HMS Lion by Ian_Grant - 1/150 - RADIO - RESTORATION - WW1 Battlecruiser

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I don't think I'd say it's 'out-of-range' but it depends on what you prefer and how much work it would be to try to lighten it.

[KeithAug]

Im not quite getting your worries about the deck darkness but your eyes are the ones seeing the real thing. Can the darkness be washed out with solvent?

[Keith Black]

 Ian, it does appear to be too dark. How difficult would it be to lighten? 

[Ian_Grant]

4 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 Ian, it does appear to be too dark. How difficult would it be to lighten? 

Today I bought a Vallejo wash "Desert Sand" and have applied it three times. It adds a yellowish tone and is making a difference. It looks pretty good to me now but in the morning I'll probably apply the wash a 4th time. It only needs 20 min to dry, 40 min to recoat. I bitterly regret, though, applying that dark wash just because it was in stock at the local store. The really foolish thing is that yesterday I forgot my reading glasses so I could barely see the labels thus I missed the Vallejo washes entirely; there are just a few wash colours at the bottom of the Vallejo paint rack and their labels don't really differentiate them from regular paint colours. 😞

Edited March 14 by Ian_Grant

[Keith Black]

 Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. I have done almost the exact same thing. Ian. 

[Ian_Grant]

I got up the morning after my last post, walked downstairs, and my immediate reaction to the deck was,"God it's awful!".

 

I bought some "white spirit" and wiped down the decks with it thus removing all the yellowish tones and most of the dark brown. The laser-etched planking once again became readily visible. Whew! I was left with a faint, weird "greenish tone" in places. Don't know where that came from; seemed to be highlighting the grain of the surface ply even though I had four coats of clear-coat on it, somehow.

 

So I used the "desert sand" wash one more time, then a wash with "white" and I like the decks a lot now. They have received three coats of  exterior satin water-based varnish. I know, it should be matte, but I can't find an exterior matte clear-coat.

 

Here's a pic showing part of the decking, and also the interior "walls" of the aft superstructure which will be visible since there is a large well deck here. Teenaged me missed the fact that it was open; I don't blame me because it is not obvious in the single sheet plan and top view drawing. Rather, it is shown only in one of the cross sections in the lines drawing which I probably rolled up and ignored after making the hull.

Incidentally, I'm not sure what the secondary armament looked like in the aft well deck. Norman didn't show casemates for them (like the upper pair in the forward SS) but if they were open the crews could all be killed if a single shell landed in the well deck I would think. I decided to add casemates partly because they're not conspicuous when viewing the ship from outside, and partly because I didn't want to have to construct the gun breeches in the absence of casemates. Close enough for RC. 😏

 

I'm now working on printing weather deck fittings.

 

From left:

 - breakwater for the foredeck.

- top left, engine room vents for the aft well deck, "closed" and "some open" options.

- below left, twin searchlights; printed housing and base, brass rod.

- printed bollards and cleats.

- printed skylight covers, all closed. Thinking of making a couple with steel covers open.

-various printed hatches for the weather deck

I'm thinking of starting to paint the hull tomorrow. That would be a giant leap ahead for sure.

 

Incidentally, does anyone know if these ships had some sort of mechanical semaphores for visibility? My drawings show items labelled "semaphore" in four places in the forward superstructure (two at back corners of the shelter deck, two on the flag deck above). They aren't shown in detail but they could be a mechanism with the arms folded down, not in use. Or are they just big signal lights to flash Morse, not related really to a man manipulating two tiny flags?? Can't find anything about it in what books I have, or by a brief google search. 

 

Here's a pic or two:

1) Showing a semaphore placed in the corner.

2) See the four of them in this section view. They're a good 10 ft tall, whatever they are. They look more like lights here.

 

 

 

Edited March 18 by Ian_Grant

[Keith Black]

 The deck looks much better, Ian. 👍

[Ian_Grant]

I ran across this article on dazzle paint in WWI. I added a topic in "Nautical/Naval History" but thought I'd mention it here for those who don't commonly browse that forum.

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Making slow progress.

 

Painted the red u/w hull and grey above; yet to add the wide black bootstripe. Kind of washed out in this pic. Note, I'm again having second thoughts about the grey colour thinking it is too pale. Need to decide before I assemble bridge structure which would be impossible to repaint afterwards.

Speaking of the bridge structure:

 

Lowest brown deck is the forward shelter deck.

- Above that is the flag deck; navigating officer' cabin, flag lockers at back. I intend to terminate the signal halyards from aloft on the rail attached to them. Note the stanchions.

- Next up is the sea cabin platform, with captain's and admiral's sea cabins and two twin 24" searchlights.

- Above that is the chart house platform with (obviously) chart house and another pair of searchlights.

= On top we have the compass platform, magnetic compass, gyro compass, chart table, range finder (all to be added).

 

This is all just dry assembled with the foremast passing through holes in all the decks.

Note also my 3D printer representation of "kapok" anti-splinter matting attached to the railings of the platforms.

