Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Beginners start here...! => Topic started by: Tinny on January 23, 2018, 12:57:37 am
-
This is my first model boat. It is a wooden 1/50 fishing/trawler type. A kit from China.
It is going to be symmetrical (I hope) because I ordered two kits and will join two bow sections. The plan is to have a boat, in a diorama, which will travel up and down a section of river water. The does not turn around, so it must not look as if the boat is reversing back along the river.
Here is an Internet picture of the completed boat. I photo edited to see what it might look like with two bow sections.
Bottom photo shows how I received the package and what was inside it.
(https://i.imgur.com/CAMNLtt.jpg)
-
I cut the two keels and decks in half and use scrap template wood for joiners.
I used heavy glass items to apply pressure, and the glue does not stick to glass.
The bottom photo is just to see what it might look like.
(https://i.imgur.com/L521iPo.jpg)
-
That's a neat solution to a "diorama dilemma" - nice one :-)
...oh, and a warm welcome to the Forum :-))
Regards,
Ray.
-
Welcome :-))
I can think of another solution for dioramas, that may or may not work here. Sorry if I am telling anyone how to suck eggs.
If you have something that only travels from left to right and right to left again, you can still turn a boat. Have a piece of string/line attached to the traveler, with the other end attached to the keel of the boat, towards the front, with some slack in it. The string will pull the boat, and the boat will turn on its own.
Just a thought that entered my head.
-
and the boat will turn on its own.
Always assuming the 'waterway' is wide enough to allow the turn.
-
and the boat will turn on its own.
Always assuming the 'waterway' is wide enough to allow the turn.
Granted :-)
-
Many years back, for our Model Railway Club annual exhibition, we cannibalised a section of an old layout for a window display in a local shop. A GWR railcar ran across a viaduct, and off stage, then ran back again. This set up ran 16 hours a day 7 days a week for three weeks. Each day I changed the railcar (we had two) and serviced the other. No bother with turning around, both railcars were double ended. An electronic counter kept a tally of the number of "trips" and after the exhibition I sold them both. "Mint condition, carefully run in, regularly serviced, only 44 miles on the clock."
-
That's a neat solution to a "diorama dilemma" - nice one :-)
...oh, and a warm welcome to the Forum :-))
Regards,
Ray.
Thanks Ray for welcome.
-
Welcome :-))
I can think of another solution for dioramas, that may or may not work here. Sorry if I am telling anyone how to suck eggs.
If you have something that only travels from left to right and right to left again, you can still turn a boat. Have a piece of string/line attached to the traveler, with the other end attached to the keel of the boat, towards the front, with some slack in it. The string will pull the boat, and the boat will turn on its own.
Just a thought that entered my head.
Thanks tigertiger for welcome.
That is an interesting thought. There is enough room for the boat to 'rotate'. But since I now have a symmetrical boat frame, I'll keep following this line of construction.
-
Many years back, for our Model Railway Club annual exhibition, we cannibalised a section of an old layout for a window display in a local shop. A GWR railcar ran across a viaduct, and off stage, then ran back again. This set up ran 16 hours a day 7 days a week for three weeks. Each day I changed the railcar (we had two) and serviced the other. No bother with turning around, both railcars were double ended. An electronic counter kept a tally of the number of "trips" and after the exhibition I sold them both. "Mint condition, carefully run in, regularly serviced, only 44 miles on the clock."
This boat will have to work whenever somebody wishes to operate the working diorama, which is a lift-span bridge. The boat traverses under the raised bridge. Upon the next bridge operation the boat goes back under the bridge. The whole display is for the Ballina Maritime Museum, Australia. So I am hoping that this display of working parts will operate for many years to come. I know that one day it will cease to operate and nobody around to fix it. On that day the display will no longer rely on its working parts for its attraction. I am aware of this while building the diorama. I am putting as much creative effort as I can in the hope that it will be able to stand on its own as an attractive display when static.
