Colin Archer by Frodo - Billing Boats - 1:15

[Frodo]

Hi, I am new to this great forum, where I've been finding a tremendous amount of information about building modelships.

 

I decided to start this Colin Archer build log after about a month into the "Colin Archer expert level project with RC fit" 😅.  
 

In the past I've made about 5-6 boatmodel kits at low - intermediate level (and a bunch airplanes). Eager to get an expert-level kit I bought a Colin Archer (CA) manufactured by Billing Boats with ABS-hull from another member in the forum. I've pfound a lot of inspiration and tips in the threads by Sundt, Arjan, Norwegian Plastic and Geam.

 

The deckframe (strings and beams) were put together fairly well, bending the wood was a brainer that required water and a heating gun.

On the right side is a broken small green speedboat, stolen from my son 😇, it had a 600-engine with a mounting bracket that fitted perfect into the hull.

 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

To lay the deck went as a charm. In  another build log it was suggested to use black permanent marker on the edges of the planks, so did I. There are no space between the planks as I think the nate (fugue) appears realistic enough. It will be interesting to see how it turns out once it is covered in lacquer.

 

 

Its a fun puzzle to lay deck

 

Time to start with the railings.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

The engine fitted spot on, and even came with a water cooling system incl a regulator.

 

2xWindforce 1006MG Sailwinches from Krick (www.krick-modell.de art nr 79073) as depicted in pic nr2 was mounted on a bed. My plan is to wait until the rig and sails are complete to decide where to place them in the hull. I am considering velcro-straps...

Edited March 20, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

The deck color came out quite nice. Golden lacquer gave a fairly "pine-looking" wood. Later, I plan that the wood on details and rigging will be in a darker tone.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Soldering is not my strongest skill, I never seem to figure out the correct heat, and my hands are a little trembling. Making the protection for the windows was a big hazzle, and requires a lot of patience (which I lack...)

 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Some details coming together. 

 

 

I've used the Billing Boats paint, but for the black metaldetails it turns out the Hammerite gives a more rustic/weather-beaten look.

 

PS. I am also trying to figure out why some pictures are rotated when I upload them

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

I will re-paint the rudder and the hull in the same glossy white color. I am not impressed by the hinges for the rudder, think I will re-make something slightly more robust.

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Frodo
Picture edit

[Frodo]

So far. Now it is time to add some more details in the days to come before it is all painted and start with the rig-work.

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Some more detailwork today, lots of bits and pieces coming together in this kit.

 

The ventilationhat was put together.

 

Added the hinges for the hatches. To give them a rustic look I gave them a foundation of black, and then a mix of darkgreen and grey on top before some golden lacquer.

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Hmm, made a stupid mistake. I didnt read the manual carefully and installed the short railendings at the bow of the boat. Not sure if I will correct the mistake….it looks okay anyway…

 

The wrong railend…

 

The correct railend…🥴

Edited March 24, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Some more detail and fittings tonight…

The lanterns painted with copper and then brushed. Railpoles and -lines are installed. 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

The "ropeladder" is coming in place. Using CA-glue on each knot. 

Only the right side of the boat will have a "ropeladder".

 

 

 

[Frodo]

The bow is almost complete, and ready for paintjob as the rest of the hull.

Shackle at end of wire is made of "lead steel", which is easy to work with and robust enough to hold the bowspear.

 

Bowspear, 1,5mm stainless steel wire. Currently it is soldered and covered with shrinktube, plan to cover it with a rope.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Since the rig is tightened with 1,5mm stainless steel wire, I decided to make the tensioners 12mm longer than what the buildinstructions depicted. I'm hoping that this will give me the possibility to tighten the forestay before it goes sailing in summertime. (Current buildtemperature is around 5 Celsius, and I expect the rig to slack a bit at 20-30 Celsius). 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

PS. Another way to rotate pictures:

-Download Gimp (free).

-Open the picture in Gimp, (Gimp will normally ask automatically to rotate) edit as required.

-Export and save as .png file.

-Upload in forumthread.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Frodo
Grammar

[Frodo]

Tonight I prepared 6kg of lead and a boxshaped form. The plan is to make about 1cm thick rectangular plates. 

