Hi All,
Thought I’d share some pics etc of my current project with you. As a forty something boat nut, I’m getting older and slower, and thought it made sense to take a break from IC and try something a bit more sedate.
It’s a Model Slipway Dutch Courage which I’d seen some years back at Beale Park. Basically the Dutch Courage is a 1/32 model of a one of a series of modern tugs (plenty of info on Mayhem and MTF exists already about the origin of this model and some lovely builds out there too!). It’s a great kit, nicely turned out parts and very clearly worded, well illustrated instructions – a real credit to Laurie and Jackie at MS.
At 1/32 scale its small enough to get in the car but big enough to incorporate some nice working features.
The rear deck is quite generous in size and the fact that the kit includes a detailed static model of a deck crane got me thinking it would be a nice challenge to make the crane work, and even more exciting to add an RC rigid inflatable at a suitable scale that can be dropped in and out of the water.
Other working features on the nice to have list are:
• Bow thrusters plus independent motor control
• Working Anchor Winch
• Lights (nav and deck lights in separate circuits)
• Radars
• Fire monitors (if space permits)
• Some sort of sound generator
The kit arrived in Oct 2010 and sat on the shelf for a good while due to other priorities (I suspect one or two of you might identify with this!). During this time I thought about how to design a simple but reliable anchor winch and one which is easy to fix when it inevitably goes wrong (my local pond is salt water)! I also took advice on choice of motors, batteries and ESCs from people like Stavros and others, and bought these from Mark at Model World who I’ve found to be both knowledgeable and helpful.
I had a pair of handed 50mm Kort props made by George Sitek which are nicely fabricated and appear to be very good value.
The motors are direct drive Graupner Torque 720s which I intend to run at 12V via a pair of Electronize ESCs, and the bow thrusters is a Graupner unit running off an Mtroniks 15A ESC with BEC and using a separate 7.2V NiMh stick pack which will also provide power for lights and other auxiliary functions.
Anyway, enough rambling for now... below are a few photos of the early stages of the build.