 

Boy the camera hides nothing; looks better to the eye.

I've spent lots of time this week working on the funnels. Deceptively simple looking but I was many hours in CAD drawing the three individual sizes, two different-sized ovals and one round. Each funnel consists of seven pieces which "click lock" at positions hidden by the horizontal

bands. Nothing is glued together yet. They're all hollow to give the possibility of running pipes up them from a "steam" generator.

Boiler room ventilation hatches at base of main stack.

Some of the engine room ventilation hatches at base of rear stack.

Pieces require to build the forward, round, funnel. The second piece, the lower flange, was especially problematic to draw, with the continuously changing bevel radius in the forward half. I tried making it with various attempts at truncated, tilted cones but could never get it right. I ended up drawing a series of narrow wedges rotated in two degree increments which worked out in the end. Since then I've realized I could probably have done it by stretching a cone out to an elliptical base  and adjusting base size, and height, to suit. Probably would work; never thought of it as I was trying to do it with tilted but circular cones.🙄

Previous versions of parts rejected at revisions of files.

Edited April 11 by Ian_Grant

[Glen McGuire]

1 hour ago, Ian_Grant said:

Note, I'm again having second thoughts about the grey colour thinking it is too pale.

Good to see you back at work on this beauty, Ian.  I know true colors don't always show in pictures, but based on the second picture of this post, I agree that a somewhat darker shade of gray would look better against the red.

[Keith Black]

 Very well done, Ian. 3D printed parts are such a plus especially when you can do them yourself. 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

4 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

lower flange, was especially problematic to draw

Are you still using TinkerCAD? In F360 (and, I imagine most of CAD packages) you’d quickly loft this. 
 

It looks like you’ve already become very adept at 3D Ian. The scraps photo made me smile. I bet we all have a big box like that somewhere in the workshop!

[Ian_Grant]

Actually those were only funnel scraps. There is lots of other scrap, including on the floor of the model room. I wonder about their future; I'll toss them and they'll end up in a landfill. Am I generating future microplastic particles?

 

Yes, still TinkerCAD. I think I will stick with it as I have no ambitions to loft a hull or something similar.

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

I stuck with it all the way until I just couldn't do what I wanted any more. Every so often I have reason to go back into my TinkerCAD account, usually to retrieve something I made for gardening or DIY, and I'm surprised at just how much you can do with it. 

[Ian_Grant]

And now we take a brief break from the build for some humour. Today's topic, and I know this will be appreciated by Keith and Glen, is the penguins of the Heard and Mcdonald Islands.

 

Here are a few pics.

 

[Keith Black]

 Priceless. 

[Glen McGuire]

Nice, Ian!  I found a video of what I'm pretty sure is a Texas penguin.  He walks on ice and snow about as well as we drive on ice and snow down here!

 

 https://youtube.com/shorts/n9Fw2xrlszA?si=AXD9M3g5MM3Y-KTg

 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Glen's video reminded me of this National Geographic footage from earlier on.  Continuing the digression, but hey, it's my build log.

 

 

[ddp]

more penguin video. 

 

[Ian_Grant]

Masked everything off and applied a darker grey. I'm a much happier camper now. Here the funnels, in various stages of priming/painting, are just sat on minus their lower flanges except the fore. They need more detailing (drilling for steam vent pipe supports) which is easier done off the ship. I had to print a new fore funnel after noticing that the cap did not quite click-in when I glued it and was thus a little bit crooked.

 

Still need to put darker grey on the flag deck and bridge tower parts.

 

The grey is actually slightly darker than it appears here.

 

 

Edited April 15 by Ian_Grant

[Keith Black]

The darker gray looks much better, Ian. 👍

[Ian_Grant]

Been a while since I posted. A giant overnight wind blew over part of my fence, and part of my neighbours. I don't mind putting fences together, but I hate digging to reset posts. 🙄

 

I had a major re-think about the electronics. I was unable to find an ESC from an esteemed manufacturer which would happily run on a 6V lead-acid battery to run my 70's decaperm motors. Members of my RC club recommended the Quicrun 1060 ESC but they all operate on 12V. I decided to bite the bullet and buy a pair of new 12V brushed motors to use with the 1060, one per motor. These motors come with planetary gear reduction with many available ratios. The company specs the motor's rpm and torque; using this data I selected 5:1 reduction which should give me the same max propeller revs as the Decaperms.

 

I selected the 5:1 version from this family:

 

https://www.mfacomodrills.com/pdfs/942D-series.pdf

 

I will be acquiring a pair of theseESCs, driven from the Receiver via a y-harness:

 

https://www.hobbywingdirect.com/products/quicrun-10-brushed-esc

 

The water is back in at my club's pond so weekly meets started this week! Summer has caught me with Lion still not ready to get wet so I'm trying to get more done. When I have the propulsion system in I will go to the pond meets and add details as the summer progresses. One large question is how I am going to make all the ship's boats and the two steam launches.......🤔

 

Here are some pics of the funnels with the "cages" on top, made from 1/32" brass rod, which support canvas covers when boilers are drawn. I printed some jigs to bend them consistently but even so it was a bit of a pain. Cages will be painted black.

