I am now doing for this project is the following. I will build the Kit out as a study for what I want to do on the big ¾ scale model. I will then rework much of the rigging on the big version. Keep it simple and see if I can get it to sail. One of the issues will be how to cut down the sizing of the sails so at 1:16 it works. Full size sails at scale do not work too well as they will over power the schooner. I did it on the two racing sloops and learned that cut down of the main sail to match the cut down of the jib was bad. The main needs more power and in light air the sailing was touchy. I have a few photos of the original 2007 building of the hull and spars and will share them in a few posts to get us up to date with what was built. And then we will look at what I must undo or fix so she can sail as i go through building the small 3/16 scale version. Post 01 Early build 2007 In my Bluenose log we find the bluenose hull was planked and then hung from the ceiling of the shop. In 2007 to 2008 I was able to follow the same process and build this hull. 01 here is the same method I learned at Wooden Boat school. Bulkheads were 4 mm lauan plywood, planks were stripped cedar roughly 1/8 x 5/16. There are thin strips of 1/31 soaked and then fit as ribs over the forms. Then blue tape separates the rib from the form and the planks are glued to the ribs and toothpicks driven home into the lauan form. 02 the dagger board is a carryover from the Neskaeg Marblehead 50 design. I am experimenting on making it removable to allow display without the extended fitting 03 how about the strength of that keelson. I would never do it that thick again. 04 since we are fiber glassing the hull there is no spiling required 05 here we see the hull is planked. Behind us we see a Marblehead 50 naskeag that i built at Wooden Boat school in 2001. Note the permanent danger board keel with lead bulb. up next some history on who dancing Feather was and building the deck Cheers
- 13 replies
-
- 6
-
-
- radio
- pilot schooner
- (and 1 more)
-
Hello, Firstly sorry for my English. I am not perfect in English. I build RC amerigo vespucci model ship. Thats my first modelship. I work on it very detailed. Which part i dont like, i retry to fix it. Plan was from a carton ship and i edited for RC models. I started in 2015 and build main ship about 5 months and i didnt continue building. I stay home for 3 weeks so i started again by building the deck. All parts (woods paints etc) are the high quality. (For 5 years there is no disruption of woods and paints. Only some scratches due to hitting) Main wood part was from Birch wood which is good resistant to water after Teak wood. I cannot tell everything in English. Only the main things because i dont know many terms in english. I used a Brush engine 12V Power supply is 12V 7Ah battery (~2.2kilograms) ESC has a fan to cool. It has a sail servo to open and close sails. It has a servo to open lights from little windows. Height is about 101 cm Widht is 17 cm at most Weight i didnt measure this but its fine with water level. I guess its near 8 kilograms with battery. Last week i started to build main deck floor. Its from rose tree. Battery stand and main buttons stand will be able to open after use to change battery if needed in years. I have othere forum in my language that i share my build experience from zero to this day. If someone is interested i can send the link to show images. Its not true to give link here. Btw its my first model ship i build from 0. I made many mistakes to be a good one for example i painted with acrylic paint at first. Then i didnt like it and i removed all old paint for a week. Now i know things how to do. Kind of expert-
- 3
-
-
- training ship
- amerigo vespucci
- (and 1 more)
-
I recently bought a plan for this America Schooner. The America II was in the US Naval Station on the Severn River when I was there. It was right next to the Meridea then. I did not have the point of perspective that I could do a sketch of it because Meridea was right between. Although the 1/4" plan is pretty good, It only has about 8 stations drawn, and none of them are spaced upon the evenly spaced frame positions, so the only way I can accomplish drawing the frames for her will be to take those station drawings and enter them into CAD and extrapolate each frame from the resulting waterlines. I am interested in working on getting this CAD drawing, but, I have never transitioned into any successful 3D skills with my DesignCAD 2/3D program. I have had an idea of the how to do the plan, but it will take a lot of trial and error before I can get it accomplished, I am sure. I have wanted to do this POF for almost as long as I have been working on Meridea, however, it was all in 2D. The lack of being in 3D caused me to have problems with the drawings in each view being coordinated (may not be the right word). I believe I am going to need some guidance on this one. Does anyone out there have and understand DesignCAD 3D MAX? I will probably need some tips on how to get the move point in a uniform position so when I paste the station into the 3D drawing they will all line up successfully. When I select the intersect of the vertical/horizontal lines the move point is always off to the side. That makes it next to impossible to get the former in exactly the right place. That has been my main problem from the start. I have also had some problems with them showing up in the right plane going from 2D to 3D. The 2D is XY, and when pasting them into the Z position, the front, top, and side views don't seem to come out right. The few times they did, I don't know how I got them there. I do understand layering, so you can hide or show each station. -
