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[HawkEye]

Well perhaps not fast but a work in progress !.
I won't bother with the stripdown as there's plenty on the forum about that,basically everything was removed and the ballast tank inlets sealed.
Paint from halfords, red primer, satin black and yellow primer/filler for the wheelhouse etc. .





Tank lid adapted to take a 6v sla,rudder extended as per recommendations from other members.



I had some issues with the rudder / Kort assembly,the top of the shaft departed from the rest of it,this I repaired using the original propshaft cut and glued into position ( photo )






A 5** size motor mount and rudder servo plate fabricated from 3mm plasticard ( will it last ?)




Propshaft replaced with a stainless one from MMB and cut to size ( can you spot the mistakes in these photo's ? ),45mm brass prop fitted.
First leak test -




Completed internal mods and mistakes rectified  ready for the deck to be attacked next.




More to follow in a week or two.

HawkEye

[Capt Podge]

Nice and neat running gear layout. 

Looking forward to the rest of your conversion - might even inspire me to dig my seaport tug out of it's temporary stowage (now where did I hide all those bits....) 

Regards,

Ray.

[Martin (Admin)]

Excellent!  

 How did you seal up the ballast tank ports?

[HawkEye]

Excellent!  

 How did you seal up the ballast tank ports?

Hi Martin, I used the same method of sealing the tank ports that's mentioned on the forum somewhere, much rubbing with 1200 wet and dry on both sides, then two strips of plasticard glued inside the hull over the ports plus a good overlap. When dry turn hull over and apply 5min. epoxy from the outside, nice and smooth to save on the rubbing down afterwards.
It's the pretty bits above deck that I'll be in trouble with, as my painting skills and eyesight ( even with binoculars ) are non too good these days.

HawkEye

[HawkEye]

Not quite a week or two but as her indoors was away with family today I managed to get a bit more done.

Well let me first say I wasn't intending to do too much to this little tug but I'm enjoying this project so much that it seems to be taking over.
It's probably that fact that it really doesn't matter what the end result is like and that I have 3 spare tugs in their boxes should anything break beyond repair.
Anyway some more photo's that may inspire you to have a go ( or not ), they're self explanatory I think so I won't add descriptions. I'm at a loss regarding what to do with the front area where the original stairs were at the moment, all suggestions wellcome.

Note to self: Do not touch finished surfaces with white spirit on your hands.














HawkEye

[HawkEye]

A little bit more achieved today ( between rain storms )

Access hatch enlarged and some clutter added ( Macs Mouldings )





Exhausts cut to a reasonable length.





A small amount of detailing done to the wheelhouse.



3mm yellow led's fitted to side lights and white led's to wheelhouse ceiling ( not shown ).

Started to "dirty" everything.







Stay tuned for the next exciting installment.

HawkEye

[geids]

Love  the  detailing...  Very nice.

[HawkEye]

Love  the  detailing...  Very nice.

Thank you for the kind comment, it's normally the bit that I muck up !

HawkEye

[pompebled]

A 5** size motor mount and rudder servo plate fabricated from 3mm plasticard ( will it last ?)
HawkEye

Hi Hawkeye,

Congrats on a very nice conversion!

As you may (or may not) have read in my topic, I've also made a motormount out of 3 mm ABS, and it does last!

The 545 motor I installed allows for a very long runtime, so I was a bit worried about overheating (I nearly fried the 400 size stock motor on the maiden trip), so I installed a small 6V computerfan over the motor, blowing air over it, wired parallel to the motor, more rpm equals more cooling.
Running the boat for hours continuously even in hot weather didn't bother the motor at all.

If your motor tends to run hot, adding a small fan would be an option.

Regards, Jan.

[HawkEye]

Hi pompebled,
I had read your post ( just checked ) but I missed the bit about the plasticard mount - thank you for the tip  , at the moment it's only been around the garden pond ( much to the annoyance of the fish ) but I should be doing further trials in a couple of weeks if it ever stops raining so I'll keep an eye on the temp.

Regards
HawkEye

[pompebled]

Hi HawkEye,

The rain is the reason I didn't modify my tug extensively, we get our share of rain overhere and I want to be able to run my boats regardless of the weather.

Last 'summer' (I use the term loosely) we were camping in Germany where I sat under a bridge, running my tug in the pooring rain, not a drop inside after an hour or two.
I had to switch on the searchlight to keep track of the boat coming towards me from a 100 yards in a downpour...

When running in high wind conditions, the boat isn't completely watertight; when running into the wind, the bow wave breaks over the entire boat, the steering house windows leak and water seeps down into the bilge, fortunately the electronics stay dry, as long as there's less than a cupfull of water in the hull.

Regards, Jan.

[HawkEye]

I've not had as much time as I had anticipated on this little project but a few more pics follow ( everyone likes pics ).

I've cured the problem with the original front stairs by boxing them in with plasticard and turning them round, they've now become a feature "thing" !(artistic licence).



Some swim noodle was cut and fitted to the inside of the hull with double sided sticky tape in case of the odd torpedo,fused supply for led's added,all unused screw holes in the deck filled with Milliput, deck screwed down.



Front towing bollard was made from brass rod,drilled and a brass bolt soldered in place,I think those screws will have to go black.



Chopped the original mast assembly, fitted some led's, wiring yet to be hidden.



Blue and yellow wire exiting from the porthole in the door is led feed to the whole superstructure (testing purposes), this porthole will be sealed,the entire structure is sealed underneath with silicone following advice from Pompebled in the post above.









