Fairmount Alpine by George-JK - Billing Boats - 1:75 - RADIO

[popeye the sailor]

I hope you kept a schematic on the wiring.....quite a jungle you got there!     the interior looks super....nice job of following the diagram.  amazing how many lights there are......looks really good none the less  

great progress and glad to see her back on track!

[George-JK]

Hey Popeye, for now I don't really have a schematic, just tags with the voltages... 😀 But I will be drawing at least a legend once I start gluing the sections of the superstructure together, because as it is now, it is quite sufficient, as most of the wires condense to sort of blocks.

[Seamanpeter]

Looks great George, the leds doing fine too.

The difficult as you say is to have them all proper lined up and connected.

I will use a converter separate for the lighting as want the helideck also "illuminated" what will be a challange to have it done but got some ideas in my head to achieve that.

As for now I do the same nearly as you means just doing the inside, make it ready for the lighting, making floors for the towing winch and the rest of the electronic units such as receiver etc.

To be honest with you I don't have the "normal" propulsion and rudders so get away with that lot.

At the other hand want to make the towing pins and then 4 x vertical mounted the el motors for the Schottels.

The towing pins have built in el motors but I'm afraid I have to modify the stern inside to have that unit accommodated where I want it.

Anyway, for the "cold" winter days enough to do but first wait till parts are here.

Take care there down under,

regards,

Peter

[George-JK]

Hey Peter, oh thank you.

Yeah I can imagine, how difficult your build will get with those modifications. But it will be that much more interesting to see how you will tackle those challenges.

 

And some mild progress on my build:

I increased the amount of collour dots and blobs on the control panels:

And some teaser of what is to come in the following posts, the thrusters cane this morning. So I am working on the holes in the hull..

why I hate working around painted model:

Paint scratches and chips, due to tool handling.. I will be repairing the chips after everything is done.

Edited November 9, 2019 by George-JK

[Seamanpeter]

Wow, looks colourful too George! Nearly need sun glasses to see it.

FYG, these days they all have 2 x ESDIC on the front panels so on stb side of the console better paint another one (if you find the space).

Unless you keep it with 1 Esdic but then you are committed to have all PAPER sea-charts on board.

Those are the rules these days. 

Yeah I already made a plan what I had in my head on paper where what comes / colour / cables / etc. and that is just the lighting, foremast, helideck, Monkey Island, Aft mast, bridge, accommodation, deck lights aft, and more inside the towing winch area.

Just made some measurements and yes it will fit all as I already explained to you in my previous mail.

Got not much left but under the main deck have to made a platform where as the towing winch will be situated.

Then above there (already inside the lower accommodation) another platform for the electronic devises such as receiver, different volt supply box and some other stuff.

the rest (what are the heavy parts) comes all down on the "bottom" such as batteries etc, el motors under the aft deck.

Smoke machine most likely in the front part bottom deck as well the water pump.

The anchor winch I will not make as the vessel has to sail and NOT on anchor.

2 x deck cranes will be mounted later as on order presently.

Will on the aft deck making a "buckle" crane as pic showed you for the ROW later to handle.

That is the plan but give me some months to make it all as this takes time.

Looking forwards to see yours finalising and if this is a 24 mm bow trust I have the same.

as always, greetings

Peter 

 

[George-JK]

Good day to all,

Today I will do an update of the build, regarding my progress during this weekend. I forgot to take some necessary pictures for the getting up to speed with the build post, so that will follow tomorrow.

 

As I wrote on Saturday I got the new thrusters in. I went with the Raboesch 22mm OD thruster for the bow, and the mini thruster for the stern. I then spent the rest of the weekend getting rid of the old system in the stern.

In the end I managed to peel off the top part of the Alu tube, and subsequently I sanded out the keel to accommodate for the new thruster body. Let the pictures speak for themselves:

Operation in progress.

First fitment picture to the left. Picture to the right, finished alu tube removal. I went and took a metal saw to it, I sawed the tube in "halves", and pried the top hlaf out. 

Top view of the prepared hole, I scratched the paint of the Alu a bit to improve the adhestion. On the right picture, preparation fo the initial epoxy pour, making a dam out of tape.

Checking the placement of the thruster body, looking for squareness to the hull exterior, and first pour of epoxy (the yellow hint in the bottom right conrer of the hole.