. I suppose we have to start somewhere. I plan to build a 1:24 scale version of " Bluenose". I have read in depth Jond's version and will follow it closely as it worked. He is a very patient and excellent modeller. Both my son and I are overwhelmed with the successes of this very famous Schooner. My son said that " this is a beautiful boat dad ....I just love the lines". It was only after reading further into it ( Bluenose ) That we became educated enough to realise what " Bluenose " was and what she represented. My son Damian certainly hit on the lines. He said without even knowing anything about her.." Dad....this is the ship to build". She is beautiful. My son is an artist and has an instant eye for beauty. He recognized in an instant that " Bluenose " had to be "it". At nearly 69 years of age it comes to the time that we listen to our siblings and no longer have to tell them what to do but do as advised!!!! We have started the journey into " Bluenose" and I guess it will never end as learning is endless. What a boat!!! I have made several ships in bottles, and a few kit builds but now the challenge is set for me. This ( to me) is a big challenge and I will need helping out. I am learning naughty terms....sorry ( nautical ) terms and have a thirst to learn more. Meanwhile hopefully, here are a few shots of how I am starting out. The first is of yours truly having just arrived home with a lot of red cedar logs. The second is of our building board specially built to the size of the yacht with two huge logs of cedar on top. The build board is mounted on a trolley with wheels so I can get to any part of the build. We live in Australia. The pics are of the building board for Bluenose and the huge hunks of red cedar we bought from my ol mate down the road lie in readiness for the hull planking. I have two more logs like this. So I guess a build log starts with exactly that. LOGS!!!!! The sheets behind are MDF to form the hull formers on which the planking will be done. The formers will be sacrificial. We await the plans from Canada which will be scaled up by double the size. I believe they are Eisonor plans. Pete
-
After a month of work on my new project it's at the stage where I suspect it might turn into something worth continuing so here it is... A Cruizer class brig in 1:36 scale which is (hopefully) destined to be a working RC square rigged sailer. I've kicked this project off before finishing the rigging on my current Granado build after seeing a few build logs and being filled with inspiration and a reckless confidence to simply have a go. It's a good vessel to practice on as it's relatively simple with flush decks, only two masts and little decoration. I can experiment with the rc servos, ballast keel and sail operation once the hull and masts are done and if it works then move on to the nice to have items like head rails, carronades and deck fittings. The cruizer was a possibility for my next scratch build originally planned at 1/64 but I'd helped my father build the 1:20 scale Valdivia schooner kit from Robbe a few years back and being so taken with sailing it that I wanted one of my own. I'd love a 1:24 scale RC Surprise or cruizer from Steel Chapman and Hutchinson Ltd http://www.modelsailingships.com/ships/grasshopper.html But it's out of my price range once freight etc is taken into account, hence an effort to scratch build, especially after seeing the very informative logs from Jerry Todd for his Macedonian, Constitution and others. 1:36 was chosen as it's large enough to look the part and have some sailing ability and be easily managed with a length of 84cm on the gun deck. If successful with the brig the ultimate goal is a frigate and at 1:36 scale a large vessel like an Artois class frigate of 146 feet on the gun deck would be just manageable for transport and launch at roughly 120cm. But that's pretty optimistic at this stage and I've got a lot to learn yet. The plans for this vessel are those included in EW Petrejus' fine book 'modelling the brig of war Irene' scaled up with bulkhead widths and deadwood for building purposes etc drawn in. Using relatively cheap materials was a must for this project as there's still an element of doubt over if it will work. If it doesn't I don't want to feel like it's been a huge investment that fails. As such the brig will be built from 9mm plywood for the framing with the keel and planking from matai - a New Zealand native timber which is moderately hard enough to hold detail at this scale while still easy to work and has a nice tone although the brig will be painted anyway. The matai is in the form of old tongue and groove floorboards from a demolition yard that are going for about $6/metre for short lengths that are pretty much unusable for anything else. I can mill these on my table saw and with a home built thickness sander. The hull will be built upside down on a building board for stability and will be cut loose once planked. A base line parallel to the keel a few cms above the max height of the sheer line was drawn on the plans to provide a point from which to measure from. All the bulkheads were drawn with this line as a top (or bottom once upside down on the board) square edge to ensure they would all sit at the correct height from the board and provide a level run for the keel to attach to. A test run of bulkheads on the board. To avoid installing deck beams later these were drawn onto the bulkheads using the camber indicated in Petrejus. The bulkheads were then cut down to ribbing size. In hindsight I should have left the bulwarks above deck ticker to account for the reduction from subsequent sanding but it's nothing major. Most of the framing on the build board here. The keel and stem is matai ripped on a bandsaw and run through my drill powere thickness sander (thanks to MSW member Snowmans for his fine instructions on making one) down to 9mm. The stem was then cut in one piece on the bandsaw and gammoning and bob stay holes/slots drilled.- 141 replies
-
- 21
-
-
Hi all, I’m new here and have been working on a model of the infamous Sultana that sank in the Mississippi River at the end of the American Civil War in April of 1865. Her sinking took the lives of over 1800 union soldiers who were heading home. Sultana II, which will be her name, is going to be 3ft 8in long, and 10in in width. Her height is yet to be determined. She will be capable of going into the water with her engine and paddlewheels. Hope you all will enjoy watching her rise. This was a process I used to make the hull look smoother and completely waterproof. -