Never tried to melt lead before, but I've been watching some YouTube videos... to be continued 😁

[Geam]

On 3/19/2022 at 10:35 PM, Frodo said:

I will re-paint the rudder and the hull in the same glossy white color. I am not impressed by the hinges for the rudder, think I will re-make something slightly more robust.

 

 

Hi Frodo, nice to see all of your build photos. I also replaced my kit hinges -with Robart 'hinge points' -as used in model aircraft. I kept the brass straps on the hull, but cut off the pintles (hinge parts) and installed the Robarts . Result was non-sloppy hinges. I had previously mounted the brass straps the wrong way ie. the rudder straps were BELOW the hull straps instead of above them, but chose not to change this fault as it's not very noticeable. 

George 

[Frodo]

Hi George,

thanks for a great tips. I think I do as you suggested 👍. I know there can be quite som pressure on the hinges when sailing, and if the soldering snaps it will be trouble 😉

Edited April 9, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

So this morning I started with the meltdown... after 10 minutes I lost my patience and looked for another solution.

 

Instead of melting the leadblocks I could easily shape them to fit into the keel. Luckily I didnt have to do much adjustment.

 

With some duct tape 2 halves are put together ~ 1kg.

 

 

Approx 6 kg of lead in the keel. 4x0,5 kg can be moved around and are attached with heavy duty Velcro. I don't want to have a sealed lead solution in case I get water in the keel and have to remove them.

 

Next step will most likely be to install the servos and some of the RC-stuff

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Frodo

[Geam]

On 4/9/2022 at 9:59 AM, Frodo said:

Hi George,

thanks for a great tips. I think I do as you suggested 👍. I know there can be quite som pressure on the hinges when sailing, and if the soldering snaps it will be trouble 😉

Hi again, I wanted Robart MEDIUM size 'hinge points' but my shop only had LARGE. So I filed the plastic pegs down a bit to avoid making too big a hole in the rudder blade (weakenng the sides). Advantage was that the METAL hinge pins were then the larger (stronger) size. The medium size would probably be strong enough though. Were are not expecting high speed sailing here!

George

[Frodo]

12 hours ago, Geam said:

Hi again, I wanted Robart MEDIUM size 'hinge points' but my shop only had LARGE. So I filed the plastic pegs down a bit to avoid making too big a hole in the rudder blade (weakenng the sides). Advantage was that the METAL hinge pins were then the larger (stronger) size. The medium size would probably be strong enough though. Were are not expecting high speed sailing here!

George

Thanks for headsup on size. High speed sailing it is 😁

[Frodo]

Some minor progress today.

Covered the "wireloops" with rope (I'm using 1mm Black Cordline). Looks fairly ok I guess.

 

Also bought an simulated LED system for RC-planes which should do the "lightjob" on the boat.

I plan to use two white lights in the salon...maybe. It would be nice to have one of them for an aft lantern also...

 

The red and green are installed inside the lanterns... For some odd reason the lanterncasing is hovering 0,5mm in the air, I believe this is due to the glue swells when it dries... need to cover that gap with a detail.

The black and red wire (-/+) are  wrapped in 1mm black cordline, so It blends in ok without showing the electrical wires.

 

I also made an "RC-baseplate", the plan is to attach it with heavy duty Velcro on in the hull so it can be removed if required (the lead is underneath).

Battery, receiver, LED-control, escalator with watercooling and steeringservo will sit on top of "RC-baseplate".

The steeringservo is placed in a rack 40mm above the "RC-baseplate" so it is in-line with the ruddercontrol.

 

Guess I will make a 1:100ish interior/salon while I am waiting for the temperature outside to increase so I can paint the boat one day 😏

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Frodo

[Geam]

1:100-ish??  Not 1:15-ish?  

[Frodo]

Hehe, 1:100 ish... could be closer to 1:15, Im just improvising some interior - Not as nice as the salon you are making Geam 🙂

 

I'm trying to build a "salonbox" above the "RC-baseplate". 

 

Making the walls from a piece of spruce:

 

Wall:

 

Floor:

 

Floor is nated and will be painted/oiled later. Plan is to make some furnitures, a restroom etc in there as well. The "salonbox" is 50mm deep, and will be attached to the mainhatch (deck).