After the curing of the epoxy, some over flow is visible, this also covered parts of the masking tape, this however should not pose a big problem, as the parts with the tape are protruding outside the hull overall shape and will be sanded off. The later picture shows the thruster after I cut off the excess pipe.

And the last picture shows how the stern thruster looks right now. I didn't finish the epoxy pouring, as I run into issues with the used epoxy, it took too long to cure and even after 2 hours still had rubber surface. I blame it on the age of the epoxy, as it is well over 2 years old... I will check today in the evening, hopefully it cured entirely. But nonetheless I will go and buy a new can of epoxy to finish up the filling.

 

For the bow thruster I used a chisel to remove a part of the keel right behind the thruster position, this created enough space for the new thruster body. I removed the old body by sticking a hex key into the shaft hole and prying it out, which was an easy task. 

The initial state of the bow thruster, after the sawing of the alu tube, covered in a previous post, In the process of chiseling of the excess keel.

Finished with the chisel.

The hull after prying out the non used part of the old thruster system, and the pried part.

Dry fitting of the new thruster body.

 

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

George, lot's of work.

Now I'm wondering how you will fix the bow trust with the both side channels as the "old" channels from previous are still in there.

You could have done that by cutting the both timer /wood protection so you have an open connection to lift them out?

The channels connected to the mid part of the trust are tapered / conics so will that not be used as you did not remove the old ones?

Want to see how you are managing this without taking the securing position of the channels direct next to the actual bow trust.

On my photo as attached here you see that I left the stb side top above the channel out and ps is still untouched there. I had a reason to take the stb part out otherwise I could not have it in place. Beside I had to make both holes for the channel bigger as they did not fit in there.

I had then afterwards both sides with massive wood as previous pics shows glues and secured in the bow. Means to take them out would be a hell of a job. At the other hand, change out the el motor is a piece of cake.

Anyway, you may have your style how to do that. 

Is it 24 mm? That is about the biggest one you can get for this model.

Good luck with both trust to have it done and working again (without to many scratches)

best regards

Peter 

 

[George-JK]

Hey Peter,

Yes I was considering the 24mm thruster, but then instead went with the smaller one, the 22mm one. As this diameter does not have the coned channels. This can be seen on this picture:

Has straight channels running out of it. This I can use to my advantage, as the inner diameter of the build in channels should be also 22mm, or very close to it, this should allow me to theoretically just slide the new unit in place.  The only problem now is a 1mm gap that is there after I sawed out the old unit.

 

I wanted to change it with as little work on the exterior as possible, as I don't want to repaint the hull for the 3rd time already.

Also I can see you made it quite bullet proof, so to speak, I don't think the forces from the bow thruster will be so great as to need excessive reinforcement in place. So I plan to add I bit of, probably balsa wood to create a bigger surface for the thruster to be glued on, but I will see, maybe I will do a quick test of the thruster in a sink, to see how powerful it actually is...

 

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

Lucky you George and can now understand the meaning of it (if it goes, use some butter to slide in)

Sure if you can have the "new" channels direct connected to the trust both side, the gab you talking about can be filled up with epoxy, made it secure and watertight in the same time.

Those channels don't need to be replaced as you can just remove the el motor with the 4 screws (don't forget the seal).

Afterwards the plastic channels on the outer side can be easily made in shape of the water flow you already have.

Well lot of work and hopefully this is just a 1 time go!

Reason I made it "bullet proof" is not just the force but until now I have seen and hear around that the bow trust gives problems by damage during transport or sailing in unknown waters touching stones etc so therefore I did this "massive" surroundings with the bow trust.

best regards

Peter  

Edited November 11, 2019 by Seamanpeter
additional info.

[George-JK]

Hello All,

today I will start with a short up to speed post and finish up with by showing You the fully glued stern thruster body.

 

As I said in a previous post, I am soldering all of the handrails and other metal components, as the masts.

The biggest problem with the soldering was, that the kit supplied rail stanchions were made of aluminium. Which is possible to solder, however, even after I acquired the proper flux, it was difficult to get satisfactory results.

The cornwallmodelboats.co.uk shop shows them as brass, but in the description is, that they are made of aluminium.

Also the height of these is only 12mm, which in the scale of the model, 1:75, gives the height of 900mm, or 90cm, which for a ship safety feature preventing falling overboard seems to me, to be just a bit low. Also the three holes on there stanchions were all 0.8mm bore, which is again too big for two reasons. Firstly, the rail wire supplied is only 0.5mm, and second, the 0.8mm diameter gives in scale a diameter of 60mm, which is good for the topmost "grabbing" rail, but is too bulky for the two lower rails, here the 0.5mm wire just looks better.