A bit more paint and a few railings and I think that's it, next photo should be sea trials :).

HawkEye

[swordfish fairey]

Very nice Hawkeye, you've made a silk purse out of a sows ear there , I'm not a big fan of these Seaports, but you may have converted me into getting one . look forward to your finished pictures.....All the best with it on the oggin .....Tony

[deadwood]

Hello HawkEye,

this is a cute little tug.
Was the basis of your conversion a toy tug?
The strength of the material and "sturdiness" of the superstructure give me this impression.
Is your build log a continuation from a first part where possibly the origin of the tug model had been revealed?


Rlaph

[DickyD]

Hello HawkEye,

this is a cute little tug.
Was the basis of your conversion a toy tug?
The strength of the material and "sturdiness" of the superstructure give me this impression.
Is your build log a continuation from a first part where possibly the origin of the tug model had been revealed?


Rlaph

See here " Dickie Tugboat / Seaport Workboat " section.

http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?board=125.0

[HawkEye]

swordfish fairey ,
Thank you for your kind words, i've still not had time to take it to the local pond but hopefully within the next week if work allows.

deadwood,
Yes this is a conversion of a "toy" tug , see DickyD's link for details.

HawkEye

[Subsonuc Mike]

I like it 

[deadwood]

deadwood,
Yes this is a conversion of a "toy" tug , see DickyD's link for details.

I apologize for not having studied the initial thread and follow-ons before posting.
I really was misled by this section's title Seaport Tugs and gathered it was dedicated to models of all kinds of seaport tugs (as opposed to e.g. salvage or offshore tugs).

Now knowing this is all about enhancing the Dickie Toy RC Tug, I do remember to have seen two of them in the shelf of a German toy chain store of Spielemax a couple of months ago for abt. EUR 35.
I instantly thought this little tug could form an excellent basis for improving it towards a nearly scale model.
Unfortunately, I missed to buy one then and ever since have never discovered it again in various toy shops that I occasionally came past.
I thought Dickie had ditched this model from their selection and regret being too hesitant back then.

Regards
Ralph

[irishcarguy]

You have made a lovely tug out of a toy, I think your paint & detailing is first class & hope it goes like a scalded cat on the lake. Mick B.

[HawkEye]

This project was finished last year but it appears I forgot the photo's, so I took some today and here they are -














It wasn't until I had uploaded these to Photobucket that I noticed the original ( untouched ) nav lights are on the wrong sides   - could be entertaining depending on how they are fixed !.Perhaps I'll just leave them now !


HawkEye

[Big Ada]

Hi Martin, I used the same method of sealing the tank ports that's mentioned on the forum somewhere, much rubbing with 1200 wet and dry on both sides, then two strips of plasticard glued inside the hull over the ports plus a good overlap. When dry turn hull over and apply 5min. epoxy from the outside, nice and smooth to save on the rubbing down afterwards.
It's the pretty bits above deck that I'll be in trouble with, as my painting skills and eyesight ( even with binoculars ) are non too good these days.

HawkEye

Aha! I have discovered that these boats are compatable with Styrene so I cut up some red bits from inside the hull and put them in a small glass bottle along with some Styrene solvent to make Red Filler and used that to fill those water inlets, I am also making Green Filler the same way to fill holes in the deck.
These boats are adictive, I cannot stop working on it!.

Len.

[rmaddock]

It wasn't until I had uploaded these to Photobucket that I noticed the original ( untouched ) nav lights are on the wrong sides    - could be entertaining depending on how they are fixed !.Perhaps I'll just leave them now !

Why not simply reverse the photograph? We'd never know. 

[HawkEye]

Why not simply reverse the photograph? We'd never know. 

     I had thought about a bit of "image manipulation" but it's one of those things that will bug me now until i do something about it. It appears that I've got another one out of three original tugs with the same problem  .

[HawkEye]

Aha! I have discovered that these boats are compatable with Styrene

Nice to see you're getting stuck into it already Len ! 

Tony

[ralphhager]

HawkEye!  Love your build; I will be using a lot of your methods and ideas for my Dickey Tug “thanks”.  I have read your build a couple of times, but I can’t see where you describe how you re-install your deck and what method you use to keep it water tight.   Would you mind telling us how you did this?

Thanks Ralph

[HawkEye]

Hi Ralph,
The deck was attached to the hull using the existing screws and fixings, you can see the screw holes in many of the previous pictures .
As the superstructure is now one piece and totally removable all joints were sealed with silicone, it is attached via a plasticard tongue at the front and four Neodymium magnets at the back,I've had no water ingress as yet,  hopefully these pics will explain -









HawkEye

[ralphhager]

HawkEye “hopefully these pics will explain”! 
Yes they did, great build, and Thanks again    Ralph from the USA 

[setsunakaede]

HawkEye, where did you source your deck crew and skipper?
I LOVE the way your boat has evolved!

[HawkEye]

HawkEye, where did you source your deck crew and skipper?
I LOVE the way your boat has evolved!

Thanks for the compliment, the crew were acquired at the Alford boat show, sorry i don't remember the name of the trader.


hawkEye

[setsunakaede]

That's too bad, however I have found a couple of 1:50 men... So I'll make do with what I can get
I hope I can get mine at least a good way up to the quality you delivered, which for me is going to be a bit of a challenge I'm afraid. But hey, no challenges, no fun