 

Just made a small ladder to see if it will work. I haven't glued the structures to the deck, might use some magnets to make them removable so one could peek into the "salonbox".

 

 

Edited April 12, 2022 by Frodo

[Geam]

Hi Frodo, I like your look-alike interior plan. Looks very good so far. More sensible than mine. Mine was unecessarily complicated and took me such a long time to work out how to do it and still have access to servos and RC gear. You build really fast, I'm impressed.  Might be some painting-temperatures during the next days. 

God Påske! / Happy Easter!

George

[Frodo]

On 4/15/2022 at 8:11 AM, Geam said:

Hi Frodo, I like your look-alike interior plan. Looks very good so far. More sensible than mine. Mine was unecessarily complicated and took me such a long time to work out how to do it and still have access to servos and RC gear. You build really fast, I'm impressed.  Might be some painting-temperatures during the next days. 

God Påske! / Happy Easter!

George

Hi, yours seemed to advanced for me, however I must say your "cabin solution" is fantastic.

Happy Easter

[Frodo]

Here is an update on the Colin Archer build. 

Not much going on with the boat itself. I've ordered some ropes from Syren to complete the rig. They should arrive in approx. 3 weeks.

 

However, I've more or less done the "look-alike-interior" "salon/cabin-box".

Mostly build from scrap and leftovers from building the boat itself. The interior is not real-scale. But I had great fun making it  (…and that's the main thing after all)

 

The "black box", that will stand on a rack or in ropes below the removable deck, and "hover/hang" above the RC-baseplate as shown in previous posts:

Removed structures:

I will install some LED lights in the cabin later.

Removed deck:

The box is 50mm deep, 175mm wide, 255mm long.

I wanted the floor to look "worn and torn", so I added some oil stains, then painted with grey and sanded with 180 paper, and at last covered in clear lacquer.

Dining area with heating-oven:

Its not a dishwasher, its the door to the restroom with a large mirror on the door

Cooking-oven:

Seamap on the wall next to heating-oven:

PS. Dont tell my spouse I stole some handtowels to make linen and floor mats...

Edited April 16, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

Finally we had a couple of days with sun and warm weather, and I could go ahead with the paintjob.

Decided to go with black antifouling below the waterline. (Sorry for sunglare 🌞, will take some pictures later which is better)

A minor mistake with the brush on the redline which will be corrected.

The rudderhinge is still a mess, think I will change to pin-hinge.

Does anyone know how to attach these "stickers" on the hull?

With heat or water? No clue. Maybe they are broken.

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by Frodo

[Frodo]

I've been working on the sails for a couple of days.

The edges were folded and glued, however I decided to put a 1mm white cordline inside each fold/edge. Hopefully this will contribute to a more neat sail. Some of the excessive cordlines (white) may be used to make "loops" for clew/tackle points.

Also made reinforcements at the sailcorners.

Next step is to sow all the edges and whitelines... (I will not dismantle each panel, and Im not sure if its suppose to be done either)

The "red ring" is made with Billing Boats Acryl and reacted to the adhesive from UHU. Needs to be re-painted once the glue has dried...

Edited April 20, 2022 by Frodo

[Geam]

Hi Frodo, in my kit the 'Colin Archer' name looks like it' a transfer. ie. soak in 37*C water. I have not tried it yet but thought I would try the "TR 141" bit to see what happens. The background paper in my kit is a light yellow-green colour due to it's age!

 

On another matter, have you noticed the part number 54? there's 2 of them. Called 'Mast Hoop'. The plan drawing shows ONE at the base of the mizzen mast. The part 41 is also called a 'Mast Hoop' This is at the base of the main mast.

 

I have not seen part 54 in place at the foot of the Mizzen mast on any model RS1 and I cannot see it at the mast foot on photos of the original RS1.  

 

I wonder if they are intended to be fitted as support rings above and below where the mizzen passes through the mizzen mast support plank, part 35?? The mizzen is secured on the sole of the cockpit/steering well, so I cannot see why it needs TWO support rings at part 35. 

 

Any ideas?

 

George