For these reasons I looked for an appropriate replacement. I found the three holed stanchion from Graupner.

These have the same shape, however are 14mm high and the holes are 0.8mm top, rest is 0.5mm. The new height is in scale just over 1 meter, which seems to me to be a bit better, also regarding the model, the new height is also quite fitting.

Here is a sketch of both stanchions, and a picture of the new one used:

Also these stanchions are made out of brass and come oxidation-free. So they are a treat to solder, but for uniform performance of the solder joints I use the Carr's Green Label solder flux for use on brass, copper, nickel and silver. I also went and bought in our local arts and craft shop a reel of copper wire with 0.8mm diameter, as the 0.5mm dia. wire was already supplied in the kit. So in the end the grabbing rail is made of the 0.8mm wire, and the lower rails are made of the 0.5mm wire.

Some images of the produced handrails.

The fire-monitor deck hand rail, just soldered, I use a piece of low quality masking tape to transfer the positions of the holes to a block of wood, there I solder the handrail.

And fitting the rail to the coresponding piece. The rails are then primed using Tamyia metal primer in two light coats, followed by Tamiya surface primer. And later they are painted with airbrush (not at that stage on any of the handrails yet). A picture of other, already primed handrail:

the last pictures show one of the 4 ladders mounted on the hull, they are now painted white and are waiting to get green sides painted, then they will be done.

 

Now for the progress on the repairs:

Form the weekend pouring, there are still holes to be covered. For this I needed to buy a new package of epoxy glue as I feared the old one was going bad. I used the UHU 90min epoxy with micro air balloons to thicken the glue, to almost non dripping state.

I plugged the holes with a piece of masking tape and shoveled the epoxy in using the spatula. until it completely surrounded the installed thruster body.

And last for today's post, I started installing first ballast weights in the stern with the excess epoxy I had made.

 

Cheers

George

 

[Seamanpeter]

George, great job done to the stern trust!

Also the railings is a hell of a job and that's why I changed that to fixed ones.

What you say about :

Quote: Also the height of these is only 12mm, which in the scale of the model, 1:75, gives the height of 900mm, or 90cm, which for a ship safety feature preventing falling overboard seems to me, to be just a bit low. Also the three holes on there stanchions were all 0.8mm bore, which is again too big for two reasons. Firstly, the rail wire supplied is only 0.5mm, and second, the 0.8mm diameter gives in scale a diameter of 60mm, which is good for the topmost "grabbing" rail, but is too bulky for the two lower rails, here the 0.5mm wire just looks better.

Unquote.

Is not completely true as this is the height in real terms speaking you will find on board those vessels.

At the other hand, you should then say: crew members should not be more then 1. 70 M high (like in submarines) but with my 1.80 M hogh on both I had no problem. To tell you something you learn on board is the fact that having 2 hands, always 1 for the boss and the other for yourself walking over the deck so therefore the reason you say must be your personal opinion, I worked on those more then 35 years and NEVER fall overboard!.

I did order the pre-made ones from Cornwall as below.

 Railing - Pre-made railing, four rail - Height 11mm, Distance Between Rails 14mm, Length 250mm  Price: £8.18 (Including VAT)

I tried to make them myself but after 1 go I stopped and just pay a bit more for it but then again, just bend them and glue inside the holes.

Anyway, this is your built and you make it the way you want.

As I read you can also make yourself 3D why not use that facility?

I start with bridge furniture direct against the windows as in real they have all there filled up with draws and cabinets so to speak. 

On the backside bridge even a little coffee shop with sink and water.

Also what I could not find on stb side funnel (in the bridge itself) situated a toilet!

The rest I ordered but afraid still have to make the stairs opening below inside to the accommodation.

The windows will be blue (plastic) "glass" and gives a nice effect when the lights are on in the dark!

What I don't see the fact where the lower top light (navigation) is as the built in real is more then 70 Mtr long and therefore should have a lower navigation top licht (high one in aft / main mast).

Most of the AHT and normal tugs have the lower light (if not having a fore mast) on the fore ward top Monkey Island to scope with regulations although it is NOT a must have.