Also added two copper steam pipes at the fore funnel. These are the simplest; no bends. The other six steam pipes on the main/after funnels require bending for which I will print some jigs. These will be painted grey.

 

Also printed hawsehole covers, main windlass, anchors (with pivoting shafts), and anchor winches. Started to plan how to place them but it's been days since I looked at this aspect of the build. Looking at the pic, I see I will have to sand the little ridges off the flukes to improve their appearance. Also, I noticed during this that teenage Ian made a mistake on the hawseholes - there should be a pair up front then a single behind the starboard one, i.e. the port hawsehole should have been even with the forward starboard one. Too bad I didn't notice this before I added the laser-etched deck. I am not going to attempt to correct this now.

 

Edited Monday at 04:55 AM by Ian_Grant

[Glen McGuire]

I give you a thumbs up even though I haven't got a clue what you were talking about that entire 2nd paragraph!!  

[Ian_Grant]

Hi Glen; yes RC has its own "techie" jargon.

 

"ESC" = "Electronic Speed Control".  They have two wires input from battery; two wires output to motor; and a plug-in connection to the RC Receiver on whichever channel you select as "throttle". Move the Transmitter's stick and the ESC varies the voltage to the motor.

[ddp]

are all the boats the same or different & same goes for the launches? do you have plans/drawings for the boats & launches?

[Keith Black]

 The funnels turned out fantastic, Ian. 

[Ian_Grant]

8 hours ago, ddp said:

are all the boats the same or different & same goes for the launches? do you have plans/drawings for the boats & launches?

The boats vary in size. All my drawings show is dotted outlines in the top view with notes as to length/type. Many are stored between the fore and main funnels, some in stacks of three, sheltered from Q turret by the blast shields. The well deck in the aft superstructure contains larger boats like the admiral's barge and the pair of identical steam launches, as here:

In a wild coincidence, a chap contacted our model boat club last month, offering his father's old drawings of various things among which was plans for the Royal Navy steam launch circa 1915!  I contacted him tho we're yet to meet for an exchange.

 

As for the other boats, I'm hoping to find 3D files of generic boats with/without flat sterns and print their hulls suitably scaled for the various sizes. Then I'll have to add seats at the correct scale.

 

My drawing doesn't show any inflatables but I have photos of them in such places as attached to the blast shields by Q turret!

Edited Monday at 12:27 PM by Ian_Grant

[NavyShooter]

I came across this site a while back talking about WW2 Royal Navy Ship's boats:

 

Royal Navy Ship’s Boats of WWII – On The Slipway

 

And, if you're looking for some minimally detailed ship's launches, here's a site that may help:  (you may have to sign up for this forum to access them though)

 

RN Steam Launches | R/C Warship Combat

 

Ship's boats and liferafts | R/C Warship Combat

 

[Ian_Grant]

4 hours ago, NavyShooter said:

I came across this site a while back talking about WW2 Royal Navy Ship's boats:

 

Royal Navy Ship’s Boats of WWII – On The Slipway

 

And, if you're looking for some minimally detailed ship's launches, here's a site that may help:  (you may have to sign up for this forum to access them though)

 

RN Steam Launches | R/C Warship Combat

 

Ship's boats and liferafts | R/C Warship Combat

 

Wow!! Thanks for the great tip! They have three designs for the steam launches; 40ft, 45ft, 51ft. I picked the 45ft because I think it's the prettiest plus I only needed to scale it down by 7% (to 3-3/4" long) to be the size needed. Incidentally, I see my drawing calls them "Steam Picket Launches".

 

Here are pics of one sitting on the build plate, and in situ. The funnel and vents didn't come out too well but I can replace them. I'll need to cut off the circular pads at bow and stern; stern might be tricky as the rudder looks pretty fragile. Need I gimp up a prop somehow.....??

 

There will be another on the opposite side of the engine room vent hatches. There will also be a pair of large launches outboard of the steam pickets.

 

 

[Kevin-the-lubber]

That's really not bad at all for FDM printing, is it. I'd also chop off the funnels and do them separately - you can probably do that in the slicer.

 

Ian, can I pick your brains a little about motors, as you seem to know a sight more than me about these. I'm making various simple machines for other arty projects and one of these is a roller machine, that is quite similar to a rock tumbler. I could just buy a rock tumbler but I like solving puzzles and making stuff, besides which I can make everything apart from the motor. I've used a small, cheap, 220V  synchronous 5 rpm motor for proof of concept, it does the job but gets very hot after 30 mins continuous use. I need something that can run for hours, maybe even days. It also reverses direction at will, there must be some kind of internal counter that determines that this time it'll be clockwise, next time anti. Ideally I'd have control over that and even more ideally, I'd be able to control the speed via electronics rather than gears. Any suggestions, pointers?