-
I decided to raise the deck a little by adding some wood between bulkheads and deck. The reason is to have a straighter angle between hull and water (by raising the water line (so-to-speak). This will make it easier to separate the boat from its flat base. To explain further: the boat will be attached to a vane which passes through the display table. A pulley system, under the table, will move the vane along a 3 mm gap (slot) in the display table (river portion of the diorama). The boat needs to come off its waterline plate for any repairs to its navigational lighting.
(https://i.imgur.com/tDxrTiR.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/cYmrA83.jpg)
-
I was gonna say, if it's a back and forth movement you require perhaps look at model rail gear. "Auto reverser" modules like "Heathcote" work day on day for eons on DC track and can be mixed with other controls. If you can hide a pair of OO or N gauge rails buried in there and perhaps something like a stripped out Kato locomotive body in the hull, the control of that is potentially very cheap, simple and reliable. Kato is very good quality compred to others -and being Japanese potentially allot cheaper for you. Tomix do mechanisms also and are also very good quality.
Cheers,
Rich
...late thought if you truly want nothing mech showing then there is a system which uses a plastic gear chain with magnets mounted on it. This appeared i model rail circles pat 1 or 2 years. The magnets pull on anything corresponding top-side. Should be easy-enough to find on the web or replicate otherwise?
-
:-)) Thanks Rich.
Sounds like a good idea with the railway system. Will give it a go if what I have already planned and half built does not work, or fails to be reliable.
-
By the way, all two instruction sheets had minimal writing and all in Chinese. So I had to simply go by the pictures. Even the pictures did not show all the available parts. So I researched on the Internet what these boats actually looked like. From this I also decided to add extra bits to the boat as well.
Planking seemed too much tension required to just pin it down and then rely on the bonding strength of PVA glue to keep it from unspringing. So I Googled about planking model wooden boats. Very interesting info. I learnt a lot. But I was not prepared to buy a planking iron. Then I saw an image for a DIY iron via a tea-candle and a tin can. I laughed, because I use such a device in winter to keep my cup of coffee hot in the garage. So I used that, and it worked wonders in shaping the planking strips.
(https://i.imgur.com/NK3hRt2.jpg)
-
Hi tinny, can you let me know where the kit came from? It looks quite a neat kit. Great tip on planking wood bending!
regards Roy
-
I cannot see the picture of the plank bender method too well Tinny. Is the plank fixed to the can?
-
Hi tinny, can you let me know where the kit came from? It looks quite a neat kit. Great tip on planking wood bending!
regards Roy
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DIY-Kits-1-50-Scale-Wooden-Sailing-Boat-Model-Ship-Assembly-Building-Educational-/352181639869
-
I cannot see the picture of the plank bender method too well Tinny. Is the plank fixed to the can?
See photo top right. The upper plank is just resting on tin can for the snap shot.
The tin can gets very hot within seconds, so don't touch the can or you will get burnt!
What I do is place the flat piece of planking on top of curvature of tin can (Tin can is clamped to table). Then I use a screwdriver blade edge to hold down the end of the plank at the top and slowly pull down the planking strip and wrap it around the curvature and keep it there for a few seconds. The plank is then curved. You can curve the plank to basically follow the shape of the hull. The whole idea, as far as I know, is to minimize stress on the planking when gluing into place.
-
Thanks :-))
-
Thanks Tinny, I checked it out but at 10 inches a little too small, I was looking for a little one about 18 inches long. It is still a bargain at about £7. Perhaps they only sell to Australia? Where abouts are you Tinny? I shall be near Sydney from mid Feb for a month.
regards Roy
-
Thanks Tinny, I checked it out but at 10 inches a little too small, I was looking for a little one about 18 inches long. It is still a bargain at about £7. Perhaps they only sell to Australia? Where abouts are you Tinny? I shall be near Sydney from mid Feb for a month.
regards Roy
I am from Ballina, NSW. 800 km north of Sydney, 30 km south of Byron Bay.