For the railing on the stairs I will use the same pre-made railing, just cut it where needed and glue it to the stairs.

But again, George you make the built as you want it and I will make mine in my fashion, the end product is the same, it still is floating on the water and can sail!

To come all the way down under will NEVER happen as to long way to sail!

Take care now with the bow trust to built in and the rest of the railings,

best regards

Peter

 

 

 

[George-JK]

Hey Peter,

Thank you for the insight on how it actually is on a real vessel.

Honestly sometimes I tend to over-complicate the things I am trying to say. I should have written:

That after searching the internet for a suitable replacement made of brass, most important factor, I found these rail stanchions from Graupner, which are 2mm higher, that the original ones, but these 2mm are, at least to me, lost in the overall model size. And one additional advantage of these stanchions is, they have the two different hole sizes bored in, which as I seen on the pictures of real this boat, and from my travels with ferries, to be the case. The top rail is bigger, than the lower ones...

Regarding why I don't use the 3D printer for this. Firstly the end product, being so thin would be very fragile, and it simply would look bad. And secondly, I quite enjoy the soldering of the rails, and they are in the end quite bendy- sturdy so to speak.

 

And lastly, I would like to use your experience, to ask you a question regarding this one ladder:

I would like to know, what would you suggest for the spacing between the individual steps, and also what should be the optimal spacing of the first step of the deck?

 

Thank you

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

George, thx for the quick respond.

Well as I already mentioned, the railings for ferry boats and passenger ships are higher that is true but on working vessels this 11 mm high is about the size.

And yes the top one is thicker then the below ones and that is for a reason.

First for your hands, second the sailors on board are sometimes using it too for hanging the ladder, btsmplank /chair for painting outside (hull) and other useful stuff. The other reason is how stupid it may sound for SAFETY to give enough strength in the event a person fall against it.

So coming back to your question about the distance between the ladder steps.

If you take a ladder step (the white plastic ones you have for the uptake to upper decks) in between the steps from it will be the min. distance so if you want to make it look good you measure the distance from the deck till the top where as the ladder should go ( in the drawing 5 supports) as there is NOT a specific rule for that step distance.  But for a pilot ladder YES as showed here below.

 

What I do know it the average distance in between the "steps" what should be ca 32 cm.

Nothing about start distance so to speak from the deck but I assume if that is the same as in-between then you should be ok. 

Same for the top / end of the ladder. So if you can work out the total distance just divided in equal parts (in real ca 30 cm) then you doing a good job.

I just put in here some examples of pilot ladders and Australian ladders (those are ONLY in Australia on bulkers).

Ok, enough now, already late down under so talk to you soon.

best regards

Peter 

[Seamanpeter]

Looking through your blog again found an interesting detail.

Not only we are building the same tug but apparently we also have the same protector for our mobile phone.

I was just smiling in myself if that was true.

Talk to you later

Peter

 

[George-JK]

Hello All,

@Seamanpeter thank you for the description of the ladder problem, I was not sure if they should be the same distance, or if the distance is somehow dependent on something. I will do them with the same distance as the ladders included in the kit have.

Yes it is the same phone casing 😄 well the phone is still good...

 

So yesterday I finished gluing the stern thruster and started gluing in the bow thruster. In the stern thruster glue, there are some voids left, these will be filled after the initial sanding of the excess material, as some of then will hopefully vanish. 

The gluing of the bow thruster consisted of mixing the 90min epoxy with the air balloon filler, until it had a non dripping viscosity. Then I just smeared the glue on the ends of the original bow thruster channels and on the thruster body itself and assembled. The rest was then checking if there are any holes, and filling them up.

The first picture shows the hull section with applied glue. The second picture shows the inserted new thruster body, with filled top parts of the joints.

 

A different look on the new thruster installed, and checking for glue thickness/ voids. For this I used a phone flashlight (any strong lightsource can be used) shone through the channel entrances, and by the varying intensities of the scattered light visible in the glue joints, one can tell quite accurately the relative thicknesses of the glue joint sections.

As I was waiting for the glue to cure I went and finished painting of the 4 ladders used on the hull. I went and painted the sides green, I wasn't certain what collour they were suposed to be, but as the ladders of the superstructure have orange sides, I though that these should follow the trend and have the sides painted green.

 

 

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

Wow, looks good George.

The bow trust you could have filled up the whole surroundings from the old channels having the new channels (grey plastic) in place.

