Model Boat Mayhem

The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Navy - Military - Battleships: => Topic started by: regiment on May 13, 2008, 08:57:24 pm

Title: cheap plastic kits
Post by: regiment on May 13, 2008, 08:57:24 pm
trying to find a cheap battleship kit for my grandson airfix ? would like to fix r/c into it  any help it will stop my mtb getting  bashed up
thanks regiment :'( :'(
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: DickyD on May 13, 2008, 09:21:35 pm
Hi Gordon
Your best bet is to try someone like Howes Models who will do you a RTR battleship for £20 and if the radio gear is no good you can change it. You wont buy a kit that size for the price. The RRP is about £69.

http://www.howesmodels.co.uk/RadioControl/viewProducts.php?SubCatID=114
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: Tug-Kenny RIP on May 13, 2008, 09:29:20 pm

A friend telephoned me only yesterday to say he had just received this destroyer and had tried it out. He was very pleased with it, as the price reduction meant a lot to him.

Seems it has a system on board that will prevent the prop from turning until it is immersed in water. How do they do that ?     He thought it was not working until he put it in the bath, then all hell broke out as it tried to climb up the side !!   ;D

Might get one just for the parts.

Ken
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: DavieTait on May 13, 2008, 09:37:18 pm
What they will have done is put a connection between the prop shafts so that it uses the water to make the circuit live ( same principle as used in real ships inflatable liferafts which have lights that only come on when immersed in water ) , good idea as that would stop you cutting your hands if you accidentally put the motors on when you were carrying it
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: Shipmate60 on May 13, 2008, 09:48:07 pm
Ther are cheap as chips on eBay, I think I paid about £7-00 INCLUDING postage for mine.

Bob
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: Tug-Kenny RIP on May 13, 2008, 10:16:33 pm

What a clever thing to do. A sort of cost you nothing switch.

Thanks for that

Ken
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: tigertiger on May 14, 2008, 01:58:03 am
Regiment,

Above they are talking about a range of boats from a manufr called HT in China

The 'Warship' in an MTP boat. I have one of these. A bit slow with a 6v system.
The 'Smasher' is a destroyer. don't have.
The 'Challenger' is an arircraft carrier. I have one, it goes well and comes with a 7.2v system.

They are all on ebay and vary in price.
All have differential steering, two props no rudder.
All come with battery pack and charger.
All come with 27mhz radio with a range of about 30m.

You may need to change the radio. They are all on roughly the same channel. Also if I take out my Futaba radio the other boats on the pond all stop about 3m out from the edge. So you cannot realy run these boats when other 27mhz radios are being used.

Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: regiment on May 14, 2008, 01:18:32 pm
thanks to all who replyed to my request about plastic kits
regiment  :kiss:
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: tigertiger on May 14, 2008, 01:33:57 pm
A popular conversion seems to be the Revell Flower Class Corvette
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: J.beazley on May 14, 2008, 01:58:12 pm
Another option is the RNLI Severn class lifeboat from Impact

Its a cheap little boat and some proceeds go to the RNLI to support them. Cheap and easy to refit without to much hassle and should keep the grankids happy.
http://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=1879.0

Jay
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: andrewh on May 14, 2008, 03:23:03 pm
One of our local (Lutterworth UK) bargain shops sells plastic kits regularly,

They normally have 1/350 Yamato and a US CVN for about GBP18 and GBP30 respectively.

 I got a Yamato when they cost GBP13 a couple of years ago and found that it contained motor and gearbox (1into 4), battery box and operating props!  Only the latter were any use at all, as the motor and gearbox are deeply ratty.

Made with my son (now 12) and looks like this - even with a 385 it goes really impressively

andrew 
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: Edward Pinniger on May 14, 2008, 07:34:57 pm
The "HT" RTR boat range also includes a couple of battleships, both about 1/350 scale - one is the Bismarck, the other is sometimes described as a Yamato, but is actually a "freelance" design based loosely on the US Iowa class.

If you want a R/C 1/350 battleship, the HT Bismarck is probably the way to go, Howes are currently selling these very cheaply. If you want a more detailed and accurate model, you could combine the hull/deck from this with the superstructure, turrets and detail parts from a 1/350 plastic Bismarck kit.

I'd definitely recommend installing a lower-voltage battery pack in it, though, unless you want your battleship to run like a speedboat (see this link - http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=-zHD2UdeHMI)  {-)
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: Martin (Admin) on November 28, 2008, 08:47:56 pm
Half decent RTF conversion article in this months Marine Modelling magazine....
Title: Re: cheap plastic kits
Post by: Edward Pinniger on December 03, 2008, 02:58:54 pm
I saw that magazine the other week - though I didn't have time to read the article.
I did wonder why they picked that awful "pseudo-Yamato" as their subject, when they could have picked the Bismarck, Kiev or Sovremenny, all of which are good scale models for the same price! I suppose it's a good "toy battleship" to get kids interested; it looks rather like a large R/C version of an old diecast toy.