-
Hi tinny I am visiting Woy Woy to stay with my son, hoping for an early summer! Bit of full size sailing etc.
regards Roy
-
Hi tinny I am visiting Woy Woy to stay with my son, hoping for an early summer! Bit of full size sailing etc.
regards Roy
I believe that is a nice location. I hope you will have a safe (sailing) and pleasant time with your son.
-
Since the boat needs to appear to be in water I do not have to plank the whole hull. So I figured where I thought the waterline will be and marked the bulkhead edges around the boat. Then attached a plank along the waterline.
I discovered that the best method was to trim the planks so they will be evenly spaced at each bulkhead. But that seemed too much work considering the boat will be painted and the planking will no longer be seen. Instead I just added planking top and bottom and then trimmed planks to fit the triangular gaps.
(https://i.imgur.com/wm2wTdb.jpg)
You know, I enjoyed doing the planking. I can see the attraction to building wooden boats, even scratch-building them. I might take this up as a hobby after the diorama project.
-
Sandpapered the hull to take out the plank edges.
Then used a hacksaw to cut the boat in half. I cut just past the waterline so I got some bulkhead to sand down.
(https://i.imgur.com/gYNpwgG.jpg)
-
Already had plastic figurines painted for the diorama (1/72 scale).
You may have noticed two of them in above post (Upstream Captain and Downstream Captain).
(https://i.imgur.com/2GXSe9s.jpg)
One of the things I am adding to the boat is navigational lights. There will be two sets, for up and down stream. Leads were attached to 3 mm LEDs.
I only shielded one LED lead to stop shorting. The black mark on grey wire is to let me know which one is LED Cathode terminal.
(https://i.imgur.com/RIygLDW.jpg)
-
(https://i.imgur.com/iUarZLK.jpg)
-
Used a coffee tin lid to make four navigation light hoods on top of cabins.
I painted the inside silver, but I think it would have been better to paint a clear gloss instead.
(https://i.imgur.com/BBOXY8m.jpg)
-
I have seen the insides painted in their respective colors (port red, starboard green) to help visibility over distance.
-
I have seen the insides painted in their respective colors (port red, starboard green) to help visibility over distance.
Thank you for that interesting bit of information. I'll remember that for my next boat. Yes, I said next boat...I'm getting interested in building boats at the moment.
I was tempted to repaint them as you suggested, then I held back. It would become confusing for the observer to see a boat with both red and green hoods on the same side. Since the boat does not turn around, the up stream cabin gets replaced with the downstream cabin. So port side gets swapped over. So L'll keep it silver colour (neutral so to speak). The LEDs I am using are clear until energized and then their colour is revealed.
-
Are you using clear or frosted LEDs. Frosted diffuse the light better, as most light will shine upwards. I have frosted LEDs manually with abrasive paper to good effect. If you have a spare LED, you could try frosting one to see if you like the effect.
I have also seen an LED that has been capped (so to speak). The top was sanded off square to the sides, then the sanded area painted white to reflect internally, and finally the area was painted black to stop light leaking out and spoiling the effect.
-
You can get dual colour LED's. ie: light red or green. Used a lot in applications like indicators for battery chargers. That way your navigation lights could just switch over as your boat starts to make it's return trip on the diorama.
-
You can get dual colour LED's. ie: light red or green. Used a lot in applications like indicators for battery chargers. That way your navigation lights could just switch over as your boat starts to make it's return trip on the diorama.
Thanks Bob. That was my original idea, and even ordered them in. But then I realized that I had two wheelhouse cabins with a dropped section in between them. To use bi-coloured LEDs would require them to be in the centre of the boat, in the dropped section. Also, the light hoods back plate would need to be taken away. As a result they will be seen equally as bright either up or down stream, which is an added confusion. The red and green lights are supposed to be forward in location as well as in beam direction. So I opted to use two sets of nav lights.
-
The kit had cut-outs for a winch without drum or drive. So I made up my own. I used string for rope (had no chain).
Glued a sitting man on a piece of wood, as if on a box.
(https://i.imgur.com/q8SjsAU.jpg)
Unraveled some string to make the deck-hand look like he is splicing the rope.