Just to make sure that all is watertight as for sure you never take out again those channels.

But a water test in the bath will do before you launch your built into the lake.

The ladders on the Fairmount tugs are Orange or White, haven't seen them green on the side not even the ones below the accommodation.

But as I said before it is your built and you make it the way you want.

My mobile also is still working and use the left part to keep my credit cards and driving licence in.

 

 

[George-JK]

Hey Peter,

As you say, to me it looked a bit strange, that the top ladders are painted orange and the bottom ones should stay white, or even orange. It just din't fit to my impression of the model. And since the collour scheme of the model is already looking like a tropical bird, why not add a little extra touch of green to it...

Yeah the water tightness test is scheduled for today so we will see...

 

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

Having worked on several company sister vessels they had a colour scheme from that company and TSI when coming on board was looking after it.

But George, here also white stairs all the way up the superstructure, some have next to the superstructure orange so also here "who cares"?

Now they will be painted next dd in the colours of BosKalis so all will be changed and I can tell you that B&K will take care that the colour scheme is as it suppose to be knowing them!

That's why I send you those 4 pics of the ex fleet of Fairmount so you can make up your mind (or mix it up).

As you say multi colour!

Let's hope the water tight test will be ok so that job is done!

best regards

Peter

 

[George-JK]

Hello All,

 

So yesterday was a water leak test in the bath tub. 

This ended relatively well, I almost drowned the model. I didn't observe any leaks through the glue joints, just some minor leak through the stern thruster seal, this will be solved by changing the supplied rubber O-ring for a silicone sealant bead, once I will finish with the sanding of the excess glue. The major leak however happened from water pump inlet, where I put on the inlet hose, but then proceed to put a bag of lead pellets on top of it, so the entire hose ended below the water line, and trouble was born. Now I wait until the hull interior is dried.

In the mean time I will most likely work on the details and the superstructure.

After the test I went and glued together the first two parts of the superstructure, after I tested all the mounted LEDs, if they work.

And lastly pictures of the controversial green sided ladders:

I personally think it looks pery good with the green sides, as they are only on the outside, it makes the ladders blend in a bit.

 

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

Great job George, must take my head off for you with all the troubles you did have.

Hope the water pump inlet will not give you future problems otherwise you have to built in a "bilge alarm" that connect to your pump take out the water.

https://www.jonesboatchandlery.co.uk/bilge-pumps/

Here you can find several bilge pumps that switch automatically on when water comes into the built.

Depends on how much money you want to invest for it as several prices in this range.

The only disadvantage here is that those pumps CANNOT RUN DRY and therefore it is a must to have a "automatic "switch" in between like the one I will show you. https://www.jonesboatchandlery.co.uk/johnson-automatic-bilge-pump-switch in combination with https://www.jonesboatchandlery.co.uk/johnson-bilge-pump.

I will put those 2 inside as don't want to sunk my built, to costly. To see if it works you can the "overboard" line make in a position you can see it above the water line.

Your bridge looks great to be honest, lots of work done there with all the "painting " of the resp. consoles!

Missing the "coffee shop" what exist on every AHT / Tug on the bridge and is easy to make with your skills having.

Will you glue the top (monkey island) to the bridge structure or leave it as it is so you can take it off afterwards to repair lights e.a.?

Try to run the both trust in the bath so you are absolute sure that they both work without any further trouble, it can save you a lot of hassle later.

But George, you did come further then I am as still waiting for the parts to arrive.

Looking forward to see yours running and ready to sail,

forget about the ladders as even with green / white it is a good contrast!

best regards

Peter

 

[George-JK]

Hey Peter,

This flooding was only a freak incident, and shouldn't happen on normal sailing occasion, as the hose will normally be connected to the water pump for the fire monitors. Either way, there will be more water tightness tests following further down the road. Now I found out that only 8kg of lead in the hull are not nearly enough to get it to the desired draft, it wanted at least 5kg more.

Also personally I have never seen a model with an actual bilge pump, I think it is quite an over kill. Since we expect some occasional small leaks around the shafts of different propulsion parts, these leaks shouldn't be more than a couple of drops per minute. Any more severe leaks that theoretically could happen should then be from running aground on rocks in high speed, which happens mostly close to shore...

But nevertheless I am interested in where you plan to mount the bilge pump, and also regarding the fact, that the hull is sectioned with the bulkheads, which are, as I learned yesterday quite watertight, as the flooding I experienced was only in single hull section, confined by the bulkheads.

