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[littlefeat]

I've been doing a bit of damage to the gliders recently so I need some bench space back to carry out the necessary repairs.  So a little blitz on the Wavemaster has been taking place.  She is ready for her sea trials (lake) but I should install a Li-po low voltage alarm prior to any serious voyages!  The refurbishment has been quite an enjoyable experience.  I definitely didn't want to change the age/history of the boat or in other words I didn't want to make it look as if it was a brand new kit completed yesterday, so there are some small areas of damage around the windscreen and not perfectly fitting coach roofs which have just been left unaltered.
So what have I done?  I have repaired the keel band and given the wetted hull area a couple of coats of twin pack epoxy paint.  The freeboard and stern has had three coats of QD white gloss (they may have another coat in the future).  The old varnish has been removed from the decks and cabins and these areas have had two coats of West resin.  The fore deck roof and bridge floor have benn undercoated and QD painted, the aft cabin roof is  completely new comprising of ply, balsa and GRP finished with Halfords spray Appliance paint.  3mm perspex was used for the cabin windows and glued to the internal surfaces, the windscreen and quater lights has had the perspex cut into the openings to give a more realistic appearance.

Right, confession time!  I'm a complete novice when it comes down to motored boats so this was all new to me when it came to selecting the motor stuff.  I studied the internet and came away slightly confused as everybody had their own views on the matter, there doesn't seem to be any golden rules or none that I could find so I off I went (rather blindly).

The model came with a 40mm two blade prop,  I chose a brushed 550 speed not torque motor, a FR40 micro gyros brushed esc, a 35 amp blade inline fuse all powered by an Overlander 3cell 25C 1300mAh lipoly battery.  I'm a bit concerned about the motor/prop coupler as one of the four grub screws was headless even before I had the chance to round it.  So we'll see what happens!!!


Everything is installed and ready for testing, I'm just plucking up the courage to actually do it.  I have put the cables from the motor into their respective holders without the ec3 casing just until I know it runs in the right direction.  There are also a couple of small deck fittings which will be the icing on the cake.

[essex2visuvesi]

An excellent choice of ESC you have there :)


Looks a nice boat and as for the lipo alarm I would say it should be considered essential... they are cheap as chips on the dreaded e-bay and can be had for as little as a couple o'quid.  Cheaper than a new battery!

[imsinking]

It's nice to see another 'woody' making it back to the water    give a thought to the balance of the boat for good performance , you dont show where your placing the battery , 50/50 is a good start & you can do that on it's stand , just place a piece of dowel or something under the keel enough to lift it clear of the stand slightly &  with everything in place , radio/ battery/ cabin tops , just move the dowel about 'til it's tipping evenly . . . if you can get it to plane ampage consumption goes down & you'll get longer battery life . . .
Bill

[littlefeat]

Thanks E2V & Bill
I still haven't ordered the low voltage alarm    the esc is programmable as you probably know to detect low voltage and in doing so can flash lights, go slow or even stop! but having an audible alarm is probably the best scenario.  I just need to do it.
The Lipoly battery was in the previous photo's, it's just a small 3 cell which I had lying around.  It's only 1300mAh and weighs next to nothing 110grams in comparison to the model.  I will use it  to get the boat on the water and IF (big if) everything works OK I'll probably splash out and get a longer lasting heavier battery.
Thanks again Bill for the advice in regard to the CoG, I've just balanced the Hull in it's present form and it looks to be 53/47 from the bow so taking into account the small amount of flare it appears to be in the right pond (field).
The maiden, weather permitting will be this Sunday as there'll be a rescue boat on the water!

[littlefeat]

I thought I'd share a couple of on the water photo's.  She's no speed demon but planes at a very realistic scale speed which is absolutely fine as far as I'm concerned.

[imsinking]

   Looks effortless there  , just above scale I reckon . . . wonder what amps you'll be pulling to maintain that , the battery set you've got wont support much above 4-5 amps for long . . .
Bill