Used coloured ink to darken doors and cabin roofs. Then a coat of clear satin enamel.
Snipped some copper wire and clued to doors for hinges.
Painted some larger rings to look like tyres for hull bumpers. And painted some other bits.
(https://i.imgur.com/zKDXW82.jpg)
Early last December, when I ordered the kits, I weighted some string over my spare door in the hope of pre-stretching it.
Hope it will work. I don't want the rigging to sag after awhile.
(https://i.imgur.com/yvJdn0z.jpg)
Last night I added the gunwale. Today added some wood putty here and there, then gave the whole hull a better sanding down.
Somehow I was going to attach the rigging to the bow/stern ends of boat, and have the rigging come down from the mast.
So I used a paper clip to make a few eyelets. Drilled and super-glued them into place.
(https://i.imgur.com/qfNaJpS.jpg)
-
Hi Tinny, do you run your rigging cord through a piece of beeswax to get rid of stray hairs?
regards Roy
-
Hi Tinny, do you run your rigging cord through a piece of beeswax to get rid of stray hairs?
regards Roy
No, I am new to boat building. This is my first boat. But if that is what one does then I will do so too. Thanks for tip.
-
Mast light.
(https://i.imgur.com/PxJtS6J.jpg)
Hand railing on cabin roof.
(https://i.imgur.com/n9219rN.jpg)
-
You mentioned sagging rigging. One way round this problem is to use wire instead of string.
-
....or perhaps shirring elastic O0
Regards,
Ray.
-
I like the detailing Tinny. I keep forgetting how versatile paper clips are and the differant wire sizes you can get them in. The idea of painting the leads to the mast LED is great, it makes them look like conduits!
-
Thanks tigertiger, Ray, and ballastanksian for great ideas and compliments.
If the rigging does stretch, I will surely try your suggestions. I also plan to us a slip knot at one end of the string. Hoping beeswax (as suggested earlier) will keep the humidity out.
-
Added LEDs to the cabin roofs, painted the railings and added life preservers.
The wood for forward cabin wall was too thin to keep out the LED cabin lighting. I added a blackened card, with aluminium foil on the other side, to block and spread the light within the cab.
(https://i.imgur.com/lpke3xY.jpg)
-
Hoping beeswax (as suggested earlier) will keep the humidity out.
You can also use saddle soap for this - also, if the string is multi-stranded, pull it through the wax slowly, twisting the string as you go. :-))
Regards,
Ray.
-
You can also use saddle soap for this - also, if the string is multi-stranded, pull it through the wax slowly, twisting the string as you go. :-))
Regards,
Ray.
Thanks Ray for the tip.
-
Added some sort of signal light (came with kit), and the nav light hoods.
Made stern light hoods and a radar unit.
(https://i.imgur.com/idlDdJA.jpg)
-
All progressing well Peter :-))...some of the older Manley Ferries had navigation light switching problems when running ahead/astern ...and usually on a rain swept rainy evening >>:-(
So I am sure you will be able to interlock the appropriate navigation lighting for direction of run, however the Navigation lighting rules for beam & ahead are rather strict.......
The example below will highlight the needs.............
Derek
-
Thank you Derek. They are strict these days. I am hoping that the visitors will be too busy with playing bridge to notice the difference in angle. From what I gather, most visitors won't know and won't care. It is only guys like us who will notice it. So I hope you won't mind if I do not change the hoods. ok2
-
(https://i.imgur.com/9TO2zZX.jpg)
-
(https://i.imgur.com/uDGNDM8.jpg)
-
The name of the boat will be "BINGAL", the original town name for Wardell, the diorama location.
It rhymes a little bit with 'bingle' (collision). The boat, in a way , is a collision of two bows. Also to add a bit of drama, a deck hand has a bingle with the loop of rope on the deck.
I used one plastic figure and amputated two arms and a leg. Re-attached them differently to look as if falling.
(https://i.imgur.com/FSW1hsD.jpg)
-
Finished the boat.
(https://i.imgur.com/D2LvEIE.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/ihjXtPT.jpg)