Also my hull is actually laminated from the outside and smeared with epoxy on the inside, it already survived one "crash test" falling into an empty bathtub, which resulted in some dents in the bathtub, not the hull. Here are some pictures of the process, as i wore gloves, completely covered in the epoxy, I did take only a few pictures, to keep the phone clean.

 

And don't worry I will slow down the build around this weekend, as I am getting to painting of details, and it is almost freezing outside. And the other things, like the coffee corner, and the lighting needs some time.

Regarding the coffee corner, it is a good idea to add it in, only I have no idea how it should look like, and where it should be placed. I don't drink coffee du to blood pressure skyrocketing, only tea. Still if you could mark it on one of the pictures, where would be an optimal position for such a thing, and a picture of how it should look like. Also I plan to make some chairs, to add around the tables on the bridge.

 

Regarding the monkey deck, I plan on gluing it on, as either way it would be almost impossible to take it off once all the cables and hoses are in place. Since the LEDs should not burn out as normal lights (that is the theory, usually holds, until one applies higher voltage) there is no real need to access the bridge.

Cheers

George

Edited November 14, 2019 by George-JK

[Seamanpeter]

George, in my previous built the last one I made many, many years ago was the Smit Rotterdam with the first wooden hull (others where plastic) and that time we could not buy the automatic bilge pumps as I mention to you in my mail.

As I did observe water was coming inside the prop shafts due to NOT having the so called black pot (grease pot) on those shafts I built inside just a water pump (did not have the proper ones as now available) with a suction laying/glued to the bottom of this compartment as in the frames there are NO MOUSE HOLES as we call them for the water to pass to the lowest point. But it worked that time and according my son it still works.

I left all my ships to them when I divorced their mum and they still have them.

At that time I promised myself that this will never happen again so that is why I got away with all the prop shafts and rudders this time and having Schottels it will never happen. Although as you say when touching under water sharp objects it still can be a possibility to have a leak I want to built this pump. Just to be on the safe side with suction from the lowest part what is in between frames bottom. I made mouse holes but cannot be seen anymore as covered by the wood on  top the frames. Nevertheless as I did not made the "MATT" with epoxy as you have I will only use Winsor & Newton Artists Acrylic Clear Gesso Primer and afterwards Acrylic paint for wood ship in the colours I want.

That makes the outside watertight enough and gives also the flexibility to the wood and it is a nice product to work with.

For the bridge interieur with ref to the "coffee shop" I will send you later an idea how to make it.

On the bridge in those tugs mostly you have "sofa's" just under the windows as chairs have to make tight to the floor and are not that good to use on the bridge.

Even in the cabins they always have a sofa and a chair that is connected to the floor as those ships in reality making moves and you can then image what will happen!

Let's see how it will work out with both having ideas and looking forward to the end product.

best regards

Peter

[George-JK]

Hello All,

today I will do only a short post before the weekend. Just a closer look on the hand rail soldering, I will let the images do the talking.

Cheers

George

[George-JK]

Hello All,

 

Today as well only a short update on the build.

During the weekend I primed extensive amounts of detail parts, as well as the rails for the hull. however due to running out of Matt White paint, I suspended further works on these parts.

I finished with the stern thruster mounting during the weekend, wen the rain let out a bit. I didn't proceed with the painting of the stern section, because there were a couple of air bubbles in the epoxy filling, that needed to be plugged. This led to one day technological wait, for the epoxy to cure. before painting ca start.

Ready for some sanding on painted hull, and sanded using 60 and 120 grit.

Finished sanding using 60 and 120 grit, this gave surprisingly smooth surface. And last picture, filled bubbles are taped over, so the epoxy doesn't flow out when the hull is flipped to fill the imperfections on the other side.

 

Cheers

George

[Seamanpeter]

George, hi there.

 

Looking into your built (and also mine) I start making in the superstructure port side near the lower entrance door the Emergency Generator parts such as ventilator openings, doors, exhaust etc.

Looking at yours I cannot find that detail so I presume you did not come to it?

Also the kim keel, are you not making that? I can tell you seeing other same builds that don't have it mounted she is quickly rolling on her side when little bit of waves are coming and I know in practises those are a must special on ships this kind that should not roll that much having sometimes crew on deck not to take to much water on aft deck.