Well here we go! I have been reading many logs over the past few years and now am ready to jump in. I have several previous builds, but not many ready for the gallery. we can talk about a few of them later. They were meant to prepare me to build a series of Maine Schooners, some of which hopefully can sail in the local harbor during windjammer days festival. We are coming up to the centennial of the final and best built schooners, many which supported the World War I effort. There were 10 each 4 masted Schooners built here in Boothbay Harbor. Unfortunately there are no known plans, so much research is under way to achieve that goal. In the mean time I need a proto type, so this build is my proto type for the process. I chose 1/48 scale as it produces roughly a 5 foot hull length. [ normally a bit small to sail!] There will be a fight between accurate detail and making it function as a sailor. All this is to be a learning process. I started this build late last year and to date am almost through the hull building. I start this post with a catch up on the process in mind. stage 1: Research and Plans: Maine Maritime provides several different plans of Schooners built either in their facility, Percy and Small or others in Bath Me. There is a great book A Shipyard in Maine by Ralph Linwood Snow and Capt. Douglas Lee. Douglas Lee also produced plans for several Maine ships including this one. He also developed great details for all big Schooners based on his research of the Cora Cressy [ a five master also from Bath]. Another valuable book is The Schooner Berth L Downs by Basil Greenhill and Sam Manning. This book is labeled " Anatomy of the Ship" and shows what you need to fill in the gaps. Station templates: I took Photos of the Plans, as they were in 1/96 scale, and pasted them into Turbo CAD Deluxe 20. I then improved the grid lines and scaled up to the full size ship. I then traced each station on a separate layer. I set my viewports to 1/48 fixed scale and wiggled to get them all to fit on a portrait view @ 11x17. After printing them out , I had a view of every station. I glued them to a sheet of 3/16 luan plywood and cut them out on the band saw. A little sanding on the edges cleaned them up. I then set them in a vise and cleaned up the slots to fit over the laminated keelson and did a little pre fairing. When I drew the stations, I included a common extension leg, so that when they were set upside done on the building board they would all be at the right height. [ easier to see in the photos] I also predrilled holes all around the stations to simplify the cutting out of the stations after fiber glassing the hull. My plan is to leave roughly 1/2 inch ribs at each bulkhead for permanent reinforcing of the hull. The Keelson: This is my name for the whole assembly [ shoe , keel, keelson and riders as well as stems.] it consists of three pieces of 1/4" plywood laminated. this adds strength but helps in straightening and is very easy to work with. I took 4 photos of the line plan and again pasted it into the Turbo CAD. I set up the water lines and used offset to control correct positioning of all the stations. I then stretched and tweaked the photos and they came out OK. I created 4 each 11x17 landscape printouts and pasted them to the plywood. After cutting out the "Keelson" assemble center piece, I trimmed more plywood to form the two outer strips and was ready for laminating. Building board: I had some building boards left over from some Vintage Marblehead pond yachts built 10 years ago. I recovered the blocks and screws from two boats and had enough to lay out the stations. I prepared the blocks, pre drilling them for attachment to the stations [ horizontal screws] and then ready for installing. end of stage 1
- 104 replies
-
- 10
-
-
Hello everyone Today is a good day to start my scratch build log. Maybe this Tableboat would be something for a scratch build log ... Seriously, i wish you all a happy new year! Cheers : ) Mike- 234 replies
-
- 17
-
-
Well I figure it is about time I start a new build and post up a thread. This will take a while so be very patient. I love tall ships, I love tall ship models and I love scratch building working models. Hence this project. I aquired a fairly rudementary set of hull plans a few years ago and am now in a postition to put my money where my mouth is and build it. The aim is a fully operational schooner done my way. It will be what aeromodellers used to call stand-off scale because I am making consessions to my lack of knowledge about the forces that will be applied to her under sail as well as the fact that the plans include nothing of the rigging and precious little detail of the deck fittings. I know how to rig a ship because I have done a few kits, two schooners among them. I have never sailed anything in my life so she will be made in the guise of a replica or restored ship which has had engines added, ie she will have twin screws like the replica Endeavour. She will never be becalmed. Stats:- Hull length - 1045mm Beam - 210mm Mast height - 930mm from keel Sails - Cotton (at this stage- open to suggestion) 3x sails, 3x top sails, 3x stay sails. Construction - Marine ply keel and ribs, plank on frame, fibre-glassed. I have started in an unusual way in so much as I have made the masts first. I was going to make one to test the principles but decided that it was going to be much more expedient to machine multiple parts in one hit than do three seperate set-ups. The first pic shows the style of schooner rig I am aiming for. Squaring the top of the masts It is nice to be able to use full sized tools on a model for a change Cross tree or tressle, the timbers are a bit heavier than scale and not tapered to the outer extremeties but they are what the top mast shroud lines will attach to so they are deliberately heavy for structural reasons. Machining the mast tops, all three at once.
Our Emblem™