Anyway, I will drop a pic here so you know what I'm talking about.

Hope your paint is all ok, this side of the globe I postponed all paint works till next year.

Take care there now,

Peter 

[George-JK]

Hello Peter,

 

For now I suspended further works, as when I get from work it is already dark outside, so not the optimal weather for painting with rattle cans, I will do some progress on the weekend.

I have yet to make all the details on the superstructure, I went on the details the same way as with plastic models, first I paint and prepare the details off the model, and I add them as I go with the complete build. Which works with plastic models, with this, I am not sure, but we will see....

Regarding the kim keel, I originally wanted to build it in, but later I forgot, or rather decided not to build it in, as I didn't to make the build more complicated then necessary at that time...

I will therefore have to be smart as to how I distribute the ballast, as physics should be able to compensate for the missing keel a bit. And it should be possible to calculate in a first approximation.

 

Cheers

Geroge

[George-JK]

Hello All,

 

A small update today.

I finished the repairs on the deadwood? (I think this is the correct term for this part of the stern. I used again Tamiya primer, and afterwards some accenting with red and black and finally the Dull red as the antifouling paint.

First I wet sanded the transition between the new primer area and the already painted area. 

Accenting using the red and black paint.

Final overlay of the dull red paint. I find this colour to be quite tricky to apply as when it is fresh airbrushed it is almost translucent. As it dries it becomes more and more opaque. So it is quite difficult to get the layer thickness correctly on complicated shapes with lots of shadows as is the case with this deadwood?.

I mounted the stern thuster motor using generous amount of high temp silicone, as I experienced a leak from the original O-ring. This should solve that problem and keep some level of serviceability to the thruster.

And finally for today post pictures of the interior of the hull with installed RC equipment.

With this equipment the weight is at 6.4kg including the two battery packs needed for the 12V and 7.2V parts.

 

Cheers

George

[popeye the sailor]

great progress George.......seriously nice work!  

[Seamanpeter]

yeah George, seeing your electronic parts there is indeed not much space left.

I did some measurements and on the back of the built in mine and must say if you divided the front part (under the superstructure) in 2 decks you have above the batteries space for other equipment such as speed controllers / voltage regulators and others.

Waterpomp for FIFI  will come below the "deck" you have the el motor stb side for the propulsion.

Otherside / opposite side on ps I will make there the foundation for the "buckler crane connected to the bottom to have it secured and then penetration through the deck but all on the side so NOT using the aft deck space. 

In the front as where you have the batteries but as far to the front possible or even split them as I will have space not having the traditional propulsion as my electro motors are vertical placed and can be as far to the back possible.

Sofar I did this calculation with all components I will need and will look later with ref to the "balans" of the ship (forw. or backwards) and most likely need ballast in the vessel.

You say that until now you are on a weight of ca 6-7 kg and I'm afraid that will not be enough to have the ship "stable" in the water, guess ca 10 kg as you calculated previously is more realistic.

But that only can be noticed when it is in the water.

Anyway, weather is here not good so all works to that postponed till next year and doing now other small things in between work and school and also family life.

Anyway, wish you luck to have it all done and until that time,

Have a great time

best regards,

Peter

[George-JK]

Hello All,

A small update, on the buil, today w/o pictures, I apologie for that.

Yesterday I did an electrical testing the the systems, I found a slight problem with the main engines. First they start to vibrate at relatively low RPM, this will require some bracing of the shafts near the engine mounts. this was an expected, but still unwanted event, a piece of balsa wood and glue per shaft will do the trick. And the second problem, which is quite interesting is that during the initial testing the two engines didn't start to run on the same throttle position, however this problem disappeared after more testing. I suspect a combination of the ECS settings and different "resistance to turn" of the two shafts, I will try to improve this by programming the ESCs.

And last problem that was discovered was, that I probably siliconed the stern thruster too well so to speak, meaning I blocked the paddle from turning. For this was an easy fix, since the silicone doesn't bond strongly to either piece the disassembly was easy, I returned to the supplied O-ring and generous amount of grease, the same one as I use in the main shafts.

Today I hope to do a new bath tub test of the water tightness and if the weather allows on Saturday go to Italy to do a sail on one of the Alpine lake here.

 

@Seamanpeter I am also planning to put the DIY LED lighting control unit on top of the battery-pack, however first I have to build it, that will be a challenge.

 

Cheers George